[Tom]

Originally Posted by Shaun

I find the people who get so emotionally invested in these stories worrying. There's of course no denying that a disgusting wrong has happened - but why does this provoke so much vitriol and violence in some of you? I think these kinds of stories are thrust into the limelight with the intention of blinding everyone to rationality.

I'd agree that the justice system isn't perfect. The leniency on some sentences [for example, a man who stabbed my cousin who consequently died was given a manslaughter charge that saw him serve 4 years] is incredibly unfair - it does to an extent give criminals a kind-of buy-out clause. But even that, a personal bias, shouldn't sensationalise the debate.

I just don't understand how all of these people on a keyboard can spit out such threats and bile. It's counter-productive, if anything.

The reason sentences are so lenient is because the prison system currently has 85,000 prisoners and counting whilst there are only enough space for around 60,000. They're vastly overcrowded. A prison infrastructure is also far too expensive to justify yet more tax payers money on to piss in the ocean at a time when cuts are being made across the board. It might seem unfair but there is a lot of practicality behind it.