What is the world coming to?

[expat]

Better ideas than dealing out death to those that you think deserve it?

Yes. The law.

The wounded burglar was out before Martin was. He took up his criminal career as if he had never been away. He is regularly subect to the law, and in between goes on with his life's work of attacking and robbing.

The law. It's a good idea.

[PRC1964]

nowhere.
nowhere civilised left, thats a bit sad really.

The BBC have mapped the 70 teenager murders so far this year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7777525.stm

I may have to move to Cornwall.

[Mich the Tester]

My father said he saw people being birched as a child, and never saw one come back a second time.

Very nasty stuff. I think anyone who calls for the return of corporal punishment should also volunteer as a trial subject in testing tawses, birches and canes. I was caned as a child, but I only let it happen once. I was at one of the last schools that stopped the practice. The second time I was up for caning I was almost the same size as the teacher concerned and when he said ‘this hurts me as much as it hurts you’ I said ‘you’re bloody right; touch me with that thing and I’ll break your arm.’ He quickly decided on some other useless task like writing 400 lines of ‘I shall not be impertinent to masters’.

That’s the reality of corporal punishment; modern kids have become much more assertive than in the past, and won’t hesitate to fight back. It’s barbaric and just as dangerous to teachers as to kids.

[TimberWolf]

Very nasty stuff. I think anyone who calls for the return of corporal punishment should also volunteer as a trial subject in testing tawses, birches and canes. I was caned as a child, but I only let it happen once. I was at one of the last schools that stopped the practice. The second time I was up for caning I was almost the same size as the teacher concerned and when he said ‘this hurts me as much as it hurts you’ I said ‘you’re bloody right; touch me with that thing and I’ll break your arm.’ He quickly decided on some other useless task like writing 400 lines of ‘I shall not be impertinent to masters’.

That’s the reality of corporal punishment; modern kids have become much more assertive than in the past, and won’t hesitate to fight back. It’s barbaric and just as dangerous to teachers as to kids.

Had you not been caned your life may have been very different though. As for "anyone who calls for the return of corporal punishment should also volunteer as a trial subject in testing tawses, birches and canes", this is a silly thing to say. It's a judgement call for society, and nor do they lock people up for 10 years for advocating locking people up for crimes. Please try harder.

The birch does seem to be a cheaper and possibly more effective punishment than locking people away. Cheaper anyway. Whether it actually works or not, I have no idea.

[NotAllThere]

the only people who should be locked up are people who are a danger to society. Imprisonment is "barbaric", expensive and largely a failure. Other punishments should be devised. This is where corporal punishment (for adults) has a place.

[Mich the Tester]

Had you not been caned your life may have been very different though.

Not at all. I was anything but a model schoolboy.

My point is that these methods would never work again; the average 13 year old nowadays is not only too assertive to let himself be caned or birched, but also rather large and able to fight back.

Anyway, why don’t we have the same kind of social breakdown all over Europe? Britain seems to have a really big problem with this kind of thing, whereas I feel quite safe walking around in most European cities.

[Mich the Tester]

corporal punishment (for adults) has a place.

Yes, in Amsterdam.

[Purple Dalek]

the only people who should be locked up are people who are a danger to society. Imprisonment is "barbaric", expensive and largely a failure. Other punishments should be devised. This is where corporal punishment (for adults) has a place.

Agreed. A punishment that involves locking people up for long periods of time, where the expectation is to be regularly sodomised, beaten and to have all personal dignity removed, is way way more, IMHO, barbaric and such a total admission of societies failings than a simple birching, for example.

[TimberWolf]

Anyway, why don’t we have the same kind of social breakdown all over Europe? Britain seems to have a really big problem with this kind of thing, whereas I feel quite safe walking around in most European cities.

Is crime worse in the UK than the rest of Europe?

[Mich the Tester]

Is crime worse in the UK than the rest of Europe?

Documented crime might not be any different, but wher I am I don't hear stories every week of teenagers stabbing each other and I can go out for a quiet drink on a friday night without running into some pub fight.