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Should we have a Minority Report-like country? Where does the line fall between arresting someone because of what we think they will do as opposed to arresting them after they do something? If someone walks around and says they're going to kill someone, is that grounds to arrest them and keep them locked up? Would we be safer if we arrested people ahead of time? Would we break even in terms of the cost of incarceration compared to the costs of crime? Should we go down the road to preventing crime this way, as opposed to our current system?
Should we have a Minority Report-like country? Where does the line fall between arresting someone because of what we think they will do as opposed to arresting them after they do something? If someone walks around and says they're going to kill someone, is that grounds to arrest them and keep them locked up? Would we be safer if we arrested people ahead of time? Would we break even in terms of the cost of incarceration compared to the costs of crime? Should we go down the road to preventing crime this way, as opposed to our current system?
No....because intentions are not very highly correlated to actual behavior - often no higher than 50%. If that were actually the case, there'd be a lot more good and a lot more bad in the world - but instead there's a lot of procrastination and not much real action. In the case of crime, that's a good thing.
Read up on the Theory of Planned Behavior - Ajzen, et al.
I am doomed if society demands that we become criminals because of our thoughts. My mind is the private playground where I can indulge in knee-jerk reactions to something stupid, and then talk myself out of doing something idiotic. If not there, where?
If they can prove that a person intended to do something to break the law then yes they should be arrested. Obviously.
Even if so proven what crime is committed?
What crime is it to intend to rob a bank? Before it's robbed?
What crime is it to intend to kill someone? Before they're killed?
Now I'm sure you're thinking 'conspiracy' but conspiracy as a crime still relies on actions (is there a written or implied plan, is there evidence like recently obtained guns/knives/clubs, is there a contact list of known actors who are already suspected of this kind of behavior, are there unusual tools that have application in criminal enterprises, are there travel itineraries shortly after the crime is intended to be committed, or fake travel documents, etc.). So conspiracy requires the actor to move beyond simple intent they're acting on the intent, but have not yet committed the intended crime.
If intentions all became actions, I'd be writing this from my ocean going yacht, watching the girls in the swimming pool, drinking 90 year old Armanac lighting a Cuban Corona with $100 bills, contemplating whether to spend the Winter in the estate outside of Cairns or the Castle at Innsbruck.
Unfortunately all of my intentions did not become actions.
But when one starts taking concrete steps towards committing the crime, like hiring a hitman, for example, then lesser charges may be in order. Usually it is called a conspiracy charge.
Do you really want to live in a society that punishes it's members for what they think?
How do you, or anyone, know what someone else is thinking?
Orwell addressed this many years ago.
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My mind is the private playground where I can indulge in knee-jerk reactions to something stupid, and then talk myself out of doing something idiotic. If not there, where?
