A hundred years ago the objective of sentencing was " punishment ". Today - in what we consider a more enlightened age - the focus is on " rehabilitation. "
Perhaps this is a wheel that has turned too far. The court system in Norway stipulates that the maximum sentence that can be applied, irrespective of the nature or magnitude of the crime committed - is twenty years.
Anders Behring Breivik ( 32 ) blew up the centre of the city of Oslo and then went on a killing spree on the island of Vtoeya, leaving a death toll of near a hundred young people. It seems unimaginable that this man will be automatically released back into society at fifty-two years of age, but that is what will happen if the existing Norwegian law remains unchanged.
What will also anger many people are the " demands " he is making about his court appearance. He obviously relishes the prospect on taunting the public with his deranged manifesto and insists that he be tried in an open court - and that he appear in military uniform.
The retreat of what many would consider justice for crimes committed is not restricted to European courts. Malaysian national Chew Seng Liew ( 68 ) murdered heart surgeon Victor Chang and has now served his twenty year minimum sentence. He is in poor health - and wants to be released on parole and deported to Malaysia - where parole supervision is out of reach by Australian authorities - and he will be a free man.
Surely there are some crimes that are far outside the general sentencing scope of the law. Even the people who carried out war crimes in Europe and Asia - resulting in the mass death of thousands - can only be handed a gaol sentence.
The death sentence was never put to a vote by the public. It was quietly discontinued by politicians who wished to appease " bleeding hearts ". Perhaps it is time for the world to have a re-think for those events which go far beyond punishment by just " time served " !
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