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June 2009 
The Act and it's Response.
Domi333
I've recently been thinking about the mind of the criminal, it's not something I'm well read on but definitely interested by.
Firstly, let's consider the most important thing relating to the criminal: The Crime
The criminal commits the crime and is known by it.
Next, it's the jail experience: he has committed the crime and is due to serve his sentence, the experience which has been created by the act(the crime) of which he is culpable(it's response).
Now, the criminal can either:
(a) regret his actions and pity himself for it
(b) seek to hit back at those that prosecuted him in his anger at being caught(let's consider he was guilty).
(c) try to focus on future positive actions(acknowledging he will face difficulties in employment, etc.)
Of course these are just a few basic, encompassing possibilities which are not totally constant with each other but acknowledge what can be going through his/her mind.
Criminality is something that bears an imprint on someone for the rest of their lives of course(ongoing response to the act).
Criminality brings someone to the question of ultimate good or ultimate evil, a criminal can be scarred by his act and condemned to be someone inherently evil (moderate crimes not petty crimes, returning after maybe 5-6 years in jail)
By condemning others as inherently evil(not in these specific terms), aren't we contributing to the ultimate ongoing consequences for the criminal's life.
I find it really important that even criminals can and will find a respectable place back in society, something which yet does incorporate both the act and it's ongoing response.
Do we condemn others for their actions for the rest of their lives?
Does our negative response to those of the 'negative' aspect of society condemn them to further injustice?
Are criminals in a twisted state of mind and does that make them incapable of achieving 'good'?
I'd like to finish by noting a Taoist proverb(Chuang Tzu - paraphrased) :
A businessman and a criminal meet in the street,
both talk and discuss their livelihoods and both realised that they were no longer
living in the original nature they had as a child.
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This was fascinating… and I love your final proverb.
thank you Siona!
It's a very Taoist saying, by one of the masters himself Chuang Tzu!
This reminds me of the victim/victimizer cycle. The idea is that almost every victimizer had once been a victim, and victimization usually occurs in childhood. I'm too sleepy at the moment to explain my thinking any further. Derrick Jensen goes into great deal about how this plays out in our society.
Oh, Derrick Jensen is a wonder, isn't he? I sometimes think he himself places the Earth / nature itself too much in the 'victim' role, but his work is wonderful all the same.
I hadn't thought about it that way, but I can see how he maybe sees nature as a victim. He does focus more about humanity's relationship to nature rather than nature's relationship to humanity.