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This has been a good discussion on Law and Justice. 
However let's add in another related factor - the consequences of breaking the Law or Punishment. I think a Law with no consequences for breaking it is no Law at all.
I've read that there are two basic types of Punishment:
In the Bible, the Old Testament is generally punitive (look how many death penalties there are) but there are restorative elements in there. For example, theft is paid for by restore what was taken and then some. Frankly the New Testament is silent on the issue of civil punishments. Probably no one at the time was in the government or had civil leadership over anyone. The best you can do is apply church discipline to society and even there you have both punitive ( Matthew 18:17 ) and restorative punishments.
For man, I think we have generally been punitive in our punishment. The person is removed from society by either death or imprisonment to suffer the lack of a free life. The hope is when they are released from imprisonment that the offender will so fear being punished again that they won't reoffend. Over time, we have introduced prison rehabilitation into the mix to try to help the offender come back to society. My observation of these program is they aren't very effective. To an extent, I can support some of the prison reform efforts to improve the chances of an offender coming back to society as a productive member. However, I can't support an elimination of prison/jail all together as there are people who need to be removed from society to protect others. ( Deuteronomy 21:21 ).
However let's add in another related factor - the consequences of breaking the Law or Punishment. I think a Law with no consequences for breaking it is no Law at all.I've read that there are two basic types of Punishment:
- Restorative: the punishment is designed to restore the offender to the community.
- Punitive: the punishment is designed to make the offender pay for their crime
In the Bible, the Old Testament is generally punitive (look how many death penalties there are) but there are restorative elements in there. For example, theft is paid for by restore what was taken and then some. Frankly the New Testament is silent on the issue of civil punishments. Probably no one at the time was in the government or had civil leadership over anyone. The best you can do is apply church discipline to society and even there you have both punitive ( Matthew 18:17 ) and restorative punishments.
For man, I think we have generally been punitive in our punishment. The person is removed from society by either death or imprisonment to suffer the lack of a free life. The hope is when they are released from imprisonment that the offender will so fear being punished again that they won't reoffend. Over time, we have introduced prison rehabilitation into the mix to try to help the offender come back to society. My observation of these program is they aren't very effective. To an extent, I can support some of the prison reform efforts to improve the chances of an offender coming back to society as a productive member. However, I can't support an elimination of prison/jail all together as there are people who need to be removed from society to protect others. ( Deuteronomy 21:21 ).
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