>>>>>Yes, I know, but weighing the two evils of that vs what might happen to her in a place like Toronto, I'd opt for the first. I know that 12 is the new 15, but I guess I'm too much of a worrier.
>>>>
>>>>FWIW, I think 12-year-olds today have far less personal freedom than they did when we were growing up. At 12, I'd get on my bike and ride a mile or so to the 7-11 for a Slurpee. At 9 or 10, I took the bus to the Y for swimming lessons. And I didn't grow up in a small town; I grew up in Philadelphia, albeit in a nice, middle-class neighborhood.
>>>>
>>>>I read an article recently about people trying to raise "free range children," kids who are allowed to go outside without supervision. Kids (at least middle-class and upper-class kids) today are mostly terribly overprotected.
>>>>
>>>>Tamar
>>>
>>>It is because criminals are overprotected.
>>
>>With 1% of your population imprisoned, I'd say that is rubbish..
>
>... or you can say that one reason some people turn to crime is because the punishment is too lenient. It's easier to be in jail for a few years than being on your own trying to make a lawful living. They're the little train that couldn't or wouldn't...:)

You don't create a better society by hardening the punishment. You don't correct your son with harder and harder punishment when he did something wrong. It will not make him a better person. Simulary, you won't make a criminal a better person when you punish him hard and long. If a criminal has nothing to lose you have a person that will have no reason to follow the law.

Punishments and revenge are not the way to create a better society. This is exactly the point here.

Walter,