Originally Posted by
Animedude5555
I do not think a person should ever go to jail, unless they commit an action that results in harm to someone, or are stopped while in the process of committing an action that would result in harm to someone if the perpetrator had successfully committed the action.
Let me give you an example by giving you a set of scenarios, and what I think the outcome of each scenario should be:
If you rape a kid, you should go to prison.
Or if you were about to rape a kid, but the kid's father grabbed his gun and chased you away before you could commit the act, you should go to prison.
However, if you go to someone's house thinking there is a child there that you are going to have sex with, but it turns that out the person is really an adult, completing the action (having sex with that person) would not result in any harm, because the person was in fact an adult and NOT a child. In this case you should NOT go to prison. You most certainly are a disgusting person, and it is very likely that you will in the future do something that WILL land you in prison. But this specific incident should not land you in prison, because prison is for law breakers, and this specific act did not in fact violate any law. And no law should punish a person unless that person has done something that has harmed another, or was in the process of doing something that would harm another and was only stopped by intervening circumstances (such as the victim successfully fought off or eluded the offender, or another person intervened and stopped the offender).
In general, I believe that the only thing that should get a person thrown in prison is when that person commits an act (or is about to commit an act but are then stopped by some external force) which would bring harm to the other person. Anything act that in itself does not cause harm to another, should not be a violation of the law.
And yes this also applies to drugs and prostitution. A woman who prostitutes herself is causing no harm to anyone else. One can debate whether her actions are demeaning to herself by selling herself for sex, but one thing is certain and that is that her actions cause no harm to anyone else. Likewise, a person who uses drugs is poisoning his/her own body, and as a result that person is harming himself/herself, but is causing harm to nobody else. Of course people high on drugs may do other things that are illegal, but if they do then they should be prosecuted for those additional actions, and not for the drugs themselves.
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