Flawed logic

[SEZ213]

I usually try to stay away from watching or reading the news, my own world is more friendly (well, most of the time anyway), I went searching for some information last night, and had to troll through hundreds of news articles, and I came across the following:

- A man who murders a two year old, gets life imprisonment with 33 year minimum.
- A man who has done awful things (and 16 counts of), gets 12 years - his victims are still alive...
- A boy who breaks into someone's house and gets beaten by the 16 year old occupant, has the option to press charges against the occupant of the house, despite being there unlawfully to begin with.
- A boy who was egging a house, and subsequently stabs a mother of three killing her, gets released on bail, as he's 'not a threat'.

Now I didn't put this up to go into the nitty gritty of each individual case, but it would appear that we have some seriously flawed legislation and logic floating about our society.

I raised it because somewhere, somehow - the perspective has shifted from looking out for your neighbour and being a caring citizen, and has slipped by the wayside.

I'm disappointed that a legal system can hand out 'just' sentences on one hand, and those that make absolutely no sense on the other hand.

I understand that the legal system is based on how strong your case is, but surely there needs to be some kind of 'fairness' for the victims of crime? After the fact, we are given the option to request compensation through VOCAT, and there's a limit ($70,000 I'm led to believe), but compensation doesn't change your life, it might make it easier...but it doesn't make the event go away.

If it gets rough, I will ask a mod to close this thread (if they don't choose to close it anyway)...so please, keep it civil.