Jackie points us to the Forgiveness Project, an initiative sponsored by a number of British celebrities (Helen Mirren, Anita Roddick, Emma Thompson to name a few) which is centered around the idea to assist victims of crime to help them replace feelings of hate with forgiveness in order to find reconciliation and move on. When I read the post and checked out the website it reminded me of two things. Firstly when I studied law the criminal law classes were dominated by a group of academics that adhered to the theory of Abolitionism and that strain of thought represented the idea that the entire penal system as we know it in the Western world should be abolished for something more creative and helpful to both the perpetrator and the victim of the crime. Abolitionism has lost some of its momentum in recent years, but the impact of those who wanted to decriminalize the criminal can be felt to this day in a number of countries that generally adopt fairly light and sometimes absurd sentencing. That brings me to my second point, the so-called healing circles that are used to resolve conflicts in native Indian communities in North America. In a number of cases regular judges have referred certain cases to these circles, even in situations where the violent nature of the crime would have warranted a more traditional approach by the courts. Both the ideas of the abolitionists and healing circles are well meant attempts to address issues that the criminal justice system as we know it can’t fix. But they are ideologically driven, too naïve and can not under any circumstance be applied to crimes where victims suffer violence, irreparable damage or death. The reason: they are an easy way out for the offender.

The Forgiveness Project builds on the principles of abolitionism and healing and applies it to the most serious of crimes, comfortably forgetting that in murder cases the only person with a right to forgive is no longer present to do so. The next step, if we take the example of the dialogue taking place between he 14-year old girl who was abducted and assaulted and the man who spent 25 years in prison for it, is to say: if such a dialogue can take place between the abductor and his victim after 25 years, why can we not strive to achieve that earlier? That goes to the heart of abolitionism: no real penalty, no protection of society at large, urge the victim to co-operate in rehabilitating the criminal. It hasn’t worked and it will never work. The rights of the victim and well-being of society should always be paramount and any measure of forgiveness should be entirely at the discretion of the survivor of a crime and that is not what the Forgiveness Project is about. They're too close to the Abolitionist tradition and that is why this project is on a very slippery slope.

Unwittingly, I discussed the problem of honour killings as well as the topic of crime and integration within the space of one week. These issues are of course intertwined and Shanti over at Dancing with Dogs reminded me of that by highlighting that all too often immigrants tend to hang on to the culture of their native country in order to sustain the traditions and life that they were used to. This is a very valid point but I also argued that in many cases a validation of these cultural practices can be found back home and in the latter case will overrule the laws and customs of the new country. That mechanism has resulted in the recent increased occurence of honour killings in Europe and North America.

Frum does make one very interesting point. Crime rates in Canada are not nearly as low as some claim (Michael Moore anyone?) but are rapidly increasing and he points to Eli Lehrer who has been diligent in making the point that European and Canadian crime rates are catching up fast with the US and are in fact in some cases exceeding them. Now there’s no more controversial an area than comparing numbers relating to crime as each country has a different way of collecting data, and of course, many crimes go unreported. So each statistical comparison has drawbacks but real-life observations somehow corroborate some of Lehrer’s numbers. I have always been shocked by the increase in both crimes against property and violent crime back in Europe over the past 20 years and without checking any scientific data it is not that hard to see that crime is on the increase, significantly, in the old country. Lehrer concludes:

Americans should not take too much satisfaction in our becoming a safer nation. While crime in America has declined rather spectacularly, it still stands well above the level of civic peace our grandparents enjoyed. But America has moved in the right direction while Europe has moved in the wrong one. The combination of engaged, community-oriented police and ample investment in incarceration is turning the United States into the safest large Western country. Europeans may want to emulate American policies--God forbid!--if they hope to win their own wars against crime.

Lehrer’s two points - community policing and tough sentencing – are well taken. Only yesterday did I discuss the pathetically low sentences handed out to those that commit “honour killings”. Overly liberal attitudes, condoning deviant behaviour and an unwillingness to implement zero-tolerance policies have rendered many a city in Europe unsafe to walk. The same phenomenon will come to pay a visit to Canada, soon.

“Honour killings” are back in the news. Iain Murray points to a tragic case in Britain and this week a similar case emerged in The Netherlands where a Turkish schoolgirl was killed by her father during a vacation back in Turkey. The ultimate irony however is that the father faces a life sentence in Turkey, but had he faced the courts in the Netherlands he would probably have been able to get away with a fairly light sentence, something like 10 years. The Danes are much tougher and they will lock someone up for up to 14 years for the premeditated murder of a family member. It appears that continental European courts fail completely in meting out sentences that are appropriate in these cases, and it may be the case that the absence of a deterrent combined with complete disrespect for basic human values and Western mores facilitate the practice. Some argue that assimilation, which could help eradicate a deadly practice like this, may not be working. Yet even if assimilation works, I would doubt that such deep rooted practices will completely disappear when they are condoned and encouraged back in the motherland.

What makes this phenomenon truly sickening is the savage and brutal way in which most of these killings are carried out. This case in Jordan will ruin your appetite for the rest of the day and makes you wonder if this depraved practice is not some sort of mechanism by which disturbed and psychotic men unleash pent-up sexual frustrations and related violent urges. In some way it probably is and many Muslim societies condone this Hannibal Lecter like behaviour, no matter what pan-Arab babe Queen Rania says when she has the attention of the Western media. Whatever the West has on its 'to do list' for the Middle East, a forceful campaign to help restore women's rights and end this despicable practice should be ranked as a top priority. And let no one argue that we are intefering in the domestic affairs of other countries, the fact that "honour killings" are now a regular occurence in the West should be ample justification for action. Maybe Queen Rania has a few pointers for us.