Difference Between the Australian and Texan Justice System : Loving Jacqui

Difference Between the Australian and Texan Justice System

Australia — a terrific country — has a surprisingly forgiving justice system.

I noticed this by watching television while I was there.

I was astounded, for example, to be watching a very stern judge telling a man he’d been arrested several times in the past for stealing cars and the Australian justice system would be giving him a strong sentence to send a message to him this behaviour would not be tolerated. Therefore, the judge sentenced the car thief to a longer suspended sentence and probation than the last time he was convicted.

James Kevin Pope who sexually abused 3 young girls over a period of 2 years in Texas was just sentenced to 40 consecutive life terms for sexual assault on a minor and 3 consecutive terms of 20 years for sexual performance of a minor. His total sentence is 4,060 years, yet he becomes eligible for parole earlier. In 3209.

I will just leave those facts as is and won’t comment on which system is better, except to say Texas.

Filed under: Australia, Justice, United States

1 Comment — add a comment!

You compared a car thief to a recidivist child molester. They’re not exactly the same thing, are they?

Everyone from the United States seems to forget that the purpose of a justice system is to rehabilitate a convict in such a fashion that they stop committing crimes. In both of these situations, you describe a multiple re-offender, and in such cases more drastic measures should be taken than “a longer suspended sentence,” but that doesn’t automatically make one system “better” than the other. America is a litigious society, and American politicians are so obsessed with “cracking down on crime” that the punishments here are certainly beginning to not fit the crime when you creep up past minor offenses like littering. Mandatory sentences in America force judges to put people in prison, even if the unique case at hand could be better handled by a different approach. Don’t we have judges because of their wisdom in judicial matters? Why do we insist on having laws passed that tell judges what their judgments MUST be, instead of letting the judge weigh the case at sentencing? The lunacy of the American “justice system” appears in full color when the sentence for a *first-time* sexual offense involving a child is *greater* than the sentence for second-degree murder. In our effort to “crack down on sex offenders” we’re now “sending a message” that the offender should kill the victim. How is justice being served that way? I’d rather take Australia’s approach than America’s. Greater punishment has never been a deterrent to crime, either.

Comment by TAO
5:35 AM Vancouver, Canada time on Tue. Sep 9th, ’08