The less vengeful you are the safer is for criminals to attack you and the easier you become a victim.
Which is why it’s only safe to signal less vengeance if you have somebody else out of your direct control who’s going to do the avenging for you. ;-) It’s, “gosh, I’m full of forgiveness and love the sinner, hate the sin, but there’s nothing I can do to stop the government from locking you away.”
In fact, it’s even better than signaling vengefulness, in a way: you are not required to be individually credible in your threats of revenge. So a default-vengeful government allows even the not-very-threatening to have safety. (In that context, being forgiving may well be countersignaling: “I’m so high-status that I don’t have to pursue individual vengeance.”)
It’s, “gosh, I’m full of forgiveness and love the sinner, hate the sin, but there’s nothing I can do to stop the government from locking you away.”
In fact, it’s even better than signaling vengefulness, in a way: you are not required to be individually credible in your threats of revenge.
Eh, with the exception of homicide, the government still needs significant cooperation and initiative from you before they will follow through on avenging. So it really doesn’t allow you to put up the act of, “oh, I’d like to forgive, but I can’t stop them …”
That’s not always true; for instance, victims of domestic violence frequently refuse to cooperate, and police and prosecution agencies will still try to convict if possible (though doing so is often difficult without cooperation).
I think that’s backwards. US police are much less likely to prosecute domestic violence without the cooperation of the victim, compared to other crimes. But there are fairly recent laws in some jurisdictions requiring them to prosecute without cooperation.
The victim still has to make the complaint, and cooperate with the police that one time. Even for this crime, it’s notable how much you have to do on your part to “get the avenger in action”.
Yes, they often withdraw cooperation later, but the victim still can’t use the excuse of “hey, I can’t stop them”, at least not right after being abused. If you don’t want the abuser to suffer, just don’t report it to the police. You certainly had choice about whether you reported it to them.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I smell some misunderstanding here. I have said that I disagree with the principle that the victims could partly decide the severity of the punishment, because the vengeful are better protected. When you had reacted
It’s also optimal for people who profess to be non-vengeful, since the government’s vengeance is now fully deniable.
by “it” you had meant what? This system, where the victims are directly responsible for a part of the punishment, or the opposite, where only the government decides?
Which is why it’s only safe to signal less vengeance if you have somebody else out of your direct control who’s going to do the avenging for you. ;-) It’s, “gosh, I’m full of forgiveness and love the sinner, hate the sin, but there’s nothing I can do to stop the government from locking you away.”
In fact, it’s even better than signaling vengefulness, in a way: you are not required to be individually credible in your threats of revenge. So a default-vengeful government allows even the not-very-threatening to have safety. (In that context, being forgiving may well be countersignaling: “I’m so high-status that I don’t have to pursue individual vengeance.”)
Eh, with the exception of homicide, the government still needs significant cooperation and initiative from you before they will follow through on avenging. So it really doesn’t allow you to put up the act of, “oh, I’d like to forgive, but I can’t stop them …”
That’s not always true; for instance, victims of domestic violence frequently refuse to cooperate, and police and prosecution agencies will still try to convict if possible (though doing so is often difficult without cooperation).
I think that’s backwards. US police are much less likely to prosecute domestic violence without the cooperation of the victim, compared to other crimes. But there are fairly recent laws in some jurisdictions requiring them to prosecute without cooperation.
The victim still has to make the complaint, and cooperate with the police that one time. Even for this crime, it’s notable how much you have to do on your part to “get the avenger in action”.
Yes, they often withdraw cooperation later, but the victim still can’t use the excuse of “hey, I can’t stop them”, at least not right after being abused. If you don’t want the abuser to suffer, just don’t report it to the police. You certainly had choice about whether you reported it to them.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
Those statistics show that the more people their are nearby who hear or see the crime the less likely it is that the crime will be reported.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I don’t know if there are statistics on these things, but I’d imagine that some of the time, a neighbor or someone nearby who hears or sees the crime is the one to report the crime to the police. Still, you’re right; it’s certainly less likely that the crime will be prosecuted if the victim doesn’t cooperate.
I smell some misunderstanding here. I have said that I disagree with the principle that the victims could partly decide the severity of the punishment, because the vengeful are better protected. When you had reacted
by “it” you had meant what? This system, where the victims are directly responsible for a part of the punishment, or the opposite, where only the government decides?