Go back to when?
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I dont think going back to any particular era would solve anything....I think going forward to a new method of dealing with crime would be better.
One thing seems for certain, punishment distribution is both unequally distributed and unfarily administered in the majority of cases that I have observed.
I must admit though, back when frontier justice was the only justice available to people settling the west, I get the sense that crime was a far more clear cut issue then it is today. You steal a mans horse, and are found guilty of it then you are immediately hung by the neck until dead.
No debate.
I can only imagine that when a man decided to steal another mans horse, the thief knew and accpeted the consequences and everyone was far better off for it.