“In principle, whatever the victim has lost, the guilty loses the same way, with retribution thrown in to give some incentive to not commit the acts in the first place.”
That’s really the issue as i see it.
Who gets to decide and deal out the retribution for rape or giving heroin to children or even for making an innocent person afraid to leave their own home?
Who decides what the victim has lost and what that loss is worth to the victim and to society in general? What kind of retribution is due someone sick enough to rape or take an innocent life? What kind of society allows those sickening crimes without dealing with them in harshest way possible?
I just defined for you how the Bible defines justice. If you have a problem with it, it’s not me you have the problem with.
Justice, as defined by the Bible, puts the victim and perp on equal footing before and after, in terms of acts. It doesn’t put them on equal footing in terms of emotional or psychological harm.
God doesn’t promise us perfect justice in this life, only come Judgement day will it be perfect.
I really don’t think you want the victim to decide when they’d be satisfied. That’s how blood feuds happen.
Do you really want to give me the right to decide I should have the right to take your life because I felt wronged because you didn’t say good morning to me?
That’s how it is in the Middle East. You wronged me and I get to decide when my appetite for justice is satisfied. And they do kill you for not saying good morning, at times.