Informant38

The Michael Fay Controversy
"There is clearly a recognition that society, to a large extent, and on the whole, does explain the behaviour of individuals. Individual behaviour is, to a large extent, malleable in the dominant paradigm. But this is coupled with a strong aversion to blaming society for individual deviancy from legal norms (recall S.R. Nathan's remark that "victimhood is not an excuse"), as well as a strong belief in the deterrent effects of harsh punishments. Perhaps the thought is that while individuals may not be entirely responsible for what they do, it is an unfortunate necessity that the law has to act as if they are. This is so because, try as we might to alter the social conditions which are seen as tending to produce crime (such as poverty and inequality?), we still have to use the weapon of deterrent sentences to dampen crime rates as a matter of prioritising the well-being of the law-abiding majority over the law-breaking minority. This would seem to be the most sympathetic reconstruction of the Government's position on crime in that it rescues a certain amount of theoretical consistency."
�Leon Perera
Looking At Culture
Happening, Singapore
�
or, for an older, more established view