A Green Paper in the UK has proposed reducing the sentences for offenders who enter early guilty pleas. After confronting a man who tried to break into his own house, Mark Vernon contemplates what it means to ask criminals to confess:
There's the risk of perpetrators getting off lightly. Yes. And it's clearly not suitable across the board. But it's not forgiveness that's on offer. Rather, done right, a public confession can allow victims to hand back the crimes committed against them to the perpetrators. That's where they belong. The perpetrators, in turn, must then live with the full knowledge of what they have done. For some, that will be for the good too.
The Dish 