I think you're missing a very important aspect: deterrence. It's not just for the sake of the offender and victim, but to ward off future transgressions by showing there are consequences for such actions.
If you don't punish a crime, it might as well be legal; there are plenty of stupid, archaic laws still on the books in most countries that are simply not enforced. This is also why we had the "Summer of Love", Portland courthouse siege, repeated thefts in California, or beatings in NY- lack of enforcement turning into implicit encouragement.
I shoot from the hip a lot with my posts on this site, so it wasn't something I thought of. I do think some short prison (juvie) sentence would probably have worked well as a deterrent here. Albeit I'm not a fan of prison in general, unpopular as that opinion may be, because I think it's not much of any deterrent when you get to the level of career criminals.
I think you're missing a very important aspect: deterrence. It's not just for the sake of the offender and victim, but to ward off future transgressions by showing there are consequences for such actions.
If you don't punish a crime, it might as well be legal; there are plenty of stupid, archaic laws still on the books in most countries that are simply not enforced. This is also why we had the "Summer of Love", Portland courthouse siege, repeated thefts in California, or beatings in NY- lack of enforcement turning into implicit encouragement.
I shoot from the hip a lot with my posts on this site, so it wasn't something I thought of. I do think some short prison (juvie) sentence would probably have worked well as a deterrent here. Albeit I'm not a fan of prison in general, unpopular as that opinion may be, because I think it's not much of any deterrent when you get to the level of career criminals.