Crime and Punishment -- Beastly Murder of Pregnant Woman

Crime is down across the country.

No one really knows why. There is a lot of speculation -- perhaps it relates to the aging population (most crime is youth based so that's plausible) or maybe it's the success of government initiatives (perhaps, but crime is down in other places with different approaches) or maybe it's the current cycle of sun spots (doubtful but whatever).

Regardless of why, the fall in crime is an undeniable good. Crime generally hurts everyone (usually the criminal too) and less crime makes a happier society.

But what do we do about the crime that remains? How can we cut that back too?

My sense is that the first step is to recognize 'crime' is not a unity. Gang related crime is financial and social -- remove the financial rewards and offer alternative places for young men to demonstrate their manliness (this sounds ridiculous but machismo has a lot to do with street gangs) and gang crime will fade. Petty thefts are often drug related so eliminate the addictions and these crimes will disappear. Much remaining crime is, candidly, an outgrowth of mental instability.

I write this piece from the subway -- I am on my way to meet a Crown to try to resolve dozens of charges against a young person who is clean cut, polite, smart and yet obsessed with a persecution complex. The crimes do not stem from greed and they are not deterred by punishment -- a doctor and not a warden is needed.

That doesn't mean the young person should be left alone to continue the rampages. It does mean that the person should be separated (for a time) from society for treatment (perhaps involuntary) and not for punishment because punishment is useless. The young person is not deterred by a fear of jail.

The tragic story out of Pittsburgh this weekend is a dramatic example of some one who is (to use the old and politically incorrect phrase) "mad not bad".

Andrea Curry-Demus, is charged in the death of Kia Johnson a young woman who was pregnant. Curry-Demus is accused of killing Johnson, cutting her baby out of her and taking the boy to a Pittsburgh hospital and claiming it was her own.

Johnson's body was found Friday in Curry-Demus's apartment.

Curry-Demus showed up at the hospital Thursday with a newborn that still had the umbilical cord attached, police said. Tests later proved that she was not the mother.

Can there be any doubt that Curry-Demus, if she is responsible for this beastly crime, is insane (at least in some way)? Is this a crime that mandatory sentencing would have any impact on?

While an extreme example it is common enough for crime to be motivated by madness. Curry-Demus (if guilty, and that's not proven yet but the facts look pretty clear) needs to be separated from society, likely forever, but not in a prison but a hospital.

And that leads me to my final point, a point most contentious. Judges need the authority to send convicts to mandatory mental treatment if that is what is needed to heal the convict. Sending the deluded to jail (with the very limited treatment options offered) does nothing to protect society. Punishing the insane does nothing; if our goal is to protect society we need more tools than we have now.