Some things can be rehabilitated. Some things cannot.
The vast majority of homicides are crimes of passion and the killer does not go on to commit other violent crimes. They experienced an emotional peak, lost control, and did something horrible. But it's not reflective of a pattern of behavior or necessarily a predisposition towards further violence. In those cases restorative justice is clearly called for. The victims should be compensated in so far as is possible and the killer should be re-integrated in to society.
On the other hand you have serial killers, serial rapists, serial child abusers, narcissists who engage in abusive or violent behaviors, people with anti-social personality disorder who exhibit a pattern of violence, various kinds of brain tumors or traumatic brain injuries that result in uncontrollable violent behavior, and various less well defined brain abnormalities that result in uncontrollable violent behavior.
Many of these conditions cannot be rehabilitated because they were never a result of environmental factors or learned behaviors in the first place. There's a popular notion that serial killers have some deep Freudian cause for their murderous actions, but it's just not well supported by evidence. For the most part there's just something deeply wrong with them that is likely biological in nature. Many serial abusers have measurably different brain function and exhibit disinterest or even contempt for the rights and safety of others regardless of their personal circumstances or experiences. These things aren't learned behaviors, except in so far as the perpetrators learn how best to harm others while avoiding consequences.
There's a notorious phenomena where putting serial abusers and some people with ASPD through therapy, far from making them better socialized, teaches them how to more effectively manipulate and abuse others by giving them more insight in to human emotion and psychology.
The need for some system for controlling and monitoring dangerously anti-social people isn't rooted in punishment, but rather in recognition of the fact that for various reasons some people will always be a threat to others. Punishing them is pointless; One of the symptoms of ASPD, for instance, is an indifference to consequences. But they still need to be controlled in some fashion to protect others from them.
Some things can be rehabilitated. Some things cannot.
The vast majority of homicides are crimes of passion and the killer does not go on to commit other violent crimes. They experienced an emotional peak, lost control, and did something horrible. But it's not reflective of a pattern of behavior or necessarily a predisposition towards further violence. In those cases restorative justice is clearly called for. The victims should be compensated in so far as is possible and the killer should be re-integrated in to society.
On the other hand you have serial killers, serial rapists, serial child abusers, narcissists who engage in abusive or violent behaviors, people with anti-social personality disorder who exhibit a pattern of violence, various kinds of brain tumors or traumatic brain injuries that result in uncontrollable violent behavior, and various less well defined brain abnormalities that result in uncontrollable violent behavior.
Many of these conditions cannot be rehabilitated because they were never a result of environmental factors or learned behaviors in the first place. There's a popular notion that serial killers have some deep Freudian cause for their murderous actions, but it's just not well supported by evidence. For the most part there's just something deeply wrong with them that is likely biological in nature. Many serial abusers have measurably different brain function and exhibit disinterest or even contempt for the rights and safety of others regardless of their personal circumstances or experiences. These things aren't learned behaviors, except in so far as the perpetrators learn how best to harm others while avoiding consequences.
There's a notorious phenomena where putting serial abusers and some people with ASPD through therapy, far from making them better socialized, teaches them how to more effectively manipulate and abuse others by giving them more insight in to human emotion and psychology.
The need for some system for controlling and monitoring dangerously anti-social people isn't rooted in punishment, but rather in recognition of the fact that for various reasons some people will always be a threat to others. Punishing them is pointless; One of the symptoms of ASPD, for instance, is an indifference to consequences. But they still need to be controlled in some fashion to protect others from them.