Crime in Asia

If you read my last entry, and any number of others you'll have some idea of the utter corruption in business in the ESL industry and in government agencies in Korea. That idea will not be wrong either. My experiences to whit are not the worst I've heard. Not even close. I'd say about average. But it may come as a surprise to you when I say that, at least here in Korea, I feel incredibly safe walking the streets. The low occurrence of crime in a society that still regards a lot of their laws as behavioural advice that can be ignored in times of convenience seems a bit odd. Low crime rates throughout Asia persist. I've thought pretty hard about it. Harder than I probably should have. And here's what I've come up with. These will be opinions shared by few or maybe none, but for the sake of argument...

Blame it on Buddha. Argument number one. Buddhists believe in reincarnation. In the face of a raging Christian revolution, there is still a heavy Buddhist influence here in Korea. If a guy has any thoughts of going out and committing a terrible crime for which he knows he might get a triple life sentence... theoretically, he can serve it! All three lives of it! Maybe that serves as some sort of deterrent to a population with remnants of Buddhism still persisting. Although you will notice I wrote, "theoretically." The concept would involve finding someone born at the exact second the criminal died, arresting the baby and throwing him into prison. I dunno, maybe since all babies are innocent they'd let him grow up to when he becomes a teenager. NO teenagers are innocent so put that boy behind bars for his second life.

Think of the parents of this kid. What an easy job they've got! Why would they take the time and trouble to raise him right? I mean if he's caught shoplifting or fighting at school why bother with the discipline, he's got lots of that coming!

Criminals in the west can be quite cavalier if they have life sentences already. They can rob convenience stores, kill people, basically do what they want and say, "What are they gonna do, give me more time?" In a Buddhist society the cops or judges can just say, "YEAH!"

There are, of course, a few bugs in the system, such as suicide. A guy could commit suicide in the first week of all three sentences and he will have successfully served triple life in less than a month. There is stringent suicide watch in prison, but the criminals can find ways. Stabbing themselves with chopsticks, hanging themselves with Tae Kwon Do belts, they can find ways.

Another big bug is that since there's no guarantee that a guy who commits a heinous crime as a human will come back as a human, problems arise. What if he comes back as a tortoise or a Methuselah tree? Would it be fair if his second sentence were 5000 years? And then there's the opposite argument: What if he returned as a mayfly? Some of them only live 30 MINUTES! That's a pretty light life sentence by all accounts. And just imagine the problems facilitating a Buddhist prison! All the different types of food, holding cells, entertainment for all the different species! What a nightmare that must be! What if a guy who came back as a lizard ate a guy who came back as a cricket? Would the lizard criminal get ANOTHER life sentence added on to his time? Would the cricket's untimely demise qualify as a full life sentence served?

And what about Karma? If a man's crime was really heinous won't Karma punish him by forcing him to live his next life as a dung beetle, a cicada or some other tragic existence? So can they justify adding punishment to what Karma gives? That's a toughie.

What if the criminal is a Buddhist and the judge is a Christian? The problems are limitless if you really, (have the spare time to), think about it. But then again, since we've known about DNA I have yet to hear of a case where someone/thing alive had the same DNA as someone/thing dead. I'm not sure that there are many searching for such a match although it would seem to imply reincarnation. Perhaps there are DNA researchers in India comparing people's DNA to dead trees, bugs, corpses and such. Not sure but it would seem to me that the longer we go without ever having found such a match, the weaker belief in reincarnation will become. Then again, it's quite possible that some great yogi or being who attained enlightenment has told the Buddhist world that your DNA changes during reincarnation. BLAM! Religion saved! And, Kablamo, my theory is completely shot down. I guess that's why I haven't yet seen or heard of any Buddhist prisons. There must be a different reason...

Argument number two: I'm not going to say that I'm for or against harsh penalties for crime or even capital punishment but a friend of mine was riding on a train in China with his wife and two daughters. I may be embellishing but it just might have been the Orient Express. Suddenly the wife noticed that her digital camera was missing and reported it to the porter. The train was stopped and members of the railway police rounded up about 5 people they thought were likely suspects. They were lined up and searched outside the train in full view of the other passengers. Lo and behold, the camera was found. As it was returned to my freind's wife the thief was shot and left for dead on the sides of the tracks. I suppose some nearby undertaker was alerted to the business. My friend's wife was agape as her camera was returned. She couldn't even say thanks. But as the train rolled on funny things began to happen. Children obeyed parents and didn't misbehave; chairs were pulled out and doors were opened for women; the elderly were cherished and every waiter/waitress was tipped 21%. And I am quite sure a guy could have left the Hope Diamond on his table to go to the toilet and wash up and there it would have been upon his return.

It's fairly certain that despite misleading statistics, death is a strong deterrent to the average man and for those who are not deterred by it, it is probably best suited. Fascinating though they are, I am not interested enough in why a guy murders and eats a young girl then mails the recipe to her parents. It is not an intriguing enough mystery to me what curing and tanning techniques were used to enable a killer to make flesh suits and lampshades from his victims' skin. I feel OK about making everyone just a little bit safer by eliminating these interesting and unique individuals instead of making them cult heroes, publishing their songs and books and spending enough on maximum security facilities on each one of them to support entire trailor parks full of families. Furthermore I would imagine that their disregard for the sanctity of human life would perversely allow THEM to be OK with their own lives being taken from them as a sort of fine for their actions. An equitable punishment that suits the crime. A Dantean "contrapasso" as it were.

How many Asian serial killers do you know of? Whether they are just not well publicized or whether they just don't exist, point made. In Taiwan there's a sign at the airport that says anyone who is found with drugs will be executed. We've heard of all kinds of harsh punishment and death penalties meted out in Asia and I think that THIS is probably what leads to the lower crime rates.

But let's go back to argument number one in conclusion. If there were a really awful crime committed by somebody in Asia and if reincarnation is true, maybe it's punishment enough for that criminal to have to come back and struggle through another lifetime trying to get it right. THAT could be part of the thinking behind capital punishment in Asia too. So maybe both arguments hold water. Or soju. Or sake. I'll tell you if I ever find out for sure.