MovieChat Forums > Lord of the Flies (1990) Discussion > Would These Children Suffer Criminal Pen...

Would These Children Suffer Criminal Penalties?

posted 12 years ago by parriepenn
7 replies | jump to latest

In today's American justice system, I think the murders these kids commited would be downplayed as acts of desperation and struggles for survival. The cold blooded murder of Piggy and its approval by Jack would by whitewashed into 14 versions of rationalization with Piggy being the ultimate perpetrator. We would never know the truth.

The children might receive some counseling for PTSD but never punishment, except for maybe Ralph, who, like Piggy, would be painted as the bad guy by virtually every person there in an effort to exonerate themselves.

Do I think they should be punished? Absolutely, but since there were mitigating circumstances, they should be extended mercy--precisely the same amount of mercy they extended to those under their control.

Being too lazy to read, I bought the Gospel of Winchester on DVD, Seasons 1-6.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] parriepenn 12 years ago

Hi Mrs J:

I find this movie disturbing partly because of the parallels between that society and our own internet society. I believe it takes little for some people, perhaps even the average, to revert to savagry when they feel it is safe to do so.

So far, they have been able to do nothing to reverse or even "help" psychopathy/sociopathy. American psychologists don't use those labels on children: good and bad in my view--good because of horrific acts commited without apparent remorse by children like Mary Bell, who seemingly went on to live a normal adult life and bad, because they are not punished in a manner fitting their crimes. I am not calling the kids in the movie psycho/sociopaths based on what we saw.

Being too lazy to read, I bought the Gospel of Winchester on DVD, Seasons 1-6.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] sflowers539 12 years ago

No way would they face charges, even today if they went to trial in Texas. They are way to young, it is not 16, 17 year olds, it is kids, and there are way to many excuses for their behavior (at least in today's legal terms). Temporary insanity, desperation for survival, ect..

[–] mattgoodyear 9 years ago

unless the Island was in American water and under American law, then nothing would happen at all

[–] The LA Baker (799) 7 years ago

Wrong. Subject matter jurisdiction: It means as a US citizen, you are at all times, regardless of your location at the time of the act, subject to US law. For example, drinking wine from Monte Negro and going to Cuba or smoking pot in Amsterdam are technically crimes in the US. A US citizen could be prosecuted for those acts.

[–] The LA Baker (799) 7 years ago

Where do you people get your perspective of society? It sure as hell is not reality.

Children are charged all the time for real and imagined crimes. Watch the documentary "Kids for Cash" if you don't have the mental fortitude to do minimal manual research. 10 year(and younger) old kids are convicted and sentenced every day. I have seen kids as young as 6 locked up. Children will almost always get a lesser punishment, but not always. A 13 year old boy was sentenced to life in prison for a murder committed when he was 11.
Children are being convicted of sex offenses and put on the sex offender list(ruining their whole life) for having CONSENSUAL SEX with other children. Both kids are treated as child rapists even though the sex was consensual and they were both the same age.

I suppose the media is to blame for not doing their job(sadly the status quo), but it still disturbs me how people can be so completely ignorant, yet have firm beliefs regardless of said ignorance.