One of the issues I have with the way criminal law is treated is that the punishment is often decided by the impact of the crime. Why is this? There are two reasons for criminal punishments. The first and most obvious is that it separates dangerous people from general society. The second is that it creates a deterrent to crime. If I do this crime I might get caught and then punished for it, so I won't do the crime and take the risk.
So... why do we base criminal punishment on luck? Here are some examples:
1. A man walks in and shoots someone in face. The victim dies. The crime is murder and the individual will be given a length sentence, possibly life and possibly death. Now take the same scenario. The guy walks in and shoots someone in the face. The victim lives and based on pure chance actually does not sustain a serious injury. Now what is the punishment for the criminal? Not nearly as harsh as in the first scenario! Why? The man is obviously dangerous and needs to be removed from society. It is only by pure chance that the victim survived however society will judge him less harshly. This doesn't make sense to me.
2. A man gets drunk. Drives his vehicle. Crashes into another car instantly killing the other driver. Now our criminal is in serious trouble - manslaughter charges, vehicular homicide ect ect. Change the scenario. Now the man gets drunk. Drives his vehicles. Crashes into another car and the other driver survives with minor injuries. Now the criminal is still in trouble but his punishment will be far less. WHY? How about an added twist. A man gets drunk. Drives his vehicle. Doesn't get into an accident - instead he is pulled over for reckless driving and arrested for DUI. Now he spends a night in jail, maybe loses his license temporarily (or not) and pays a fine. The mans actions were the same as in the first scenario. But by pure luck he is not going to prison for several years.
Obviously in civil trials damages are very important for making it right. But our criminal justice system isn't about vengeance - the actual outcome of the crime shouldn't factor into the punishments. Instead the intent and actions that the criminal took should decide the punishment. This allows society to separate dangerous people away from society (prison) and by punishing people for crimes that COULD have gotten people killed it serves as a powerful deterrent to doing those behaviors.