Criminal Justice

The White Bear brought many new elements of criminal punishment to the table. While at first the episode depicted a young woman being tortured for no certain reason by strangers- almost like a very cruel game of cat and mouse- the plot twist of the story left me unsure of how exactly I should feel towards the woman (Victoria). During the episode I didn't necessarily feel sympathetic towards Victoria for some odd reason. I couldn't exactly place what my emotions towards her character were, probably because I had a sense that something was off with the way she was targeted. However, once discovered that she was a criminal being punished, I was utterly shocked. Her sentence for her crime took the word justice to a whole new level. While I feel 'eye for an eye' justice is somewhat just in certain ways, the way Victoria was served her justice was very off putting to me. True, it was morally wrong for her to commit the crime that she did, but I also feel it is just as morally wrong for the level of punishment received and for the amount of time. To me it correlates with the saying 'two wrongs don't make a right.' Whoever is dishing out the punishment is just as morally wrong in my eyes because just as the example of rape came up in class, if the just sentence for rape is to be raped also, then there is just a circle of rape happening. A crime is still a crime whether the crime is committed by a civilian or the government, but I don't believe many people see it that way.

The way her brain interprets the punishment is also wrong. The fact that she doesn't even remember for the most part why she is getting punished isn't fair. If a society like this existed I'd allow her to remember, or figure out some way for her to know why without being brain washed because it takes away from the punishment. Also, I wondered whether other criminals experienced this 'eye for an eye' justice because there are hundreds of crimes capable of being committed. For instance, say vehicular manslaughter was committed because of a drunk driver and the drunk driver survived, what would his/her punishment be? Waking up everyday and having a car crash by the hands of some car dummy expressing a drunk person's characteristics? It wouldn't be possible because the criminal would die on the first day. I'm just saying there seems to be a lot of loopholes in the system created in this episode.

But one thing for sure, this episode, along with Be Right Back, definitely made me interested in watching the Black Mirror series.. maybe not at night though. It'd be too creepy for me lol.