Justice through Injustice

                When a crime is committed in the United States, our legal system is designed to provide justice to the victims of those crimes.  Our justice system designates appropriate punishments as determined by the trial of the criminal.  The punishments are also handed out in accordance with the constitution which designates no cruel or unusual punishments for the criminals.  In the Black Mirror episode White Bear, the main character and criminal, Victoria, is handed what some may consider both a cruel and unusual punishment.  Victoria is convicted of torturing and killing a young girl named Jemima along with her boyfriend Iain.  The punishment that Victoria is given is to become a part of an amusement park of sorts in which she is tortured every day in the same exact fashion; however her memory is erased at the end of each day and thus has no memory of ever being tortured when she wakes up in the morning.  This form of punishment is not justice.  Justice in this sense as they are trying to deliver it is in the form of an eye for an eye.  Because Victoria tortured Jemima, Victoria was then sentenced to also be tortured.  The way in which Victoria is tortured then, is not an eye for an eye because Victoria is tortured continuously day after day.  Jemima was tortured only once.  The fact that Victoria does not remember being tortured does not take away the physical trauma and stress that her body experiences every day due to the proceedings.  In that sense then, the punishment is not equal to the crime. It is excessive at least as a punishment due to the torture of Jemima.  The killing of Jemima then would justify the death penalty for Victoria.  Thus an appropriate punishment for Victoria would be to be tortured for the time that Jemima was tortured, and then to be put to death.  This punishment could be appropriately called and eye for an eye. 

                A key aspect about the crime that Victoria committed however is that Victoria only filmed the crime being committed.  This raises the question of whether punishing Victoria in the way that she is, is really justifiable.  I don’t think that Victoria is handed down the appropriate punishment for her crime.  Had she herself taken part in the torturing of Jemima then the punishment would be appropriate; however, as the crime is described in the episode, her punishment does not fit her crime.  The fact that she made the case that she was coerced to partake in the crime by her boyfriend seemed to have almost no significance in the punishment.  This form of justice system could potentially get out of hand very quickly and may be punishing people in a way that is disproportionate to the crime they committed.