Now, what would you do ?????

[becki x]

I don't think we can all say "yes we would or no we wouldn't" until it happens to us as we don't know what we would do.

I think we can all have a opinion on this subject , but i for one wouln't shop my son/daughter in for shop-lifting.

As i said,it depends on what they have done ,IF i would do anything.

I know my own mind,that doesn't mean you have to agree

 

[suzie49]

As far as the shop lifting is concerned my son when he was younger went into the local shop with his friends and did take something silly like a chocolate bar. A friend saw them and told me about it, I took him back to the shop to explain to the shopkeeper what he had done and apologise, I also paid for it of course. And informed the other parents, what they did about it I have no idea. But he never did it again.

 

[sj1973]

My question was all based around violent crimes against people

If it is based on violent crimes then i still don't know if i as a mum could hand my child over. Yes i would want him/her to know they done wrong...but i am giving you my honest answer...i don't know if i could do it.

I know my own mind,that doesn't mean you have to agree

Well we dis-agree on this one then :hug:....sorry !! . I just don't know what i would do until it actually happened to me. And that goes for anything.

 

[hannajadem]

Izzi i totally agree :!:

If my son is bad he is punnished, if he'd done something at school and they didn't know i would tell them knowing it would be dealt with other wise how else will he learn ??

If he were 12 and got caught shoplifting I would inform the police,knowing it would be hard,he has to learn his lesson.

Me and my loved ones are not above the law and IMHO i may aswell have comitted the crime myself if i turn a blind eye.

I put myself in the position of the victim,and KNOW no matter what i wouldn't hesitate

Exactly what one of my friends did (although her son was in his 20s), she told the police he had been involved in a burglary, and he was jailed in the end. People asked her how she could do it, but he had been going off the rails for years, and she saw it as a means to get him back on the straight and narrow, as well as justice for the victim.

I would always tell the police, even if it were family, lets face it, the jail term criminals get is never consistent with the crime anyway, a prison sentence is much easier to serve than the nightmare the victims have to face for the rest of their lives.

I can see it from the other point of view though, if a wife knew her husband had done something for example, but if he went to jail she wouldn't be able to provide for her family etc, then it gets difficult. (not saying it's right, but I can understand why some people don't)

 

[min11]

I'd turn them in, my kids, who ever it was.

That said, and think what you will, I found out when we lived overseas that one of my kids had pinched a pack of chewing gum from a local shop. I should have taken him down there but as "temporary residents" in the country (we'd been there 5 years by then) I wasn't putting our being there at risk so I grounded him for two weeks, took all his savings from his piggy bank and put him in terror of our residency permits being revoked. He quaked every time he saw a police car for months in case it was coming to our house.

 

[mannipatch]

I didn't see crimewatch so i don't know exactly what you watched that prompted the question.Or how bad it was.
I would love to say yes definately,no doubt about it but i know i would just be saying that.It would depend on the crime, the circumstances and what i would believe the outcome might be.
I think many people fear reprisals when they speak up and then see the person who commited the crime just do a few months and yet they have their whole life ruined because of intimidation.
Someone once told me about a relative who witnessed a murder and ended up in witness protection and had to move with her whole family and take on a new identity ,their whole life became horrendous.The person who was murdered was found to be just as evil as the person who shot him when it went to court and in it all who ended up suffering the most..the witness.
So i would say i would have to think about it depending on the crime and the circumstances.

It is ok saying you would if you never have. I agree totaly with the above statement.
After being a witness in a crime I would never ever do it again.
My whole family were intimidated. I had to leave my job as I worked in the town where the criminal lived and he and his family waitied on me in the morning to get out of my car and followed me the short distance to work shouting that I was going to get done. All reported to police and nothing substantial done. My car was keyed 4 times and kicked once causing a lot of damage.
The first criminal damage case he got off because he took a witness (who was not even there).
The other 3 no action was taken as there were no witnesses and the 5th time he was done for criminal damage and fined £50 and ordered to pay £400 damages to me. It took £967 to fix my car and of course I had to change it as soon as I had the finances to for safety.
These people attacked my brother in law who had nothing to do with anything and what did they get when it went to court, breach of the peace.
I could go on and on but the answer is definitely not.

 

[mannipatch]

The person that I was ordered to be a witness against, pleaded guilty so I did not have to be a witness after all but it was 5 years of intimidation for me and my family. All that time it is hanging over your head, the whole stress of getting into a witness box in court and all the while being intimidated. Places you can't go etc. At this time I was up the walls about my then teenager who loved to party and go clubbing to the town where this person lived and I was worried they would do something terrible to him, so I would not allow him to go to this town but worried everytime he went out the door. I would think long and hard before I would make any statement to the police again. Sorry I feel that way because I used to believe totaly in the law and our judicial system. Now I know better.