Should criminal records of adults be erased after their sentence has been served?

radcen said:

Do different societies even consider the same things as crimes? Murder, theft, etc., sure.

Reading your spouse's e-mail? Not recycling properly? Untangling a whale from a net before the state could come do it?

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Beating ones wife is legal for many millions. Honor killings, FGM...

And we should consider that while totalitarian regimes do kill and disappear many, the lack of human rights means prisons are not really so necessary. A lil' genocide, maybe some crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing and the incarceration rate stays fairly low.

That stat is a pile of ****.

clownboy said:

Dream on, most of us don't commit vehicular felonies. And let me just say, I've heard that argument before and it was lame every time. Some people do indeed follow the traffic laws 100% of the time. It just makes whomever poses such nonsense feel better about their own inability to follow the law.

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I didn't say anything about vehicular felonies, that's your own addition. I've never committed any felony.


I taught our company's defensive driving course for four years so I'm probably more aware of all the nit-picky laws than most people. I also know that I have broken many laws over the years, usually for good reason. For example, if you see someone open their driver's door into your lane and you swerve over the white line to avoid the door, that's still by the book illegal. Have you ever done that? Or did you just take out the door? Or maybe you've never been faced with that lose-lose situation? Do you know exactly where to stop for a stop sign if there's not an idiot line to help you? Most people have no clue and regularly stop too late. Are you aware you can be ticketed for obstructing traffic if you're driving too slow? It's rare but I've seen it done in LA. And, of course, near the top of the list in many states is entering an intersection to make a left turn unless you can make the complete turn. It's illegal here but people break that law on a regular basis, much like stopping for a stop sign at an intersection without a stop line. Like I said, don't be fooled into believing you follow all the rules 100% of the time. Chances are you don't even know all the rules.