Central London Debating Society: Results of last debate and latest ...

Result of Thursday's debate - motion passes after spirited fightback from opposition team

Last Thursday witnessed a great victory for two of CLDS' newest speakers whose hard work, energy, and research helped them see off two of the club's most experienced members in a hotly contested debate. Well done!

Below you can find a full summary of the debate, but first take a look at our new e-zine, designed to provide a broader and more personalised view of all debating events across London - it's also the best way to keep up with what we have planned for 2013, which is a lot!

Debate Summary:

This House believes that the justice system should prioritise rehabilitation over punishment.

Preliminary vote: For 16, Against 4, Abstaining 3

Key arguments

• Proposition: The justice system should not eliminate punishment, but it should be rebalanced so that rehabilitation is valued more highly than punishment.
• Opposition: The justice system should be set up so that it balances punishment and rehabilitation so that neither is prioritised over the other.

• Proposition: Rehabilitation saves money in the long run as it lowers prison numbers and turns criminals into productive members of society.
• Opposition: There is a large cost to the proposition's plans which would need to be paid upfront.

• Proposition: The treatment of criminals should be worked out on a case by case basis in order to maximise the chances of them rehabilitating.
• Opposition: The treatment of criminals should be worked out so that the punishment they?receive?matches the crime they have committed.

• Opposition: Society not only needs justice to be done but also needs to see that justice is done.
• Proposition: Concentrating on punishing the criminal and allowing society to view that encourages society as a whole to be more vengeful.

• Proposition: Punishment is not as effective as rehabilitation in lowering crime levels overall.
• Opposition: Rehabilitation is really difficult to get right and setting it to be a higher priority than punishment will cause failures in the justice system.

Trending questions:

• People have to choose to be rehabilitated. ?How is the proposition going to deal with those who don't choose to be rehabilitated?
• Aren't measures that the proposition has described as rehabilitation (such as drug treatment programs and work in prison) actually forms of punishment?

Final vote: For 13, Against 10, Abstentions 3

Final vote (no abstentions): For 16, Against 10

MOTION PASSED

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Best Wishes
The CLDS Team

Source: http://debating-london.blogspot.com/2013/01/results-of-last-debate-and-latest-clds.html

Kayla Harrison Mars landing Gabby Douglas John Orozco Garrett Reid shawn johnson Tony Sly