Criminals

A murderer.
Rapist.
Drug dealer.
They are all criminals.

They all must be
Dangerous.
But do we really
Know them as people?

Judging only based on
The horrendous choices they've made.
Each crime we pile
Onto their one-spotless records.

Sure, they may have a slip-up.
But they are only human.
Weren't we taught that its okay
To make mistakes?

Deep down,
Hidden under their flesh.
They all have a soul.
A soft-side.
A weakness.

Each one has a heart.
They may be criminals,
But understand their flaws.
Who they are inside.

They are human.
Just like us.

Reviews

[Broken.]

I've always been able to see people for who they really are, underneath it all, without the laws that restrict me to believe what society claims as "bad". Most of the time the people who do such evils usually have had a psychological reasoning behind why they believe in acting the way they do. I feel like you've depicted an "out-of-the-box" reasoning for why the rapists rape, why the drug dealer sells drugs, why the murderer kills. Which is always the question it comes down to. Very intuitive piece.

Broken.

[Amanda J Hopwood]

While I see what your point is, some people are truly evil. A rapist is not a good person in any sense. Especially those that take the innocence of a young child. A murderer who murders just for the thrill of the kill can not be redeemed. We can not make excuses for evil deeds. Every crime has a story behind it, but they made the choice to commit that crime and the large percentage of people who commit a crime get a thrill out of it. Why there are some who commit a crime who can be redeemed, say a mother who witnessed her child being abused murdered the abuser, or other one time crimes of passion, A teenager stealing to gain attention from unattentive parents and from lack of authority, but there are those who rape, murder, steal, and take advantage of people who have no heart. They do not care that they hurt someone. They do not care they took a wife, husband, son, daughter, etc from the world. I do not feel for any of them. They are from the person I am. There are so many layers you are right about that. You have those who are mentally Ill, but in reality to help us sleep at night we try to categorize them all with a mental illness, when in reality the majority of rapist and murders enjoy what they did, and if given the choice would do it again. No heart to them at all.

[The Foolish Poet]

Your poem raises a very valid point, criminals have to be reformed not killed. Because killing them again makes us a criminal

[Clara]

A very interesting write here.

I guess society labels them by their crime, but they too are like us.
So the question is, are we so different afterall?

Maybe less than we'd like to think.

[Luke Rawlings]

I study Criminology (and Psychology) and this is a big problem I have with the system. There is no room for error or forgiveness. A brilliant piece. I like it.