Today in New Zealand a 16 year old youth was jailed for ten years. He is eligible for parole after 5 of them.

His offence was to brutally assault and rape a 5 year old girl at a camp site. A truly sickening crime.

In passing sentence the judge originally levied a sentence of 18 years, and then proceeded to reduce this bit by bit when taking into account a number of "mitigating factors". His repentance got him a year less. His disturbed family background sliced off another 2 years. And so on. Down to ten, parole in five, Bob married your father's sister. Had he worn a suit and tie, he'd probably have got a community service award for his trouble.

Quite naturally, white middle class New Zealand has reacted with outrage. They want something More old testament. Those from his own ethnic background have been somewhat less critical, citing his relatively blameless track record (a few minor convictions aside), his good character and loving qualities etc etc.

The more pragmatic have questioned the value of the sentence on practical grounds. When he leaves prison he will be a hardened criminal. He will be bitter. he will have cost taxpayers at least $500,000 for the duration of his clink. He will likely reoffend immediately and in due course slide into recidivism. 5 years of being reasonably well fed and watered, with a cosy heated cell, sky tv on demand etc are hardly punitive circumstances for one from his domain.

And these are actually quite compelling arguments. Will 5, or ten years for that matter achieve anything positive for anyone? probably not.

The polar, and polarising options suggested are either to simply attempt to rehabilitate him - it after all being society's fault anyway, or to lock him up and throw away the key - or even simply give him a fatal jab?

And there lies the problem. Because society must take it share of the blame - what sort of world are we living in where a sixteen year old boy spends all day drinking and taking drugs, then in a blind haze commits such an atrocity? We have created such monsters through laxity and laziness. Because he is not alone. All over the world, thousand of teens gorge themselves similarly on forbidden fruit. Granted they do not all go on and rape 5 year old girls, but thye are filling up with the same fuel. They do this because, on so many different levels, we encourage them to, and we let them.

And by the same token, it would be quite appropriate if the family of the victim demanded they be given half an hour in a quiet room somehwere with him, he being handcuffed and they being armed with baseball bats. No sane person could begrudge them the opportunity to vent their feelings on this monster.

The answer, and of course like all real answers it will be dramatically unpopular with those who seek to explain rather than to solve, is twofold.

First we must enforce our laws rigourously. There must be no more soft and hard laws. If cannabis is illegal, then illegal it must be. No more class A's, Class Bs etc. Illegal drugs are illegal, and possession, use etc, in whatever quantities must receive equal punishement. And make it rigorous. In other words enforce the law to it's letter, without exception. And if there are few hard done by individuals along the way, well, they can console themselves that they are sacrificing themselves for the good of the majority.

Second, we must acknowledge that the are some within our society who are without redemption, and should be removed permanently. There people who are plain evil. Others have no fear of consequence. And no amount of bleeding heart liberal understanding will change them. These people need to be taken out of the equation for good, and for the good of those of us who do not rape 5 year old girls.

Maybe that means putting them on a little island somewere surrounded by gunboats. Maybe it means until death incarceration, without comforts or benefits of any kind - the sort that costs no more than 10k a year. Maybe it means the death penalty. Perhaps offenders could choose which option they would like?

The great advantage of the death penalty is that it creates less opportunity for vampirical lawyers to earn millions conducting endless and pointless campaigns trying to have convictions overturned on irrelevant technicalities.

These are hard issues, which pose hard questions. That is why we have leaders - to take the hard decisions.

But we cannot carry on - we have reached, if not already passed the tipping point of societal tolerance of liberalism and its consequences. We must accept that we have mafe mistakes in trying to expunge blame and punishment, and personal responsibility from our lexicon.

We are very close to the moment of social justice, a form of anarchy in which citizens effect punishments on those who transgress, no longer trusting the authorities to mete out what they consider appropriate. Lynch mobs on the streets, and they are a tad more scary than rioters.

Sometimes, on a journey from A to B, you go astray. The smart driver will retrace their steps, work out where they went wrong, and take the right turning to get back on the correct route. The fool will keep going along the wrong one, getting further and further away from their intended destination. And that is liberalism.