I think those kind of things are culturally dependent. I am from Norway and I noticed that Americans and Brits typically people from Anglo-Saxon cultures were most angry at the sentencing the terrorist Anders Behring Breivik got in Norway. Victims and their families were not revenge oriented towards Breivik the way Americans and Brits were who were not even at the receiving end of his crimes.<p>I notice a clear difference between cultures in how this is perceived is in the view with respect to good, evil and punishment in general. I think in Scandinavia in general people don&#x27;t really believe in good and evil, at least not in the American sense. We don&#x27;t divide the world into good guys and bad guys.<p>All the way back to Viking times Scandinavians have practices much milder punishment than the Anglo-Saxons. It might be a Germanic thing. The dutch also were much milder than the British historically. In fact the english seemed almost offended in the 1700s by how mild punishment was in the Netherlands.<p>I think anglo-saxons have simply been conditioned more strongly to desire revenge and retribution.