i had a imilar debate about this on Google+ (i found a good
   controversial topic I think!) - in his case, he was talking
   about sociopaths, ex-husbands who went through bad divorces that
   took them 15 years to come out of their shells -- etc -- and he
   was also right, and you're also right. There are always going to
   be extreme situations which take extreme measures - domestic
   violence, crimes - punis...hment exists for the population that
   cannot be rehabilitated. Rehabilitation doesn't work for all, in
   which case, fear of punishment keeps them appearing honest. But
   my main point in this was simply picking the battles and
   gathering coping skills for the battles not worth fighting. For
   if every slight becomes a fight, then when you're -not-
   fighting, you're waiting for one to happen. that's the state of
   mind I had when I was very young - and i than... "