I believe, because I have seen how it affected me doing small acts of revenge when I was young, that unleashing more base urges on people who deserve it is poisonous to the individual who does it. It's not about the victim (even if they truly would have been convicted and sentenced in a court of law). This is why I don't believe in the death penalty. I believe killing people lowers us as a society.

So, when I look at my own urges, it's not fear of legal repercussions or horror I could do that that stops me (we are all monkeys, every last one). It's my fear of what it would do to me, and how poorly it would sit on me. I don't want that for myself.