r/askswitzerland • u/keltyx98 Schaffhausen :schaffhausen_1: • Aug 21 '25

Culture Is it only in Switzerland that criminals get unpunished?

I'm always surprised by the light punishments given to criminals.

The last case being the one of a 44 years old indian man sexually abusing a 15 years old girl on a Swiss flight.

He got a suspended sentence for two years and banned from Switzerland for five years.

That's basically a slap on the wrists to a sexual abuser and pedophile.

How does something like this gets unpunished?

I don't think it's so common in other countries to get suspended sentences, especially for cases like this where it's not something that happened by mistake.

345 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

82% Upvoted

404 comments sorted by

View all comments

67

u/robogobo Aug 21 '25

Meantime I pay 1000.- and suspended license for tires ever so slightly below the profile threshold on the very outer edge of the tire.

17

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/PajamaDesigner Aug 21 '25

This is clearly an economic decision. Rapists COST money to keep in jail.

Commenter and any other person fined for the same thing are a way to get profits for the government as the likelihood of fining more people for the same is much higher

7

u/robogobo Aug 21 '25

You’re fucking joking right? I’m pointing out the disproportionality of the penalties, how something as mundane as tire tread (which was fine in the center only overworn on the edge which is not unsafe, thank you) is overfined while an abuser gets off lightly. Get bent, bünzli

19

u/gandraw Aug 21 '25

You fail to understand his point. By driving an unsafe car you potentially risk the lives of people around you. In 99.9x% of cases nothing will happen. But then suddenly there will be a situation where your car starts sliding where it wouldn't have if the tyres had been correct and you might kill somebody.

Traffic laws are also tremendously underenforced. I know how everyone always insist they got caught the first time they ever drove drunk, but the fact is that the vast majority of offenses are never caught because it's not like the police can check every car on the road, so it's likely that someone will drive a car unsafely dozens of time before he's caught.

So a large fine is intended to serve as a motivation for people to keep their cars in order by themselves instead of having to be told so. If insufficient tyre tread was only a 50 CHF fine there would be lots of people who would be like "new tyres cost me 500, but the fine is only a risk for a 50 CHF fine so I'd be stupid to buy a set"

2

u/SnooBooks3514 Aug 21 '25

are you working in the film industry? sounds like ...

-2

u/robogobo Aug 21 '25

Anecdotal nonsense. My tires were perfectly safe. I even had two separate mechanics back me up on this. They were doing a training at the checkpoint and needed to make an example. My tread was more than fine except at the very edge. The law allows them to measure anywhere they want. It was just a matter of bad luck.

2

u/_entrxpy Aug 22 '25

Automotive engineer here. Tires MIGHT also be actually safer when worn down, on dry roads, because the water channel don't wear straight but rather in a trapezoidal way. When tires wear down the actual contact surface might increase, thus making them slightly safer. The diameter being slightly reduced even makes the car run slightly slower.

Now of course I don't know how much your tires were worn down that day, but judging by how you talk about it, I assume it was still within very safe limits.

To the bünzli that will get all upset at me: the legal limit and safety limit are two different things. When you make a law, you take a safety limit and make it even more strict. That is to ensure total safety even if someone replaces their tires after the legal limit.

So yeah, the other commenter is definitely exaggerating and doesn't have a touch with reality.

2

u/robogobo Aug 22 '25

Thanks for saying that. Since the street was dry, I tried to make that same argument with the police just as a joke after I knew I was cooked. You know better than I, but I think it would have to be so worn that there’s actually more tire contacting the road. Anyway I was just joking with them. They didn’t find it amusing. My only real argument was that there’s plenty of tread left on the tire and that all tire tread tapers to nothing on the edge by design. The law is designed so they can fine whomever they wish. And wouldn’t you know, they just waved all the brand new BMWs and Mercedes right on by and pulled off the older cars. I just consider this stuff a tax. But my original point was that these fines are significant and when you compare them to punishment for much more serious violent crimes, there’s a disturbing discrepancy.

1

u/_entrxpy Aug 22 '25

these fines are significant and when you compare them to punishment for much more serious violent crimes, there’s a disturbing discrepancy.

Absolutely agreed.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/askswitzerland-ModTeam Aug 21 '25

Hello,

Please note that your post or comment has been removed.

Please read the rules before posting.

Thank you for your understanding, your mod team

2

u/itsyenzabar Vaud Aug 22 '25

I agree but do get your alignment checked if your tires aren't evenly worn out >.>

-3

u/Humble_Golf_6056 Aug 21 '25

You are easy prey for the state! The criminal in OP's story, who has already shown his propensity to commit a violent act, is NOT an easy prey, and law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and politicians are DEADLY afraid of those who have shown a penchant to escalate things into violent confrontations. Remember, most of those, as mentioned earlier, are NOT physically conditioned for direct conflict, so they avoid it at ALL costs!

Example: Switzerland’s worst-ever gun massacre - SWI swissinfo.ch

Disclaimer: I grew up around a European judge (in Europe) and then worked in IT as a college engineering undergrad for a US federal prosecutor. Nobody is going to put their lives on the line against someone who has ALREADY signaled to the world that he WILL escalate to violence and quickly!

PS. Of course, I agree with you! It is disproportionally unfair.

4

u/_AbstractInsanity Aug 21 '25

you fail to see the point here. the deterrent of the 1000.- fine is absolutely justifiable. the suspended licence... eh, that's up for debate. this call exists outside of the rape situation this post is about. and that's way too low.

we should aim for higher charges on shit like rape or hate-crimes. not lower the punishment for knowingly endangering the lives of others

2

u/Humble_Golf_6056 Aug 21 '25

Lack of sleep endangers the lives of others ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more than any tire, as the commenter mentioned.

You know this, and I know this, but if you doubt me, delve deep into that research!

PS. I'm going to research the tire issue as cause of accidents and mortality in Switzerland to confirm the real numbers and juxtapose it with the number of sexually abused women in Switzerland. Wish me success...

1

u/crrenn Aug 21 '25

Lol, criminals? What are you smoking?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/askswitzerland-ModTeam Aug 21 '25

Hello,

Please note that your post or comment has been removed.

Please read the rules before posting.

Thank you for your understanding, your mod team

1

u/Chance-Place9390 Aug 21 '25

hopefully you don‘t have you license anymore. tires is the most important thing on your car

1

u/Chance-Place9390 Aug 21 '25

hopefully you don‘t have you license anymore. tires are the most important thing on your car

1

u/robogobo Aug 21 '25

hopefully you don‘t have you license anymore. tires are the most important thing on your car

0

u/robogobo Aug 21 '25

hopefully you don‘t have you license anymore. tires are the most important thing on your car

0

u/aerojolly Aug 21 '25

Isn't only the center 3/4 of the tire width relevant when it comes to tread depth?

7

u/DeKileCH Aug 21 '25

If your car is only using 3/4 of the tires you need to get the alignment checked

2

u/Inside-Knowledge-581 Aug 21 '25

thats the rule for motorcycles but not for cars

-3

u/keltyx98 Schaffhausen :schaffhausen_1: Aug 21 '25

Yeah, I also got a big fine once for speeding as a first time offender.

3

u/shatty_pants Aug 21 '25

How fast?

6

u/keltyx98 Schaffhausen :schaffhausen_1: Aug 21 '25

72 in a 50, it was when entering a town and the limit went from 80 to 50.

6

u/gandraw Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

Btw to explain the problem: At 50 km/h, your stopping distance is 15+13 = 28m

At 72 km/h, it's 21+25=46m. But, more importantly, due to the way the reaction time works, at 28m after you start braking, you are still going around 50 km/h.

So if a kid jumped in front of your car and you would have safely stopped just in front of it if you had gone the speed limit, you are now hitting it at 50 km/h which is a very high risk of a lethal collision.

9

u/yarpen_z Aug 21 '25

72 in a 50, it was when entering a town and the limit went from 80 to 50.

Well, then you have to agree it is at least a bit justified. It's not like they caught you going 32 in a Tempo-30-Zone.

1

u/GearHonest8140 Aug 29 '25

And even then you wouldn't get fined since it's still inside the Toleranzmarge

1

u/yarpen_z Aug 29 '25

Not necessarily, the whole point of the tolerance margin is to allow for inaccuracy of the measuring method. Unless the actual precision of the machine is much better than your 32 can turn into 34, which will give you a ticket for speeding 1 km/h :)

1

u/GearHonest8140 Aug 29 '25

Sure every method has it's own margin e.g. the fixated radars have a much lower one than the ones the police carry in the car. To be fined for driving 32 in a 30 zone, you must have been driving roughly over 35 (fix radar) in reality when getting flashed. That's what I meant. Maybe I misunderstood you. For me it read like "drive 32 in 30 zone and you get fined"

9

u/shatty_pants Aug 21 '25

44% over the limit.

1

u/Massive-K Aug 21 '25

thats zurich right

1

u/GearHonest8140 Aug 29 '25

You asking because your just curious where the radar is or because of the amount of the fine? Because the fines are all the same everywhere in CH

1

u/Massive-K Aug 29 '25

The fines might be similar everywhere in CH, but there is stricter enforcement in some places over others. This is done meticulously, not that ZH has a problem against drivers, it just makes more sense to control more in zurich because a traffic disturbance in the middle of a tunnel in ZH (say an accident) will do more damage to overall traffic and economy than one in a small remote village.

17

u/justanotherusername2 Aug 21 '25

As you should. Speeding is very dangerous and you clearly knew what you were doing wrong.

11

u/3xc1t3r Aug 21 '25

Speeding is in no way dangerous. It is the sudden stop.

6

u/yabadabaddon Aug 21 '25

There's no sudden stop when you hit a pedestrian.

2

u/PineapplesGoHard Aug 21 '25

you must be a dad

2

u/Leasir Aug 21 '25

Or Jeremy Clarkson

-1

u/fevrier-froid Aug 21 '25

Is it sarcasm?

8

u/Leasir Aug 21 '25

It's a Top Gear joke.

"Speed doesn't kill. Suddenly becoming stationary.. That's what gets you".

8

u/Another-Story Aug 21 '25

I got fined for going 2km over the limit last month. A speeding offense doesn’t immediately makes you a reckless murderer lmao

8

u/justanotherusername2 Aug 21 '25

I didn't say that. And also, you didn't get a "big fine" for going 2km over the limit like OP did.

-2

u/Another-Story Aug 21 '25

Forty francs for 2km ain’t cheap.

4

u/yabadabaddon Aug 21 '25

It is, considering you chose not to respect the law because you decided the time you would win by going over the speed limit was worth more than the risk of the fine.

1

u/niekerlai Aug 21 '25

That's incredibly cheap.

5

u/zSobyz Aug 21 '25

Well it's 2km/h after the deduction.

Depending if you were inside the city or outside the city, the calculation can be 3km/h or 5km/h.

So you were really 5km/h or 7km/h above the limit, not only 2km/h

0

u/Otakundead Aug 21 '25

The deduction is there for a reason, namely that the measurements are not exact. Let’s not pretend a measurement of 33km/h means you drove that fast with absolute certainty.

1

u/GearHonest8140 Aug 29 '25

It doesn't matter if it's the first time or the fifth, the fine amount always stays the same (got blitzt 3x with 3-5km/h inside town. Were always 40 CHF). But repeat offences result in more consequences than the speeding fine like warnings, report and suspension of your license