JUSTICE?

What follows is a series of incomplete thoughts. I am using this space to try to work out something in the recesses of my mind, brought about by the recent news of a local married teacher being arrested for allegedly attempting online to lure what he thought was a 14 year old boy into a sexual relationship.

My wife and I spoke of this news the other night as we walked our neighborhood. We found ourselves contemplating why it was weighing so heavy on our hearts and minds. 

In apologetics, there is much talk of "the problem of evil" - stated most succinctly in the form of a question: "If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil in this world?" 

It seems to me we have a related issue, though I don't remember ever coming across it in my reading. Related to "the problem of evil" is what we could call "the problem of justice". 

When a criminal is put on trial and found guilty, we take comfort in the belief that the victim has "gotten justice".  

But has "justice" really been done? Take a hypothetical case of a man who sexually abuses a young teen - what is "justice" when he gets caught? 

There is no possibility of "an eye for an eye" style of justice. The man "stole the innocence" of the teen. But the court system is not capable of stealing the man's innocence in return, even if he had any innocence to steal. 

So how does one accurately calculate the jail time for the man equal to the psychological, spiritual, and physical harm done in the moment to the child - not to mention the negative rippling effects throughout the remainder of the child's life? 

What part of the man's jail sentence brings any healing to the child?

And what does "justice" look like for the parents of that child? Or for the wife of that man? 

And what if the man was himself a victim of childhood abuse - should that fact mitigate his sentence?

The biggest question in my mind is this: does the concept of "justice" even make sense outside a God-centered worldview? Or are we left to settle for mere "punishment"? 

And isn't justice much more than punishment?