The nature of good and evil and other such stuff

I blogged last week about Boy A by Jonathan Trigell and tonight my book group met to discuss it.

We (two speech and language therapists, an educational psychologist, a Teaching Assistant in an autism unit, a child minder and a gap year student working in social work) were left with several unresolved questions:

Is there a ‘core’ of every person which remains unchanged throughout life?
Is ‘evil’ a useful concept?
Can a crime like murder ever be put in the past so much that both the perpetrator and those who live with him/her forget about it to all intents and purposes?
Are reasons and excuses morally equivalent?
Should the primary aim of prison be to redeem/reform the criminal?
Why are there no books about happy stuff?

Answers in the comments box as usual, fellow inhabiters of the blogosphere…