The third option, of course, is to set them straight. Frankly, no-one who claims to be "genuinely nice" should ignore the fact that it is/was because of the tolerance and education of others that we become/became that way.
*starts to ramble* I'm just out of my 20s, and even I think that we've gone the wrong way by banning corporal punishment, whether it be in the Courts or in the home. The way I've come to see it is, I'd rather receive 20 lashes in the public square and be done (and hopefully learn my lesson), than lose 5 years of my life in a prison cell. The things that can happen to you in prison amount to the same thing and worse anyway, IMO, and physical scars are far more tolerable than mental ones. I'm beginning to wonder if prison isn't altogether too cruel…
Obviously, in a forum like this, it's a tongue-lashing you'll get, but it's better than nothing.