I'm assuming you didn't get a change to read past my first sentence because I explained what I meant. "Sometimes money is the only thing people understand and perhaps 10 days in jail and 50 hours community service did not communicate to these men that what they did was wrong." Or maybe you just didn't understand. Perhaps she didn't feel like the sentence was just. If these men had to pay money to her in a great amount they would understand better that what they did was wrong and it was possibly deter other's from trying the same thing.

There is something in a civil lawsuit called "punitive damages"
"Where the defendant’s conduct is found to be intentional or willful or wanton or malicious, the courts may permit an award of punitive damages in addition to compensatory damages.
Punitive damages are intended to punish the defendant and to discourage the conduct of the type the defendant engaged in." http://law.freeadvice.com/general_pr...s_punitive.htm

This is very common, so don't assume that all money in law suits are awards to making their life a little better. For example if a drunk driver broke a little boy's skate board he might only have to pay $50 in compensation, but that's not really going to effect him very much so he might have to pay thousands on dollars in punitive damages.