It might be good to define justice, first. If you consider justice as only punishment of the guilty party without considering who holds the baseball bat, then yes, revenge can lead to justice. But that's not how human society defines justice. The whole point of justice in a functioning society is to have a judge substituting to individuals to decide the punishment and enforce it. Breaking the revenge cycle comes as an immediate benefit: there is a difference between society killing someone for what he did and an individual doing the killing and placing the family and friends of the now deceased in a position to take revenge. Unfortunately, when human society is not in a position to deliver justice, we are left with revenge.
It might be good to define justice, first. If you consider justice as only punishment of the guilty party without considering who holds the baseball bat, then yes, revenge can lead to justice. But that's not how human society defines justice. The whole point of justice in a functioning society is to have a judge substituting to individuals to decide the punishment and enforce it. Breaking the revenge cycle comes as an immediate benefit: there is a difference between society killing someone for what he did and an individual doing the killing and placing the family and friends of the now deceased in a position to take revenge. Unfortunately, when human society is not in a position to deliver justice, we are left with revenge.