Put Your Sins in a Chicken

I be trying to figure out why orthodox Jews be performing rituals killing a chicken to transfer their sins to. The idea is to clean their slate for the year, and I know that it's a tradition carried over from ancient Babylon, where people even sacrificed their children to their god Moloch in exchange for wealth. But i don't understand it.

How can you possibly put your sins in somebody or something else?  ::confused::

How does a blood ritual change anything? And even if it did, what's the point if the person is a booty head and intend to continue being a booty head?  ::confused::