[iampunha]

Fair warning: a topic nearer to my heart than to most.

Originally Posted by Dead Cat

Er, ever heard of people changing their ways for the better?

Can you cite a single instance of a reformed pedophile?

The fact that he has a (so far) successful public service business seems to suggest he is not sociopathic.

How does having successful employment necessarily have anything to do with sociopathy? One can privately shun social order and publicly be thought of as a gift from God. It isn't like pedophiles go around molesting children in public; part of the reason they're so hard to catch is that they're good at hiding it.

I think it may be worth giving him the benefit of the doubt that his sentence has encouraged him not to reoffend, unless you have other information about him.

People generally have an understanding that murder/theft/arson/usury/etc. are bad. Pedophiles don't always (often?) have the sense that they shouldn't act on their desires. There's a reason murder isn't listed in the DSM-IV-TR and pedophilia is.

FWIW, I think that making lists of paedophiles public is wrong for the simple reason: what good can it possibly do?

Tell you, without you having to find out the hard way ("Mama, Daddy, a man did something bad to me."), who isn't safe.

Obviously the authorities should be aware of their whereabouts, but are you going to keep your daughters under lock and key until they are 21 just because someone down the road touched up a 15 year-old 25 years ago?

That's, in addition to being an ad absurdem argument, also conveniently ignoring the fact that the man fondled his five-year-old niece. This isn't a case of a guy making an inappropriate comment at work or patting the butt of one waitress too many. This is sexually touching a child.

Nor is the issue about her children. This is an issue of how to deal with the knowledge that a business owner is a convicted pedophile.

99.9% of the time (no cites - this is IMHO ), people who are still a danger to the public won't be released.

People who complete their sentences are generally released unless they are mentally ill. I'm interested in knowing why a convicted pedophile wasn't put in a mental hospital/psychiatric ward, mind, but notwithstanding your opinion when was the last time someone completed jail time and wasn't released?

Were I in your position, pinkfreud, I would go no closer to that business than absolutely necessary. However, as I said, it's an issue nearer to me than to most.