Bless your little heart.
Very tough call to make, glad that I gave up being an Australian judge for Lent in '74.
In this case, probably some sort of managed care situation where he wouldn’t be allowed contact with boys. But is child porn possesion all that he’s accused of? I agree that kiddie porn is certainly beyond the boundaries of good taste, but has he actually molested a child?
Children are molested and exploited in the production of child pornography. The maggots who collect it and jerk off over it are no better than if they had been in the room yanking their dicks during production.
I once worked with a mentally disabled client who had a sexual attraction to children and had committed some offenses in the past (masturbating in front of children in public). This was controlled by a shot of Depo-Provera once a month and 24 hour supervision.
No. My children are told that they should masturbate in private, that everyone does it and it’s okay, but it’s a private thing for your own room. So they “hide” their masturbation without thinking it’s wrong. Most people keep their masturbatory materials - photos, stories, videos, files - in private drawers or password protected folders. He wasn’t doing anything different - it’s only the *content *of those materials which are illegal for reasons he can’t grok.
If you are in full possession of your faculties (which I realize this guy was not), and you see or come into possession of photographic evidence of a violent crime, you have an obligation to report it. If you don’t, you are an accessory after the fact, whether you were present when the original crime was committed or not. It’s like accepting money you know came from a bank robbery.
I think Savannah’s question is a very good one, though. Who gave him this stuff?
Point taken in regards the first sentence. And inre the second, while I know that it’s a touchy subject, it sounds like this man lacks the same cognitive ability that most makers, producers and consumers of kiddie porn possess. Again, tough call and one that I’m glad I don’t have to make.
It seems to me that the judge has done exactly the right thing at this stage: allow time to assess this person and determine the most effective course of action in his case.
I’ve worked with a few developmentally challenged sex offenders (and arsonists, thieves and so forth), and so has my wife, and the most important thing that we both learned is that there is no “one size fits all” solution. You have to treat each person as an individual – nothing can be taken for granted. You can’t make assumptions about what makes someone tick from a clinical report in a mental hospital, never mind a newspaper story.
So we can theorise and pontificate all we like on here, but none of us knows a damned thing about this guy, or what the best thing for him would be.
It looks as if that is an option his doctors are looking into. From the article linked in the OP:
Whatever you think prison is supposed to do, it rarely changes the way prisoners function when they’re released, especially after long-term sentences in state penns. Living in an environment where you’re treated like an animal, and you have to behave like an animal to survive, doesn’t prepare you for the social norms of humans outside. All prisons do (as they now are) is teach you how to be a prisoner.
Yes. See, that’s the thing for me. Every time a file, a movie, an image, whatever, is copied, an illegal and horrific act which will forever harm a child is replicated.
Whoever provided the material to the mentally-disabled person is guilty too. I just don’t understand how the subject of the story could acquire child pornography on his own, if that was what was in his possession. (Child pornography–I do not mean pictures of kids on the playground, accidental exposure, or candid pictures of co-residents–I mean pictures of children as they are forced to engage in sexual activity.)
What evidence is there that he attempted to hide his porn?
Give him the chair, and if he hesitates, “Just tell him its a ride!”
Sorry.
I’d say you’d deal with it the same as any other serious crime committed by someone with diminished mental capacity. Just because people tend to feel child molestation is even worse than being a serial torturer/killer doesn’t mean that the courts should too.