The same reason murder isn’t always punished with life without parole - there’s this notion hanging out there that one can commit a crime, serve a prison term, learn one’s lesson, and not commit the crime again. A certain number of people do, in fact, demonstrate this meme by leaving prison and never re-offending. A certain number get out and re-offend, leading to another round of incarceration or perhaps, then, life without parole.
Child raping is such a hot-button topic I doubt very much whether any real research has been done on whether or not there is anything to help these people not re-offend, how many get out of jail and manage to restrain themselves thereafter, and so forth. From the standpoint of making *rational *decisions on how to deal with pedophiles that is unfortunate. Of course, many people have no interest in dealing with them rationally.
Not exactly. It’s not pedophilia per se that’s the crime; it’s the actions that pedophiles take.
Some people think they should be, but one possible argument against is that the stiffer the penalty, the harder it is to prosecute. If you know, or even just suspect, that Uncle Chester touched a kid inappropriately, would you be more, or less, likely to say something if you knew that it could get him sent to prison for life?
Men are attracted to youthful features for their mates, that usually seems to be true whether you’re discussing homo or heterosexual men and may well be based at least somewhat in biology. Think of it as an unhealthy extreme manifestation of that tendency.
By this logic, isn’t *every *crime “violent”, though? Embezzlement, libel, slander, fraud - all technically physically nonviolent - can all cause “violence to the psyche or soul.”
Child molestation expert Andrew Vachss agrees that pedophiles cannot be fixed and those that act on their desires should be imprisoned.
FBI serial killer unit member John Douglas writes in one of his books that child molesters should be taught the proper way to act on their desires; i.e. using children’s clothing catalogs and toys for solo sex aids, talking to children in public if there is an adult present, etc. NOTHING involving child sex or the use of kiddie porn.
Wow, the bias and presumptions on this thread almost hurt to read. These threads are usually home to such intelligent conversation.
First, child molester =/= pedophile. The vast majority of those convicted of child molestation are not solely, mostly or necessarily sorta attracted to children. There are an array of reasons this may occur. Perhaps the perpetrator feels genuine love or connection with that child, perhaps the perpetrator has an immense amount of other stress that leads them to something available.
Perpetrators nearly always know their victim and based on research, cognitive behavioral counseling and community supervision can be very successful.
Pedophilia is generally seen are a “biological” issue. People do seem to be born with ingrained attractions. Look at people who are homosexual. They will say they have always been attracted to members of the same sex. It makes sense that there are people with some level of sexual attraction to children. However they have little to no resources to treat that. Many people with pedophilia have reported trying to seek counseling and have been rejected or ridiculed for it.
This problem is very eclectic. It’s amazing the intermingled issues that come with this group. Bullets to heads will not help.
Men specifically have always had an attraction to younger females or even children. While it’s easy to look at conventional morals now and be disgusted by such a thing, for decades it has occurred and was simply not talked about, for centuries it was common practice. How any girls are kidnapped from villages and forced into prostitution? I’m talking 10 year olds. The demand is huge because the desire is common.
I have worked in probation for almost 10 years and about 3 years of that, I supervised sex offenders. Most can get treatment and will be fine. Some not so much. It depends on the situation.
But what will people do to fulfill their violent fantasies once they murder all the child molesters? You’ve got that blood lust boiling now-who’s next on the kill list?
As a number of others have mentioned, ‘nonviolent’ sex offense against children is basically a contradiction. Even in case of say conviction for possessing child pornography it’s mainly a tangential discussion whether the porn consumer committed violence or not. The principal is that demand for the product causes sexual violence to occur, so back to no such thing as a non-violent child molester.
The only relevant distinction in kind rather than degree is those who have such urges but don’t act on them (including not contributing to demand for porn whose production involves child molestation), v those who do.
I can’t imagine a human society in which I’d want to live, pretty much regardless of technological advance, where you could punish people for crimes they have an urge to commit but haven’t.
Going the other way, I can see technology causing an evolution in attitudes about punishment of criminals v protection of society in cases where people suffer from organic urges to commit certain crimes that most people do not. This does affect IMO the moral equation of punishment and to some degree perhaps the practical one of deterrence. But children have to be protected from sexual violence. That principal IMO cannot be compromised no matter what we think of those who commit such acts.
Are we talking about pedophilia in and of itself, or are we talking about someone acting out those impulses? If it’s the latter, I think it’s quite reasonable to argue that they should be permanently removed from mainstream society. I’m not a “throw away the key” kinda guy, either, but few crimes are as horrific as sexual assault, be it the rape of an adult or a child.
big ditto. I had a strong urge to beat the clerks at the DMV to death with their own chairs the other day, but managed to smile politely instead.
However, I do think people who actually act on their sexual urges to harm people, such as rapists and pedophiles, should be treated quite harshly due to the horrific nature of the crime and what it reveals about their nature. What’s wrong with actual castration? You can’t use your equipment properly, you lose it.
Plus, what if a person plagued by anger issues or strange sexual urges sought help? We should encourage that. If someone plagued by strong urges seeks help in controlling them, that’s a good thing, and punitive measures based solely on urges rather than action will discourage that.
Leave it to a leftist to qualify any child molester as being “nonviolent”, or to suggest that said molesters be put in “safe places”, instead of prisons.
Liberals are the religious right’s wacky, unsuccessful brother.