What to do with child molesters?
I'm moving this over from the Fascist thread (sorry about the diversion, Beirut). Anyway, there's two schools of thought on this (with all sorts of variants within the two camps).
One side says the offender is a victim themself, of a terrible disease, and deserves therapy and treatment. Just as we shouldn't punish somebody for catching cancer, this school of thought says the perpetrator should be treated, not punished. Among other things, they point to the fact that most molesters were themselves molested in their own childhood.
The other camp points to the high recivitism rate, even when the offender has received the best available care. The number of reoffending paedophiles is a hard number to judge, as they are certainly not going to volunteer the information. There is also the tricky question of what concerns a re-offense. In any case, estimates run as high as 80%, it's one of the highest recivitism rate crimes there is. In light of this, this camp advocates terrible punishments for the perpetrators, in an effort to discourage them (or prevent them). This is where you hear things along the lines of execution, castration, extended prison sentances, etc. One of the justifications for this camp believing the perpetrator is responsible for their actions is that they agree most perpetrators were themselves victimized, they point to the fact that the overwhelmingly number of sexual abuse victims DO NOT grow up to become offenders themselves. In other words, while victimization might be a flag, it is certainly not correlated enough to be a 'cause' in the sense of removing responsibility.
Now, I've recently come to a place where I've decided that my Christian faith cannot square with the death penalty. The public whipping sounded really good, and not just from a vengance standpoint. Singapore absolutely swears by their system (of caning). In most criminology studies, the reason deterrants don't work isn't because the potential criminal isn't afraid of the punishment if he knew he was going to receive it, he has worked out the odds and considers the likelihood of being punished so low, it's worth the risk. I believe that if paedophiles knew they were going to be publicly whipped (or even in private) and for minor offenses you were forced to watch a whipping, the predators would take different actions.
I'd really like to hear from qualified professionals, such as A. Saturnus (but all are welcome to share their views) to discuss what those in the rehabilitation camp propose doing about the high recitivism rates of paedophiles. As it currently stands, even with the best of treatments, 4 out of 5 of these guys are going to come out of prison and reoffend. Is that the price we as a society have to pay?
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Where has the darlin boy been by the way?
Originally Posted by Gawain of Orkeny
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