Compulsive criminality is a disease?

Perhaps not a defined disease but we tend to view it as a serious behavioral issue at least.

This particular issue is where I recognize a clear distinction in my opinion. I have the logical/rational/legalistic side that says serving time deserves another chance.

The other side is the atavistic parent passion side. In which I would commit grave bodily harm on any man or woman who even threatened to abuse a child of mine. I have no problem generalizing that violent attitude to the greater population. My general rule, to be perfectly clear, is "DON'T FOOK WITH YOUNGSTERS." It's irrational, but knowing that doesn't invalidate the evolutionary value of the attitude. Animals protect their young. I am an animal as well as a man. Usually the man controls the beast. But not always and not perfectly.

Don't some animals also fight others to protect the other members of the pack? Using that theory, could I not justify wanting to extend the sentence of a criminal simply to protect not only my children but other members of my pack? So, how do we draw the line? I'm not a criminal and I don't want any criminals around me to endanger my pack. Therefore, all criminals who have served their time still have to serve more because I want to protect my pack.

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I have dealt with this a little. I imagine we all feel the same basically. Yet pedophiles in general do not land up dead. Or I at least have never heard of a case. Yet I still think there might be some.

I also have had issues trying to get parents to get charges laid avoiding the issue with statements like someone will kill the bastard or whatever. Actually in the vast majority of cases charges are probably not laid. Usually I tell them in that common scenario that by not doing so you may be leaving your children open for further abuse by the individual. So then you are as responsible as the pedophile in my eyes for that if it occurs. You cannot sugar coat everything in life.

On that basis alone I feel there are no reliable statistics. Part of my last statements are only a supposition and one has to remember that the majority of children either through confusion or guilt or whatever tell nobody of the occurance or occurances for years if ever. At least there are no statutes of limitations on this type of crime.

The whole issue in my opinion is a little more complex than one would initially suspect. At least there is today some educational elements that help children to tell what has occurred. I imagine the children felt some implicit guilt or threats silenced them in the past more than today. We teach them to obey grown ups after all. Part of todays educational process is to defuse that to some degree.

The offender being charged and convicted seems to offer no relief to the victom particularily in the cases I have observed. The thrust seems instead for the state to get the future activity stopped rather than giving any relief to the victom.

If the person charged pleads not guilty the child will have to be subject to court. On a one victom to one predator basis this experience and process can be very hard on the child. Usually the child molester will be warned that the penalty if convicted will be greater if the child is forced to participate in a trial.

If this approach is illegal and I suspect it might be it is still used locally. Most local pediophiles plead guilty anyways. I hope most lawyers are at least partially responsible for this.They have family and children as well.

It in the overall scheme of things is up to the parents to protect their children. Opportunity must be present for child preditors to function. After the fact is a parenting failure to me. As a general rule in my experience a parent cannot undo the mental damage. Usually instead they are dealing with the after effects not having a clue of the cause of them.

Any argument by analogy can be taken to an extreme that it fails. "Just suppose" is not usually informative.

Lot of wisdom in your words.

The point is that if you are asking for extra punishment for this one time, where on that slippery slope will you draw the line?

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It is that chance to repeat the offense that worries People.

Mananimal?

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I believe that if given the means, motive and opportunity, they will re-offend whether it is a child sex thing or a robbery or murder. As long as there is a strong enough motive.

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I agree and I don't think it is a bright, hard line. Like most laws I think it's going to slip and slide up and down the slope as time and circumstance has its effect on our culture. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the next 20-50 years we don't evolve to an ancient Greco-Roman perspective on man-sex.

Plus, with genetic engineering we could even have something akin to the "Bladerunner", in which clones are designed for certain purposes. My grandchildren will have a world to grow into that will be far stranger than the world I grew into. If we survive as a society long enough to see it. I'm not optimistic on that score.

Stealing a car, or money for that matter, is one thing.

Stealing a child's innocence is something altogether different. It's apples and watermelons.

A car stolen or money taken can be replaced.

But the soul of a child is either pure or destroyed.

And Tom, by asking if the nay-sayers on this thread are childless or not, is well justified in his query.

Until you've held your own, you can't even come close to imagining the attachment you can have to something so pure and innocent.

Cars don't do it. Neither does money.

A molester can't be TRUSTED. Period. It's like asking Anthony Weiner to hold a camera and not take a picture.

Said he wouldn't do it again.

AND YET, SOME ARGUE THAT WE FAILED HIM?

Here's the deterrent. You muck with a child, you're toast. We, as a moral society (or at least, still hanging onto the hope we're still in the running) don't want our children physically ruined.

No one wants to be part of the 20% category theory/practice.

And for those without kids...

How about having a possible "20%er" arsonist living next to you and your property?

You can have your cars and home.

I think Tom and I would like our children (and grandkids), unmolested, thank you.


And...I think the answer to this thread is that in the minds of most on here, the molester wasn't punished enough to begin with. Life in prison, w/o a chance for parole should have been the sentence.

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While all that is very nice, it still doesn't answer the simple question. What is your principle in this? Do you adhere to the rule that if he did his time, we have to let it go or do you put your personal feelings into it? If it is the latter, here is the problem we have. What you have stated is YOUR value system. OTOH, there are plenty of people out there that would rather have $1000 than their kid. The Chinese peasant would dunk his daughter in a bucket of water because he views her as a burden. In Mexico, my friend was offered a choice of son or daughter for the princely sum of $100 a night. In the US, I have known parents who couldn't care less about their kids. Kinda makes it like using a deity as a yardstick. Which yardstick to use?

To answer your question truthfully, I wouldn't want him there either. Would I shed a tear if he died of natural causes? Nope. That said, if he has paid his debt to society as we have prescribed, I will not stand in his way to live next to me. I wouldn't like it but on principle, I'd live with it seeing as how I said that he did the crime, did the time and is not in arrears. If you are willing to change your principles when it is inconvenient, it isn't much of a principle, is it?

Perhaps so. Perhaps we could even just make him the guest of honor for the "Necktie Party". However, we as a society don't have the stones for either. If you want to rope all who are guilty of child molestations, fine. Fact is, most of us are even talking about doing away with capital punishment.

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