Capital Punishment

[JT]

If the first thing that comes to one's mind when the subject of child-molesters comes up is the 'over-reacting vigilantes' then society, as I have long spouted, has a problem with it's own liberalism that may be as pernicious as these child-molesting scum themselves.

Sometimes you really do "spout" some bollocks. Yeah, because people feeling that a peodophile who has served his sentence and paid his debt to society should be allowed to live the remainder of his life free from being burned to death IS as evil as being a child molester!!

talk about 'bollocks'. A pedophile who has 'served his sentence'. Its all better now. free to live his life. to fantasize. to stalk. to victimize. At the very least the son of a bitch ought to be thrown in prison for the rest of his life. Why is your mind-set just as pernicious? Obvious, really. You're an enabler. Whats the recidivism rate for these poor victimized pedophiles? and I'm not talking about the 18 year old and his 16 year old girlfriend. I'm talking about the 40 year old stalker and the 8 year old. Your mind-set is what were up against, Rodge. There will always be pedophiles. Thats a constant. The influence on laws and public policy of 'Rodges' is the variable here.

[Rodge]

and I'm not talking about the 18 year old and his 16 year old girlfriend.

Exactly, well for us it would be a 17 year old with a 15 year old girlfriend, but they still get labelled as a peodophile and that is all that the lynch mobs see. I agree lets get perspective here. I also agree; the sick bastards who fiddle young kids should be monitored and not allowed into society if any threat. Fortunately they are the rare cases, unfortunately our Sun readers see "peodophile" and will lynch him even if his crime was minor such as having teenage sex.

[JT]

See, had you read everything written before I made the comment about people over reacting, you would have seen that I was talking about how people go crazy and do indeed turn into lynch mobs and they do such things as burn people's houses down. Thus, how I reached the conclusion that by "under reacting" you thought such actions were perfectly ok.

Regardless, equating my statement to burning houses down is pretty direct . Thats a strawman. I made no such statement nor did I imply it. If I did it would be much easier to attack my position.

How do people under react to sex offenders? I'm still not clear on it. By actually allowing them to be human beings and have a place to live and giving them some rights? Is that under reacting?

Thats as big a problem ultimately as the pedophiles themselves. Lenient sentences, the idea of 'rehabilitation', letting them loose again, not suffering just retribution. This is a systemic under-reaction to the problem. But it is symptomatic of the mind-set of these so-called progressives.

Just a quick perusal of the Internet gives reasons for opposing such mind-set:

About 10% of violent offenders with child victims received life or death sentences and the average prison term was 11 years, somewhat shorter average sentences than received by those with adult victims.
-BJS Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991.

Recidivism rates range from 18-45%. The more violent the crime the more likelihood of repeating.
-Studies by the state of Washington.

(Those are the ones caught.)

More than 1/2 of all convicted sex offenders are sent back to prison within a year. Within 2 years, 77.9% are back.
-California Department of Corrections.

2/3 of all prisoners convicted of rape or sexual assault had committed their crime against a child.
-BJS Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991.

The behavior is highly repetitive, to the point of compulsion, rather than resulting from a lack of judgment.
-Dr. Ann Burges, Dr. Nicholas Groth, et al. in a study of imprisoned offenders.

There are 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, and an estimated 80 to 100,000 of them are missing. They're supposed to be registered, but we don't know where they are and we don't know where they're living.
- Ernie Allen, President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Childrento co-anchor Hannah Storm on The Early Show

Pedophiles, especially those who molest boys, or both boys and girls, are the sex offenders who have the highest recidivism (relapse) rates after incarceration and/or treatment."
The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers

I hope this 'clears up' the issue of under reacting to the reality of the problem.

While you may want them to be in prison forever, that just isn't the way it happens.

As my posts above illustrate. The 'way it happens' is maybe 11 years. The fact that many people only want them in prison for 11 years is the problem.

They are human beings and they are entitled to some basic human rights.

Are we confusing retribution and protection of the most vulnerable of our citizens with abuse of basic human rights?

That being said, if you look back at everything I have written here, you will notice that my feelings on sex offenders and sex offender registration are pretty conservative. I don't think sex offenders can be fixed and I absolutely believe in registration and that neighbors should be informed when a sex offender is living next door to them or in their neighborhood.

Well good. But I would suggest we keep our eye on the real problem - so-called progressives enabling pedophiles and not supporting proper punishment. Not on a less serious secondary issue such as 'over reacting'
to these abominations of justice. Actual cases of burning houses down or things like that should be dealt with on the merits of the case itself. Not used as a red herring to divert attention away from the real problem. Maybe you, Cat, are not intentionally doing this, but I would suggest that maybe you are falling prey to this.