Alternatives To Reality (Thomas Sowell On Punishing As Opposed To Coddling Sex Offenders Alert)

Townhall.com ^ | 03/21/06 | Thomas Sowell

[goldstategop]

Let's stop coddling sex offenders and let them loose with minimal supervision aka parole and the laughable idea they can be cured. They're not "sick" in a medically curable sense of the term. They need to be locked up for good. Its called punishment. The liberals in the California State Legislature think GPS alone will allow these monsters to be watched. Its not enough. What we need is a Jessica's law. What we need is to put an end to excuses for those who destroy people's innocence and lives. Its time to get tough on rapists and child sexual predators and lock 'em up and throw away the key. That's called bringing back common sense to our justice system.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[jazusamo]

Mark for later.

[mc6809e]

You have to be careful, though. If molesters are treated the same a murderers, then more molesters will be murderers. They have nothing to lose, afterall, by killing the victim/witness since the punishment is the same.

[goldstategop]

http://www.jessicaslaw2006.com

[D-fendr]

So long as you properly define "sex offenders" and "child sexual predators" I'm with you.

How would you define them?

[goldstategop]

A rapist and a pedophile. We ought to go especially hard on pedophiles who molest children because children deserve to know adults will look out for them and love them - not abuse their trust and take away their innocence. It should not even be open for debate but when I see my former party try to pretend otherwise, I'm speechless.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[taxesareforever]

You have to be careful, though. If molesters are treated the same a murderers, then more molesters will be murderers.

And this is taken from punishment 101 at your nearest liberal college or university? The only "careful" that needs to be watched for is making sure the switch is "on" and not "off".

[taxesareforever]

You mean this could happen?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/breaking/news-article.aspx?storyid=54049

[BW2221]

Chemical castration can solve a lot of problems.

[Talking_Mouse]

While I support, in theory, this idea 100% I know that it will be hard to do in practice. The child who is abducted needs to be protected as well as the child who is molested "at home".

My grandfather molested me. There is no way, at age 5, I was going to go to the police, even if I knew I could (which I didn't). I was to afraid of not being loved by my family.

If a person abducts a child for sexual reasons he should be killed (no ifs ands or buts) is my belief. However it is much harder to deal with people who molest the children entrusted to them, because most often, the children will not report them. And unless the children tell some adult, the statute of limitations runs out and justice is not served.

I am lucky, I know my grandfather has faced a Higher Court and a Judge Who sees all the evidence.

[D-fendr]

thanks for your reply.

Since Megan's law we have so broaden the term "sex offender" to include such a range that it becomes almost useless. It's akin to labeling "violence offenders" for everything from battery to serial murderers.

Your definition, for example, is a subset of registered "sex offenders."

I think it would do more to label the actual offense, rape of a child, for example, to describe the criminal.

What the punishment should be for the variety of offenses lumped under "sex offenders" is a valid topic for debate.

I agree with you that pedophile rapists should get extremely harsh punishment.

However, I agree with the poster about capital punishment for this crime. While the criminal deserves it, it would more likely result in more child murders than it would in less rapes.

thanks again for your reply..

[D-fendr]

And this is taken from punishment 101

No, it's from Criminal's Education 101. You can be sure criminals know exactly the punishment for their crime. Even petty theives know the line between misdemeanor and felony and avoid it carefully. Kidnappers know when it becomes capital, robbers know when it becomes capital - and all but the most inept do whatever they can to avoid capture and conviction.

If there is no penalty, only potential benefit, from killing the victim, criminals will very likely escalate the rape to murder.

[redgolum]

In Iowa, they passed a child sex offenders law where these sex offenders are forbidden to be withing two miles of any school or daycare.

In the western part of the state, the law was enforced. Here in the eastern blue side, the sheriff's refuse to since "It would be unfair and wouldn't solve anything".

A person that molests children needs to be jailed for life. Letting them out only leads to more shattered lives, and eventually more deaths.

[FlyVet]

Require the state to buy a home in each judge's neighborhood, and convert it into a half-way house for released predators. Let's see how many get released then.

[Just mythoughts]

I do not agree with Criminal Education 101. That uncivilized creature that kidnapped those two girls seems well schooled in Criminal Education 101. These freaks are running the criminal justice system.

[joebuck]

As I recall even Jesus had some pretty harsh things to say about those who would corrupt an innocent child in this way. Something about a fate even worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even Jesus wasn't sympathetic to this type of person.

[wolfcreek]

This is one of the main reasons organizations like NAMBLA are trying to lower the age of consent. If these children are no longer considered children, actions such as 'Jessica Law' would be less effective.

[GailA]

Readers Digest Special Report October 1991

By Robert James Bidinotto

Free to Rape Again

When the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia, research the backgrounds of incarcerated serial rapist, they found that 41 of them were responsible for at least 837 rapes and over 400 more attempts. In a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Emory University psychiatrist Gene G. Able found that 453 criminals admitted to molesting more than 67,000 children. Those who abused girls had an average of 52 victims each. But men who molested boys had an astonishing average of 150 victims.

The 1994 National Recidivisim report states that the recidivisim rate is 68% for all criminals released from prison will reoffend. That is over a million new crimes and victims simply because these criminals do NOT serve their full sentences.

[GailA]

READER'S DIGEST

NOVEMBER 1994 BY ROBERT JAMES BIDINOTTO

MUST OUR PRISONS BE RESORTS?

Therapy for mental health, aggressive behavior, domestic violence, sex offenses and substance abuse has grown into a prison cottage industry. Yet after decades of attempting behavior modification, the overall results of rehabilitation and therapy are meager. When asked by Reader's Digest how many sex offenders he has rehabilitated in his years on the job one New York State prison counselor bluntly responded, "None."

Inmates, for their part, are not fools: participation in education and therapy can chip time off their terms. "The saying among inmates is 'get a program,' says criminologist Charles Logan of the University of Connecticut. "They know that it will help with the parole board."

Studies by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics have shown that between 60-70 percent of inmates revert to crime after release. A model federal prison at Butner, N.C. applied every known rehabilitation technique to inmates for over a decade. The results: no reduction in recidivism and no improvement in convicts' employment prospects.

After extensive study of prison rehabilitation criminologist Logan concludes: <,b> "Despite claims to the contrary, no type of treatment has been effective in rehabilitating criminals or preventing future criminal behavior."

[beachn4fun]

Two things stand out for me

1) "Few in the media or among the intelligentsia have been as outraged about these sadistic crimes against children as they have been about whether terrorists' phone calls have been intercepted" ~ IMO...how true!

2) They balk even at notifying the public when some convicted sexual predator is released into their neighborhood. ~ IMO, doesn't make sense to me.......if you have a vicious dog in your yard, you'd better have a sign to warn people. Especially if it has a history of attacking people!