Posted on 03/27/2006 4:55:53 AM PST by summer
I share your concerns. The case you mention with the guy and the ATF is blatant entrapment, and if I were on his jury I'd refuse to convict. However, my understanding of these Internet stings is that they're carefully set up so the would-be pedophile has to initiate the sexual content. The chat transcripts are apparently available if you want to check them out, which I *really* don't.
Needless to say, the rabbi resigned (don't know if it was voluntary or forced).
bttt
No, I don't. I was simply answering the previous question. The point is, some things are a problem for some people that aren't a problem for others. I wasn't comparing the seriousness of the problems at all.
It's interesting that your response nicely illustrates exactly what Dr. Berlin was talking about. The intense emotion that surrounds this crime makes it wrong to even consider treatment for potential offenders. Never mind that some of the offenders could have been successfully treated and prevented from ever abusing a child in the first place.
Most other crimes, even serious ones, are viewed with an eye toward prevention first, punishment last. Even homicide doesn't seem to provoke as strong emotion as do these sexual crimes.
Why throw a child abuser's first victim to him as bait so he can be brutally punished? Is it worth that child's innocence so we can feel justified in attacking the perpetrator? By refusing to consider treatment for potential offenders before they act on their impulses, I believe that is effectively what we're doing. We're effectively saying, "Go ahead and get that first kid, then we'll nail you big time." I'd rather he be prevented from ever getting that first one. Since we can't read people's thoughts and figure out which ones have this problem, we can't just go lock them up or execute them before the fact. But some of them, maybe many of them, could be treated for the emotional and/or psychological problem they have so they won't do it at all.
The point of all of my postings, and Dr. Berlin's work, is to prevent a child molester from ever actually molesting his first victim! Just as Alcoholics Anonymous might successfully treat an alcoholic before he ever kills someone in a drunk driving accident, successful treatment of those who are sexually attracted to children might prevent many of those children from ever being molested in the first place!
Of all groups who are recidivistic, molestors are believed to be one of , if not the worst.
Once one has committed their particular crime, for at least ond child, the damage is done.
Why would you ar anyone else be willing to wager another child's well being that this molestor is cured?
I have a cure. First, make damned sure they are guilty. Then draw and quarter them in the public square, without any form of pain killer. Make it slow. Televise it with all the appropriate warnings. Let them serve as a deterrent to others.
Barbaric?
Let the punishment fit the crime.
Until then, anyone who messes with one of mine is coyote scat waiting for a pass through--and they will not have to wait long.
Amazing, and this co-worker is 40 years old... you would think with age.... you would think...
I saw one viewing last year (Dateline) and the men were allowed to go free - as in freed after the interview. Amazing...
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So are things in this world black and white - like the behavior above? Run that by a post modern conformist.
But I wouldn't be suprised if they arged logical Fallacy, false dilemma, false dichotomy.
I would not be surprised.
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