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Just Punishment? Or is there no answer for this?

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/16/serial.molestation.ap/index.html

I am really getting frustrated reading things like this. I'm interested to know what you think would be a justifiable punishment for this guy if he's found guilty? Or is there a punishment for him?

My first reaction when I read this stuff is to wish we could publically perform a William Wallace/Braveheart type execution....

Then I realize this guy obviously has severe mental issue's and probably was completely and totally abused as a child....so while he must be held accountable for his actions as an adult, there must be some compassion for the fact that he probably never had a chance to become anything else based on what he must have gone through earlier in life. Not that I believe that's an excuse, but it must be considered....

On the other hand, there is no rehabilitation for pedophiles in my opinion, and considering the lives he's wrecked.....

I've just reached the point of frustration with the human race on issue's like this, and I'm not sure what's the best way to deal with criminals like this guy.

If anybody molested one of my kids I would want them publically gutted like a deer....

So I'm looking for voices of reason, and intelligence, and from other cultures and philosophy's to help me rationalise my thoughts on matters like this.
 
I believe that this kind of person belongs locked away forever. I understand that he may have had a tough childhood and may have been abused, but that doesn't make it OK. If your dad killed your mother and 20 years later you killed your wife, you would still go to jail. Besides that, he's obviously a repeat (over and over and over again) offender, so giving him a leniant punishment probably wouldn't do much good.

As far as coming up with some type of medieval torture for this guy, it's just not my thing. I don't believe in killing criminals (I just don't, start another thread on it if you want), no matter what the crime is. So jail is about my only option.
 
i haven't posted here because i can't even express in words what kind of nightmare this person is to me. i have no voice of reason. i look at my boys and i understand what homicidal rage is. before i had kids i was a very " there are gray areas" kind of person when it came to pedophiles. now i am black and white. if someone abused my sons, could i kill them? yes.
 
Paedophiles are one of those sectors of criminals where there is no possible punishment which befits such a heinous crime, even other criminals absolutely despise them. As Moto mentioned, they also tend to be the worst for repeat offending, but what exactly can be done in a humane society? It's a logistical nightmare.

Admittedly, a large number of abusers were abusees as children, but not necessarily and even so it's hardly a plausible excuse. My own opinion on it is they must be some special sort of psychopath to not have the morals to realise just how astoundingly destructive their actions are (or rather, not to care). It really makes my skin crawl when you hear paedophiles trying to explain that they were doing nothing wrong, that the child was acting in a provocative way & therefore was asking for it.

One thing I have difficulties with, is the fact these "people" are protected in prison from the other inmates. Whilst I'm not saying inside prisons should be total anarchy, I do not see why they deserve to be protected when they did something so awful to people incapable of protecting themselves.
 
My idea is that we should let all the people out of prison who were caught smoking a joint (or doing something equally non-violent and non-harmful), and then we'd have plenty of room in our prisons to house the people who can't be trusted not to hurt other people -- whatever the reason or the offense.

This is hopelessly simplistic, I know.

:rolleyes:
 
i've been thinking a lot lately about punishment, the system, rehabilitation and the death penalty. one thing i've come to realize is that some people just need killing.
 
maybe if they're holding the trigger to a bomb with like a gazillion people around them, then they should be killed. but if they're detained, why would you want them dead? people like that need help.
 
bobbyburns said:
maybe if they're holding the trigger to a bomb with like a gazillion people around them, then they should be killed. but if they're detained, why would you want them dead? people like that need help.
Click to expand...

i don't agree. it's harsh, i know, but i don't care. we've got enough people that need help, that deserve to get it. this guy (to be brutally honest) is old and i'm sure well past the point of being able to change. it would be a waste of resources that he doesn't deserve.
 
where did you read that he "got" anything growing up? i found no references to a childhood of abuse.

and my opinion has nothing to do with revenge. i feel he's a waste of resources and that he's a serious danger to children; therefore, he has to go. compassion for "people" like him isn't something i have a lot of.
 
well, look, something bad caused him do those things. to want to hurt people in that way, you'd have to have been hurt psychologically yourself. I mean, the source of violence is brain damage, so he was either born with it, or something caused it. either way, viewing him as a waste of resources is a shitty thing to say, and leads me to think that your opinion has plenty to do with revenge.
 
i disagree. people who do "bad" things don't always have some childhood trauma or whatever else that starts it in them. often, yes, that is the case, but not always. i have read nothing about his case that indicates any childhood trauma. if anyone finds anything, please post it.

the non-chalance with which i would dispose of someone like him truly has nothing to do with revenge. let's call it housecleaning. or preventative maintenance.

admittedly, if he had done something to someone i love, i would want revenge- i think that's only natural. that is not the case here. he just needs to go.
 
your "non-chalance" is this... you hate the guy, and you want him dead, so you're switching all emotion to him off by desensitizing yourself to that fact. it's like, "well, I don't like this picture, so I'm gonna destroy my sense of sight", or "I don't really like this music, so I'm gonna stop hearing". desensitization is pretty cewl. I wish had the strength to not want to feel feelings.

anyway, maybe this guy had parents that never yelled at him and gave him everything he wanted. that could've fucked him up, too, because he wouldn't know what it's like to be hurt.
 
Sorry to interrupt, but don't you think he should pay for what he had done? Do you think his mental disease can excues him from being punished?


I myself don't think that to hurt him back or sentence him to death can ermm server some purpose.
 
bobbyburns said:
your "non-chalance" is this... you hate the guy, and you want him dead, so you're switching all emotion to him off by desensitizing yourself to that fact. it's like, "well, I don't like this picture, so I'm gonna destroy my sense of sight", or "I don't really like this music, so I'm gonna stop hearing". desensitization is pretty cewl. I wish had the strength to not want to feel feelings.

anyway, maybe this guy had parents that never yelled at him and gave him everything he wanted. that could've fucked him up, too, because he wouldn't know what it's like to be hurt.
Click to expand...
my original reply went out the window because i took off and the delay kicked me out

i dont hate the guy, i hate what he did. i don't WANT him dead, i just dont think he can rehabilitate, and to try would be a waste of resources. and i don't think he deserves the "try". i'm not switching anything off, there was nothing "on" in the first place. i can't begin to have feelings for this guy.

i'm sorry if my "desensitization" offends you, bobby. i could dress up my opinion to sound more PC. if that would help to stop you from using the word "cewl"

you can "maybe" about his childhood all you want, but anyone who's molested kids for 30 years knows he's hurting them. and knows it's wrong.

fountainhead- you are not interrupting, please post!
i feel a death sentence would serve a few purposes; namely, ridding children of a serious threat.

edited:
he might be worth studying. that might save his life if i was deciding on it.
 
I just want to point out, this isn't an attempt to flame or upset people, just offering a couple of different viewpoints.

One thing which I think should be considered when it comes to the death penalty is this: is it fair to let this criminal off from their suffering? Quite often, child abusers don't just do it the once or twice, they torment their victims for ages, sometimes years. Even if it is only the once, that person will probably then carry around some sort of mental trauma for a seriously large amount of time. If anyone truly believes that capital punishment means it is a punishment befitting the crime, then in what way is letting them get away from what they did, cutting their guilt, suffering, & living life in fear of retaliation from fellow in-mates) short going to do?

Taking a different viewpoint, I see what Bobby is saying about this person quite possibly suffering from some sort of mental trauma/illness. Back in the 1920s it was thought the best way to cut down on crime was to remove "undesirables" such as those with mental health problems from the gene pool by either sterilizing them or killing them. This is believed by many to have been the pre cursor to many nazi beliefs, once we go down the path of "if we kill them, they can not harm anyone" when do we stop?

I'm not saying these are my standpoints on the situation, just that such things need to be very carefully considered.
 
Hmm he is supposed to have molested 36000 children. If he molested one child every single day he had to do it for 98,6 years to hit 36000.
 
Obviously there's no "rehabilitation" for this guy. He's too old, and the length of time he'd have to serve in prison if convicted will surely result in him spending the rest of his life in prison. It might be well worth the psychological aspects of studying him. It will also probably be beneficial to have access to his body when he dies to see if there's physical differences in specific areas of his brain.

I don't think there's anything society can do to "feel" better about a situation like this guy has caused. I was just so infuriated when I read the story that I was looking for some of what you guys have posted so far.

I find that there's 100% complete, rational, and understandable thought behind both the attitudes of "kill him by any means you feel" and "let him spend whatever's left of his life in prison."

I can't decide which punishment is the harshest. To me, putting a person in a concrete cage filled with angry and predatory men for the rest of somebody's life is worse than killing them by lethal injection. So maybe that's what this guy deserves? Maximum security prison, in the general population, with no special protection from the scurge of other inmates, until the day he dies.
 
Motokid said:
Maximum security prison, in the general population, with no special protection from the scurge of other inmates, until the day he dies.
Click to expand...

Whilst as civilized people we should not encourage something which could potentially be so barbaric, speaking as a parent, that's exactly what I think should be done.
 
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