View Single Post
Old 01-04-2007, 03:47 PM   #29 (permalink)
mixedmedia
has all her shots.
 
mixedmedia's Avatar
 
Location: Florida
Quote:
Originally Posted by shakran
There is also a large conceptual difference between a man who has sex with a 17 year old who claims she is 18 or 19, and a man who knowingly has sex with a child. The law treats them both the same - you statutorially raped her, you're a sex offender. But the criminal nature of these two situations are night and day different.
You're right, of course. Here in Florida, where we've had several high-profile child murders recently, there has been increased attention given to sex crimes against children, which is a good thing, long overdue, and I'm grateful for it...but no additional measures have been enacted to make the judicial system more efficient and just and dealing with them. Therefore those accused of "statutory rape" (Florida doesn't even use that term) are often given sentences that one might deem too harsh given all the details and those who pose a true danger to our children are very often sentenced too leniently. Personally, I don't think a pedophile should be given three chances to molest children (to paraphrase DC above). I think we should be more focused on making clinical diagnoses of pedophilia early and dealing with it in a manner totally distinct from the judicial sphere of what is called in psychiatric circles "situational child molesters."

Step one should be the prohibition of ANY plea bargaining for clinically-diagnosed pedophiles. That is the number one factor that gives pedophiles the opportunity to recidivate. If pedophiles were more often sentenced for the crimes they actually committed, there would be far fewer of them on the streets.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JinnKai
And yet on the other hand, if a man were to do the same thing, it's unlikely that it would ever make it to trial. Even if it did, I have a hard time believing the woman would actually be convicted as a sex offender. She'd probably end up with house arrest like that teacher. Gender imbalance, anyone?
Well, that teacher will have to register as a sex offender. That was part of her sentencing. And quite simply, women do not molest children as much as men do.

BUT, that said, on the sex offender rolls here in my neighborhood I was surprised to see how many women were actually on them.
__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Last edited by mixedmedia; 01-04-2007 at 03:52 PM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
mixedmedia is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360