Quote:
Originally Posted by Crompsin
I wonder how those against the death penalty feel about this issue. It's just so cruel to punish blatant criminals with a fitting physical justice.
Or prosecuted. Or sentenced for an appropriate crime (plea bargain GO!). Or kept locked up for their full sentence. Courts are one big fail circus.
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It's easy to look at the (US) legal system and throw up your hands and suggest that deterrence is useless and that punishment is fruitless. "They'll just do it anyway." Okay, so do nothing? Anybody who's taken a 300 level justice class knows that preventative / preemptive Dr. Phil social programs would fix a lot more crime issues than any combination of harsh punishments, but I believe that harsh punishments work as a deterrent when they're less mysterious and more brutal. Don't discount the hammer because the helping hand is often more appropriate a tool for dealing with wayward citizens. You still need to keep the hammer in your toolbox and use it occasionally... and when you do, don't dick around with the fucker... slam it with a purpose. Take those nuts!
To me, the death penalty is useless because it involves of finality and how fucking long it takes to kill someone who actually deserves it. It's all "oh noes they might kill me in 19 years after 32 appeals." Castration could be made quick, painless, and may have quite the psychological effect on men.
Hell, I get really nervous just thinking about getting a simple vasectomy.
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Probably doesn't need to be stated, but I'll drop it anyway: This type of extreme punishment would only be reserved for a very specific group of offenders.
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I don't think this takes into consideration that pedophilia is a compulsion and not simply a choice. I don't think that the deterrence of castration would be as compelling to a true pedophile as it would be to other child molesters...and those pedophiles are the ones we're really after, right? The 'specific group of offenders?' The end result, just as in the death penalty, is punishment for its own sake rather than prevention. You may call that doing something, but I call it an afterthought. What we need to be doing is trying to identify and detain true pedophiles early on, which would mean realizing that not all child molestations are created equal. But we've got so much inappropriate emotional garbage invested in the idea of sex with children that we (in actuality) imperil them over and over again. People are so fucked up.