Marsupialized wrote:
This got me looking at the sexual offenders in my neighborhood...man there's some sick fucks living on my block....there's a dude who lives half a block down who got arrested for taking pornographic photos of a retarded kid under 13 years old....and he looks the part too.
What, exactly, does your stereotypical 'dude who takes pornographic photos of retarded kids' look like? I was under the impression the reason this thread was started was themajormiller's disbelief in the veracity of the photo shown on the database.
Marsupialized wrote:I actually saw a picture of a weirdo kid I went to school with, a kid everyone called 'onion head' on the page. Apparantly he got into exposing himself to minors after high school....says he was arrested for masturbating in front of kids at ford city mall. Sometimes, I swear I wanna puke just because this is such a disgusting world.
Some other folks I know transform what is overtly incomprehensible, mendacious, nasty, nauseating or downright cruel into something of beauty, interest or profundity. Have you ever heard a Big Black song?
Marsupialized wrote:I could never have a kid, not that I'd ever want to...but even if I had the desire there's no way I'd bring a kid into this world...hey, guess what? Life's real fuckin' hard and every step of the way there's gonna be some sick fuck waiting in the shadows to jump out and touch your peepee...have fun!
Every step of the way, my peepee has been safe and secure. This is the great truth for most people I know. Most people are more likely to succumb to addiction, die in a car crash, kill themselves or die of cancer than to experience any kind of sexual abuse. I would think that more a case for avoiding procreation - but still a huge denial of all that is good in life.
Marsupialized wrote:What's fucked up is you can see what they did and the sentence...most of these dudes convicted of molesting kids only get probabtion. I mean, having some weed will get you put in jail but fucking a little kid will get you 6 months probabtion? I for one think child molestation and rape should be death penalty offenses, first conviction. If they are going to have the fucking death penalty, start frying up these sickos.
Let's look at some serious facts. Fistly, that in the great majority of cases of molestation or sexual abuse, the perpetrator is known to the victim, and usually the victim's family. Often it is a family member or family friend.
Secondly, it has been determined, due to the sociolegal dependence on psychiatry as a determiner of 'madness', that most sexual offenders are acting in a manner typically described as insane. (For more on an extralegal and non-psychiatric view of madness, check our Foucault's "Madness and Society".)
Thirdly, I do not condone any kind of sexual abuse or misconduct.
That said, if we are looking at why the sentences for sexual offences seem so minor, we can easily see the answer. Sexual abuse within families usually relies on a collusion between family members; a tacit understanding that a family member is 'sick'. Familial bonds are the tightest and most elastic bonds known to humanity, and the power of these bonds to transmute horror into secrets is well documented and common enough. In rare cases, entire townsfolk collude to protect 'sick' family members. Family members and even victims are unwilling to testify against their kin for many reasons ranging from fear of retribution to love of their kin.
Courts are often persuaded that the insanity inherent in sexual abusers is conditional and can be alleviated or removed. There are established psychiatric guidelines for treatment of molesters, abusers and rapists. Like all psychiatry, the results are largely empirical, based upon loose markers of success or failure, and often misleading. Not misleading enough, however, for their validity in sentencing of such offenders.
I am certainly of the opinion that sexual abuse sentences should be long-term sentences. I am generally also of the opinion that 'madness' cannot be cured. Many of these offenders do not believe in any way that what they are doing is wrong in the same way that many Islamic families do not believe stoning an unfaithful wife to death is wrong. But I do not discount the possibilities that offenders can be, and have been 'rehabilitated' and have not reoffended. The death penalty is inhuman, violent and indefensible in this day and age, and is tantamount to a lack of discipline and intellect.
No offence intended to you at all Marsupialized in my dissection of your initial post.
