This idea came to me this morning - the idea that child abusers, in fact ALL sex offenders, should stay behind bars for life.
This is not a case of punitive and unjust punishment, but rather a tacit acknowledgement that sex offenders have a medical condition that cannot be "cured". This BBC article confirms such an argument.
It is far safer for the community to ensure that sex offenders - many of whom are likely to strike again if given the chance - are prevented from re-entering society.
But, of course, such a restrictive sentence may be considered "unjust". In this case there needs to be some form of "trade-off" that compensates an offender's permanent loss of liberty to ensure that they remain isolated from the community at large.
If this means boutique jails where child abusers and rapists have comfortable single cells, DVD players and heated swimming pools, then I'm all for it.
1 comment:
The concensus I've heard definitely supports what you've wrote. The only thing to be careful about is to make sure that REAL sex offenders are locked up and not released, while puritanical states don't lock up horny teenagers or urinating frat boys as 'sexual predators.'
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