Reply #129: Punishment needs to fit crime

[lolly]

For Pete's sake, can't we realize there are degrees of "predatory?"

The mother of the 21 y.o. admitted her son had done something wrong--do you really think the punishment she described is appropriate for a 21 y.o. having non-forced sex with a 16 y.o?

Is it really that difficult to separate that act from the repeated, forced sodomizing of a 9 year old?

Don't start screaming DO YOU HAVE KIDS, DO YOU HAVE KIDS because I have 4, including 2 teenaged girls. If a 21 year old had sex with one of them, I certainly would want him punished. I would expect him to serve some probation time, perhaps perform community service, and perhaps get some counselling and a competent evaluation to ascertain that he wasn't a serial predator, but repeated electroshocks or whatever to his penis???? Forcing him to look at kiddie porn? THAT is weird, sick, and overly vengeful. And it's not solving any problems or preventing any future crimes.

And as upset as I would be about my daughter in this situation, I would hope I wouldn't get hysterical. Having sex at 16 isn't a fabulous idea, but is it really the end of the world? Did the victim get pregnant, or get a communicable disease? Did she seem at all traumatized?

Furthermore, I think when we react to the statutory rape cases with such hysteria, we trivialize the truly horrific cases--the grown men who forcibly rape young children. We have to distinguish between the two types of crimes because one IS so much worse than the other.