Opinions to:
Governor Bill Richardson proposes toughest sex offender
law in country.
The points we raise:
• Will a lifetime sentence eliminate sex crime?
• Is it not the victim who pays indirectly with their tax-money
for the incarceration of sex offenders?
• As science has affirmed, sex offenders were once victims of
the same heinous crime themselves.
The subject for discussion is offered in the Discussion
Forum: “What should we do with abusers?”
http://www.aaacworld.org/victims/forum.htm
I am a Social Worker who speaks with families and victims
of sexual abuse on a daily basis; along with being a survivor of child
sexual abuse. I see first-hand the devastation a sex offender can cause.
I also see (on a daily basis) the sex offenders walking with no more
than a slap on the hand and children who are forced back into the homes
with the sex offenders. I have heard the cries of the mothers attempting
to protect their children, only to hear from the courts tell them “I’m
sorry, we simply don’t have enough proof.” I have viewed
the reconstructive surgery of a two-year old female’s genitalia
due to the severity of the sexual contact. I have witnessed and heard
the cries of the children as they are forensically examined after the
sexual contact in order to retrieve evidence from their bodies, and
then months and sometimes years later watch the sex offender released
because this is their “first offense.” Keeping in mind this
is just the first time he’s gotten caught and that sex offenders
potentially have 100+ victims before being caught. In addition to all
of that, I’ve seen the faces and reactions of 10 and 11 years
old girls when they are told they are pregnant; or the faces and reactions
when the child is told they tested positive for HIV.
Yet, we allow the sex offender to be released and continue
their offenses.
I would like to see the tougher laws concerning sex offenders.
Esther Alcorn
First, we are dealing with human beings here, a life sentence
will only change the focus of thier sexual problems, not really address
them, simply repress some symptoms, and generate new ones and open the
door to a new chance of further, damaging sexual abuse in the prison
evirones.
secondly, once again, another oppurtunity to sweep an important human
malady under the rug of avoidance ,and specifically refuse to face/react/deal
with it intelligently. Therapy even in a closed or limited mobility
type environment might be considerably less expense in the long run.
My research suggests these types of sexual disfuntion have been with
us as a species since inception and that we are only now communicating
about them enough to begin to see what lies beneath the tip of the iceberg.
Why not research, learn, and try to correct these imbalances rather
than to simply incarcerate them into some palce far enough below the
radar that no one really works for understanding and solutions. When
will we, as a culture understand that retribution rather that resolution
is a highly flawed strategy....David
As a psychotherapist for 20 years...I know people can
change if they have the motivation and the help they need...so life
imprisonment is NOT the solution! More mental health care is..and compassion!
See the movie..."Dead Man Walking."
dianea kohl of ithaca, ny
AAaC: Will a life time sentence eliminate
sex crime?
John Speyrer: No it will not eliminate sexual crimes.
AAaC: Is it not the victim who pays indirectly with
their tax-money
for the incarceration of sex offenders?
John Speyrer: Only a very small percentage of their
tax-money is used for sexual
criminals.
AAaC: As science has proofed, sex offenders were once
victims of the
same heinous crime themselves.
John Speyrer: But many who were abused do not become
abusers themselves. Since cure for all practical reasons is impossible,
for serious sexual crimes there should be lifetime incarceration on
an island or facility from which no escape is possible.
Dear Sieglinde:
• Will a lifetime sentence eliminate sex crime?
Absolutely not... the cause of sex crime is early childhood experience.
While we discover and incarcerate one more perp, another one is on the
look-out for a child to victimize. The one we have incerated will not
hurt children again if unable to get to children, of course, but my
feeling is that we can accomplish more in humanity than this overuse/abuse
of prison time.
• Is it not the victim who pays indirectly with
their tax-money for the incarceration of sex offenders?
We all pay enormous amounts of tax to support prison and the punitive
model in society.
• As science has affirmed, sex offenders were once
victims of the same heinous crime themselves.
This is the most important point. As a parent the first priority is
the protection of my children, proactive and achieved not through strict
and punitive laws but through keeping the child's interest first. That
means that perps must be forcibly separated when it is confirmed that
they have abused a child. But this "incarceration" is not
the answer.
We must try to care for our children more than this:
By beginning to help all victims, including those who have succumbed
to the sickness of abuse and become abusers themselves, we begin to
be proactive in breaking the cycle of punitve attitudes that serve our
own pain and do not create a better world. Punishment is not a cure.
It serves my rage to destroy somebody who would hurt my child and it
serves the rage I feel at having endured whatever abuse I have suffered
in my past. (Many who are abused as children do not become perpetrators
themselves, but that does not mean that they are free of the punitive
attitudes they suffered in childhood. They might well beat their children
and their spouses, give them torture as love.
The answer to childhood abuse is not more prison space and harsher sentences.
Child abuse is a widespread crime. The United States still formally
supports the abuse of children, the hitting, swatting, whipping, punching,
paddling, and the psychological torture used by churches like http://www.amazingrace.net/
as the best way to raise children in America. Read their commandments
for child discipline, a manual of child abuse, supported by the offerings
of churchgoers and affirmed (according to them) by God. We have a long
way to go.
Brian
Sieglinde,
The prospect of an extremely harsh sentence for a convicted sex offender
will motivate some to "silence" the only witness. So, any
reduction in the incidence of sex crime -- which is doubtful-- will
be offset by an increase in the murder rate. From any perspective, that's
a poor tradeoff. The way to reduce the number of molesters and rapists
is to improve the quality of parenting. If we have fewer children victimized
now, we reduce the number of perpetrators we have to worry about and
deal with later. The first logical step is to illegalize spanking. But
politicians shy away from that option, even if they are intelligent
enough to understand its validity. The successful ones know that pandering
to the revenge impulse of voters is a quick and easy way to get elected,
while educating them is slow and difficult.
Jordan
Jordan Riak, Exec. Dir., Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education
(PTAVE), P.O. Box 1033, Alamo, CA 94507-7033. Web site: "Project
NoSpank" at www.nospank.net
Telephone: (925) 831-1661
Read also the Open Letter to Governor
Bill Richardson http://www.aaacworld.org/publication/art_open_govNM.htm
