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Moderated Should pedophiles never be forgiven.

Cainkane1

Philosopher
Cainkane1
Joined
Jul 16, 2005
Messages
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Location
The great American southeast
There used to be a man in my town who was convicted of child molestion. His victim wasn't raped just improperly touched. He spent ten years in prison for this crime and was released. He got a job painting cars and for ten years committed no crimes whatsoever. The state passed a law that convicted pedophiles couldn't live within a certain distance of a school bus stop. He sued the state and I don't know how it turned out.

Watching an episode of Criminal Minds there was a pedophile who has been treated for his problem and not only did he accept the treatments he helped police breakup pedophle rings and actually made himself useful in catching other pedophiles.

At the end of the program the Criminal Minds team with this mans help broke up a ring of child molesters and apparently they couldn't have done it without this mans help. The man was happy with himself feeling that he had redeemed himself for his own prior crimes.

The Criminal Minds team refused to shake his hand at the end of the movie.

Do you agree with this attitude or disagree? I'm undecided myself.
 
Cainkane1 said:
There used to be a man in my town who was convicted of child molestion. His victim wasn't raped just improperly touched. He spent ten years in prison for this crime and was released. He got a job painting cars and for ten years committed no crimes whatsoever. The state passed a law that convicted pedophiles couldn't live within a certain distance of a school bus stop. He sued the state and I don't know how it turned out.

Watching an episode of Criminal Minds there was a pedophile who has been treated for his problem and not only did he accept the treatments he helped police breakup pedophle rings and actually made himself useful in catching other pedophiles.

At the end of the program the Criminal Minds team with this mans help broke up a ring of child molesters and apparently they couldn't have done it without this mans help. The man was happy with himself feeling that he had redeemed himself for his own prior crimes.

The Criminal Minds team refused to shake his hand at the end of the movie.

Do you agree with this attitude or disagree? I'm undecided myself.
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only after they've been castrated, then, maybe.....
 
Cainkane1 said:
There used to be a man in my town who was convicted of child molestion. His victim wasn't raped just improperly touched. He spent ten years in prison for this crime and was released. He got a job painting cars and for ten years committed no crimes whatsoever. The state passed a law that convicted pedophiles couldn't live within a certain distance of a school bus stop. He sued the state and I don't know how it turned out.

Watching an episode of Criminal Minds there was a pedophile who has been treated for his problem and not only did he accept the treatments he helped police breakup pedophle rings and actually made himself useful in catching other pedophiles.

At the end of the program the Criminal Minds team with this mans help broke up a ring of child molesters and apparently they couldn't have done it without this mans help. The man was happy with himself feeling that he had redeemed himself for his own prior crimes.

The Criminal Minds team refused to shake his hand at the end of the movie.

Do you agree with this attitude or disagree? I'm undecided myself.
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I disagree. They don't necesarily have to give him a medal but they can't even shake his hand after all the help he provided? At least he's out there trying to do something good, as opposed to continuing to perpetuate his behavior. I found the attitude of the criminal minds team a bit extreme.
 
It is a question of culture of opinion. The question, and it is valid one for *all* crime is : "are tehre crime from which there can never be a redeeming, and at which point one is redeemed ?". It is not an easy question. Frankly for some crime my answer seems to have changed with time (murder & pedophilia). All I can say today is : depends on case by case. Some pedo don't redicidive, some "touch" a lot of kids.
 
What's forgiveness got to do with thanking someone for doing a good deed?

I know it's common for people to hold grudges that sour their opinion of everything a person does, but it's hardly rational to punish a person forever no matter what they do. E.g., socially rejecting someone makes it *far* more likely they will engage in unwanted behaviour.

Perhaps a more relevant question is whether paedophiles can ever be trusted to not engage in what they are driven to do.
 
What are the chances of him re offending? If slight then they should live as anyone else. If they are a habitual offender they should not be allowed on the street. Anything else, just keep talking to them. Not allowing them to live in certain places is just stupid.

My 2c worth.
 
This would perhaps be a good time to point out the difference between pedophile and pederast. The former is someone who is attracted to children but who wouldn't go to the extent of comitting a sexual act with them. The later, one who would and has comitted the act.
 
Ron_Tomkins said:
This would perhaps be a good time to point out the difference between pedophile and pederast. The former is someone who is attracted to children but who wouldn't go to the extent of comitting a sexual act with them. The later, one who would and has comitted the act.
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Can't a pedarast be a paedophile?
 
Ron_Tomkins said:
This would perhaps be a good time to point out the difference between pedophile and pederast. The former is someone who is attracted to children but who wouldn't go to the extent of comitting a sexual act with them. The later, one who would and has comitted the act.
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Not really. Pederasty is the attraction to boys, specifically, but it has nothing to do with committing the act or not. Same with pedophilia, which is the attraction to children in general.

I think what you wanted to say was, "This would perhaps be a good time to point out the difference between pedophile and pederast child molester. The former is someone who is attracted to children but who wouldn't may or may not go to the extent of comitting a sexual act with them. The later, one who would and has comitted the act."
 
Not all child molesters are pedophiles. There are those who have no real preference for children, but see them as easier targets than adults, have better opportunity to target children, etc. Parents/Guardians who target their own children are often not pedophiles, but opportunity molesters.

It's a bit of a semantics issue. In modern popular usage, the term pedophile has come to mean anyone who molests children - so in any debate on the issue we'll have to agree on how we define the terms we use.
 
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I think "forgiveness" is really the wrong word. In my opinion, the only person with the place and power to forgive or not is the pedophile's victim.

As for shunning or whatnot - that's up to each individual. Having "done one's time" entitles a person to no longer be imprisoned for a particular crime; shunning is an extralegal individual behavior tied to choice of association and isn't connected with the object's legal obligations or even necessarily committing an act that is a crime.
 
Treating sex crimes in such a different matter than violent crimes just tells us that even the most rational skeptics still have sacred cows about sex magic
 
Checkmite said:
I think "forgiveness" is really the wrong word. In my opinion, the only person with the place and power to forgive or not is the pedophile's victim.
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Is the pedophile's victim only the person he or she directly acted upon, or should it also include those with care, affection and responsibility for the direct victim? Should collateral effects also necessitate a contribution to forgiveness?
 
Checkmite said:
I think "forgiveness" is really the wrong word. In my opinion, the only person with the place and power to forgive or not is the pedophile's victim.

As for shunning or whatnot - that's up to each individual. Having "done one's time" entitles a person to no longer be imprisoned for a particular crime; shunning is an extralegal individual behavior tied to choice of association and isn't connected with the object's legal obligations or even necessarily committing an act that is a crime.
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My basic question was this. If they serve their time and time goes by without the pedophile repeating the crime or in the case of the man in Criminal Minds actively helping the police catch other pedophiles should those people be forgiven?

In the case of a pedophile who gets caught goes to prison get out and reoffends I say no never forgive them.

I never forgave my first cousins father for sexually molesting her from age younger than five until sometime when she was in highschool. No one knew he was doing this until he died and at age 50 my cousin told all.
 
Morrigan said:
Not really. Pederasty is the attraction to boys, specifically, but it has nothing to do with committing the act or not. Same with pedophilia, which is the attraction to children in general.

I think what you wanted to say was, "This would perhaps be a good time to point out the difference between pedophile and pederast child molester. The former is someone who is attracted to children but who wouldn't may or may not go to the extent of comitting a sexual act with them. The later, one who would and has comitted the act."
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Ok.
 
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