Sex offender confesses to killing 13 yr old FL girl

[Egalitariat]

It's the breaking news on CNN.com right now. This is the second time this has happened in about 3 weeks down here. As the father of a 14 week old princess, I'm scared to death we're not doing what we should be doing to these animals.

We're not rehabilitating them, that's for sure. And here in FL, we're not keeping up with who's where after we let them walk.

People who prey on young children are what constitutional protections are all about, I guess; but if anybody ever did this to my child, I promise you they'd give me the death penalty for the vigilante justice I'd mete out (after they caught me).

I apologize in advance for the random venting.

[Retired AF Dem]

1. No reason to apologize

as a father of a daughter myself. Personally I think sex offenders should have their "units" cut off since there really isn't a "cure". But I know that wouldn't be PC.

[qanda]

2. Just unbelievable

Why wasn't this guy rotting in jail? And yet they give out life sentences for non-violent drug offenders.

[coloradodem2005]

3. You just made me think of "A Time To Kill".

This is the problem I have too.

[solinvictus]

4. I have a 12 year old daughter..

She was pursued by an internet stalker in an anime chatroom back in November. I called the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and they have a WEALTH of information on protecting your daughters (and sons too for that matter). It's a damned frightening world out there.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. It's too bad this guy wasn't one of the thousands rounded up

the other day by the fbi. The little girl would probably still be alive.:-(

[LostinVA]

6. CAN they be rehabilitated???

I've read several times that many psychiatrists and profilers don't think child molesters and other violent sexual offenders can be rehabilitated... ever. A very, very few are able to control their behavior, but they can't be changed. I remember a convicted child molester agreeing with this on "Oprah" several years ago. He said he tried to keep himself away from where children would be, because he struggled 24/7 with the desire to do something to them.

But hey, that recreational pot smoker is in jail for 20 years, so all is well in the land. Don't want THEM as a neighbor, eh?

[WillowTree]

7. They can't be rehabilitated.

The sooner everyone figures that out, the better off we'll all be. Every state in the country needs to set their sentencing guidelines so that life without any possibility of parole is mandatory on the first conviction so that once they've been identified, they never get out.

The most discouraging part of it, of course, is that there's no way to identify them until they've already done it at least once. I wish someone could figure out how to overcome that obstacle, but I don't see how.

[Cats Against Frist]

8. I am pretty liberal when it comes to who to send to jail, for how long

and I don't support three strikes, or man/min sentencing for most crimes, or trying kids as adults and executing retarded people -- BUT I think that anyone who is convicted of a sex crime -- outside of statuatory rape, which is a whole different story -- should be locked up and society should swallow the key. PARTICULARLY if they've committed a sex crime against a child.

I'm also a supporter of psychology, and I believe that people can be insane, can be rehabilitated, that people are socialized in different behaviors, etc., etc. -- but the evidence is not compelling, to me, that sex offenders, in the long term, can effectively be rehabilitated, and considered "safe" to turn back out into society.

I don't even know that castration would do the trick, because I really think it's a psycho-sexual perversion, where the actual physical pleasure isn't where the "money" is -- it's the psycho trip, largely.

Sometimes I feel sorry for these people, because I believe that, due to some total fuck up of environment, that they became likely to fetishize on this type of thing. I, personally, think that some of the blame lies with certain manufacturers that sexualize young girls at too early of an age, and parents who don't give a fuck about what they're kids are watching, or keep an eye on how they're dressing -- mothers who are too into the claptrap of the beauty myth to realize that a make-up-wearing, belly-showing 10 year old is a recipe for disaster.

I also blame pornography -- even adult pornography, to an extent for depicting sub/dom scenes -- I think it can contribute, under the right conditions, to a "slippery slope," kind of thing, where the more powerless the person (i.e. a child) the better.

I think most of these kinds of perversions are mostly products of a society which tolerates the conditions that lead to the fetishization of children -- or whatever else it is that becomes victimized. Combined with the "taboo" element of it -- it's inevitable that these things are going to happen.

You just have to find it. And stop it, for good. That, to me, means life in prison for all child molesters and sexual offenders.

[LostinVA]

9. Great Post

You covered all of the bases, except I do think many of these people are true sociopaths, and are like this regardless of their environment.

[lenidog]

12. I can't verify this but I do believe that there are several cases

where even chemical castration didn't even work. I am totally at a loss what to do in these situations. General consensus says that they can't be rehabilitated yet my mind still has a problem with sending them to jail forever. Though on the other had children HAVE to be protected. Its a damn "Catch-22" with no reasonable solution in sight.

[LisaL]

15. Chemical castration seems to work very well in Europe, where

they are actually doing it to sex offenders. Recidivism rates drop significantly in chemically castrated pedophiles/rapists. Of course you couldn't do the same thing here in US because it's not PC. But still there are ways to get around chemical castrations, with testosterone shots. Of course, the thing that would work best is actual surgical castration (IMO), but if we can't even do chemical castration to sex offenders, surgical castration ain't going to happen.

[RebelOne]

24. I am pretty sure that they do surgical castration

in one of the Scandinavian countries.

[qanda]

19. They give out life sentences when they violate their victim

I know! I live with being a survivor of rape every single day of my life. Why shouldn't they be put away forever? What they do is put the person they violate in a prison of shame, depression, confusion and pain forever! :rant:

Hopefully, you know that I'm not taking this out on you, but I just don't have much sympathy for any sex offender.

[mongo]

22. I think you are looking for a scapegoat

I also blame pornography -- even adult pornography, to an extent for depicting sub/dom scenes -- I think it can contribute, under the right conditions, to a "slippery slope," kind of thing, where the more powerless the person (i.e. a child) the better.

First of all child pornography is ILLEGAL. You won't find it at your local adult store, or on pay-per-view. It is distributed mostly online through underground networks.

But to blame BDSM pornography for sexual crimes is ridiculous. First, studies of sexual offenders show that most of them grew up in sexually repressed households and have consumed LESS pornography than the average person. There is a large BDSM community in this country - and they are NOT the sex offenders. Their motto is safe, sane and consensual. BDSM is about trust and surrender of control, not violence.

Sexual offenders are sociopathic people - many were victims themselves. But for the most part they grew up in a repressed environment, and many are vehemently anti-porn.

[GR]

10. As The Friend/Former Friend Of A "Sex Offender"....

I don't know what to say...I do think this....it is really not about sex...it is about POWER...If it was about sex, there is plenty of pornography around and self gratification to take care of that...but it's not about sex...it's about power and violence...it's some sick gratification gotten from forcing your will on someone who is resistant...I think this is about sociopathology, not sex....

I've said the same thing about "ordinary" rape. Rape isn't about sex. I would think it would be difficult for an ordinary male to become aroused during rape...UNLESS the act of rape, forcing your will on someone, was the turn on, not the sex.

When I think I read Soul On Ice and sympathized with Eldridge Cleaver's justification of rape, I don't know what I was thinking.

[LisaL]

11. Whatever is the reason do you think they are doing it for, does

it make a difference to the victim? The 13 year old is just as dead.
:eyes:
As for rape being not about sex, I think it's a complete nonsense.

[LostinVA]

13. Rape isn't about sex

It is about violence and total, complete violation of a woman. Thus, sex is the "instrument" used to violate her. For example: I know someone who's ex-husband was pissed because she got a restraining order on his psycho ass. His revenge? He broke in one night and raped her. The whole time he was doing it, he kept on saying, "Who's the boss now, bitch?" etc. And he beat the hell out of her, which most rapists do. It is about violence and control, and they use they penis instead of a gun.

They are scum.

[LisaL]

17. Well, sorry. I think it's nonsense.

There obviously are some non-violent pedophiles, such as Michael Jackson is accused of being, who do not want to have sex with grown men/women, but prefer children instead.
Obviously, in such pedophiles, their sexual preference is a specific type of a child.

[LisaL]

18. Well, if pornography and self-gratification was enough,

there would be a lot less people breeding- I am talking about consensual sex here. If it's not enough for consenting adults, what gives you an idea it would prevent rapists from raping anyone?

[nonconformist]

20. You're assuming people that do this are "ordinary"

They're anything but.

I'm a true crime buff, and I've read a lot of personal accounts and studies on pedophiles and sexual predators. There are underlying reasons for much of what they do, that's for sure, but I think it's simplistic to say it's not about sex. For many, they can only become sexually aroused when they're hurting someone or with a child. Sure, it's about power and dominance - but it's usually done to gratify their sexual cravings, no matter how perverse.

[Zynx]

14. Predatory humans should NEVER get out of prison -ever.

Prison *does* serve a purpose as incapacitation, this is a major part of the theory of corrections. This means that you get the dangerous individuals out of society for a while.

People who continue to pose a major danger to society should NOT be released.

That includes sexual predators. Some people simply should not be on the street.

You should end the war on drug users and use the extra jail space to put scumbags like this away for life on the FIRST offense.

[tallahasseedem]

16. Why is it that...

the government has a tracker bracelet on Martha Stewart but none on these sickos. Im sorry but these people have no rights.

[neebob]

21. They can't be rehabilitated because they're psychopaths

or sociopaths or whatever you want to call them. They have no conscience. They see other people as things to be used for their gratification. And it isn't just the second time this has happened in three weeks. It's the second time it's happened in three weeks in one place, and the guy happened to be a sex offender, so it made the news. My understanding is that he raped an adult woman.

You can protect your daughter by teaching her about predators very early and in very blunt terms and not getting all caught up in the media frenzy that's a lot more about selling stuff than it is about solving a problem that's existed for a long, long time.

[Dorian Gray]

23. No need to apologize.

If this happened to my child, any rational discourse would be lost, also.