Of all the dumb things I've heard public figures say, this one shoots right to the top of the disgusting meter. A Roman Catholic cardinal, one of the guys who actually helped vote Pope Francis into power last week, came out on the radio to announce that pedophilia is not a crime.
While you pull your jaw up off the floor, allow me to explain. Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier says when someone molests a poor, innocent child, it's really just an illness. And of course, you can't prosecute someone for being sick, can you? Can you?
Oh, folks, you most certainly can.
We prosecute alcoholics for getting into their cars totally blitzed and killing people all the time. We send them to jail, where, yes, they can get rehabilitated for their alcoholism, but we sure as heck send them to jail.
Why?
Because disorders and criminality are not mutually exclusive. If they were, the criminal justice system would be hamstrung by an inability to prosecute a vast quantity of criminals.
Even the "insanity" defense in American courts that may guarantee a "not guilty" verdict often allows for the judge to make provisions for the defendant to be removed from the general population, sending them to a psychiatric facility, for example. It's a chance to treat the disorder, true, but also a means to protect the general population from a criminal.
But the way Cardinal Napier tells it, that's just not fair. Speaking of two pedophile priests who were abused themselves as kids, Napier said:
Now don't tell me that those people are criminally responsible like somebody who chooses to do something like that. I don't think you can really take the position and say that person deserves to be punished. He was himself damaged.
Damaged? Sure. Sympathetic? Not after they make the conscious decision to hurt another human being, and a defenseless child at that. I'd like to think that a man of the cloth would see the rights of a child here.
It may be an illness that causes pedophiles to prey on children, but the moment they let that illness take control, they commit a crime.
At that point, both have to be dealt with: the "disorder" and the crime. And yes, that means punishment.
What do you think should be done with pedophiles?
Image via banspy/Flickr
Tie-Dye for the Fourth of July!
Kim and Kanye's Baby Name Predictions!
Moms Love Birthday Parties, Too!
Father Knows Best - Happy Father's Day!
Comments 18
there is no effective treatment for pedophilia! the only "treatment" that has shown any effect is chemical castration, in which they still have the psychological urges, just are inable to get it up, many have still been known to violate children in other ways. these people need to be taken out of general population and placed somewhere they can be of no harm to kids anymore. and yes, there i a cycle of violence, but in order for that to end, the current offenders need to be stopped. i personally have no problem with death sentences for child rapists. we put down animals that get violent, we put down animals that are sick. why do we show more compassion to humans who have the ability to reason and know that what they are doing is wrong? all rapists, murders and especially those that are violent to children should be put down like the sick animals they are.
Okay, let's say (for argument's sake) that he's right, and pedophilia is a disease, not a conscious choice. If those who rape children are truly incapable of controlling their actions, then they need to be locked away for the rest of their lives for the safety of everyone else in the general population. Plain and simple.
Anyone who molests a child should be removed from society.
For sure they should be taken away from society, but I get it how it is an illness and not a crime, pedophile, for as much as they make me throw up, are crazy people, and just by throwing them in jail for a few years can't do anything good, once they get out they will be doing the same exact things, that's why I believe they should be put in a psychic structure and not in jail
i'd like to add that being a psychopath is also a medical condition, should that excuse the serial murders that are legit crazy? no, i dont think so. just because you have a "disease" or "disorder" doesnt excuse your actions!