I have apparently become a Terry Frank gadfly, but it can only be because you’ve got interesting issues and interesting things to say on them (even if I often disagree vehemently).

On with it …

It strikes me from the federal prosecutor’s comments that there are two theories at play here. First, we want to punish him. Second, we want to protect children.

I write this next portion tentatively, since I know that I risk having the specious argument thrown in my face that I am a supporter of child pornographers. Nonetheless, I am always skeptical of true punishment theories. By “true punishment” theories, I mean generally any portion of a sanction beyond what is intended to teach the offender to behave better in the future, to protect the public from the offender in the future, or to serve as a warning to other potential offenders. I mean punishment just to punish. It strikes me as solely the habitat of Ceaser.

The problem here is that, assuming no parole and assuming some variant of truth in punishment, prison terms like 150 years can only be punishment for punishment’s sake. This sort of stuff is blood lust.

Blood lust at the expense of an admitted child abuser? Not such a big problem, you say.

My concern is not for the child abuser, it is for us and the child. Imposing the blood lust punishment surely dimishes the humanity in everyone associated with the process. Likewise, blood lust is, like other animal urges, overwhelming. Like the theoretical teenage boy on his first date, society enamored (sp?) with blood lust is likely to be distracted from true goals — goals like actually formulating policies to protect children, goals like identifying the social causes of this sort of problem, goals like seeking to provide avenues for people who may have these “freak” dispositions to get help.

If we are only concerned with after-the-fact vengeance, it is solely for the pure pleasure in mal of the punisher.

(I would note that these punishments don’t seem to have any effect on the number of predators out there. The dateline programs make clear more than anything else that the people who commit these crimes are not thinking rationally but instead have serious problems — problems which dateline is not addressing or discussing.)

By Tennessean on 07.17.06 6:26 pm