This is just a comment about what Jeremy is discussing in the news. I am in no way defending what the idiot in Idaho did or any other pedophile sicko...
My question or thought is how do they get help when they need it? You can go to AA or NA if you have a drug or alcohol problem. You can go to a shrink if you are feeling suicidal. However, if these men have these urges, where do they go?? The sicko in Florida, Couey, even admitted that he needed and asked for help and did not receive it. Unfortunately something makes these men do this, whether it is a sexual fantasy or whatever. This is not an isolated incident. I think that until we can find out what works to stop this (castration??) I think we will keep seeing this. Lock your doors and pray.
You hit on a topic that is VERY big with me. VERY BIG.
When we were going through the Jeffrey Dahmer trial that EXACT question was raised by Gerald Boyle, his defense attorney, and to this day it has left a big impression on me.
In his closing arguments Boyle said...
"Imagine you're a 17 year old boy, and you find yourself consumed with thoughts of killing other young men and having sex with their dead bodies, who would you turn to?"
He made the point that 99.9% of us would tell NO ONE. You CAN'T tell your parents, you CAN'T tell your best friend, you would most likely just keep it to yourself and hope you can control the urges.
But as you get older, and the urges get stronger, you're becoming more and more alone in this private hell, until eventually you lose control and act on the urge. After the first time, it get's a little easier every time.
He made a very compelling argument that swayed me into the beleif that Jeffrey Dahmer was indeed a sick man that needed hospitalization for life, not prison. I really believed that we could have LEARNED something from him if they had put him in a mental hospital and studied him.
Of course, he went to jail and was AMAZINGLY killed along with our second most famous murderer Jesse Anderson while the two were cleaning a bathroom with a guy that said God told him to kill them both! I think it was a setup myself!
Anyway, I totally get your point. But the saddest part of this story in Idaho is THIS GUY HAS BEEN IN JAIL BEFORE for molesting a kid at gunpoint.
WE HAVE TO STOP PUTTING THESE GUYS BACK ON THE STREET! ONE TIME = LIFE. When do we FINALLY start protecting ourselves.
Personally, I think all prisoners need help. I think they all should have mandatory counseling. Especially for violent crimes. There has to be something off with a person to commit a crime like that.
My attitude used to be a lot harder on people like this. But as I've gotten older, and my belief in a higher power has gotten stronger, I have gained a certain level of sympathy for these people.
And I HATE to say sympathy, because most people take that to mean that I would go easy on them, and I would not.
They should be locked up for life. This situation in Idaho would never have happened if this guy had been in prison like he should have been.
But these sicko's never know a normal life. They were dealt a defective brain from birth. I think as a society we need to protect ourselves from them and wait for God to decide if they were sick or simply pure evil.
I am thinking Alcatraz or something similar. I agree unitl we can 'cure' them, they do not need to be among us. I thank God everyday that I have the problems that I do.... things can always be worse. My husband gets mad when I say that, but I do believe that they have a genetic defect or something... there are too many of them for it to be a fluke!
It could have been some of the f-ed up things that happened to them in their lives that make them this way.
We were talking the other night how children are just learning about the world and when bad things happened to them they change their view of reality for it to make sense. For example, a little girl who was sexually abused by her father was sleeping over a friends and asked "what time does your dad come into your room?" I know, sad, hunh?
But the little girl in Idaho is going to be messed up from everything. I don't know if she'll turn evil but she's going to be scared.
In almost every case like this, the perpetrator had something horrible happen to them. They were not born this way, they were created. Because of that, many experts have said that many sex offenders can't be cured. For the prison system this raises a very big problem. Where do you put them? The jails are already over crowded. Dealing with the damage done has no easy answers, but we have got to start looking more closely at the condition of the home and our culture's view of sex as something purely organic. If we start to focus on the traditional family as sacred, and that it should be supported and defended vigorously, then we could drastically reduce the occurance of new preditors.
I question the logic that you can't fix someone if they were not born a certain way but rather created through an event in their life.
As with all things I'm sure there's a group of reports out there that would argue the opposite.
I do agree with Wefter that we have to make changes in the home, and in some ways I think things are turning around a bit. But there were sickos in the 50's and there were sicko's in the 30's, there will be sicko's for the rest of human existance.
Even if a person begins acting in these sick ways because of something that happened to them, I still don't think that necessarily suggests there wasn't something wrong to begin with either. MANY, MANY people that are abused or molested never go on to do it themselves.
It's like anything, personality traits dictate what you're likely to do. You can conform or you can rebel.
You can do everything to bring your child up right and he can have a purple mohawk, cover his body with taoos and go on a killing spree.
You can do drugs, fail to feed your kid, beat him every day after school, and he can grow up to say "I'm better than that, I'm going to make it my lifes goal to put an end to this kind of domestic situation".
So true Jeremy. That is why I said that I am glad that I was not born that way. I am starting to believe that all of us are born with some tendency toward, for lack of a better word, sin. Not really meaning a necessarily religious sin, for those of you who are not believers. We all have something that we do that society does not approve of. It might be as simple as lies, gossip, or overeating. The point is we all face moral dilemas, how we deal with them seems to be the key. Sometimes nurture does not make sense. I know too many families with a black sheep to think otherwise.
Very True. There is not a person walking the Earth who doesn't struggle with something. Its how we deal with the struggle that defines who we are.
A butterfly, as it attempts to emerge from its cocoon, has to struggle to do so. What people dont realize, is that without that struggle, its wings would be underdeveloped, deformed and useless.
Without the struggles we face, we wouldnt have the opprtunity to transform ourselves. Its when we give up or give in that our wings lay dormant and underdeveloped.
Exactly my point. We have to do better at letting people know that they have a chose, and then help them to make the right choice. Is it a 100% guaranteed fix? Heck no. There is sin in the world, and it has it's victories. That is when we get into the realm of those who are too far gone for us to help. If you make the wrong decisions, you give the rot room to grow and if it grows enough you can get in deeper than human can handle. Conversly, if you make strong life decisions, the good can grow and you find that you can resist bigger and harder temptations. Will you never stumble again? Heck no. As Dylan said, the struggle is inheirant to the human condition, but you get better everyday.
Interesting point, as horrific as these crimes are, look at the positive discussion they have generated here.
Amen, our prophet. I actually like chatting about serious stuff! The posting is fun, but my brain needs some real stimulation. It is nice to mix it up here!
