Comments on: What to do about the Balcony Rapist

By: rick

rick — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:34:11 +0000

We all make ourselves victims when we fear what has not yet transpired.

Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me.

By: John

John — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:58:23 +0000

Callow has served his time. Unless he re-offends he should be able to live in peace wherever he so chooses. We all make ourselves victims when we fear what has not yet transpired.

Aside from that gem of wisdom allow me to further add, I would rather have a known sex offender living in my neighbourhood than having an unknown one live in my neighbourhood.

Or put another way: Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t!

By: Steve EM

Steve EM — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:16:34 +0000

As someone who lost virginity to an older woman, I’ll even go further and say regarding these news reports of female school teachers having sex with teen male students, I just don’t see a victim. Punishment for such a teacher should be restricted to loss of job and some kind of do-not-hire-to-teach listing, but not jail. It’s a double standard, vs a male or lesbian teacher, but boys/men and girls/women are different.

Regarding statutory rape, when I hear about a man age 19 getting an underage gf pregnant and ending up on a sex offender list, I’m left scratching my head.

By: rick

rick — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:32:28 +0000

Sally, there’s a pretty big difference between consensual statutory rape and violent rape, no?

Not that I’m agreeing with all the assertions #1Ehat Steve makes, but let’s be reasonable here.

By: Sally

Sally — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:09:29 +0000

Steve only a man would say he can distinguish between violent rape and date rape or statutory rape… rape is all violent no matter what the situations were. I worked 10 years as a councilor at a Sexual Assault Centre and met with countless females who were raped in all of your so called distinguishable categories and the end result and emotional beings were exactly the same… sense of personal violation and never being safe again.

By: rick

rick — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:41:24 +0000

Ummm… I fail to see how voluntary genital mutilation could be viewed as anything BUT punitive. “It’s either lose your junk or you go on the list, punk!”

…I think you get the point.

By: Steve EM

Steve EM — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:32:31 +0000

rick,

I thought I made it clear I wasn’t offering it as a punishment but as an alternative the sex offender parolee could choose as an alternative to listing. Call it “keep your dick, stay on the list”. I hope I didn’t imply I was advocating forced penisectomy/castration.

By: rick

rick — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:15:00 +0000

…but my point was that the actual act is not what instigates the crime in the first place.

That’s why the options you mentioned are unhelpful.

Cruel and unusual would be more appropriate descriptors; I believe our societies have a problem with cruel and unusual punishment…I’ll have to look that up. ;)

By: Steve EM

Steve EM — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:01:32 +0000

Whoa, I’m fully aware violent rape is a violent crime, which I distinguish from date rape, statutory rape, etc. Most statutory rapists, in particular, shouldn’t be on these lists anyway. But, back to point, w/o a penis or testosterone, just how is the rapist to rape again? Moreover, I offered it as an alternative to being listed upon release, not a sentence. I also questioned why such a person’s jail time wouldn’t run until rape was no longer physically possible?

By: rick

rick — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:11:39 +0000

“…not a very inclusive, Christian attitude.”

Since he was chased out of Surrey and New Westminster, perhaps it would be more appropriate to determine how Sikhs, Muslims, Shintos, Buddhists and Hindus feel about sex offenders… :)