If a child is sexually abused, what should be done to the abuser? Should you punish them? Certainly. What if it was your child that was abused – what would you think is an appropriate punishment? Many parents think that the execution of the abuser is the only valid punishment. Do you think so too?
I was reading a discussion on a local (Australian) forum about a child abuse case in South Australia, and many of the people participating in the discussion agree on the following:
- Those who sexually abuse children should be executed for this horrendous crime, and
- All men should be treated as potential paedophiles, and no man should ever be left alone with any child – not even his own children.
Some of the participants felt that chemical castration would be appropriate, and another of the participants stated that because the abusers have messed up kids for the rest of their lives, ‘more than castration’ should be done. In the context of the discussion, it seemed that they were stating their agreement for the execution of abusers.
I decided to join in and become a participant at this point, with the following comment:
A child growing up to be a messed up adult is no reason to execute the person who ‘messed them up’. Deciding to kill a person just because you’re emotional about their actions is not a good enough reason to kill someone. In fact, there’s no good reasons to kill someone, and your highly emotional state certainly isn’t.
I thought we left behind the lynching mobs a couple hundred years ago, but it seems the primitive and ignorant statements like “they deserve to die because what they did upset me” is still strong in our society. Your motivations are irrelevant. You want to kill people – you disgust me. (By ‘you’, I’m talking to all of you who want people to be killed just because your feelings have been upset. You are offensive to humanity.)
I’m one of those people who were abused as a child, and I was messed up by it as a result for many years. I eventually found a way to forgive the person who abused me, and their reaction was one that made me realise not all people are monsters. Some just make mistakes, and they live with regret and guilt probably for the rest of their life as a result. They exist in a hell inside their mind that they make for themselves. As a result of my forgiveness – which took about 20 years for me to find – my abuser was able to let go of his guilt and move on from his own hell, and I’m thankful for that.
We should treat people for the crimes they commit – and we do. We should not treat all people a particular way for the crimes that some of them commit. Labelling all men as potential monsters because a small few of them are is a measure of social insanity that I wish I didn’t have to see in our world today.
I thought we moved on from racism and discrimination that is openly accepted and even encouraged, but it seems I was wrong. These days, however, it seems to be all men that is the commonly accepted target, when it used to be all blacks, and in WWII Germany it was all Jews. The same attitudes are prevalent today. You all just want any emotionally charged excuse to start wanting to kill people.
You make me sick.
So what are your own thoughts? Please leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading! Please add your own thoughts below.
Don't forget to subscribe for new posts sent to you by email!