...and justice for all

[Hermit]

Robert H. Richards IV admitted to penetrating his three year old daughter with his fingers while masturbating himself, then continuing his sexual abuse of her for another three years. He also allegedly sexually abused his 19 month old son, but there was insufficient evidence to charge him for that. Richards is an heir of the du Pont chemical empire and lives on the proceeds of a trust fund in his $1.8 million mansion. Judge Jan Jurden sentenced him to eight years in prison but suspended all of it because he might "not fare well" in gaol. (Link)

Beau Biden, Delaware's Attorney General and son of the Vice (lol) President defended the plea bargain and its outcome. "In recognition of the weakness of the case, the assigned prosecutor offered a plea and sentence recommendation that guaranteed the defendant would be required to register as a sex offender, participate in court-ordered sex offender rehabilitation therapy and to have no contact with the victim and any other child under the age of 16. A loss at trial would have rendered any of these restrictions impossible." (Link)

[Svartalf]

As a friend from another forum would say :

Sharks...

[Hermit]

As in "feed them to"? I don't know about that. Sentencing criminals is not supposed to be about retribution or vengeance. The idea of incarceration as a means of rehabilitation is laughable considering how prisons are run. That leaves imprisonment as kind of an aversion therapy for the guilty, a warning to would-be criminals and a means of removing dangerous people from the generally unprotected public.

How long imprisonment of sexual offenders should last for is unclear to me. There are many studies on their recidivism, and curiously, although all of them claim to be based exclusively on empirical data, the results vary wildly. Some indicate an almost total lack of rehabilitation, while others point to a better rate than that of non-violent criminals, and many other results fall between those extremes.

Nor can I say something like "Tut-tut, just another example of 'one law for the rich, another for the poor.'" Australia is awash with judges handing down sentences on offenders who are clearly not members of the "haves" that bear no relation to the scale of the crime.

As for sexism at work, the judge was a woman, and so was the magistrate of the most recent and most egregious misjudgement in a rape case. That took place in the Northern territory. She put all of the people involved in a gang bang on probation because she surmised that the victim "probably consented to sex". The victim was ten years old at the time.

I created this thread as a starting point for a discussion about justice. Perhaps it was a mistake to begin it with an anecdote that is so controversial in content and outcome.

[Svartalf]

When a horrible criminal escapes the normal sentence for his crimes for reasons he's a millionnaire, since the judge and prosecutor certainly would not have granted any such lenient terms to a normal person guilty of the same acts, the only use these folks are to society is as shark bait.

and you mean that Aussie judges just disregard the legal penalties to give common criminals ridiculously light penalties right and left? (or ridiculously severe ones)... feed those to the crocs then.

Justice should, if at all, be applied evenly, and a child molester getting not even a day in prison is not even, especially when he's rich.

[JimC]

Even if judges were not biased in favour of the wealthy, their ability to pay for teams of highly competent lawyers while the poor may have to make do with a tired and over-worked public defender must distort the outcomes in a statistical sense.

[Svartalf]

When it comes to this, it's no longer statistics, it's a justice gone awry whose actors are to be discarded.

[Tero]

So what is the most common treatment or "cure" for pedophilia?

[Svartalf]

So what is the most common treatment or "cure" for pedophilia?

Whom are you asking that trick question?

[klr]

Robert H. Richards IV admitted to penetrating his three year old daughter with his fingers while masturbating himself, then continuing his sexual abuse of her for another three years. He also allegedly sexually abused his 19 month old son, but there was insufficient evidence to charge him for that. Richards is an heir of the du Pont chemical empire and lives on the proceeds of a trust fund in his $1.8 million mansion. Judge Jan Jurden sentenced him to eight years in prison but suspended all of it because he might "not fare well" in gaol. (Link)

Beau Biden, Delaware's Attorney General and son of the Vice (lol) President defended the plea bargain and its outcome. "In recognition of the weakness of the case, the assigned prosecutor offered a plea and sentence recommendation that guaranteed the defendant would be required to register as a sex offender, participate in court-ordered sex offender rehabilitation therapy and to have no contact with the victim and any other child under the age of 16. A loss at trial would have rendered any of these restrictions impossible." (Link)

Might "not fare well" in gaol? It's not meant to be a holiday camp.

[Pappa]

There have been a few "might not fare well" cases reported on the intertubes lately, plus the "afluenza" case... where the guy got away with a drunken hit and run because his over privileged upbringing had not given him a sense of responsibility.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

There have been a few "might not fare well" cases reported on the intertubes lately, plus the "afluenza" case... where the guy got away with a drunken hit and run because his over privileged upbringing had not given him a sense of responsibility.

[JimC]

There have been a few "might not fare well" cases reported on the intertubes lately, plus the "afluenza" case... where the guy got away with a drunken hit and run because his over privileged upbringing had not given him a sense of responsibility.

He should check his privilege...

[Tero]

So what is the most common treatment or "cure" for pedophilia?

Whom are you asking that trick question?

Anyone who was proposing to treat Mr Dupontheir.

[mistermack]

The plea-bargain system is ripe for corruption.

It's the easiest thing in the world, to do a deal in a back room, to look after a ''friend'', and then do a plea-bargain which effectively gets the person off the hook. You just don't try too hard with the prosecution, and claim that the plea-bargain was the best you could do.

It could be for cash, or returning a favour, or some arrangement for a favour to be repaid at a later date.

This one sticks out a mile. He's been ''looked after''. And they've got away with it. Because the system makes it far too easy.
The only way to combat it, is to remove the double jeopardy protection from the law.
So that no matter what dirty deal you do when in office, someone who hasn't accepted a ''favour'' can always undo it later.

[FBM]

Is incarceration for retribution or rehabilitation? If it's the former, then we're always going to be in deep shit as a society. The main problem with the current criminal justice system (US) is that it's based on a revenge motive, rather than a social health one. In my opinion.