Reply #56: Please explain "re-victimization" [View All]

I've never figured that one out.

Did any of the kids in those pictures know Bernie Ward was looking at them? What signal is transmitted through the aether to the victim? If the prosecuting agents look at these pictures, are the kids "re-victimized" yet again?

Driving these sorts of things deep underground seems to make the problems worse.

If pedophiles were not driven so far underground then maybe we'd have a much clearer picture of who we should keep away from our kids. Their creepy behavior might be public. As it is now we have to be suspicious of anyone who seems to enjoy the company of children "a little too much," including a lot of people for whom these suspicions are entirely unjust.

If possessing child porn was not regarded as such a heinous crime then our legal system would probably identify most pedophiles before they got into more serious trouble, and we would be better equipped to keep them out of jobs such as teaching or childcare. Public pressure could also keep them out of positions of authority within religious institutions, and these institutions (not just Catholic...) wouldn't be able to shuffle potential and actual child abusers around the world in some sick kind of shell game.

I'm a parent, it's difficult for me to think about these things rationally. But we must be rational. Our laws must be practical, they must be just, and they must accomplish what we want them to do. As things stand now our society demands that pedophiles be extremely secretive, and this makes it much more difficult for communities to identify them and respond to their criminal behaviors and mental illnesses in an effective manner. And if we can look at the problem honestly, and not while inflamed with anger, maybe we'd find most pedophiles would limit themselves to photoshopped pictures and rehashing their sick fantasies with other adults.

Personally I believe that transmitting child pornography should be a crime, vigorously enforced, but not to the extent that we turn people into lifetime criminals supported by the state and tortured in prison, and not to the extent that we accuse innocent people unjustly of crimes against our children.