Shouldn’t all sex offenders be incarcerated permanently?
Punishment is satisfying. Being “tough on crime” pleases some part of ourselves and pandering to the community’s fear and desire for punishment—to somehow get control of all that rampant behavior—is how many people communicate on the issue of sexual criminality. But, much like the ineffective “war on drugs” which has cost billions of dollars, many thousands of lives and untold social suffering, the war on sexual criminality has been motivated by this same “tough on crime” mentality. If only incarcerating would stop sexual criminality—it will never do so. The vast majority of sexual offenders who are apprehended in the next ten years will come, not from the ranks of formerly convicted offenders, but from mostly young men who’ve never been convicted of a serious crime before. Locking up sex offenders, forever or a somewhat less onerous duration of time will only take care of the past, allowing us to vent our spleen, but doing nothing for victims. Politically, all of our lawmaking has ess
