| I believe in the justice system, I truly do. But I also think we have to be careful, because nothing is perfect. There have been miscarriages before.
Mary Kay Letourneau is a good example. Her and her now-husband may be the one exception to the general rule, and I may have my own personal opinion about their union... but so long as everyone's happy there, is it really our business what happens to her?
The idea of a registry of sex offenders is to protect the population against criminals who, in many cases, by virtue of the nature of their crime, are among the most likely to reoffend. It makes sense to protect ourselves when the likelihood of a crime is tangible.
But if a person offended in a specific context. Be it Mary Kay Letourneau and her former student now-husband, be it a high-school student whose boyfriend happens to be a wee bit older... I don't see a pattern there that's likely to be repeated. I don't see a danger to society. Mary Kay Letourneau was released on certain conditions, which she broke, and then she went back to jail. I have no problems with that. I believe in the justice system.
But I do think we have to be careful about making laws that apply absolutely to a crime when our definition of it is far from absolute. __________________  Sunny
"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." avie by Jessie |