Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Pedophiles:A fitting punishment

Adults who molest children under age 12 face at least 25 years in prison under the Jessica Lunsford Act passed by the state Legislature in 2005.

One of the act's prime co-sponsors, Dick Kravitz, R-Jacksonville, has a related proposal for the current legislative session worthy of equal support.


Under House Bill 85, anyone convicted of molesting a child under age 12 prior to the Lunsford Act who is convicted for the same offense in the future would go to prison for life.


"It's a severe sentence, but the point of the matter is it's a much more severe crime," Kravitz said. "If you are convicted of doing this one time and could do it again, then you are what they call a classic pedophile and you are likely to do it a third, fourth or fifth time."


Kravitz said all the scholarly research he has read on the subject of pedophiles - as well as the physicians and psychiatrists he has consulted - say that people prone to sexually molesting young children rarely alter their behavior.


One incident can devastate a young person and their family and lead to lifelong emotional and physical problems.


People who choose yet another time to inflict that damage should pay lifelong consequences in a place where they can't hurt more children.


Kravitz's bill would see to it in Florida.

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