will increasing the penalties for offenses under crim. justice syst. be an effective deterrent for child abuse

Answer 1

Increasing penalties is not as important as making the sentence fit the crime. If the abuse means a life sentence for the victim, then judges must make the sentence reflect it. Seems like the offender's " good character, work history, community service, etc" make judges give lenient sentences. In an abuse situation, the offender should have no "excuses", the victim had none. Until victims become more important in the justice system than the offenders, nothing will change. What a crock. And no special protection in prison for the offender, that is itself , would be a major deterrent .

Answer 2

No because most parents, in my experiences, don't think that it is abuse when they do it, it is discipline. So your not going to worry about the penalty if your unaware of the law. We need a major upheaval of information to show these parents that just leaving their kid for 2 minutes while they go to the store is NOT RIGHT. It is punishable. That is just a simple example of something people don't see as negligence, but it is. Increases in penalties have rarely had any sort of positive affect on the public. Just look at drugs and pedophiliacs, Both have been dramatically avenged against by the judicial system to no avail. More people are on harder drugs, and older sickos are with younger children. If you don't see the harm in drugs you'll still do them. And if you can't realize that 15 is too young, and 3 is WAAYYY too young, you should just be castrated by firing squad.

Answer 3

I would like to think so, but it is not likely - increasing the penalties will keep the ones who are caught off the streets longer, protecting kids a bit longer. Those who exhibit this behavior are hard to 'cure' and once out, tend to gravitate back to doing it - not always true, but the trend is there.

Answer 4

Not likely. But what it will do is keep offenders behind bars where they can't become repeat offenders.