> I would much rather pay to keep a pedo in jail then risk any child is hurt.
One slight problem with that argument: if the punishment for child abuse is life in prison, and the punishment for murder is also life in prison, wouldn't a child abuser have a rather strong incentive to murder their victim? After all, you can't exactly make it worse, and a dead kid isn't going to talk...
The same applies on the other side as well: if talking means that Uncle Jimmy has to rot in prison for the rest of his life, there's quite an incentive for family members to keep it quiet. "You wouldn't want to do that to Jimmy, would you - he just made a mistake and it won't happen again..."
It might feel right on an emotional level, but in practice punishments like that quickly lead to more harm to kids, not less.
One slight problem with that argument: if the punishment for child abuse is life in prison, and the punishment for murder is also life in prison, wouldn't a child abuser have a rather strong incentive to murder their victim? After all, you can't exactly make it worse, and a dead kid isn't going to talk...
The same applies on the other side as well: if talking means that Uncle Jimmy has to rot in prison for the rest of his life, there's quite an incentive for family members to keep it quiet. "You wouldn't want to do that to Jimmy, would you - he just made a mistake and it won't happen again..."
It might feel right on an emotional level, but in practice punishments like that quickly lead to more harm to kids, not less.