This is so wrong on so many levels it is hard to know where to begin. This today is the lead article from U.K.'s Telegraph:
Thousands of sex offenders including paedophiles and rapists have escaped with cautions rather than being jailed over the past five years.Read the whole story here.
A nationwide survey of police forces conducted by the BBC found that 1,600 sex offences involving children and 230 cases of rape were dealt with by the use of cautions instead of formal charges, which could lead to a fine or a prison sentence.
Another 350 cautions were given for sex crimes involving victims under the age of 13, while cautions were also handed out for offences of bigamy, exploitation of prostitution, indecent exposure, sex with animals, incest and sexual grooming.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, told the BBC: "It is bad enough that so many offenders are getting away with effectively no punishment, it is outrageous that this is happening in very serious cases of sexual assault involving children.
But police forces and Government agencies insisted that the use of cautions did not mean that sex offenders were being “let off” rather than facing trial.
They insisted that the cautions would still be noted on a criminal record and that those cautioned would be placed on the sex offenders register.
Officials said police take into account the victims’ views, age and welfare before deciding whether to press charges or issue a caution, and pointed out that cautions are used if a rape victim refuses to give evidence against their attacker, or if a teenager has sex with his girlfriend who is only a few months below the age of consent.
Many of those issued with cautions for sex offences were said to be juveniles or people with learning difficulties.
Terrence Grange, Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) lead for sexual offences, said: “Every incident will be treated on its own merit, taking into account the circumstances of the incident and the people involved.”
A spokeswoman for the new Ministry of Justice added that “very few” of the cautions issued over the past five years were for rape offences against children.
She said: “The Government is committed to securing more convictions in rape cases and has commissioned the child sex offender review to ensure that children are better protected from paedophiles.
"There are very few circumstances indeed where a caution for rape or offences against children is the most appropriate sanction.
"Use of cautions is a matter for the police but in exceptional circumstances - for instance where the victim does not want to proceed with a prosecution - a caution will still result in the offender having to comply with the notification provisions of the sex offenders register for example.”
. . . Jim Gamble, the centre’s head who recently caused controversy by claiming not all paedophiles should be jailed, said: “Everybody doesn’t go to prison, but let’s make sure the right people do, because that’s the best way to protect our children.
"A caution in that regard is not getting off. It’s admitting you’re guilty. It’s being put on the sex offenders register and thereafter being monitored.”
1. Sex crimes against anyone can cause lasting harm, but against minors they are incredibly insidious. They impact the child during development, and thus alter the child for life. It is hard to imagine a more serious crime, nor one that society has a more fundamental stake in preventing and punishing.
2. The basic unit of society - and the unit charged with guiding the devlopment of children - is the family. Thus, sex crimes against minors are an attack on the family. While the multiculturalists of Britain, through the ever increasing development of the nanny state and their attack on norms of morality, are decreasing parental rights and roles, the family is and always will be the foundation of a stable society. As such, the government has an overarching duty to prevent and punish sex crimes against children.
3. The better part of a millenium ago, the country of England took over the duty of providing fair justice throughout the land. Private justice - the exacting of revenge for a wrong - was itself outlawed around the time of King John. One aspect of fair justice is giving the injured party the knowledge that the person who hurt them will pay a fair price. If this fails - if the populace loses faith in the ability of government to fairly punish those who have harmed them - then one of two things will happen. There will either be a return to the system of private justice taken to get the "pound of flesh," or the victim will suffer the tremendous and possibly life altering frustration of being fundamentally violated yet without any seeming avenue of recourse. The recent suicide of the young rape victim, Sara Clark, bares this out all too clearly.
4. This treatment - and the defense of this treatment by government - of the incredibly serious crime of sexual attacks demonstrates how seriously flawed and dangerous is the left wing philosphy of multiculturalism. The left wing do not trust the average person, so the state attempts to control its law abiding citizens by refusing them any means to protect themselves, even by such non-lethal and innocuous means as pepper spray. Let's not even mention fire arms and the right to defend oneself from attack in the home. The state believes it knows best, so it controls the police all the way down to the local level, causing significant problems of efficiency and responsiveness. And then there is the multiculturalists disdain for personal responsibility. This results in far less punishment for offenders as rehabilitation is emphasized above all else. This is in place of just punishment, a measure of retribution for the victim and protection of society over all.
5. The philosphy behind the UK approach to policing crime and punishment of offenders is the reverse of the "broken windows" theory of policing and punishment that "Sir" Rudy Guiliani used to halve crime in New York over a ten year period. The statistics on crime and punishment in the UK put out by the Labour government are smoke and mirrors in the extreme.
6. How often is it said that we are "a nation of laws." It is true across the West, not only in the U.S. and the U.K. Respect for the rule of law is the societal compact at the very foundation of secular democracies. That brings us to the devilish part of this bit of outrageous insanity. In the movie "Devil's Advocate," Al Pacino as Satan tells his son, Keanu Reeves that he has come back to earth as a lawyer "because the law, my boy, puts us into everything. It's the ultimate backstage pass. It's the new priesthood, baby." He then tells his son that he plans to take over the Earth by destroying the societal compact - respect for the rule of law - "acquittal after acquittal after acquittal until the stench of it reaches so high and far into Heaven it chokes the whole fucking lot of them!" In other words, he will destroy society by stopping punishment of those who have committed crimes. The script writers were very perceptive. And thus we can say that this outrageous insanity by the UK's left wing government is devilish indeed.
