St. Croix

if your refering to someones earlier comment on this board if i remember correctly i think the person was trying to say that in most cases the rapist or molester was someone the girls new or was a member of the family. not that they were willing. i think the point the person was trying to make was these crimes are, for the most part, not just random. these were men well known to the vicims and or their families. that as normal you should always keep a close eye on your children but that the chances of this happening randomly are no greater than most other places.
but i do agree about very harsh penalties. unfortunately most of these men are so twisted in the head that they don't think they can help themselves or they think they have done nothing wrong so they don't think about reprocussions. castration comes to late. you can't castrate someone before they strike.

I believe castration is a viable answer to the problem. It is always after the fact but at least it may be prevention in the future. I think it's Texas that has chemical castration using depo-provera shots (a form of female birthcontrol) for sexual offenders. I don't know how they maintain enforcement of the shot once the offender is released but at least they are working on a solution. Sexual predators are a complete menace whether they are known or not, but don't let the irony of the system escape you. In the event of a violent or date rape/molestation if a woman (or male) can't "prove" assult the accused frequently avoids prosecution (and strikes again), however in statatory rape cases (underage) the accused is most often found guilty even though it is consentual. Go figure. You are both right, harsh punishment for the guilty! One more thing that goes unnoticed is the risk of disease in sexual assult. I also believe that if you are partaking in a violent act and spreading something in the process that you should be doubly punished!

talk about anything you want in these cases, but its just my opinion that the leniancy of the courts has a tremendous bearing on how frequently these horrendous crimes take place. talk about castration, but the reality of it is these sex offenders spend little time in jail and are sent back on the streets to perpertrate the same crimes i think we as a society have to admit that certain criminals can not be rehabilitated,{and we as a socirty provide next to nothing any way in the coursed of rehabilitation] maybe the judges who along with parole boards who make these decisions should be held personally accountable but believe me this is just not a vi problem in any means!!

Back in the less "civilized" days, many places would hang people for such crimes. Depending on how bad the crime was, they would hang them there for longer to remind everyone that it wasnt tolerated. With DNA evidence and the science involved with court systems, I think penalties should be more harsh for predators.
Jail time doesnt stop crime and obviously it isnt treated, either, with repeat offenders.
I think they should ban guns on the island, anyhow, what do people need guns for on an island? I mean, really?

Rehabilitation is a good point Linda. Problem is it is hard to rehab those who don't want it and are only going through the motions because it might be a court mandate or help them get paroled sooner.

A few years ago an aquaintance of mine got a DUI and went through all the motions with the victims panels, meetings etc (and yes he has a severe drinking problem). Although he is in the system now, nothing was acomplished by his complacency. He did what he had to do to get back to the bottle. I was facinated by his enthusiasm and how much work he was willing to put into maintaining his addiction. I imagine it is similar with sexual offenders too.

There is a time as adults that we need to take responsability for bad decisions and stop blaming anyone who you can point the finger at (mostly parents). Most folks have a horror story of some sort but they don't go out and commit violent crimes. I have to take Chris's side here and go with the less civilized days. Life is full of choices and if you are going to make bad choices you better be willing to pay the consequences, esspecially repeat offenders. Our jails are overflowing with criminals who are getting masters degrees, working out, eating three squares a day, sleeping in a bed, and awaiting there appeals, not to mention getting an even better criminal education inside, all on tax payers dollars, my God, they even get free concerts in prison. Yet there are millions who are racking up student loans, eating smack raman noodles until payday, who can't afford work out equipment or gym memberships, let alone cable tv or the power bill in the middle of winter. So you'll have to excuse me, the tax payer if I object to rehabilitating the ones that are beyond help. Let them rot!!! The rest of us will lead honest lives and try to hurt as few people as possible and hopefully help treat the ones who were hurt by the sexual predator in the first place. We should be taking care of the victims not the criminals, they made their choice.

I agree.

elle, again i couldn,t agree with you more what scares me is i agree with chris[ just kidding chris ]love to hear eveyone s point of view on a forum and it causes us all to look at things from a diferent perspectiv e ALWAYS A GOOD THING! AGAIN people , children and hard core criminals a lot of whom are exceptionally bright know how to play the criminal/court/ psychiatatrist game having worked with behaviorally disturbed kids a good amount of time in my career i have seen some blatant, scary , crime riddden behavior..which can 't be proved, AT LEAST ACCORDING TO THE LOCAL POLICE, but acocording to my collagues we knew took place and they had everone in the system snowed ubder because there exists a very bright criminal mind again i don'yt know if this forum is the place for this discussion .. but i firmly believe the judges, the parole boards and pshychiatrists etc should be held accountable for anyone with apast violent record relealesed

I wasnt talking about crime in general like thieves or con artists. I am talking about rage crimes. Like rape and murder...where most people have it against their moral fiber to not even think about these type of violent and hateful crimes, there are a few people who have rage within themselves. It doesn't have anything to do with working the system. The system has it's faults. It has to do with finding a way to prevent these crimes as opposed to dealing with the pieces. I think it all comes down to the family system and values.

There have been 24 REPORTED rapes in STX alone already this year.
So if that trend continues, that will be about one reported rape per week and a total of about 50 per year. That is close to one reported rape per thousand people. If the population is half women and half men, then its a .2% iof the female population reporting rapes every year.

So if you are in a large city, say, one million people. Then, maybe 500,000 of them would be women. And that would be the equivalent of 1000 reported rapes a year for that city. That would be close to three reports of rape per day.

I am just trying to think it through because the number of reports seems way too high.
I wonder if many rapes arent even reported because of the lack of faith in the police force.
Seriously, if you lived in a suburb of 50 thousand and there was a rape every week, wouldnt you take notice? Wouldnt you want to speak out against it and try to help?
I dont know what I can do from STJ, but i am really concerned. I bet there are a lot that arent reported, too.