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Father Sentenced For Sexually Abusing Daughter Online

Discussion in 'Alley of Dangerous Angles' started by Splunge, Dec 20, 2007.

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  1. Montresor

    Montresor Mostly Harmless Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder

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    Remove all ads!
    Four years? What would he have got for raping an adult woman, a rap over the fingers?? Heck, we're talking about a four year old girl, and his own daughter to boot - this means the gravest imaginable misuse of trust.

    I find it hard to believe an "insanity" defence in this case. He has set up a Web camera and invited others to watch over the net; this makes his crime deliberate and premeditated, and with an economic incentive. That is not an act of a mentally unstable person acting on his impulses. He is not insane, unless we accept that all criminals are insane to some degree.
     
    Montresor, Dec 23, 2007
    #21
  2. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Yeah, rape sentences have been a joke as of late. However, Poland's recent criminal code amendments have upped the penalty for violent sex crimes. Now plain rape is 2-12 years, by 2+ perpetrators is 3-15 each, also "exceptional cruelty" makes it 5-15. In fact, in the latter case, it doesn't have to be full rape. While sexual coercion (below rape) is 0.5-8 years normally, it's still 5-15 in case of exceptional cruelty.

    Unfortunately, forcing someone into prostitution is 1-10 years, which means that if you force someone to prostitute himself but you don't actually rape the person, you get less than for rape. But they got their digits almost right this time.

    I don't know how much they hand out in Canada in a typical case, but I suppose here it would be about the same for a first-time offender. And I don't think insanity is necessarily true in his case. In fact, I find it doubtful, although there's not enough data to say.
     
    chevalier, Dec 24, 2007
    #22
  3. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    First of all according to the article, it's less than 3 years. The article says the man has already served 14 months in prison, and he has been sentenced to serve another 20 on top of what he already served. By my math, that's 34 months, which is actually less than 3 years. While I do not know of an identical case here in the US, it is my opinion that he would have received far more here than he did in Canada.
     
    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot, Dec 27, 2007
    #23
  4. Montresor

    Montresor Mostly Harmless Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder

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    I think this is the time he will serve before being eligible for parole. I don't know the practise in Canada but in Denmark a prisoner would typically serve two thirds of the full sentence before being released on parole.
     
    Montresor, Dec 27, 2007
    #24
  5. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I just noticed AFI's post.

    Aldeth, what you probably don't know is that, in Canada, time spent in prison prior to being found guilty is counted as double. So the 14 months that he already spent in prison is actually considered to be 28 months; add the other 20 months gives 48 (i.e. 4 years).

    I'm not really sure why the double credit - maybe it's an attempt to speed trials up, or maybe it has someting to do with "innocent until proven guilty". Beren could shed more light on this, I'm sure.
     
    Splunge, Dec 31, 2007
    #25
  6. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member Member of the Week Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    There's at least three prongs to it. One is the presumption of innocence. If the accused obtains a not guilty verdict, then it becomes in effect a punishment undeserved.

    The second prong is that its dead time. If you're convicted, you can at least try to spend your time doing rehabilitative programming and the like. There's no opportunity for that during custody pending sentence.

    The third prong is that time spent in custody is deemed to involve a heightened sense of apprehension relative to time sentenced. In prison, its more or less settled that you did it and that you know what to expect. Time in custody, a person can fairly be expected to have a greater sense of apprehension, his future, providing for his family, and so on.
     
    Beren, Dec 31, 2007
    #26
  7. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Thanks, Beren.

    The only one that doesn't make much sense to me is the first you mention:

    If the accused gets a 'not guilty' verdict, then getting double credit for time served prior to the verdict is pretty much irrelevant, since he/she isn't going to jail afterward anyway. "Time served" or "double credit for time served" doesn't make any difference in that case. Some sort of other compensation would make more sense to me.
     
    Splunge, Dec 31, 2007
    #27
  8. Drew

    Drew Arrogant, contemptible, and obnoxious Adored Veteran

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    The point, I believe, is that the double credit for time served prior to conviction is meant to serve as a deterrent to overly lengthy trials. If the prosecutor takes too long in the trial, the criminals are not going to get a sufficient punishment for their crimes. Since the prosecutors, under this system, have a vested interest in providing a speedy trial, it means that the innocent (or at least the ones that are found not guilty) will also be held for as short a period as humanly possible during their trials.
     
    Drew, Jan 1, 2008
    #28
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