Oldschool41 : I never claimed to be a good debater... just an opinionated person who says what she feels.
Your post was very verbose and seemed to mainly center around telling me that I did a poor job at debating. I don't feel that it is a good debating technique to devote so much focus on telling the other person why they're not a good debater. You shouldn't need to do that in order to present your side. If your argument is good enough, it stands on its own and just makes the other side look weak by comparison. You don't have to point it out, it just becomes obvious.
As for the death penalty comment... yes, I was referring to the United States. Yes, I realize there are only 18 or so states that forbid the death penalty. However, one of those states is New York, a very high-population state that probably deals with murder cases a fair bit. Also even the states that do have the death penalty as a legal option don't use it ALL of the time. Given this, my point still stands that you don't see murders being sentenced to death all the time... in some states it's not even allowed. The reason I bring this up is because it bothers me greatly that people seem to have the mentality that molestation is worse than murder.
So I guess the real issue for me is that... not that people want to see molesters and rapist put to death for the crimes... but that they would sooner see that than seeing murders put to death. That's really the horrifying part of all this. When you feel that someone who took the life of another deserves a softer sentence than someone who sexually violated another but didn't kill them... that's when I start fearing for the world... because it sends the message that people aren't actually valuing the gift of life and are instead prioritizing their assumptions about the quality of one's life.
Yes, you can make the argument that this sort of thing is traumatizing and some people may never recover. You can say they will live the rest of their lives suffering... but how do you
really know that? Each case and person is different... and unless you have first-hand experience being in that situation, you can't really even begin to understand how someone put through that actually feels. I don't like how everyone tries to speak like they know what it's like when they don't. I will not do that. I will readily admit I have no clue what it's like and I'm not going to pretend I can account for what it's like psychologically. I do know what it means to be alive, though. I know that once you die, you have no further chance at life. I know that as long as you're alive, you have a chance to do things. Even if something traumatic happens to you, you have the possibility of recovery. It may be difficult, but there's the potential to still live a happy life in the end. So really, who has it better? A person who is dead or a person who was violated, but still alive with chances and potential?
You never know what life holds for you. Don't devalue life. It is sacred.
People who commit sex crimes definitely deserve punishment... but isn't that what things like prison and forced labor are for? Some people get sexually violated in prison anyway so that could be just desserts.
People who commit crimes against children deserve more severe punishment than what they would get for the same crime against an adult.
Combine the two, and yes, it should be something really harsh... but harsher than murderers?