A Sobering Thought

[David Sklansky]

Most serial killers, I would assume, get off from murdering, as much as they do from any sex crimes they commit. But I don't think the same is true for child molestor/kidnappers. Yet they also invariably kill their victims as well. Presumably they don't get off from the killing but do it because they hope it will reduce the chances of getting caught.

It stands to reason that these sickies know from the moment they kidnap the kid, that they will eventually kill her/him. Thus their sexual desire for children is so insanely strong that it overcomes both fear of punishment and any moral aversion to killing (which I would think even pedophiles usually have).

If their desire was merely moderately strong, they would suppress it if only to avoid having to kill. But it seems reasonable that moderate desires about anything are a lot more common than extreme ones. Which leads me to wonder how many people would commit these kidnapping/sex crimes if they didn't have to kill and knew they would still get away with it.

[leaponthis]

[ QUOTE ]
Which leads me to wonder

[/ QUOTE ]

David,

Did you spend New Year's Eve alone thinking this one up? The next time that you are feeling depressed, call someone, please. I find it cute that you titled this "a sobering thought". I bet you were sipping the old John Daniels when this came to mind, huh?

leaponthis

[trapsetter]

Fear of getting caught is a huge motivator for any child molester/kidnapper. Prison is, in and of itself, a horrible place, but it is beyond horrible for people who commit criminal acts from children. All pedophiles know this, and I would think this is the biggest motivator for doing whatever is necessary to avoid being caught.

In killing their victims, I guess they figure, "well, if i'm going to get caught, i'd rather be dead than go to prison for even one day, where i'll be tortured first and then killed, as opposed to just being killed with a cyringe by the state in a relatively humane way."

Kind of a no-brainer if you really think about it.

[BluffTHIS!]

Another reason to adopt as a standard punishment, on the second conviction for molestation involving different victims (to eliminate an innocent person being thus punished), the *physical* castration of such persons. It should not be considered cruel or unusual because they can't be cured, and multiple victims means they aren't making an effort (or aren't capable but it doesn't matter either way) to control themselves.

(cue Mickey/Cyrus to denounce this punishment as inhumane)

[blackize]

[ QUOTE ]
Another reason to adopt as a standard punishment, on the second conviction for molestation involving different victims (to eliminate an innocent person being thus punished), the *physical* castration of such persons. It should not be considered cruel or unusual because they can't be cured, and multiple victims means they aren't making an effort (or aren't capable but it doesn't matter either way) to control themselves.


[/ QUOTE ]

The compulsion for child molestors has very little to do with physical, sexual pleasure, and much more to do with psychology. Life in prison or death is the only way to stop them from molesting.

[Dementia]

David,

Did you think of this moral quagmire before or after you housed a 16yo runaway in exchange for sex?

[leaponthis]

Hey David,

Why not invite a mystery poster to answer one of your brilliant questions once a week? For example, you could ask a tournament question and have Dan Harrington answer it under "mysteryperson". Maybe you could get doctor Phil to answer these very poignant serial killer questions or Marth Stewart could come on and give you wardrobe ideas. Just a thought. Trying to keep things moving along.

leaponthis

[leaponthis]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you think of this moral quagmire before or after you housed a 16yo runaway in exchange for sex?

[/ QUOTE ]

She was 19 years old. This is a what if question.

leaponthis

[Bibigon]

I wound venture that if there were no consequences, sex with children would relatively frequent. Along the same amounts as cocaine usage.

[Blarg]

David --

This is an interesting question, and it is interesting enough to do some reading on. I used to read a ton about serial killers, and profiling and such, and common in such reading is the idea that serial killers take a very long time to work up to a psychology and sexuality that can adapt to being so completely transgressive. It's not just an angry guy or a horny guy who becomes a serial killer. It's not that way with a serial child sexual murderer, either.

It's not necessarily the case that serial child murderers don't get off from killing. Many of them have been interviewed and examined, and some confess that they fantasize about having sex with kids AND about hurting them at the same time, or as part of the overall experience. There are indeed people who crave the experience of torturing a child, sexually, or otherwise.

The sexual impulse of the child molester is not necessarily one in which children are part of a menu of options. This is much less the case again when hurting or murdering a child is part of the fantasy. The entirely of the sexual impulse can be transferred to children, such that an adult has little or no sexual interest for the molester at all. The child is not the alternative, then, but the entire focus. A sicko will form his entire personality around just that. This is why being a child molester is often argued as incurable. It's not an adaptation, but a substitution of one kind of sexuality for another. The killing/torture may or may not be a part of it, depending on the molester. But when it is, it follows the same patterns as much of regular serial killing does.

Serial killers are usually classified into organized and disorganized killers, though, and I don't recall seeing many child molester/killers who were disorganized. By disorganized, think a psychotic blitz attack, like where someone storms through an unlocked door and stabs someone 80 times. Serial killers who are child molesters, in my reading, have been organized killers.

This argues for their not being entirely out of control. Then, the "necessity" to kill a child to save oneself, after molesting it, should be clear to that molester. The fact that serial molesters will molest anyway, even when they know they will not be able to get away with it(unlike, say, a priest) would argue that they accept murder as the price of their fun.

If you are positing the "one-time" child molester being compelled to murder, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Child molesters are not by their nature "one-time" animals. It takes a long, long time to get to the point where you would either molest a child or molest a child with the chance that you would have to kill it. By the time you've gotten there, worrying about killing a kid would just be a stumbling block you eventually learn to deal with like anyone else deals with any other stumbling blocks in their lives. It becomes easier the more you do it, and after a while it's no big deal. For some, it may even become fun. For some, the idea of pain and murder was always part of the fun from the beginning.

I really don't think laws compel many people one way or the other when it comes to child sexual killing. They have to go past too many astounding taboos to get to that point in the first place. By that point, they are so far away from ordinary societal mores and considerations that murder doesn't loom anywhere near as awful as it does to the ordinary person.

I would recommend reading Robert Ressler, the man who invented the term "serial killer" and started the FBI's VICAP (Vicious Criminal Apprehension) program, for some really interesting and horribly sobering stories about how serial killers and molesters evolve. His first book was "He Who Fights Monsters."