[Lauren]

I don't know, my mind changes.

Chopping their balls off/locking them up/killing them, just for their thoughts it's unrealistic. How can we prove they were thinking that? We can't be the thought-police.

Which leads me to this... is paedophilia voluntary or involuntary? I can't tell, it's meant to be treated the same way an (involuntary) fetish is treated, suggesting that it's just a sexual preference rather than purposeful thoughts. If this is the case, then obviously rehabilitation is not going to work.

As far as I know, they never try to "rehabilitate" as such, but they do try to quash the thoughts to the point where they're not led into temptation.

I guess we all need to remember that being a paedophile doesn't lead someone into abusing someone. I know I find it hard to remember when I hear about someone preying or something.

If, however, we're talking about a convicted paedophile - i.e. one that HAS abused or acted on their feelings - then they're obviously not capable/willing to quash their thoughts in order to live by societies moralistic rules and therefore should be punished accordingly.

Which then leads to the question; who decides what is "right" and "wrong"? Is paedophilia different to having a foot fetish, or bondage fetish etc. Those are accepted, yet the sexual preference (not abuse, just thoughts) is counted as wrong and not accepted.

(That being said, I'm a hypocrite in this respect, in that if I hear a story about a paedophile being let out early after successful rehabilitation I still throw around the tabloid-esque "lock him back up!" thing).