Now that we know the murderer of Clemson student Tiffany Souers was a repeat sex offender and been convicted of rape multiple times, the questionbecomes – can sexual predators be rehabilitated?
We didn’t know much about the “bikini strangler” before. The police released grainy photos of him at a drive through ATM with bandanas tied all around his head and face. The police profile said he was a young man (18-25), this was probably his first crime, he may have known or been friends with the victim. One Fox News analyst even said the killer must have been someone who hated women who wore revealing clothing, this was why he used a bikini to strangle Tiffany.
No we see Jerry Buck Inman and he doesn’t look much like our profile. He is 35-year-old man with a history of sexual crimes. A news report last night said he has spent all of 8 months of his adult life outside of jail. He has repeatedly shown that he has no intention of living a productive life in society.
If a person like this cannot be changed and refuses to change, is the death penalty or at least life in prison not the only option. Even if someone has not progressed to murder yet, could we not remove a serial rapist from society in order to protect our children? There are too many sex offenders who get out of jail and continually committ the same crimes mainly against women and children.
When I see this guy, he is the poster child for why we need tougher sentencing for sex crimes, especially for sexual predators. He should have never been out walking around, much less out stalking another victim. The only thing that his victims and Tiffany’s family can take solace in is that he will never do this again. He has confessed to the murder and he will get the death penalty.
Good question. Anyone seen Kevin Bacon in The Woodsman? It's on my list, haven't gotten to it yet.
Interesting side note – why aren't Christians all up in arms about this film? I mean, it humanizes a pedophile. The reason? It doesn't try to justify his sin, but show what it is like to try to leave it behind.
The Woodsman isn't that good a film, and I say that objectively, not because we never agree on anything Seeker. You have to be willing to make enormous leaps of faith in terms of the storyline and believing that certain characters are doing certain things.
Anyway, I'd that rehab for sex offenders is like rehab for anything else: incredibly difficult, but possible. That said, society keeping an eye on offenders seems like a good idea, although it should be pointed out that some offenders – people who peed in public when drunk have to register – are of hardly as much concern as the Bikini Strangler.
To follow up on that idea briefly, we need a better way of dealing with sex offenders in terms of who we're lumping together. Just as lumping the old woman dying of cancer down the street who smokes pot for relief with Scarface doesn't make an ounce of sense, neither does punishing "sex offenders" who had the audacity to pee outside. Monitoring of those with a real potential to reoffend often takes a backseat to making sure as many offenders as possible are registered, which is an absurd waste of resources.
Many states have started a sub-category called "sexual predators" within the sex offender to let you know you is dangerous and who "peed outside" (which would make me a sex offender).
As you point out there is a vast difference between this guy and an 18 year old that sleeps with his 16 year old girlfriend.
Aaron,
That's really one of the major problems with how we're dealing with sexual predators. We treat the guy who peed outside as if he's the same as the Bikini Strangler, which means that the poor guy who peed outside is unfairly tarnished (dammit, if we can't pee outside anymore, what is America coming to) while the dangers of the BS are muted.
We really ought to write the laws far more carefully: indecent exposure, 18-year-olds sleeping with 17-year-olds and other such nonsense shouldn't even be on the list. That said, sexual predators ought to as publicized and known about as is possible. Let's focus our resources on their supervision, surveillance, therapy and etc.
But I really can't get past how unbelievably stupid our current system is.