Chip implant for sex offenders

[dong]

Um, I just called that into question above.

Your situation is not an uncommon one at all, however- it is real and significant and I do think it really requires addressing, but I am not sure that this is at all the best way of going about it.

 

[framed]

Its pretty unfortunate that there are people living in fear of very low probability events all the time. But that does not justify to me turning the US into a 1984 style surveillance state. We've had adequate demonstration through history that long term someone will eventually abuse it. The cost is enormous. The value is marginal.

I have a hard time seeing how it makes you safer to "chip everyone", since if you did that you couldn't effectively monitor everyone simultaneously without hiring just about everyone to do it. There are some pretty sophisticated computers that might make the problem a little easier, but on a national level the best we could do for a long while would be to record everyones movements for tracking suspects after the event, not for preventing them. If its not preventative in nature its hard to argue that its making you safer. As far as I can tell we have enough people in jail already, we don't need more help putting people there.

In terms of corruption I'm not (just) talking about leaders gone overboard. Keep in mind the government is made up of regular people too. A certain percentage of them are going to abuse the system. Example scenarios: An upset boyfriend working for the government decides to check up on his girlfriends chip. A white supremacist decides to locate all the black people in his town. A corrupt detective sets up a search to find all the people going to a particular porn shop, figuring he can blackmail the wealthy ones.

I'm sorry destiny but I think its unhealthy to put absolute faith in the incorruptibility of your government. Having worked for the government myself for several years I've seen the amount of general corrupt behavior at all levels, and it absolutely needs to be kept in check.

 

[luvcamerasnic]

I'd definately against chip implantation! I don't care how critical the crime is. After all, it wouldn't stop the people anyways. I can think of one way to stop them, and it involves a big knife. . .

 

[dong]

And hypocrisy! XD

 

[berlinlife06]

I don't want sex offenders with a chip. I want them to be castrated! That is the only warranty that they'll behave accordingly and can be back into society or kill themselves. I know I am a little extremist, but usually the sex offenders prey on the weaker and innocent. They deserve a punishment.

 

[dong]

Indeed, chemical castration is one of the last lines of treatment for those with pathological paraphilias. There have also been notable cases of voluntary castration where the patient has judged themselves to be otherwise unsafe in society. For some unfortunate people, this is a payoff that may have to be made to ensure cohabitability- in this case such may have to be applied to those who have a high recidivism rate.

What I don't get is the whole mandatory commitment thing. It's highly inefficient, and on net is pretty much worse than termination. Basically it's a huge waste of time.

 

[luvcamerasnic]

But . . .Who's to say that someone else isn't too dangerous to be on the street? Where do we draw the line?

 

[dong]

Well, you'd think that laws would do that- both as a (hopefully primarily) preventative and a punitive/compensatory measure. But then who decides these laws...we do!

So you see there's a niggling problem behind absolutist, isolationist arguments for morality (that morality is supposed to be part of a greater force separate from humans that lords over humans...)

That's also why the part that flies right through the ethics commitee is the voluntary treatments- the subjects have already stated their judgment, whether acknowledged or not, that they themselves are likely at too high a risk to continue functioning in a normal social environment. In fact I saw in the news today that one convicted (child) murderer agreed to be electronically monitored (somebody who knows what I'm talking about give citations please!)

I would bet that lots of people regard this as some kind of paving the way for institutionalised/standardised electronic monitoring, but we'll see what happens.

 

[mamab]

The Bible says that in the last days, people will have to take a mark on their hand or forehead. How do we know these chips aren't the forerunner of the "mark of the beast?"

 

[dong]

We don't!

Personally I wouldn't encourage such a reading, although it certainly is possible that with a prod and the right impetus, such could feasibly become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

However the way things are going, I think the real "religious wars" are to be fought on slightly broader (more international) fronts.

 

[vicki2]

A sex offender should be castrated. Very simple. That or death.

 

[tater03]

Ok, not that I devalue adults by saying this but I just feel if you harm a child then by all means put a chip in them. I am sorry but as adults it is our responsibility to protect children and if this is the only way than so be it. And when I say harm I mean murder or molesting them it is all the same to me.

 

[berlinlife06]

I agree with you. Although I think the best punishment for sex offenders against kids, would be taking them to a jail in Venezuela: the inmates have a very strict code of ethics! If you robbed a bank, you are a hero, if you killed for passion, they leave you alone, but if you harmed a child, they really are agressive. They get all together, rape the "sex offender" repeatedly, 20 or 30 guys, and then, they hit him until he dies! And the guards never say anything when that happens... it is like the "real punishment for a crime against an innocent human being".

 

[vicki2]

I don't think we've seen enough cases where rehabilitation seems to work ....how many serious cases have you seen where the person wasn't a repeat offender? Or even one who has served jail time before? Didn't John Couey down in Florida have a prior rap sheet for molestation?

 

[dong]

I think we went in a bit of a circle here. Re-read the thread from the beginning?