A critical contribution to social understanding. He presents the thesis that behavior is best driven by focus on why we doing things rather than what we do. Related to child abuse - it is not enough to create laws to punish abuse and provide rules to avoid situations where abuse can occur. It is not enough to get people to report abuse. It is important that everyone understand that abusing others causes pain - and we need to value not hurting others.
That begs the age-old question: do we punish criminals to rehabilitate them or to protect the innocent?
ReplyDeleteIn general today - we have no mechanism for punishment - and the primary focus is protecting the innocent. Beis din at most can allow reporting to secular authorities which might lead to punishment.
DeleteRegarding pedophiles - rehabilitation is generally not going to happen - though going to jail does reduce the subsequent crimes
The claim that someone has done teshuva and therefore does not have to be reported to the police - does not serve to protect the innocent.