[...]
To get a reaing of popular opinion on this debate, we forced parents to choose between a mental health or a criminal justice option. We posed the question this way:
Some people say that a man [who had fondled the sex organs of his 12-year-old daughter over a period of 3 years] needs to be brought to trial because he has done something very wrong. Other people think someone like that needs to get psychological help for his problem. If you had to choose one or the other, which do you think is the most important - being brought to trial or getting psychological help?
Overwhelmingly people choose "getting psychological help." Only a scant 12% opted for prosecution. This is important because many professionals have worried that the public harbors a powerful retributive rage against any man who would molest a child. Apparently not: Bostonians, at least, say they prefer treatment over punishment.
The absence of a vindicate impulse toward sexual abusers was also indicated by the kind of punishment people said they would mete out. Such punishments were not very severe. We asked respondents (even those who preferred psychological treatment over criminal punishment) to suppose that the offender was brought to trial. "Which one of these choises would be an appropriate punishment for such an offense" (the father-daughter sexual abuse mentioned earlier). The choises are shown in Table 7-7.
[...]
The preference that people show for treatment rather than punishment of sexual abusers is more than just strong (and perhaps naive) faith in the curative powers of contemporary psychology an psychiatry. People turn toward the treatment option in part to escape from a conflict they feel. People seem to be reluctant to criminalize acts that occur between family members (Armstrong, 1983). Thus, the act of rape has not in the past been legally considered a crime when perpetrated by a husband against his wife. [...]
Sexual abuse is outlawed by a complex tangle of statutes that vary from state to state and even within the same state, so it is not easy to generalize about penalties. But penalties can, at least in theory, be very severe. For sexual intercourse with a child, for example, "most states provide for a maximum of between 10 and 12 years imprisonment" according to a recent comprehensive review on the subject (Kocen & Bulkley, 1981). A number of states including Massachusetts allow life imprisonment and at least three states still provide the death penalty.
In the example we provided for the Boston residents, however, intercourse did not occur. State laws are on the whole a good less severe in ounishing sexual abuse which does not involve intercourse, a crime that goes under the various names of "indecent assault," "sexual contact," "indecent liberties," or "lewd and lascivious acts." In such cases "maximum penalties average 5 to 15 years" (Kocen & Bulkley, 1981). The penalty in Massachusetts, for indecent assault for example, is two-and-one-half to ten years imprisonment. In New Hampshire, sexual contact with a child under 13 has a maximum penalty of only one year in jail and $1000 fine.
However, it also must be borne in mind, these penalties are entirely theoretical. We do not know of any studies that have shown what kinds of sentences child sex offenders actually do receive (as opposed to what they could receive).
[...]
Table 7-7
Appropriate Punishment for Father-Daughter Sexual Abuse
Punishment % Parents Endorsing (N=500)
Capital punishment 0.4
Jail for more than 5 years 18
Jail for 6 months - 5 years 18
Jail for 6 months or less 12
Probation 32
Punishment not appropriate 20