In the light of different child-sexual-abuse scandals, some like to talk tough and propose policies based on pure emotionalism (like giving the victim a pistol with which to shoot the perpetrator). Unfortunately, there is little of any practical value in this. Firstly, I honestly don't see how giving a victim the opportunity to pull the trigger to kill the perpetrator will help the victim in any way. Who knows, it might help some victims, but I doubt it would help most. And that's assuming we can prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Secondly, we tend to view addicts (often victims of childhood abuse) as cash cows. We encourage them to gamble (since it lowers our taxes), advertize alcohol (to boost aclohol sales) to them at every turn, legalize prostitution (to create jobs for trauma victims), and now marijuana too, etc. etc. etc.
Firstly, the victim can have many strong motives to keep abuse a deep secret. Secondly, it's hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt in court even if it's found out (and rightly so, since I would like to keep wrongful convictions to a minimum).
So, if we really care about victims of childhood abuse, what are actual practical solutions? While there may exist many, I'd start with an effective joint Federal-provincial-territorial-municipal counter-addiction policy.
To start, make Canadian passports free of charge to any Canadian citizen applying for one and add facial and finger-print scanning data to his passport data on request (purely voluntary). This would allow a casino to use the passport for passport and fingerprint scanning for example.
Then allow a person, when applying for his passport, to sign a self-exclusion form that would make it an offence puishable by a heavy fine to gamble (after proved guilt through due process of course). If he wants, he could add drinking to the prohibitions too. It could be a line-item self-exclusion declaration form that would allow him to check off the prohibitions that he wants to apply to himself, with the declaration auto-renewing ever five years until he requests for the autorenewal to stop.
Then require each casino to scan a person's passport and fingerprint to enter and block entry to any self-excluded person.
Then make access to online porn, gambling, and other addictive sites opt-in only with the customer having to show proof of age and lack of self-exclusion to the internet provider to opt in.
Then explore the possibility of expanding the self-exclusion policy to alcohol and other drugs and businesses in some manner too.
When a person does apply for his passport, have passport offices carry pamphlets with information pertaining to different kinds of addictions (both chemical and behavioural) and where to turn for help as well as the self-exclusion option when applying for a passport.
I think if we sincerely cared about victims of childhood sexual abuse (as opposed to just the online bravado about what we'd do to the perpetrators) and were looking for practical ways to help them in the formative years of their early adulthood to stay on course, then the above or something similar might serve as a practical step in that direction.
Secondly, we tend to view addicts (often victims of childhood abuse) as cash cows. We encourage them to gamble (since it lowers our taxes), advertize alcohol (to boost aclohol sales) to them at every turn, legalize prostitution (to create jobs for trauma victims), and now marijuana too, etc. etc. etc.
Firstly, the victim can have many strong motives to keep abuse a deep secret. Secondly, it's hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt in court even if it's found out (and rightly so, since I would like to keep wrongful convictions to a minimum).
So, if we really care about victims of childhood abuse, what are actual practical solutions? While there may exist many, I'd start with an effective joint Federal-provincial-territorial-municipal counter-addiction policy.
To start, make Canadian passports free of charge to any Canadian citizen applying for one and add facial and finger-print scanning data to his passport data on request (purely voluntary). This would allow a casino to use the passport for passport and fingerprint scanning for example.
Then allow a person, when applying for his passport, to sign a self-exclusion form that would make it an offence puishable by a heavy fine to gamble (after proved guilt through due process of course). If he wants, he could add drinking to the prohibitions too. It could be a line-item self-exclusion declaration form that would allow him to check off the prohibitions that he wants to apply to himself, with the declaration auto-renewing ever five years until he requests for the autorenewal to stop.
Then require each casino to scan a person's passport and fingerprint to enter and block entry to any self-excluded person.
Then make access to online porn, gambling, and other addictive sites opt-in only with the customer having to show proof of age and lack of self-exclusion to the internet provider to opt in.
Then explore the possibility of expanding the self-exclusion policy to alcohol and other drugs and businesses in some manner too.
When a person does apply for his passport, have passport offices carry pamphlets with information pertaining to different kinds of addictions (both chemical and behavioural) and where to turn for help as well as the self-exclusion option when applying for a passport.
I think if we sincerely cared about victims of childhood sexual abuse (as opposed to just the online bravado about what we'd do to the perpetrators) and were looking for practical ways to help them in the formative years of their early adulthood to stay on course, then the above or something similar might serve as a practical step in that direction.
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