Marco , David L
[David]
> What useful purpose is there in labelling someone sane or insane?
[3WD]
While I would agree with you that labels can be socially detrimental they also can be very useful.
If I need a doctor, dentist, or auto mechanic to try to find without some kind of short hand label
becomes very tedious. And as Marco illustrates this is also very socially useful in your instance.
[Marco}
The press defined him as pedophile (i.e. insane).
[3WD]
Given this boy's age, in the US, even though he is allege to have brutely murdered another person,
it is quite possible that he might be charged as a juvenille and in 10 years or so (at 27) must be
released back into society. (Average actually time spent in prison for 1st muder offense is US is 7
to 10 years)
Assume that he gets the very best of counciling, but pending his release both he and mental heath
evalutators are convinced that back in society there is an extremely high probablity that he will be
a repeat offender. But by law he must be released. In this case the label of PEDOPHILE (ie insane)
is the only choice that society has to protect it's children. Because there have been numerous
cases just like this in the States this is why there is a growing trend to pass sexually offender
laws which make this information widely available to the public. While this does permanently label
and separate those type of individuals, as societies, short of excecution, we have found no other
way of dealing with this type of reality. It may not be nice but it is USEFUL.
3WD
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