Incarceration vs Treatment

1.) Incarceration is the state of being confined in prison. 2.) Incarceration is a form of punishment for someone who has done something wrong or illegal. 3.) Punishment is the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense. 4.) It would be wrong to punish someone for something in which they could not help. 5.) Pedophilia is an illness and not a crime. 6.) Treatment focuses on the offender and not the offense. 7.) Treatment is medical care given to someone for an illness or injury; it can also be psychological and medical interventions. 8.) If we treat a pedophile, we can prevent relapses and also reduce reoffending. 9.) With incarceration, pedophiles are confined for a set period of time and then later put back into communities. 10.) If we put pedophiles back into communities without proper treatment, we are just asking for another occurrence of pedophilia. 11.) With treatment we would be creating situations where the person can come in, remain anonymous, receive sex drive reducing medication, counseling, group therapy, or whatever is appropriate to the situation they"re in. 12.) If we're going to find a way to stop pedophilia, the end goal and the most important thing we care about, we have to acknowledge the fact that we need to study and understand this disorder, which means understanding the people who have it. 13.) By just incarcerating them we are not getting an understanding of the people who have it we are just keeping them for a period of time and then they are released. 14.) The lack of research on the pedophilia means there is no progress being made on possible treatments and even if as a society we dislike the idea of "helping" pedophiles, it is important that we increase our research on pedophilia. 15.) A pedophile should be held responsible for their conduct without a doubt but not for the underlying attraction, and by treating the person it is not in no way giving a green light to commit the act again. 16.) Acknowledging that pedophiles have a mental disorder and removing the obstacles to their coming forward and seeking help/treatment, is not only the right thing to do but it would also advances efforts to lower pedophilic acts. 17.) Therefore, persons convicted of a pedophilic crime ought to be treated and not incarcerate in all instances. I will conclude by saying that incarceration is not the right choice for pedophilic acts, the right choice would be treatment. Incarceration has always seemed to be the first choice people would turn to when dealing with pedophilia, but there are different and better ways to handle certain situations, especially this one. We need to grow and in order for us to do that changes have to be made. For people with this type of disorder its best that we help in some way; we shouldn"t just throw them away and forget about it. We have to acknowledge the problem and handle it the best way possible. I know that when people hear of pedophiles they are immediately disgusted and want to throw them into prison, but these people need more than incarceration, they need help. We can"t just turn away from them and deny them any chance of being cured from this disorder. Treatment for pedophilia is not only the right thing to do but it would also advance efforts to lower pedophilic acts.