Sex offender gets light sentence for molesting 8 victims as Brooklyn judge sympathizes

[Liberal_in_LA]

Sex offender gets light sentence for molesting 8 victims as Brooklyn judge sympathizes with his mental illness
Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice expressed sympathies for Lowell Britt, who suffers from frotteurism. The mental illness is defined as molesting people without their consent in a public place.

A repeat sex offender convicted of molesting eight women and teen girls in Brooklyn laundromats didn’t get any extra jail time Tuesday from a judge sympathetic of his mental illness.

Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice lamented that the state prison system does not offer a treatment program for the pervert’s particular mental disorder of frotteurism.

The sickening disease is defined in the dictionary as the “practice of achieving sexual stimulation ... by touching and rubbing against a person without the person’s consent and usually in a public place.”

Lowell Britt, of Bay Shore, L.I, was sentenced to three years in prison to run concurrent with the same jail term he received last summer for a sex attack in Queens. Britt is also subject to 15 years of post-release supervision.

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A 22-year-old woman wrote: “I’m begging for justice, not only for me but for all our little girls out not only that he goes to rehab but serves time and get this animal off the street.”

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“I’ve done time without knowing what’s wrong with me,” Britt, 29, told the judge.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/sex-offender-light-sentence-molesting-8-victims-article-1.2067723

[Kalidurga]

1. I have sympathy too

However, I still think that people who have urges to violate other people and be violent need to be removed from society so they don't make more victims. You can't take back molesting, raping, and murdering people. If a mistake is made and a rapist is back on the streets because of this sympathy and he does it again, the well meaning intention of the judge means nothing. I don't know if life in prison is appropriate, but certainly being removed from society permanently is not inappropriate. There is a town in Florida where sex offenders sent to live I am not sure if it's a court referral or they get a referral by some other agency, but they are sex offenders and they live there with dignity I think it should be life and it should be a requirement especially given the number of victims many sex offenders have.

[pipoman]

2. Wait a minute. ...

This reads as if the judge diagnosed him? I can sympathize with someone with a sexual predilection which is socially unacceptable or illegal. When they act on the predilection it is a problem. When they repeat offend it is unacceptable.

[840high]

3. ....

[Skittles]

4. the man would be minus a penis if he rubbed up against me

seriously

[Texasgal]

5. OOOMF!

ZING! You go LADY!

[customerserviceguy]

7. Yes, you go!

Some street justice is in store for this perv. With the slap-on-the-wrist sentence, it might happen very soon.

[NuclearDem]

8. Yeah, maybe don't cheer for that.

Skittles wants he should become a eunuch if he did it to her, but none of this "street justice" nonsense.

[NuclearDem]

10. You clearly didn't read what I wrote. Goodnight.

[Skittles]

13. if a guy is rubbing it on me, I would feel entitled to do what I want with it

a stranger......mmmmmm yes, I would want he should be enuchsized

[SummerSnow]

6. So this is called frotteurism?

Oh and when I leave you a eunuch it will be called chopitoffism

[Lancero]

11. I find it funny as hell...

That this site cries out about how the justice system needs to take a lighter hand with the mentally ill, saying they would be better served with psychiatric help for their conditions instead of a jail cell, and then goes and cries about how this mentally ill person should have been stuck in a cell with some members even fantasizing about mutilating him.

Said this in another topic, and it fits here as well - Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

[Ino]

14. Well, there are the mentally ill...

who are no threat to anyone, being beaten by the police for walking shoeless alongside the road and not responding to cop commands.

And then there are mentally ill who rape and molest other people, even children. But who are not so out of touch that they don't know what they're doing is wrong.
http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Frotteurism.html

The primary focus of frotteurism is touching or rubbing one's genitals against the clothing or body of a nonconsenting person. This behavior most often occurs in situations that allow rapid escape. Frottage (the act of rubbing against the other person) is most commonly practiced in crowded places such as malls, elevators, on busy sidewalks, and on public transportation vehicles. <snip> Most people who engage in frottage (sometimes called frotteurs) usually fantasize that they have an exclusive and caring relationship with their victims during the moment of contact. However, once contact is made and broken, the frotteur realizes that escape is important to avoid prosecution.

See the difference?

Some people find humor in anything.

[Lancero]

15. I find humor in hypocrisy.

You can't argue for more gentle treatment for people diagnosed with a mental illness and then start screaming about how wrong it is for people inflicted with a specific mental illness to be treated gently as well.

Perhaps people should say what mental illnesses they think are deserving of better treatment by the courts whenever they say the courts need to treat the mentally ill better?

[REP]

16. This is a paraphilia, not a mental illness.

Judge got it wrong.

[Lancero]

18. The APA lists the condition in their book of mental disorders

Of which paraphilia's are a subset.

There is a bit of history behind the separate name, which I'll skip for one of DSM IV's diagnosis guidelines - a paraphilia is not diagnosable as a psychiatric disorder unless it causes distress to the individual or harm to others.

So yes, it can be classified as a mental illness... Unless, of course, you want to argue that this person didn't harm anyone.

[REP]

20. Sexual assault is always sexual assault

Sex offenders need long sentences - in a mental hospital, if appropriate - but not leniency and warm fuzziness from a judge.

I gotta say, nice handwaving though.

[Lancero]

22. I gotta say, nice backtracking.

Whatever happened to "It's not a mental illness"?

[REP]

25. It doesn't matter, since it's a sexual assault.

[Lancero]

26. Nice handwave.

[Ino]

17. Yes I can...

Not everything is as black & white as you think.

There are none so blind as those who still see no difference.

[Lancero]

19. I see the difference.

The people protesting for better treatment of the mentally ill don't.

Or have I missed their announcement about what mental illnesses should get better treatment by the courts, which ones shouldn't, and which ones should get harsher treatment?

[REP]

21. "Better treatment" doesn't mean "preferential treatment"

It means "treatment appropriate to their mental illness, such as confinement to a mental health facility instead of a prison and/or treatment before they harm themselves or others."

Not "let them off easy because awwww mental illness"

[Lancero]

23. I'm a fan of harsh punishments for criminals, including the DP for specific cases.

I'm just think it's interesting how some members do a complete 180 on past stances when it comes to cases like this. (And to this, I was more thinking of the people who were jumping at the chance for vigilante justice, or those supporting them, even those this site supposedly is against such.

My "Be careful what you wish for" was directed at those who shout about how the courts need to treat people with mental illness better. If it was up to me, it'd be off with the balls and in a cell until all his victims are willing to let him be free. (Of course, requiring that many people to agree would take quite a long time.)

[REP]

24. "Better" has not been used to mean "leniently"

It has been used as short hand for "better than they are treated now," not "given more lenient sentences than others."

But I'm sure you know know this.

[Ino]

12. Oh, WTH?

Well, too bad for him, though I suspect the only part of his problem that disturbs him is having gotten caught. Makes me wonder what that judge's "disease" is, that he is more sympathetic to the perpetrator than the victims.