Child Killers

The thread has drifted away from the original subject, probably because child killers are such a useful source of outrage to fuel a general rant about prison policy, but true predatory paedophiles are a special case because they are arguably insane. The most immediately obvious corollary is that increasing the gravity of sentences will not have any deterent effect, because the decision to commit such a crime is not the result of rational calculation. (Besides, given that child-related offenders in normal prison conditions have the choice of solitary confinement or daily risk to life, it could hardly get much more severe.) In fact, as Ian has pointed out, more extreme sentences simply increase their motivation to kill, since it can't make their fate much worse.

And the next corollary is that using them as the basis for general prison policy is as unhelpful as basing your treatment of murderers on people who chop off their neighbour's head because the demons from space told them to.