Quote:
Originally Posted by penartur
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Thank goodness, we live in Roman Law countries. That means, you cannot judge someone just for their views - only for their deeds....
Also, i'm sorry that there are so many pedophiles victims in this thread; i do not, in any way, depreciate or underestimate your pain; but i want to say that maybe your state has something to do with it.
Here in Russia we also have freedom of speech. ... However, i believe that pedophilia crimes are of much lower scale here....
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While I agree with much of what you say, technically, most of us live in common law countries (even most states of Europe have evolved local code variations).
Also, as someone who grew up in Eastern Europe, I would guess that Russia has at least as much child abuse as the West, but it is much less discussed in the open, and often taken less seriously (Russia and parts of Asia seemed to be be in the news a few years ago as the major sources of child pornography).
The media in the West goes into feeding frenzy on some topics, and child abuse is one of them. In Russia, as in much of Eastern Europe, child abuse rarely made the news, just as homosexuality barely existed
There is also a significant divergence as to what is considered a child: in some states in the US a 19 year old can be convicted for sleeping with his 17 year old girlfriend, while in Spain the age of consent is 13, according to Wikipedia. I remember when Roman Polanski was in the news, someone mentioned that at the time when he raped the 12 year old girl, the age of consent in France was 12 - thus he could not be extradited back to the US (have not looked this up to verify).
Anyway, I do agree that a book should not be banned, period. Amazon was in the right for defending the right to sell the book, and is in the wrong for taking it down.
BTW, I doubt the book in question advocated anything as violent as this:
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If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her ... and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel's father shall say ... these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ... But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die." Deuteronomy 22:13-21