r/nottheonion 6d ago

Convicted child rapist qualifies for Olympics

https://www.newsweek.com/steven-van-de-velde-dutch-beach-volleyball-olympics-1918442
19.3k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

923

u/MIdtownBrown68 6d ago

The Netherlands—not big on long prison sentences. They’re more about rehabilitation.

5

u/I_lurk_on_wtf 6d ago

Can’t rehab degeneracy

26

u/BearOnTwinkViolence 6d ago

Maybe this is the hottest of all hot takes but I actually appreciate that they’re trying to rehab sex offenders versus just putting them on a list.

I don’t know if you can “fix” pedophilia but if someone can at least be given resources and counseling to prevent them from reoffending, I think that’s a good thing. Obviously this dude shouldn’t be in the Olympics but I’m not going to be upset that they tried to fix him. His sentence should’ve been longer IMO though.

I just feel like we focus so much on punishing pedophiles that we forget to talk about preventing them. I want them punished and they should be, but I’d much rather live in a world where people didn’t reoffend.

2

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Zoomwafflez 6d ago

I feel like this is a shovel and shut up situation