What should we do with the evil sailor: how society should handle rapists, murderers, and paedophiles

We all believe in second chances. Until we have to give them

There’s an old episode of the sitcom Rev that I must have last seen when I was about 17: there’s this vicar, and he befriends this man who is just out of prison. He offers the repentant man a job at the church, but his parishioners are up in arms because this man is a convicted paedophile. It was framed very much as a “hypocritical, uncharitable Christians!” narrative, but honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted him working at my place of worship either. I would have been one the “bad Christians” (I’m not Christian), who campaigned against him. If he had been a thief or a drug dealer, ok sure, but paedophilia is a hard no for me. There’s a few things I just cannot forgive or trust you over: even if you’ve done your time. Abusing minors is definitely one of them. But that does leave me with an ongoing moral question I’ve never really stopped thinking about:

What do we do with people we cannot forgive or trust?

Society doesn’t want some people to exist: or the responsibility of killing them

Before you tell me I’m just evil and we should always totally forgive people who have done their time in prison: I doubt you’d be ok with a paedophile babysitting your son. I doubt you’d be fine with your daughter dating a…