Child molester avoids prison because he is short

[stickythighs]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/05/26/short-prison.html?ref=rss

Like Thompson, I am 5'1". I don't applaud the ruling.

This is almost comical though. Prison is a danger to him, what about the child?

 

[Kurdt]

Personally I think the judge did the right thing. If she believed he would be in genuine danger then the ruling is fair. The state is there to punish people not endanger them.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

How tall was the child?

 

[turbo]

The judge screwed up. The fact is that any child-molester sent to prison is at risk for sexual assault by other inmates, regardless of how tall they are. If she wanted to protect him she should have given him prison time with the option of serving it in solitary confinement for his own protection.

 

[WarPhalange]

Does he like Disco?

http://www.dressthatman.com/view-ACCE358.htm

 

[wolram]

Child molesters deserve nothing less than the black hole of calcutta.

 

[Moonbear]

If she wanted to protect him she should have given him prison time with the option of serving it in solitary confinement for his own protection.

I agree. It doesn't have to be solitary, but at least limited mixing with the general prison population. You'd think by now there would be enough child molesters in prison that they could send them all to the same facility to make them serve out their time but separated from the rest of the prison population that would take it upon themselves to get retribution for an innocent child.

 

[WarPhalange]

They have something like that in a lot of prisons. Not just for molesters, but for gang informants that have been caught and people who just don't want to mix with the general population (although they need a good reason for being separated).

 

[hypatia]

I hope the appeal is successful, and the man gets real prison time. I don't care how short he is.

 

[Artman]

I once saw a man who was about 5'-0" tall carry a baby grand piano up a flight of stairs by himself. He strapped on a weight belt, put a strap around the piano to hold onto and up he went. I doubt anyone would mess with him in prison.

 

[Gokul43201]

Didn't we have a thread about this a long time ago?

 

[WarPhalange]

Probably. I've heard of this a long time ago, so no doubt someone had already reported it here.

I once saw a man who was about 5'-0" tall carry a baby grand piano up a flight of stairs by himself. He strapped on a weight belt, put a strap around the piano to hold onto and up he went. I doubt anyone would mess with him in prison.

...or else he'd carry them up a flight of stairs?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Didn't we have a thread about this a long time ago?

I looked at the story again and this time noticed the dateline. That story is over 2 years old. I tried to find out what happened with the appeal. Apparently, the Nebraska Supreme Court was unwilling to hear the appeal, so the light sentence probably holds.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-168190446.html"
That story has an Aug 30, 2007 dateline.

 

[DieCommie]

Does this mean at 6' 3" I am more likely to go to prison? Probably...

 

[turbo]

Does this mean at 6' 3" I am more likely to go to prison? Probably...

Yep! And if you're in great shape, that means that they'll need an extra guy to restrain you while you get acquainted with your new boyfriend.

 

[DieCommie]

I remember once when I was a teenage delinquent I got mentally evaluated by some court appointed shrink. She gave me an IQ like test. At the end she said I did very well, which means the court will sentence me more harshly. That was messed up... (of course she told me after so I couldn't throw the test)

Maybe this is the way our society is going... Instead of 'let the punishment fit the crime' its going to be 'let the punishment fit the mental and physical capabilities of the criminal'.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Maybe this is the way our society is going... Instead of 'let the punishment fit the crime' its going to be 'let the punishment fit the mental and physical capabilities of the criminal'.

Our society has been there for centuries.

 

[Artman]

...or else he'd carry them up a flight of stairs?

They weigh about 600 lbs. You want to pick a fight with a guy who can carry 600 lbs up a flight of stairs all by himself in one trip?

 

[stickythighs]

Does this mean at 6' 3" I am more likely to go to prison? Probably...

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveOffenders/search.asp

No; but at 6'3" you are DRASTICALLY less likely to be incarcerated on parole or on probation.

I researched this at the Florida Department of Corrections website. Short men are substantially more likely to go to prison or be on probation or parole than tall men. Since the average American man is 5'10", there are about equal numbers of men in Florida 5'5" and shorter as there are men 6'3" and taller.

There were 11,838 men 5'5" and shorter in the Florida Department of Corrections who were incarcerated or on parole or probation.

There were 7,761 men 6'3" or taller who in the Florida Department of Corrections records who were incarcerated or on parole or probation.

Very Short men are almost twice as likely to be locked up or on parole or probation as very tall men.

Tall men make about 50% more income than very short men as well, but that's another story.

 

[stickythighs]

Our society has been there for centuries.

What are you smoking?

 

[mgb_phys]

No; but at 6'3" you are DRASTICALLY less likely to be incarcerated on parole or on probation.
I researched this at the Florida Department of Corrections website.

Interesting - I'm guessing that in florida the main non-white population is central/south american and that they are on average shorter than the white population?

It would be worth seeing if it was exactly the opposite in, say Chicago.

 

[wolram]

How about sending child molesters to a womans prison?

 

[OAQfirst]

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveOffenders/search.asp

No; but at 6'3" you are DRASTICALLY less likely to be incarcerated on parole or on probation.

I researched this at the Florida Department of Corrections website. Short men are substantially more likely to go to prison or be on probation or parole than tall men. Since the average American man is 5'10", there are about equal numbers of men in Florida 5'5" and shorter as there are men 6'3" and taller.

There were 11,838 men 5'5" and shorter in the Florida Department of Corrections who were incarcerated or on parole or probation.

There were 7,761 men 6'3" or taller who in the Florida Department of Corrections records who were incarcerated or on parole or probation.

Very Short men are almost twice as likely to be locked up or on parole or probation as very tall men.

Tall men make about 50% more income than very short men as well, but that's another story.

Isn't 6'3" a less common height than 5'5" in the entire population? I don't see anything about height itself indicating a likelyhood or not of going to prison.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

What are you smoking?

Where one person might hang for murder, another may go free because of a skin condition.

 

[Gokul43201]

Since the average American man is 5'10", there are about equal numbers of men in Florida 5'5" and shorter as there are men 6'3" and taller.

Not true. The distribution of heights is not Gaussian. It's almost Boltzmannian, and 5 inches is way bigger than the standard deviation - so a Gaussian approximation could be quite off when you go that far away from the mean. And it is...

http://www.solvedating.com/american-singles-mheight.gif

There were 11,838 men 5'5" and shorter in the Florida Department of Corrections who were incarcerated or on parole or probation.

There were 7,761 men 6'3" or taller who in the Florida Department of Corrections records who were incarcerated or on parole or probation.

From the picture above, about 7% of men are shorter than 65" but only about 5% or less (by extrapolating an inch) are taller than 75".

That makes the likelihood for incarceration about even for short and tall people.

 

[DieCommie]

Where one person might hang for murder, another may go free because of a skin condition.

If you are referring to racism, that is not a 'skin condition'. Nor is it a physical or mental capability.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

If you are referring to racism, that is not a 'skin condition'. Nor is it a physical or mental capability.

They walked because the judge considered their enhanced capability to get a sunburn while standing on the scaffold.

 

[stickythighs]

Isn't 6'3" a less common height than 5'5" in the entire population? I don't see anything about height itself indicating a likelyhood or not of going to prison.

Yes; women tend to be shorter than men, and women average around 5'5", making 6'3" a drastically less common height than 5'5" in the entire population.

However, for men only, 6'3" and 5'5" would both be five inches from the average. Therefore, for men, there would be equal numbers of men 6'3" and 5'5".

 

[cristo]

However, for men only, 6'3" and 5'5" would both be five inches from the average. Therefore, for men, there would be equal numbers of men 6'3" and 5'5".

Read Gokul's post: he explains why you cannot use a gaussian distribution.

 

[stickythighs]

From the picture above, about 7% of men are shorter than 65" but only about 5% or less (by extrapolating an inch) are taller than 75".

That makes the likelihood for incarceration about even for short and tall people.

Gokul,

Rounding my figures off to 11.8 and 7.76, and assuming that your figures of 7% and 5% are true, 11.8 to 7.76 is still a much higher ratio than 7 to 5. Even if your figures are correct, in Florida short men are still more likely to be incarcerated or on probation or parole than tall men.

 

[stickythighs]

Gokul,

Most studies assert that the average American man is 5'10". Your graph puts the average American man at 5'9", and it extrapolates accordingly. That could skew the results towards taller men being less represented on the graph than they really are.

 

[stickythighs]

Interesting - I'm guessing that in florida the main non-white population is central/south american and that they are on average shorter than the white population?

It would be worth seeing if it was exactly the opposite in, say Chicago.

Why do you think it might be exactly the opposite (rathen than tall people and short people having equal likelihood of going to prison) in Chicago? This case of Thompson not going to prison because he is short is an extremely isolated case. It only happened once. The statistic effect would be negligible even if it happened in Chicago.

 

[mgb_phys]

The point isn't this odd case, it is the suggestion that tall people are imprisoned less frequently.
I was suggesting that in the US, it is that white people are imprisoned less frequently and in Florida white people are on average taller than the hispanic/latino minority - whereas in Chicago they are probably shorter than the african-american minority.

 

[Gokul43201]

Gokul,

Most studies assert that the average American man is 5'10". Your graph puts the average American man at 5'9", and it extrapolates accordingly.

Actually, from the graph I linked you can only tell that the median height is 5'9" (closer to 5'9.3"), but not the mean height. For a non-symmetric unimodal distribution, with mean > mode (true of Maxwellian distributions), you also have mean > median*. So, if the median is 5' 9.3", the mean could very well be pretty close to 5' 10"

*From: $$mean - mode \approx 3(mean -median)$$

 

[stickythighs]

Gokul,

Please address this, the most important of my responses to you:

Rounding my figures off to 11.8 and 7.76, and assuming that your figures of 7% and 5% are true, 11.8 to 7.76 is still a much higher ratio than 7 to 5. Even if your figures are correct, in Florida short men are still more likely to be incarcerated or on probation or parole than tall men.