Schwartz, who became an accredited lawyer half a year ago,
became acquainted with cases of severe sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox
community during her internship with the State Prosecutor's Office and after a
friend broke her own silence and confessed to her that she had been the victim
of sexual abuse.
"After years of familiarity with this area, my theory is that many ultra-Orthodox commit these acts because they are unaware that a specific act is a crime and because a lack of awareness of the punishments associated with these crimes," says Schwartz. In her words, ultra-Orthodox society is not aware enough of the relation between crime and punishment.
"In the secular world, there is a crime, there's a criminal, he's caught and punished and the news is relayed through newspapers and television," says Schwartz. "The message is clear. In the ultra-Orthodox community, the media doesn't report [such crimes]. There's no newspaper or other place to hear about what happened to some ultra-Orthodox person who committed a crime even if they were punished, no one knows what happened to them. The neighbors think that they moved abroad. One of the goals of punishment is deterrence, but there is none in the ultra-Orthodox public. There is always someone will hide things."
Schwartz believes that this difference is significant. "[A situation] has been created where people are ignorant of the punishment. An ultra-Orthodox person who commits a crime because of a momentary impulse says to them self that it's their own problem and that will find a way to square things with God. He doesn't know how serious [his crime] is in this world, that there is also someone here who can punish him."
"After years of familiarity with this area, my theory is that many ultra-Orthodox commit these acts because they are unaware that a specific act is a crime and because a lack of awareness of the punishments associated with these crimes," says Schwartz. In her words, ultra-Orthodox society is not aware enough of the relation between crime and punishment.
"In the secular world, there is a crime, there's a criminal, he's caught and punished and the news is relayed through newspapers and television," says Schwartz. "The message is clear. In the ultra-Orthodox community, the media doesn't report [such crimes]. There's no newspaper or other place to hear about what happened to some ultra-Orthodox person who committed a crime even if they were punished, no one knows what happened to them. The neighbors think that they moved abroad. One of the goals of punishment is deterrence, but there is none in the ultra-Orthodox public. There is always someone will hide things."
Schwartz believes that this difference is significant. "[A situation] has been created where people are ignorant of the punishment. An ultra-Orthodox person who commits a crime because of a momentary impulse says to them self that it's their own problem and that will find a way to square things with God. He doesn't know how serious [his crime] is in this world, that there is also someone here who can punish him."
I guess they are not taught that anal sex is Mishkav Zochor
ReplyDeleteWhat Schwartz is trying to say is that in child sexual abuse cases where there is only touching, halakha has not much to say about it. But that crime is not punished by man. There is no beit din, Jewish court, proceeding, no fine, no reparations paid to the victim, no imprisonment, no lashing, no stoning.
DeleteThe crime is sin, and the sin is punished by God alone.
Haredim do need to be made to understand that secular law will not tolerate this, that sexual abuse of children will be punished to the fullest extent of our laws.
The way to do this is to put more haredi pedophiles behind bars like they do now in the USA