Do pedophiles get a hard time in jail?

Question

Hey, while watching Law and Order: SVU I've noticed a recurring thing- the cops will always mention jail to pedophiles and 'how tough they know it will be for them'.

So here's my question (and it's USA- specific)- do the inmates at a prison treat a fellow inmate differently when he's a pedophile as opposed to if the person is a robber or something similar? How do they treat him/what do they do to him?

Thanks for indulging my curiosity.

Answer 1

As part of my psych course I interviewed several prison inmates, all of them HATED paedophiles. The term 'rockspider' comes to mind.



One inmate I talked to proudly boasted that he had shattered the rib cage of a paedophile and all the others admitted they would not hesitate to "go" a paedophile if they got the chance.



Most of the time, particularly in the US, paedophiles are kept separate from other inmates for their own sake. But correctional officers are known to "let them out" from time to time...

Answer 2

Don't believe everything you see on tv cop shows. There is a lot of Hollywood fantasy mixed with some truths.



Punishment for these types of crimes vary from state to state. When a pedophile is put behind bars, though, they are given a hard time. They are quickly turned into some huge jock's *****.

Answer 3

This thread is ancient, but I feel like I have to comment as it seems that I am the only person to post that has spent time in prison.



First: Inmates always find out why new inmates are coming in. Guards are paid barely more than minimum wage and they are about as unprofessional a group as you can find. Not all, but enough. They befriended us. They sold us drugs. They carried our messages.



Yes pedophiles get it rough. A friend of mine on the inside theorized that it was because so many of us in prison were abused as children. This doesn t hold water, I knew several guys with high respect who had beaten and abused their children. Maybe getting hit doesn t seem as bad as having inappropriate sexual contact, but my own father split my skull with an ax handle while in a speed and alcohol fueled rage and I woke up six weeks later so I could go into foster care. I traded sexual favors as a pre teen, and I can tell you which I preferred.



There was a guy on my pod that was put away for eight years for rape. He told me he had actually raped around twenty girls. He was a brutal violent man. The victim he was put away for was his niece. She wasn t a child but she was young. How is this better than a pedophile?



My theory is this: when you are in prison, everyone on earth is better than you. The maggot, drug pushing, sadist guards making 10.50 an hour are better than you. So in the bizarre, amoral calculus of self value that establishes itself the pedophile is the lowest. Guys that fit this bill tend not to be violent. They tend not to have connections that transfer from outside to inside. They are often loners who are mentally ill. They are not hurt because they are being "punished" by the noble savages of the prison. They are just weak, and ill-fit for the prison ecosystem of might-makes-right. If you think pedophiles are the worst people out there then you have never been to prison. But we hurt them because we can and it is just another brutal failure of the system. At least most of them have the excuse of an identified mental illness. I don t expect any of you to agree with me. I don t care if you do.

Answer 4

The last reason you want to go to lock up is because your a Pedophile, so you everything you have heard is true. You will be lucky to get out alive.



Murder is the best crime to go to jail for, you will get the most respect from guards and inmates.



Unless your willing to fight with everyone you are going to pay for protection.

Answer 5

I have heard that some men being locked up cannot see their kids and when a person has molested a child it makes them angry. so if this being true the pedophile probably would have a hard time in prison not that I care. the child he molested had a hard time too and probably will be damaged most if not all of his or her life.

Unlike barry and the democrats i feel no pity for a man that would sexually assult a child.

Answer 6

I hope the pedophiles DO have a harder time in jail.



Pedophiles and rapists are some of the worst scum on earth.

Answer 7

Pedophiles have a MUCH tougher time in prison, in any country.

Answer 8

Lol of course they'd treat him differently because being a pedophile is alot more serious and shameful than just being a robber...I'd say he'd permanently be beaten up or sometimes they get killed (saw pictures of that)

Answer 9

This doesn't seem likely to be true, as voting is a state, not federal issue. Some states allow released felons to vote, some don't. Do you have a source?

Answer 10

Believe it or not, much like the rest of society, prison populations do crete a hierarchy of Morality. At the bottom of the hierarchy is pedophiles and they do get treated very poorly by the people above them in the hierarchy

Answer 11

Yes they do,

someone who has gone to jail fro a sex crime is normally not treated like the rest and is in grave danger there.

Answer 12

A man who molested my nephew was killed in prison by fellow inmates.

Answer 13

How would the other inmates know why he was there?



And how is being a pedo worse than being a murderer or a carjacker or an armed robberer?



Inmates don't sympathize with crime victims, why would they? They see themselves as victims of a system that hates them all enough already.



I suppose the other inmates might kill a person they're afraid of, like Ted Bundy or Jeff Dalmer. If a person knows how to run around strangling people without any kind of weapon, it probably makes sense to kill him before he strikes again.