Deeply conflicted

Let's get this straight - I hate the idea of a sex offenders register. Not because I'm particularly fond of sex offenders (though no doubt somebody will try and claim that I am), but because I think that in order for there to be any chance of rehabilitatation, punishment has to end sometime. If it doesn't, then there's no buy-in to non-criminal behaviour. If you are still punished whether you re-offend or not, well, you might as well earn it.

That said, I find myself in the same boat as NZPundit in having very little sympathy for the "broomstick boys". This is almost entirely due to the attitude of their defenders that they're not real sex offenders, like those scumbags who rape and kill children. They're Nice Kids, who went to a Good School. They don't deserve to be punished in this (or any other) way for what were essentially teenage hijinks.

Fuck that. They raped a guy with a broomstick. That's a bit beyond "teenage hijinks".

I'm annoyed that Coddington published another edition and perpetuated the culture of publicly hounding sex offenders. But I would also be annoyed if she had published but left the broomstick boys out of it, because it would seem too much like supporting the above snobbery and excusing their behaviour.