Also, there is a bit of a difference between a girl who is
"lured" into prostitution and a child who is literally snatched by a stranger. Yes, the young girls who are lured into prostitution are abused and victimized. But, unless, they were literally snatched and sold into sex slavery, they were not initially captives. In most cases they are runaways who are preyed upon. In Shawn's case, as your article notes, he was tortured, isolated and broken down first. I don't know how on earth anyone can expect a child who went through that kind of torture and, then, lived with that monster for 4 years without benefit of positive influences like teachers or clergy could expect him to form a healthy conscience! Sheesh!
"I don't know how on earth anyone can expect a child who went through that kind of torture and, then, lived with that monster for 4 years without benefit of positive influences like teachers or clergy could expect him to form a healthy conscience! Sheesh!"
The Jesuits used to say "Give me a boy for the first six years, and he is mine for life."
(That doesn't sound so good nowadays.)
But what they were talking about was religious formation. I would think that Shawn had excellent religious training in his first eleven years of life, and that some of it would come back to him when ordered to kidnap and hold Ben Ownby.
Of course, the brutality imposed on him over those four years could have erased from his mind all religious and moral beliefs.
It is also a conundrum for law enforcement. At what point is a person responsible for his own actions, and could Shawn have become a willing accomplice in the Ownby kidnapping? How do you determine if a sane person has a conscience? Or maybe Shawn is no longer sane.
Again--the Patty Hearst case. She was prosecuted and convicted for armed robbery. I never agreed with that decision. It is a very complex issue.
It is just so sad and awful.
I think they should torture that coward Devlin the way he tortured Shawn, and get from him the truth of how many boys he has corrupted and destoyed (and maybe even killed).