Extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment is punishment for an alleged crime or offense carried out without legal process or supervision from a court or tribunal through a legal proceeding. It is sometimes proposed and inflicted as a penalty for sex offenses. An example was Raymond Frolander who was beaten by the father of the 11-year-old son with whom he was caught engaging in sexual activity. The police declined to press any charges against the victim of the beating.[1]
Often, especially on online forums accompanying news articles about prosecutions for adult-child sex, commenters will remark that they hope Bubba inflicts extrajudicial punishment on the accused. human-stupidity.com argues that the typical victims of prison rape are physically unimposing and lacking in gang affiliations, and that prison rape imposed by vigilantes denies the accused due process and causes a public health menace through sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, it would be better to use flogging as a punishment imposed by a judicial body, if a physical sanction is desired.[2]
In Harper v. Wallingford, the court ruled that "inmates who are identified as or suspected of being pedophiles or homosexuals are a favorite target for violence since many incarcerated felons were sexually abused as children. Therefore inmates who possess materials that advocate sexual abuse of children may be subject to violent attacks from inmates."[3] Thus, the court acknowledged that extrajudicial punishment may be inflicted even for the offense of being a pedophile, which is not criminalized by any statute.
