A short term act by some rare criminal freak, no matter how repugnant it sounds to the general public, generally has a minor impact on the child compared with the tremendous damage abusive parents routinely cause. This sounds like an elected judge going for easy policitical points.

The most damaging child abusers are parents who abuse their own children. This is regardless of whether the abuse is sexual, psychological, or serious physical abuse. And parental child abuse is by far the most common type of child abuse by adults against children.

The worst cases are where the abuser is the person charged with caring and protecting the child, abuse persists over many years, and the child sees no where safe to turn for help.

Earlier abuse, beginning before the age of 3, or before the age of 5, causes even more damage.

A healthy parent-child relationship is necessary for a healthy childhood.

When judges start sentencing abusive parents accordingly, then I'll be impressed. I'm not going to hold my breath though. There are too many abusive parents and they can vote.