Agreed 100%.
If you have ever personally known someone who survived sexual abuse as a child you can clearly see they hardly ever reach the potential they would have if they had not been sexually abused. It changes them in a way they can never come back from. They lose part of themselves forever. Bright children, full of life, who could have been anything and had incredible amounts of success as adults, then someone comes along and decides it is okay to break their spirit forever, so they never reach that potential. Instead, they grow to become a much different version of themselves than they would have been.
For example, a victim I know who could have been literally anything she wanted became a young, angry alcoholic through-out her 20's and 30's and later an older anxiety-ridden shut-in who never really knew who she was at all because her abuse haunted her. She never had her own identity because her real one was taken away a long time ago. In social settings, she spent decades adapting ones that weren't really her own, just the ones she thought people wanted her to have. Plus, she became mentally ill with conditions that stemmed solely from the abuse. She made poor life choices she would not have made if not for the abuse. The abuse her 1960's parents knew about and overlooked to keep up their image. She did not get to live what they would nowadays call her "best life". She was a broken version of the person she would have been. Part of her died every time he abused her and she grew up in a time when you simply did not talk about it. She was taught that you didn't talk about those things -- so guess what? She didn't. Not really. Maybe in pieces to me, but not with a professional who could truly help because she was taught to feel shame about it. It is hard to undo that sort of thinking, which in a sense is grooming, grooming by society. At that time, much of society said "SHHHH!" so her abuser got to live his "best life" for many more years and died still being called a good man.
So yes, anyone who sexually abuses a child should get the same sentence as a murderer, because they are murderers of a different kind. They kill opportunities, mental health, the feeling of being safe, future healthy sexual experiences, future relationships, the souls of people, and so much more. They don't deserve to be rewarded for leaving their victims alive. They deserve to be punished for leaving their victims in a perpetual state of suffering and taking away their chance of a healthy life.
They do rob people of life, therefore, they should have theirs taken, too.
