Pages

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Crimes Against Kids

As few as 5 years ago, any adult who heard of a child being raped had a visceral reaction to this news. A tight sick feeling in the pit of the stomach accompanied by a moral outrage and sheer hatred towards the perpetrator was the expected reaction. This is no longer the case. We in San Antonio have the distinction of being one of the cities with the highest child abuse numbers in our country. The news brings yet another story of a child who was abused in unspeakable ways until they their tiny body finally could take no more. The response is now, a head shaking followed by a sense of hopelessness and the feeling that nothing will make a difference. Even prisoners take revenge upon child molesters in their own way, in their own time. But we are civilized and are expected to look at things from the side of the accused. Lawyers argue cruel and unusual punishment, expecting their clients to be jailed and "given a chance for rehabilitation". Society knows there is no rehab for a pedophile. There is something very evil about anyone who would set out to harm an innocent child in such a horrific way. Sexual abuse of a child is an attack against innocence and purity. Any person who engages in this type of activity is neither a victim nor a person who deserves any chance to offend again. We know rape is about power and control and not sex. So what is the rape of a child truly about? Only one thing springs to mind. Evil incarnate. How do we protect our children against people like this? We can tell them don't talk to strangers, don't get in a car with anyone you don't know, no on has the right to touch you, etc, etc. We have been doing this for years and still the number of children being abused has not dropped. Kids are now subject to sex trafficking, infants are being sexually abused. How can we guard against these things? The current practice has been to arm our kids..make it their responsibility to protect themselves. That is fine, but maybe we need to exact more punishment for the crimes. Any crime against a child should not be one that includes a plea bargain or parole. No time off for good behavior. It is kind of like this, an addict won't use if they are locked up. They can't get their drug of choice. Same thing with pedophiles. Their drug is outside in the world, in the schools and in the neighborhoods. So what is the answer? We have to look to what we are demanding in our entertainment. Look at the amount of sex we push onto the public. That has to change if we expect anything else to change. Seems like a tall order, and it is. Judges have to exact the full measure of punishment for crimes against kids. Perhaps we need a special place for these people to be incarcerated, apart from the general population in prison. Maybe not. I do know one thing. Unless the outrage and sheer disgust continues and grows nothing will change. Children will continue to be victimized more and more, until we have places you can go to have sex with a 3 year old, jut like there are places to go to have sex with an adult woman and man. The choice is ours.

No comments:

Post a Comment