For all of us who were ourselves a victim or know someone who was a victim.
Sex Offenders Get Easy Way Out
24.NOV.08
February 18, 2009 will mark yet another anniversary of my own daughter saying, “It happened to me.” Her head hung to her chest. She spoke in a voice I was not used to hearing. As she told me how someone whom she trusted and loved had sexually abused her, her words radiated throughout my entire body and turned my world upside down. My daughter is a bright child with a dynamic personality. She is compassionate and sensitive. She is witty and outspoken. My daughter is also a victim and a statistic. Considering the life-long psychological affects that sexual abuse has on its child victims, offenders get the easy way out.
When I became a parent, the world became a much scarier place for me. I wanted to shield my child from all bad in the world. I did not want her to know of the hurt that comes packaged with life, however naive that may be. I wanted her to live her adolescent years as a child, without adult realizations or affliction. In spite of this, she learned injustice at the early age of three when a man nearly 10 times her age pocketed her innocence as if he were its rightful owner. After her disclosure, we soon realized that he’d not only taken away her innocence, but also handed her a stigma in return.
Before we attended our second therapy session, my daughter’s horrors were broadcast into Upstate homes by local television media and spilled from the pages of area news publications. Our family soon learned the prejudice that comes along with being the child victim of a sexual crime. Her teachers roamed the school gossiping. Our friends treated us differently and we even lost a few. Her then-school threatened us with truancy after missed school days due to meetings with law enforcement, victim’s advocates, and therapists. You could have attached a scarlet letter to her chest and it would have been all the same.
My hope is by telling our story those prejudices will turn into anger and action by our community. Sexual abuse, especially among children remains a taboo topic in our society and that’s a shame. The fact is that children are sexually abused right here in our small town of Greenwood and the sobering truth is that it happens much more than people want to believe. Sexual abuse does not discriminate. It spans all social classes and will affect nearly one-third of children before they reach adulthood. Simply ignoring the problem will not make it go away.
In recent years we have seen added legislation relating to sex crimes. Megan’s Law, named for seven-year-old Megan Kanka, is a federal law passed in 1996. Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl, was raped and killed by a known child molester who moved across the street from the family. With the passing of Megan’s law, all 50 States are now required to have a procedure for notifying the public when a sex offender is released into their community. South Carolina maintains a sex-offender registry list.
In 2006, Gov. Mark Sanford signed Jessica’s Law strengthening penalties for sexual predators. The law is named after 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl kidnapped, raped and suffocated by a registered sex offender. In South Carolina, offenders committing these crimes after the 2006 date are subject to Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) monitoring for life.
In June, Gov. Sanford signed a new sex offender bill into law making it illegal for a convicted sex offender to live within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare, church, or playground. However, the bill reduces the penalty for sex offenders who fail to register with county sheriff’s offices. Previously the penalty for a convicted sex offender failing to register was a mandatory 90 days in jail, with no part of that sentence suspended. The new bill moves the charge from circuit court into magistrate’s court and will allow a magistrate to sentence an offender anywhere from one day to 30 days in jail, or fine the offender $500.
While measures are being taken to toughen penalties against sexual offenders, more needs to be done. The time spent indicting, prosecuting and convicting these criminals often exceeds the time offenders actually spend behind bars, a sobering reality for victims who spend a lifetime attempting to heal their wounds.
For over a year I have contemplated sharing our story. Within that year, the words of a very wise news editor stuck with me and ultimately inspired me to share, however difficult it is to do.
“You see, I think that despite the scarlet letter syndrome, more victims and their family members should share their stories. It humanizes the crime.”
And humanize the crime, it does.
I challenge our community leaders to bring about awareness of sexual abuse. I challenge our residents to become informed. I hope that our story and others like it will beget anger and outrage. But most of all, I pray it encourages action.
this story was written by:
Lesley B. Lane
Lead Reporter
GwdToday.com
original story: http://www.gwdtoday.com/print_this_story.asp?smenu=315&sdetail=10736
***** TO ALL - please remember to include the reference when posting a story from a known source *****
Post edited by: roy, at: 03/25/2009 03:31
