Harsher Laws for Sex Offenders

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Introduction When a dog viciously attacks a small child and scars the child for life, dog is euthanized because of the trauma it causes. If we are putting down dogs for attacking children, why are we not doing the same thing for sex offenders? Child sexual abuse is defined as “the activity between adults and minors or between two minors when one forces the act on the other. This includes sexual touching, exposure to pornography, photography of a child for sexual gratification, solicitation of a child for prostitution, and communication in a sexual way by phone, internet or face-to-face”. In the U.S. there are 42 million adult survivors of child molestation. Seventy percent of reported sexual assault cases include children, and seventy three percent of children do not tell anyone about the abuse for at least one year. Children of every gender, race, age, ethnicity, and economic status are at risk. No child is completely immune to sexual abuse, but the most important risk factor in child molestation is family structure. Children who live with both biological parents are at the lowest risk, and the risk increases if the child lives with a single parent. Foster children are ten times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and children who live with a single parent who has a live-in partner, are twenty times more likely to be sexually assaulted. Females are five times more likely to be abused than males and children ages seven to thirteen are most commonly abused. Most child molesters are men, and are usually members of the community where they can gain easy access to children such as churches, schools and clubs. 2/3 of assaults are committed by someone who knows the victim and ninety percent of these people will not spend one singl... ... middle of paper ... ... in constant fear of being attacked again by their predator or someone different. Parents need to be on the lookout by looking up registered sexual offenders in their neighborhoods. They also need to educate children on sexual abuse. They need to inform them on “good touch, bad touch” so that children know what is appropriate. They also need to have an open door outlook on the topic so that children will not be uncomfortable coming to them if this does happen. Doing these things can also greatly prevent sexual abuse on children. SOURCES http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/subjectareas/childsexualabuse.html http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1616890,00.html http://www.missingkids.com/Families http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/child-sexual-abuse.html http://yellodyno.com/Statistics/statistics_child_molester.html

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