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
As of 2005, 16.6% of children experience physical abuse and 9.3% experience sexual abuse (USDHHS, 2007). Besides bruises and scars, the effects of physical abuse are long lasting. Children are physically taught to be submissive to others, so they often become more reserved socially. In relation to sexual abuse, children often say that being raped causes them to feel “dirty,” meaning that they are, from that point on, corrupted. Unfortunately, very few realize that this abuse is not their fault. Since all children are taught that punishment is given because they did something wrong, foster children often believe that they deserve to be beaten or raped. Due to
The United States of America has always supported freedom and privacy for its citizens. More importantly, the United States values the safety of its citizens at a much higher level. Every year more laws are implemented in an attempt to deter general or specific criminal behaviors or prevent recidivism among those who have already committed crimes. One of the most heinous crimes that still occurs very often in the United States is sex offenses against children. Currently, there are over 700,000 registered sex offenders and 265,000 sex offenders who are under correctional supervision. It is estimated that approximately 3% of the offenders who are currently incarcerated will likely commit another sex-related crime upon release (Park & Lee, 2013, p. 26). There are several laws that have been in place regarding sex offenses for decades, including Megan’s Law which was enacted in 1996.
According to RAINN, (2009) approximately 10 per cent of all victims of sexual assault and abuse are adult and juvenile males. In terms of the nature of assault, real figures include a compendium of reported incidents ranging from unwanted sexual touching to forced penetration. To qualify this statement, it must be understood that the percentage does not reflect a vast number of crimes that go unreported due to issues that will be discussed in the present paper.
Generally, the public views women as nurturers, motherly and incapable of harming a child. Research indicates that female sex offenders capable of committing such acts have serious psychiatric and psychological problems. In comparison, research indicates male sex offenders are more callous, more antisocial, and promiscuous, involved in the criminal justice system, and have more victims (Miccio-Fenseca, 2012, slide 7). The consensus is that men commit their acts for sexual pleasure while women commit their acts due to psychiatric and psychological problems. Law enforcement, juries, and judges tend to empathize more when there are additional mitigating factors, such as emotional or psychological problems.
Merriam Webster defines a sex offender as “a person who has been convicted of a crime involving sex.” (Sex Offender) This definition hits the nail on the head, but there is still the question of why would a person even commit the crimes that would classify them as a sex offender. The answer to this would possibly be that they do not choose. Some people are simply born with more inappropriate tendencies in their mind and if coupled with sexual abuse as a child from a parent or some other adult, then one would have a very scarred person that would eventually start committing heinous acts as well. Statistically, child sex offenders deceive and entice there victims into compliance instead of using physical force or violence to achieve their intentions. (Megan’s Law) This means that not only are they mentally ill, but they can also be very smart and manipulative, which is
Human Rights Watch, a world-class independent organization, state on their site: “Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world” (Human Rights Watch). In 2007, they published No Easy Answer, which deals with how sex offenders are affected by being registered as sex offenders. They claim that it is injustice to “label” a person for their entire life for a bad decision they made as a child. I could not agree more, but what the good people at Humans Rights Watch are forgetting is that those are not the only people on the sex offenders’ registry; there are those with unspeakable crimes. Individuals like Dr. Earl Bradley, a pediatrician who sexually abused more than one hundred victims whose ages ranged between six months and thirteen years! (The Week Magazine).
Since the beginning of the society, the forest has been portrayed as a place filled with darkness, and inhabited by the devil and other unworldly creatures. The rumors that were formed about what could be lurking in the forest were created to fill the void of knowledge of what was in the woods and to give them something to believe in. In reality, what lurked in the forest was still unknown to most people. The mystery of the forest was what people were so scared of.
Sex offenders have been a serious problem for our legal system at all levels, not to mention those who have been their victims. There are 43,000 inmates in prison for sexual offenses while each year in this country over 510,000 children are sexually assaulted(Oakes 99). The latter statistic, in its context, does not convey the severity of the situation. Each year 510,000 children have their childhood's destroyed, possibly on more than one occasion, and are faced with dealing with the assault for the rest of their lives. Sadly, many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who have already been through the correctional system only to victimize again. Sex offenders, as a class of criminals, are nine times more likely to repeat their crimes(Oakes 99). This presents a
Irving does this to help readers realize how caught up the society of Sleepy Hollow is with their past. Irving frequently brings up the Revolutionary war and how the headless horseman was a Hessian soldier from the war. When he writes, “The dominant spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War… The specter is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” (Irving 2). This is an allusion to the Revolutionary war because the headless horseman was a hessian soldier. This explains the theme of supernatural because the Headless Horseman haunts their town and the main character, Ichabod Crane, comes across the ghost of him. Another major allusion in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is Ichabod's belief in witches. The author supports this when saying, “He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New England Witchcraft” (Irving 4). Ichabod also believes in the supernatural past. His belief in witches supports the theme of supernatural within the book. Referring to the past using allusion develops different themes within the
Finkelhor D. Hammer H. & Sedlak A. J. NISMART Bulletin: Runaway/Thrownaway Children. Sexually Assaulted Children: National Estimates and Characteristics. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/214383.pdf
When thinking about statistics on child abuse, it’s very helpful to know that the idea of “child abuse” is very controversial. Recently, in particular homes and cultures, child abuse has come to be seen as a major social problem and a main cause of many people’s suffering and personal problems. Some believe that we are beginning to face the true prevalence and significance of child abuse. There is more to child abuse than just the physical scars; children are affected socially, mentally, and emotionally. According to the American National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, in 1997, neglect represented 54% of confirmed cases of child abuse, physical abuse 22%, sexual abuse 8%, emotional maltreatment 4%, and other forms of maltreatment 12%.
Although physical abuse is the most recognized form of domestic violence, sexual abuse on a child is the most common, and despite the fact that 91 percent of sexual abuse is committed by a non-family member, it still takes place in the child’s home. This kind of activity can drastically change the behavior and judgment of children with their sexuality, self-esteem, and overall outlook on life.
Children that are abused can range from the ages of one day old to the age of 18 (Dudley, 2008). Whenever I hear or read an article about child abuse, I always picture a man hurting a child in the cruelest manners that anyone can think of. However women between the ages of 20- 39, usually their mothers, are the abusers (Dudley, 2008). According to Dudley, A 1996 study showed that nearly 80 percent of fatal maltreatment cases were attributed to women (Dudley, 2008, p. 23). Siblings may also abuse each other. The most violent person in the household may be the children (Olson, Defrain, & Skogrand, 2014). Sibling abuse can physical, emotional, or sexual of one sibling or another (Olson, Defrain, & Skogrand, 2014). All siblings argue with each other and play games with each other like doctor but there is a difference between normal sibling behavior and sibling abuse (Olson, Defrain, & Skogrand, 2014). Some signs are if one child is always the aggressor and the other the victim, one child avoids the other, a child has sleep pattern changes, the child’s eating habits change, have nightmares, acts the abuse out play, acts sexual abuse inappropriate ways, children’s roles are rigid and roughness or violence between siblings is increasing over time (Olson, Defrain, & Skogrand,
There are many forms of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse (Child Help).” The three main types of abuse are physical, emotional, and sexual. Abuse can be found in many sorts of ways; most of the time it cannot be seen by human eyes, but nonetheless creates problem for the child. Emotional abuse can be just as traumatizing for a child as physical abuse. It was found that 80% of victims of the age 21 showed some sort of psychological issue later on in life if they had suffered from one of the three types of child abuse early in their childhood. Victims also are 25% more likely for teen pregnancy, and less likely to practice safe sex which increases the spread of sexual transmitted diseases
To understand how to prevent child sexual abuse, one must begin by understanding what child sex abuse is. When a perpetrator intentionally harms a child physically, psychologically, sexually, or by acts of neglect, this crime is known as child abuse. Child sex abuse consists of any sexual activity that includes a minor. A child cannot consent to any form of sexual activity. More importantly, when a perpetrator engages with a child this way, they are committing a crime that can have lasting effects on the victim for years. Moreover, child sexual abuse does not need to include physical contact between a perpetrator and child, some forms include but not limited to; fondling, intercourse, sex trafficking, exposing oneself to a minor, masturbation