For anybody who has an interest in preventing child abuse...

This is my high horse. My political agenda, the one and only that I carry with me. Child sexual abuse is the most destructive force in a child's life, usually impacting them far into adulthood and f***ing them up with damage of such vast quantity that it CANNOT be tallied. So here, if you have any interest in this sort of thing:

In most states the penalty for an adult who rapes a child is twenty years
plus -- UNLESS that adult happens to be related to the child, in which case
the maximum sentence could be PROBATION. There is legislation now pending in
Congress to change all this. IF YOU CARE, ACT!
http://www.careact.org


...And if you don't have any interest in this sort of thing, then just please stay off of the thread.

Thanks.


[This message has been edited by grendel (edited 06-22-2000).]

Oh, and was that episode of South Park last night (about NAMBLA) some funny sh*t or what?

HotPants just sat there watching with her jaw somewhere around her knees and her eyes bugging out of her head. I loved it.

http://www.vachss.com/mission/dispat...sp_8510_a.html


So tell me: Am I joking?

"No, we're not THAT NAMBLA! We're the North America Marlon Brando Look Alikes! That OTHER NAMBLA are perverts!"

"Hey! You guys really DO all look like Marlon Brando!"

Yeah, NAMBLA is some frightening and sick shit. My mom worked some with the state of CA in their Child Abuse Law section, and she saw shit that just brought her to tears. Bottom line, as much as she wanted to help she just couldn't handle that type of intensely gritty, evil subject matter.

Anyhow, it may be a cause of mine but I am certainly not in much of a position to further it a whole lot, other than letting my vote be counted. Maybe later in life when I am a little more successful, and can afford to invest my time in something worthwhile instead of in the pursuit of keeping food on the table...well, one can dream.

Until then, for all of you who want a good look at someone who is fighting the war with a viciousness greater than I could ever muster: www.andrewvachss.com

A novelist/lawyer who works pro bono for kids, writes killer crime novels about urban hunters and innocent prey, and served as a mercenary in Africa. He is, in a word, the man.

Hey Flint, thanks for reading...

"According to that careact site, the prosecuter opts for the plea bargain as it adds another 'win' to his record, does the victim or guardian of the victim get no say in what the prosecutor does?"

The Prosecutors here in the states will often opt for the plea-bargain for a number of reasons (in no particular order of importance): A)Improve the win/lose record, B)Assure SOME conviction and time served rather than face a potentially damaging jury verdict as a result of a less-than-competent witness: a scared child, and/or C)Bargain down the sentence because of sociological fallacies such as "They just need rehabilitation (as if in some way they didn't know that this was wrong)" or "A strong conviction will ruin the family's chance to work this out", regardless of the reams and reams of paper and statistics that PROVE that a family harmed like this will NEVER work it out.

Anyhow, those combinations are what can drive a prosecutor to head for a plea-bargain. And yes, it's fucked up. America has a very liberal view on incestuous abuse, and the ACTUAL circumstances of the arrest and reports have to be pretty extreme (child chained to a bed naked, child bleeding from orifices, child in sex film with multiple adult and/or child partners) for the case to be high profile enough to assure a hard-time conviction. Because of this liberal view, therapy is seen as the primary tool for rehabilitation instead of two to the back of the head and a shallow grave in the deep woods, never mind that child molestors have a 98% recidivism rate, meaning that there is a staggering 2% that do not return to that particular crime in some way, whether it is the actual act or the possession of pictures. Of that 2%, half of them do not recidivise because they are under constant supervision.

Crazy, no?

So, that's my spiel. We have some other posters here who are in law school or have law degrees (I tip my hat to you), and they may be able to put a more accurate bent on it than I (because my focus was always Poli-Sci, not law).

Anyhow, thanks for listening to the rant.


[This message has been edited by grendel (edited 06-22-2000).]

The recourse we have is not nearly as good as the recourse we SHOULD take.

Every once in a while I get Old Testament, and this is the topic that I get Old Testament on.

And thanks for that addition, Candyman...I forgot to address flint's original question and didn't tell him that no, the victim has no say in the level of prosecution undertaken.