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When do we say enough to Violence against Children?
Are acts of violence on children a criminal issue or a health care issue?
The following is a two-part discussion leading to an Activism Alert where you are asked to think about what should be done to prevent sexual and other violence towards children and what should be done to help the offenders to stop more crimes.
When do we say "enough" to Child Abductors?
by Michelle Kidwell
Families disappearing from Mississippi, a child abducted and murdered in Florida, when do we say enough and start doing something about this? Children are disappearing everywhere, and too many of us are not doing what we can.
Now many of us are taking the necessary precautions, teaching kids not to get in cars with strangers, teaching them from even the very youngest ages to dial 9-11 but some of us are not doing enough, we need to do more.
It was once safe for our children to play in the yard, to go to the park, but all that had changed. On the news today we learned a fifteen year old girl was brutally murdered, but many stories go untold, many children’s horrors are not even brought to the light.
We need to take measures, to help ensure our children’s safety. Teach them not to talk to strangers, it can be a lesson that could save your child’s life. Also drill in emergency numbers into a child’s head from the earliest possible because that too can save a child’s life.
Another thing we can do to make sure our children are safe is to make sure there are laws on the books for our state regarding sex defenders, and the right for families with children to know if they have been released and are in the neighborhood. I know it’s a privacy issue, but I feel that anyone who hurts a child lost that right the second they harmed a child, in anyway, shape or form.
Let’s fight together, to make our neighborhoods safe for children, and let’s not let it get so bad, that children become bound to their homes, because it is so unsafe in the world. Children have a right to be children, and that should mean being able to play in parks without worrying that they will get kidnapped, molested or killed. It is simply not fair that our children are becoming victims to such horrific evil.
Help Offenders: Provide Mental Health Care
by Sophia Barkat
It is a fact that often time sexual offenders and pedophiles were themselves victims of sexual abuse as children or suffer from mental health issues. The government should do more to address this issue when child molesters are released from jail, to give them the psychological help they need and also to recognize that they are under a lot of stress during the reintroduction to society. Often offenders will often relapse into crime out of revenge when society turns them away. Perhaps they should be kept in special homes until they fully recover.
While many will commit heinous crimes and destroy entire families in the process, not to mention often the lives of the abused children, and we will want justice to be done, we must address mental health issues at all levels -- preventative, cure -- before we rush to punish. The best way to avoid creating abusers is to create an atmosphere of love for children, so that they do not become molesters themselves. The second best is to get them psychological help that is appropriate if they fall prey.
Are Prisons Enough or Adequately funded?
The Bureau of Justice Statistics, a branch of the Department of Justice, says that there were over 2 million incarcerated in the US as of 2003. Most are in State Prisons.
Statistics suggest that at least 95% of all State prisoners will be released from prison at some point; nearly 80% will be released to parole supervision. In 2001, about 592,000 State prison inmates were released to the community after serving time in prison. Nearly 33% of State prison releases in 1999 were drug offenders, 25% were violent offenders and 31% were property offenders. A total of 670,169 adults were under State parole supervision at yearend 2002. By the end of 2000, 16 States had abolished discretionary release from prison by a parole board for all offenders. Among State parole discharges in 2000, 41% successfully completed their term of supervision; relatively unchanged since 1990.
This suggests that about most of inmates in State jails need a high level of psychological care. With the high release rate from State Prisons, and the high incidence of violent offenders and those in for drug possession or use, one can assume that prisons release inmates to reduce costs of running prisons, or that they experience funding problems, there by not being to "correct" mental or character flaws sex offenders or violents offenders might have.
Of those released the return rate or "re-arrest rate" is very high -- more than 60% for those who commit Violent Crimes and about 70% for offenders in general. (See the figure below). This is indicative of many things.
- That prisons alone are not good at character correction.
- That prisons do not prepare prisoners for re-entry into social life.
- That society does not have laws or systems to rehabilitate prisoners released into society.
- It may also suggest that law enforcement know who to look for, assuming they use personal statistics to track down those released -- bringing into questions of use and abusee of this data as well.
From the BJS Re-entry data.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ statistics also suggest that only 1% of all inmates are sex offenders -- 1,621 cases out of 174,179 total inmates as of Feb. 2004 -- while those convicted for Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses are 5,134 cases or 3.3%. This suggests that most inmates in Federal jails perhaps do not need the level of psychological care that sex offenders and murders do and the cost of such Health Care is not exorbitant, either and thus, feasible.
See here for over-all statistics:
TYPES OF OFFENSES
(calculated for those with offense-specific information available)
Drug Offenses: 86,165 (54.7%)
Weapons, Explosives, Arson: 18,280 (11.6%)
Immigration: 16,574 (10.5%)
Robbery: 10,150 (6.5%)
Burglary, Larceny, Property
Offenses: 7,087 (4.5%)
Extortion, Fraud, Bribery: 7,017 (4.4%)
Homicide, Aggravated Assault,
and Kidnapping Offenses: 5,134 (3.3%)
Miscellaneous: 2,914 (1.8%)
Sex Offenses 1,621 (1.0%)
Banking and Insurance,
Counterfeit, Embezzlement: 1,056 (0.7%)
Courts or Corrections:
(e.g., Obstructing Justice) 728 (0.5%)
Continuing Criminal Enterprise: 617 (0.4%)
National Security: 90 (0.1%)
It is not true that all offenders relapse into crime, nor that abusive behavior is habit forming. As said before, the high re-arrest statistics within the first 3 years of being released suggest many things, not necessarily that criminals are all repeat offenders. It might suggest that society does not have ways to help inmates re-settle. Taking measures to confine or target released prisoners may thus stand in the way of their being rehabilitated. Even the hardest of hardcore criminals -- serial killers, mass murderers -- are motivated by a rejection of society or people they love. Violence is an expression of anger, after all.
As it is the experience of confinement is likely to have a negative effect on prisoners -- most of whom are not in for violent crimes but drug-related crimes -- even if the State and Federal Prisons offer "re-entry" counseling. At most, prisons turn mentally unstable people and small-time offenders into sociopaths and outcasts. It doesn't help them to have a better image of themselves, some to be forever labelled as sinners in their own eyes.
In the case of pedophilia we know that offenders do not see themselves as violent creatures, though they may be abusing children. They often see molestation as an expression of love. In their cases, a history of childhood neglect may be the cause of this offence, and should be addressed. Perhaps, offender try to reenact a childhood experience this time with themselves on the other side. Or it might be a way, improper albeit, of showing love to children, as they are often known to say. Perhaps they say this because this is what they were told as children by their own predators, and this has affected their understanding of what is abuse and what is love.
Hence, addressing this issue one must understand the human dimension and the delicacy of the matter.
Reforming Mental Health Care
One thing that has been going in mental health hospitals and also in prisons is brutality towards offenders. Even doctors upon whom we place our trust have been known to treat mental patients violently, resorting to chemical, electrical and physical torture when patients do not take their medicines or act out. Mental patients are different and are supposed to act out.
Yet, very little is done to reform the way they are treated when they act out -- especially in the poor nations where there is no social recognition of this mal-treatment. Nurses and doctors treat patients with brute force because this is how they were taught to. Even in affluent nations such as the US, mental hospitals are closed down in the face of bad publicity rather than reformed. It is as though the welfare of citizens is a liability to governments.
In the US, the lack of mental health care often translates to homelessness. One will see homeless men and women walking the streets of New York or Philadelphia. Often times they will appear to be mentally insane -- talking to themselves or yelling at people. Passers-by will ignore them or laugh at them. Few will help with a quarter or a dollar or a meal. Most will make excuses about how homeless people spend money on drugs and alcohol and how this is a waste. They don't qualify for unemployment checks nor are aware of what little disability money the government can pay them. They don't qualify for most jobs.
In Reagan's recession of the '80s countless hospitals for the mentally insane were closed down. Many paients who had lived there for long periods of time did not have families that could take them in. As a result no one did. Many ended up in homeless shelters if lucky and in the streets, if not.
Given these circumstances one would hope that mentally insane offenders be given some care as well as some punishment if they commit violent crimes and that those with incurable problems not be sent back to society unprotected from their own selves.
Hence, if you are going to enact Megan's Law also enact laws that will do the right thing as far as mentally insane offenders are concerned.
Activism Alert!
Megan's Law
Megan's Law is one way to address the issue. Megan's Law doesn't prevent crime. It simply helps States inform communities of ex-offenders -- those who have served time for pedophiliia or molestation of children. It doesn't stop those who cannot be tracked down, such as offenders who have not been caught, and those who are first-time offenders. More needs to be done.
Read about Megan's Law before you decide to endorse it. Think of ways to prevent these crimes and share them with us and your elected officials.
Once you are convinced this is the way to go, make politicians aware of your concern. Write to your local US Representative or US Senator.
Mental Health Reform
You can also help offenders who are primarily mental health patients, whether in prisons, in your community, or outside to get the counseling and rehabilitation they need. Think about this and share your ideas with us as well as your elected officials, prison administrators and the general public.
Write to your local US Representative or US Senator.
Those in the US write to Federal Bureau of Prisons at webmaster@bop.gov or Tel 202-307-3198. For the "Psychological Services Manual" at the Federal Bureau of Prisons site see under "Inmate Info", and then "Inmate Programs and Services" and then, "Mental Health Treatment and counseling".)
Write to mental health hospitals and care-givers near you. Locate them using Yahoo.com
About the Author(s):
See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article.
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