TARGETING CHILD MOLESTERS

In 30 years and 1,600 columns, I never once wrote on the issue of sex
crimes against children. Until today.

The man whose powerful pitch convinced me is Christopher Largen, a
Texas-based journalist and social activist who was a victim of
repeated sexual assaults from age 5 through 14. On one occasion he was
drugged by a child pornographer, on another he was driven to
contemplate suicide.

Now a recovered and spirited man in his mid-30s, Largen is crusading
for toughened police, prosecutor and judicial action to arrest,
sentence and hold child molesters. And not for vengeance, but because
"American children are being molested, raped, tortured, even murdered."

Even children who seem to survive molestation intact, argues Largen,
must often contend with years of depression, anxiety and nightmares.
At worst they suffer self-mutilation and suicidal tendencies. Without
therapy, many are tempted into prostitution or exploit children
themselves, repeating their abuse.

But far too often, Largen contends, the criminal justice system fails
to pursue child molesters diligently, or after conviction permits
parole and release far too easily. Often there's "little rhyme or
reason to sentencing" -- for example, a man who raped two boys, 6 and
7, was given a year's probation, compared to a 19-year-old male who's
guilty of sex with a willing 16-year-old girl ("statutory rape") given
jail time.Somewhere in America, the Justice Department estimates, a
child is sexually assaulted every four minutes. But in many
jurisdictions, prosecutions and especially sentences lag far behind.
In Denton County, the north Texas enclave where Largen lives, there
are more than 70 convicted sex predators against children who never
served any jail time. In Dallas County, more than 800 convicted sex
offenders are on the streets.

Within a half-decade of their first conviction, reports the Center for
Sex Offender Management, nearly half of all convicted child molesters
are arrested for new crimes.

Yet while the system falls short in adequate protection for children,
it spares no effort to pursue, corner and convict users and minor
dealers of marijuana and other drugs -- a prime reason the U.S. has
the world's highest incarceration rate. The federal government is a
major player: it has minimum mandatory sentences for drugs but not for
child abuse.

Largen recently created a nonprofit to gather allies -- fellow
survivors, police officers, therapists and others -- in the push
against violence to children. It's called "Building BLOCK -- Building
Better Lives for Our Communities and Kids"
((http://www.building-block.org)www.building-block.org).

Largen said he and his allies "vigorously oppose acts of vigilantism,
vengeance or violence toward convicted perpetrators." What must
change, he said, is a system of placing child sex abusers "in a caged
and violent environment to be treated like animals for a few years,
then released into communities with children, expecting them to have
magically learned self-control and empathy."

What that means, of course, is that the American criminal justice
system needs radical, basic reform. Some people say the system should,
first and foremost, punish wrongdoers. I say OK -- maybe for some
especially heinous crimes. But the critical questions should be: does
the system protect us -- and our children -- against harm? And since
the vast number of prisoners will eventually be released, does it make
every effort, use every modern psychological tool, to rehabilitate
where rehabilitation is possible?

On the child abuse issue, it's clearly failing us on both critical
counts.