Once more someone has come up with an extremely broad title. What type of child offender are we referring to? The child abuser, who punches, kicks and hits a child, the one who verbally abuses or the one who abuses children sexually or are we discussing child killers? It is ignorance to assume everyone will know, what group you are speaking of, yet ignorance seems to run rampant in our legal system and that is why laws such as the three strikes law, meant to be used on violent repeat offenders is being misused and sending young shoplifters to prison for life for stealing a carton or two of cigarettes.

I can address this topic from several perspectives and I will. My first view is that of an adult survivor of incest. At age 8, I was molested by an uncle whose home I lived in. This continued for years, even after I had moved away (during visits). This man betrayed my trust, took away my innocence, destroyed my self esteem and left me feeling responsible. While he only once was physical (using a belt on my butt)that single act left me physically threatened. Information/education about such things was not available at that time and I had to discover on my own that this activity was not normal, but even then I had no one to go to for help...I knew I would not be believed. Despite the fact that he did not have actual intercourse with me, merely touching and kissing me, the affects have been deep and life long. Even I would not support the death penalty for this man (unless of course it was at my hands, which of course is totally an emotional response, certainly not worthy of legal recourse, nor could it be considered justice).

On an intellectual level, I know we cannot implement laws for emotional reasons. Incest perpetrators once discovered, rarely re-offend, the problem is, they often are not discovered and if their behavior is finally disclosed, the victim often has little if any legal action they can take. There is no physical evidence remaining, statutes of limitation have run out so it becomes a matter of he/she said vs he/she said. Unfortunately it is the victim who loses all the way around.

Then you have the child molester who preys on children, they come into contact with the child outside of the family/home. Professionally I have interacted with many of these individuals, since I worked in the state hospital system with the criminally insane for approximately 18 years, and mentally disordered sex offenders were a significant part of people we dealt

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