ENGLISH FOR SENATE POSITION PAPER ON:
Preventing Child Abuse
The problem of child abuse is far more serious than most people
know. One-third of girls and one-fifth of boys will be abused
before they reach age twenty. Most of the abuse is
conducted by individual perpetrators not affiiliated with any group or
organization. However, about 4,500 pedophile priests have been
identified in the Catholic church, which has deliberately ignored,
denied, and attempted to cover-up the problem until the magnitude of
abuse in Boston was exposed in 2002. The average pedophile
has about 100 victims during his career: multiplying this number by
4,500 means that there could be as many as 450,000 victims of pedophile
priests alone over the past fifty years. Over half of the bishops
in this country have knowlingly and deliberately transferred pedophiles
from one assignment or parish to another, thereby spreading the
contagion of abuse. About $1 Billion has
already been paid out by the church to victims, with another $2 Billion
in future settlements estimated to be paid. Over 50
suicides of victims of clerical sexual abuse have been recorded.
State Attorney Generals have attempted to deal with this criminal
behavior, but the problem is national and a national response such as
the Lindbergh law that was passed to deal with kidnapping is
needed. The lack of attention from the Congress and the U.
S. Department of Justice about the issue is inexplicable: if there had
been child abuse of similar magnitude in the boy scouts, there would
have been a national uproar with Congressional hearings resulting in
the
probable loss of the organization's national charter and the abolition
of many boy scout troops. Instead, the Department of Justice
(DOJ) is going after suspected cases of internet child pornography:
those responsible for this behavior need to be investigated, but what
and whom else is DOJ's internet surveillance also monitoring? Why
isn't it pursuing the known pedophiles in the country that are being
shielded by their employers? Is the DOJ's pedophile
internet surveillance program merely a cover for widespread illegal
snooping into private citizens lawful electronic correspondence?
I propose that a joint Congressional commision be established similar
to the Keafauver
Commission that was authorized fifty years ago to investigate the
extent and activities of organized crime to investigate
the problem of child abuse nationally and propose legislation to deal
with this problem. In cases where perpetrators have been shielded
by others, those who have covered up or enabled perpetrators to
continue with their criminal activites also should become liable for
prosecution and punishment similar to drivers of getaway cars in bank
robberies. In situations where tax exempt funds have been used to
pay legal fees of perpetrators, hush money or award settlements to
victims, income taxes should be levied on the organizations paying the
fees or awards. The costs of pedophilia are not a legitimate
charitable expense that should continue to be subsidized through tax
exemptions by the rest of society. The DOJ's internet pornography
surveillance program should come under the most rigorous Congressional
scrutiny to insure that illegal monitoring of lawful private electronic
communications also is not being conducted.
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Designed by Imad-ad-Dean,
Inc.