Essay/Term paper: Sexual abuse

Essay, term paper, research paper:  High School Essays

The clearinghouse on child abuse and neglect information reports that "One in four girls will be sexually abused before they turn 14 and one in three will be sexually abused before they turn 18." Boys aren"t in the clear either. They also reported that "One in seven boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18." You ask "How could this be happening?" This is happening because child molesters are being let off too easy! In this speech I am going to convince you that we need tougher penalties on child molesters!

The purpose of this speech is to inform you that sex offenders are getting away too easy.

Sexual abuse has horrible effects on children. Children who have been sexually abused suffer from devastating psychological breakdown and sometimes death. The children develop mistrust and will have problems in their future relationships. Also sexual abuse makes sexual abusers. The Child Abuse Help Book says "82% of child molesters were molested when they were children."

If you think it isn"t a big problem and it won"t affect you or someone you love then you"re wrong. There are 300,000 to 500,000 reported every year in the united states and experts say "for each case that is reported there are two more that aren"t." Why in Virginia Beach alone in 1993 the social services office counted 6,613 sexual abuse cases reported.

The reason only a third of the cases are reported because most of the time the abuser is a friend or family member. In fact the book Child Abuse: an american epidemic says "only 28% of child molestors are strangers." Most of the time the abuser is the money maker in the family and the child fears that if the molestor gets taken away that they will have nothing. If it is a friend or another family member they don"t tell because they don"t want to ruin the friendship or break up the family.

Sexual abuse has several categories and although illegal throughout the united states penalties vary in different states. Social services says"Right now in Virginia for "touching" sexual abuse the offender can get 3-7 years with chance of parole and child molestors are on the top of the list to receive parole which can reduce that sentence to 2 years.They can even get as little as a year if they agree the go to rehabilitation for 3 years. Another form of Sexual Abuse is incest and in Virginia you can get as little as a $50 fine and/or 1 year in jail for it.

Rehabilitation centers don"t seem to have worked over all either.The Child Abuse Help Book says 56% of offenders who are caught for their first time will sexually abuse after being let out.

A well respected official of the Oregon State Hospital, a primary treatment center for sex offenders, stated "There are no cures in this business. The only thing we haven"t tried is magnum-therapy......blowing there brains out with a bullet." he also said "most child molesters.... don"t want to stop, since it is their only way to be sexually gratified."

A 1992 study of 767 rapist and child molesters in Minnesota found those who completed psychiatric treatment were arrested more often for new crimes than those who didn"t go through the program.

I hope with these astounding facts I"ve given you it has convinced you to write your local congress man and demand tougher penalties on molesters and to propose a bill which notifies a neighborhood when a convicted child molestor moves into their community. This will prevent many molestations because if you knew a molestor was living next door you wouldn"t let your children play in front of the molestor"s house. Also if you suspect any child abuse going on anywhere call 1-800-552-7096. Thank for your time.