As a brief housekeeping matter, I’ve learned a great deal about building websites since I last spoke to you. I learned, for example, that Sitebuilder and WordPress don’t play well together. I could not migrate my old blog to the new site. So while I designed a beautiful site, with lots of pretty graphics, I could not bring three hundred pages of blog entries with me, and that was too high of a price to pay. After all, I’m still the messy kid who can’t draw inside the lines. My creations are more bold than they are beautiful. So I added a widget to lead folks easily to purchasing RIPPLE on Amazon. I added a page dedicated to reviews. And my pride and joy–I added an entire section on intellectual property. Sigh–I know, boring, right? Well, maybe, but useful too, so if you have any questions about what you can and can’t use on the Internet, please ask me questions over there. Or here. It’s all good.
While I was cussing at my poor iMac or his little bro, the Macbook Pro, I was also formulating the plot for the sequel to RIPPLE. It’s tentatively named WAVE, and it will pick up five-six years from where we left off. Phoebe is a gun-wielding poet, with a lot of anger still, but a lot of beauty. Helen and Cass are working together. And Anne has just passed away.
The problem is that two of the perps, the sick bastards that participated in the child porn ring with Parkings, are out of jail now, and Phoebe must confront her PTSD panic, her anger, and her quest for revenge. After all, the legal system is notoriously unjust in cases involving sexual abuse.
I’m just getting started with this book, and being the ex-lawyer that I am, I started researching the issues of prison sentences for sexual offenders. In fact, judges are refusing to follow sentencing guidelines in almost 50% of child porn cases. Here’s some of what I found:
“For years, federal sentencing guidelines have provided that someone convicted of downloading child porn would receive a minimum of five years in prison, plus extra time for, among other things, using a computer or having more than 10 images. Judges were rarely able to deviate from the guidelines. But Supreme Court rulings in 2005 and 2007 effectively made the guidelines advisory, not mandatory. Now, judges increasingly are giving prison terms for child porn that are lower than the range recommended by the guidelines.
“In the 12 months ended September 2009, federal judges gave prison sentences below the guidelines in 44% of cases in which individuals obtained child pornography or shared it with others, up from 27.2% two years earlier, according to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a federal agency that develops the guidelines.”–AMIR EFRATI, Judges Trim Jail Time for Child Porn (WSJ POLITICS January 19, 2010).
Many judges argue that it’s unfair to treat those who merely view porn with as much (if not more) severity than “actual” child molesters. Putting aside the fact that all consumption of child porn presupposes an act of abuse involving a minor, a recent article in the University of Michigan Law Review debunks this belief. According to two separate studies, when interviewed in the course of receiving treatment, 65 to 85% of perpetrators confessed to having sexually abused, on average, more than eight victims prior to being convicted on charges of child pornography. They simply hadn’t been caught. Here’s the relevant provision:
“Hernandez and Michael L. Bourke recently expanded on the 2000 Butner study findings in a subsequent study with results similar to the first. In this study, 155 men who had been convicted of child pornography offenses were analyzed. Before the study, seventy-four percent of the subjects had no documented history of sexual abuse, but at the end of treatment, eighty-five percent admitted to having committed at least one hands-on sexual offense. The subjects who had no known history of hands-on crimes ultimately disclosed an average of 8.7 victims each. Hernandez and Bourke argued that the “dramatic increase (2,369%) in the number of contact sexual offenses acknowledged by the treatment participants challenges the often-repeated assertion that child pornography offenders are ‘only’ involved with ‘pictures.’ ” Instead, these studies suggest that pedophilia and an interest in child pornography can be valid indicators of more serious offenses that may go undetected by the criminal justice system.” See Kristin Carlson, Commentary, Strong Medicine: Toward Effective Sentencing of Child Pornography Offenders, 109 MICH. L. REV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 27 (2010), http://www.michiganlawreview.org/assets/fi/109/carlson.pdf.
This is the scary reality facing women and children all across this great nation of ours. And as mothers and fathers, it’s our job to understand the way the law works and to advocate on behalf of the defenseless victims who most need us. Obviously I’ll have more to say about these issues, but I wanted to leave you with an anecdote.
On Monday, I was sitting in the pediatrician’s office waiting to confer with Dr. M. I overheard a father explaining to his daughter, who appeared to be a wee creature, but undoubtedly was older than she appeared, on why she needed to get a shot to prevent the HPV virus. A wave of self-righteous anger swept over me. How can the government tell me to get my own daughter vaccinated, I wondered, when she enters sixth grade? Well, hell, I can prevent it if . . . And then it hit me: the shot is for her own protection. You see, in our society, we do need to worry about sixth graders needing HPV viruses.
Why? Well, please read RIPPLE if you don’t understand why.
And until my daughter, and all of your daughters are safe, I won’t stop speaking out on these issues. I’ve only begun to speak, and I’m not going away.
LOL. I know I said otherwise two weeks ago, but really–that was a technicality.
How are you doing on that “like” button?
Child porn is hideous. Sentencing guidelines should be strictly followed. Anyone who is looking, trading, or in procession of child porn has a severe problem and is not a safe person. When we spoke, I likened child porn to pot—a gateway drug. I actually believe that while pot is illegal, and can lead others to other drugs, that it is far more harmless than child porn. If you are looking at child porn, and getting arouse, it will not be long before you crave the real thing. Judges are not wise in so many ways. Porn, especially child porn should be viewed as a violent offense. How to make room for these sick people in the prisons? Get rid of minimum mandatory sentences for those who are truly non-violent, and still given much stiffer sentences, nonetheless.
I don’t think I can add a like button because I’m self-hosted now and not exactly a WordPress member. I agree 100% with you–of course!
The only sentencing guidelines that seem to be followed are those for small amounts of drugs. Those folks get locked up. The folks that we really want to keep off the streets? Nah. What could go wrong…
I’m glad to see you back here, ish.
Awww glad to be back Elyse, sort of! Thank you!! Amen amen hun.
Judges routinely ignore sentencing guidelines, why? How about we round them all up and throw them in with the perps! Seems fair, they are just as guilty!
Gad, what a world we live in. Sometimes it all seems just so hopeless.
Don’t stop, your voice is so needed, so necessary. Such fresh air.
(send a note to Red, she migrated from WP to her own site and took everything with her. Not that I want you to leave me, but she did it).
Val!!! Hello my friend! And I love your idea (tired smile). I get tired of it too, but just when I feel hopeless, someone or something reminds me why I do this. And you’re one of the ones who reminds me of that–a lot!
Oh man. Red is so on-the-ball LOL!
Loud applause from over here. Even if viewers of child pornography were NOT actively involved with child molestation (and I firmly believe that it is a given) then they are complicit with other people’s abuse of children. And should be stopped. Yesterday.
Big smiles at you my friend. And it is so good to see you! I agree with you of course. And yesterday.
Hi, there. Thank you for your work! One of my Sr. Advisers just said check out your work. I’d like to invite you and everyone you know to come to the 10th annual Race to Stop the Silence (Stop Child Sexual Abuse), http://www.dcrace.org – an 8K Race and Walk and kids’ fun run – on April 14, in Washington, D.C. Our primary partner this year is the Washington Redskins Alumni Association. The Race/Walk is a real upbeat, educational fun event. We have booths (would you like one?), and games for the kids, survivors speaking, entertainment and more. Come E.L., come all!! Pamela Pine, PhD, MPH, Founder and CEO, Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse, Inc. (www.stopcsa.org). (I’d also like to set up a time to talk to you? Can you email me: ppine@stopcsa.org)
I have no other words than to say your strength is beautiful.
Aww big smiles my friend!!!
I am applauding your POWERFUL-PRO-ACTIVE Voice, El.
This is how things change. This is how the world transforms.
Xx Silence is a MURDERER.
Love.
Awww thank you so much my friend! Keep on rocking sister! xoxo
Love the new look, El! And, I’m so glad you are staying here at WP. Thanks for championing these causes…I don’t know much about legal things, I don’t watch the new, I tend to keep myself out of the loop on purpose, so you are my link to the necessary real world! Love you! XOXO-Kasey
Lots of love to you Kasey! And thank you for sticking with me!!
Yikes. I’d always thought of porn (not child porn) as an appropriate kind of fantasy for adults. But I can see how that is laden with problems. And I know people who have porn addiction issues. The child porn laws need to be tightened. Those statistics you found are scary! That said, you’ve got a lot of great fodder for book two. I love the title (tidal) WAVE. I’m sure you will knock it out of the park!
Thank you so much Renee! And amen to good fodder! Lots of it!
My brother and I were both abused as children, he by caregivers, me by customers; I was a runaway, and earned my bread by prostitution on and off for alout a year.
It amazes me that we censor people for speaking about the Saviour and salvation, yet often turn a blind eye to those who feed on the flesh of children.
I’ve spent time locked up with some of these folks-some truly want to change, some see no reason to do so. While I understand forgiveness, I see no problem with Q’tipping the unrepentant ones. Regardless of what they say about “childlove”, they get off on the pain, and the power.
If I thought God would grant it to me, I’d pray to be about seven feet tall, pale, dressed all in black, strong and invincible
with firey eyes and hands that seared the evildoer…. then, I’d go hunting.