Protect young victims

By Kathy Blevins

The rape of a child is truly one of the worst imaginable crimes. The long-term results cannot be measured but are evident in the lives of adults who were sexually abused. Some of these effects are addictions to drugs and alcohol, risky behaviors, behavior problems, uncontrolled anger, school problems, prostitution and a long list of behaviors that are harmful to the person and to society.

The sad reality is that one out of three girls and one out of four boys are being sexually abused before they reach their 18th birthday. About 99 percent of these assaults are by family members or people known to the family.

Children who live with a non- relative caregiver are 50 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than those living with both biological parents. (Mother's boyfriends make up a large number of abusers.) Recent studies have shown that a child is more likely to be abused when someone is either entering or leaving a relationship.

The proposal that Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and others around the country have made to pass legislation to make child rape punishable with the death penalty or life in prison sounds like a reasonable punishment for the crime. However, that kind of law would put an unreasonable burden upon children to report abuse and to maintain their stamina throughout the legal proceedings, which could result in a death sentence for a family member.

Making children responsible for providing information that could cause the death of a relative or family member is wrong. Children need to be protected and helped to heal from such an insult to their well-being and potential to become healthy adults. We have laws already that fail to protect children from abuse and further trauma. A new law would only add to the already heavy burden for children and those who work to correct injustices to children.

Asking a child to carry the burden that their reporting abuse that may caused the death sentence of a family member or family acquaintance is unreasonable.

Why not use the laws we already have to punish those who commit crimes against children? Our time and energy could be better used to help children who report sexual abuse without adding a burden of guilt for reporting a crime that will cause the child a lifetime of guilt.

In our current system children are often not believed when they report abuse. A new burden placed upon children who report abuse would only causes more family guilt and shame. This would be a major step back in helping those children we are trying to protect.

Enforcing the laws already in place to punish the abusers and find ways to help the nonoffending family members recover from such a horrendous crime would have a better outcome for the child, the family and our communities.

Kathy Blevins of Cape Girardeau is a women's health care nurse practitioner a sexual assault forensic examiner and a SAFE/CARE provider.