Child abuse deserves more attention

It happens every day in the U.S. While you are shopping at the grocery store or sleeping blissfully through a class, a child is being molested.

According to the American Medical Association, a child is sexually molested every four seconds.

According to the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center, children who have been assaulted are more likely to abuse drugs, be arrested, develop social disorders and have lower IQ’s than those who have not.

The center estimates that there are between 250,000 and 500,000 pedophiles currently residing in the U.S. And if you think that they don’t live in your neighborhood, go to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website, search for sexual offenders in your area and prepare to be shocked.

According to an area news station, a male native of Ohio was arrested Wednesday for raping two autistic boys who were in his care. Being autistic, these boys had severe mental handicaps besides the fact that they couldn’t speak or hear, preventing them from communicating their distress to others.

Remember when 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped, molested and murdered by John Couey, who lived across the street from her? What about the many Catholic priests who abused young boys and whom the church actively worked to avoid their prosecution?

Our government needs to do more to protect our youth.

The U.S. government never took an active role in the Catholic abuse cases, instead allowed the church to handle the investigation.

In the Lunsford case, Couey was a previous offender officials failed to keep track of.

As long as these people are properly tried and convicted, and their guilt is assured, who cares what happens to them? I have no problem with killing them, but it is my personal belief, which some people may not share.

We can put them in prison for life, but then we have to pay to house, feed, guard and entertain them, which is not right. Do we house and entertain victims of sexual assault?

We can no longer “rehabilitate” and turn them free again. The Rape and Sexual Abuse Center says the typical child molester abuses an average of 117 children, most of whom do not report the crime.

We must ensure the safety of our children, and not concern ourselves with the molesters “rights”. They should not control our communities and neighorhoods under any circumstances.

These people have no rights; they have lost all the privileges that come with being humans.

Mackenzie Turberville is a senior journalism student from Lake City, Fla. He can be reached at famuanlifestyles@hotmail.com.