2008 Woodie Awards
Sexual abuse in the news
Courtney Bruner/Online Reporter
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: Sexual Abuse Awareness
- Page 1 of 1
Sexual abuse has become a major topic in the news. Take one article about a Mormon leader who was just charged after trying to force a marriage between a fourteen-year old girl and her nineteen-year old cousin.
Warren Jeffs, of Utah, was placed on America's 10 most wanted for this crime after he ran from police. He was charged with two accounts of rape by accomplice. Another case is of a Catholic Bishop, who is on trial for sexual abuse in California. This is yet another case of a religious leader committing sexual abuse.
Why does it seem like these leaders are always in the news? What happened to the days when religious leaders were in the news for good things like feeding the homeless? It has made religious leader become almost like joke now.
Religious leaders are not the only ones in the news. If you "Google" sexual abuse, hundreds of cases pop up in the news, where more people have committed awful crimes just recently. Many are against children.
Ronald Price admitted to molesting a five-year old girl that he lived with. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison. Since he is 69 with failing health, he will probably die there.
There was also a case where a stepfather molested his fourteen-year old stepdaughter. The now sixteen-year old claims that he molested her a total of four times during the past two years during the time when her mother was not home or was fast asleep. If convicted he will only face one to five years in prison for every sexual encounter.
There are many more stories where things like this have taken place. In many of the cases, the criminal is sentenced to a short sentence in prison and are placed on the sex offender list.
There needs to be a harsher punishment for this crime. The punishment does not account for the many years of anguish the victims have to go through. If a victim is young when the crime takes place, they could forever have problems with relationships and might not ever be cured of this even after years of therapy.
Every day more and more of these cases are in the news. It is a never-ending cycle that only seems to be getting worse. This is why this month, Domestic Violence Awareness month, is even more important.
This brings awareness to the issue and lets more people realize that this is such an issue. If we all stand together, maybe we can change this and let the amount of cases in the news fall.
For the articles:
Google article
Democrat and Chronicle article
Journal News article
Warren Jeffs, of Utah, was placed on America's 10 most wanted for this crime after he ran from police. He was charged with two accounts of rape by accomplice. Another case is of a Catholic Bishop, who is on trial for sexual abuse in California. This is yet another case of a religious leader committing sexual abuse.
Why does it seem like these leaders are always in the news? What happened to the days when religious leaders were in the news for good things like feeding the homeless? It has made religious leader become almost like joke now.
Religious leaders are not the only ones in the news. If you "Google" sexual abuse, hundreds of cases pop up in the news, where more people have committed awful crimes just recently. Many are against children.
Ronald Price admitted to molesting a five-year old girl that he lived with. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison. Since he is 69 with failing health, he will probably die there.
There was also a case where a stepfather molested his fourteen-year old stepdaughter. The now sixteen-year old claims that he molested her a total of four times during the past two years during the time when her mother was not home or was fast asleep. If convicted he will only face one to five years in prison for every sexual encounter.
There are many more stories where things like this have taken place. In many of the cases, the criminal is sentenced to a short sentence in prison and are placed on the sex offender list.
There needs to be a harsher punishment for this crime. The punishment does not account for the many years of anguish the victims have to go through. If a victim is young when the crime takes place, they could forever have problems with relationships and might not ever be cured of this even after years of therapy.
Every day more and more of these cases are in the news. It is a never-ending cycle that only seems to be getting worse. This is why this month, Domestic Violence Awareness month, is even more important.
This brings awareness to the issue and lets more people realize that this is such an issue. If we all stand together, maybe we can change this and let the amount of cases in the news fall.
For the articles:
Google article
Democrat and Chronicle article
Journal News article
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