Posted on 11/20/2004 7:15:28 PM PST by Ptarmigan
(11/19/04 - HOUSTON) — In the headlines these days, it seems children are becoming sex offenders at a younger age, and their victims are other children.
Amidst the slower pace of Montgomery County is a problem that's growing faster than the justice system could ever expect. "You have 10-year-olds who are preying on four-year-olds," said Judge Fred Edwards of the ninth district court. "You've got 12-year-olds who are preying on six-year-olds. It's a mess. It's an absolute mess."
Judge Edwards has been the juvenile judge in Montgomery County for two years. Every Monday, a handful of handcuffed and shackled children march into his courtroom to face their charges. And the number of sex offenders among them is on the rise.
"In the year 2000, there were 25 cases of sex offenders by juveniles and this year, the year's not over with, there are close to 60," he said.
It's almost triple the number in a few short years.
It's hit home for one mother we spoke with who we won't identify.
"He still has nightmares," she said of her son.
She says her six-year-old first grade son became a victim at school. He was in the bathroom at Palmer Elementary in Fort Bend County when another six-year-old, naked, crawled under the stall and sexually assaulted him.
"He got my son to stand up, pushed him against the wall and was rubbing himself on my son's backside," she told us.
No longer do parents have to be concerned just about adult sexual offenders. Child sex offenders are on the playgrounds and even in the classroom with your children. In fact, in Harris County, there are 163 juveniles attending school while on probation for felony sexual assault; some as young as grade school. So how are they already sex offenders?
Lonique Pritchett with The Children's Assessment Center said, "Most of the time when children are touching other children, it's because they have been victims themselves and they're only acting out what has happened to them on their peers."
Pritchett has treated children as young as three years old. Almost half of the center's caseload is juvenile sex offenders, the majority of whom have been victims themselves. For Judge Edwards, who tries to first rehabilitate these children, it's a vicious cycle that has to be broken in the home.
"If they've been raped since they were four years old, if they see this all their lives, see it on the Internet, see it from their older brother, then they're going to think that that's normal," said Judge Edwards.
What's not normal are these signs parents can watch for in their children to see if they've become another child's victim:
Unusually aggressive behavior Persistent sexual play Symptoms indicating evidence of physical trauma to the genital area Eating problems And sex talk inappropriate for the child's age The boy who assaulted the mother's son we spoke with is too young to be charged, though he is in counseling. Despite her protests, he's back in the same school and is now part of the younger face of sexual deviants, the face Judge Edwards sees too often.
"It has to be a change in our social values, family values," said Judge Edwards.
There are 163 juveniles in Harris County schools on probation for felony sexual assault. That's up from last year when there were 124 kids on probation. For a breakdown of where these juveniles go to school, click here
Authorities we've spoken with about this story tell us judges would not let a juvenile back into the school system if there was a concern he or she would be violent again.
Adult predators in circumstances where there is a proponderance of physical evidence, should receive capital punishment for abusing children. Zero tolerance. IMO.
Welcome to Hildebeast's New World Order of SOCIALISM!!
Results of the kind of TV we now have.
They should be drugged, have weights tied to them and be thrown off of an airplane into the Mariana Trench.
You can thank businesses who are continually sexualizing children in order to make a buch and the media for promoting child-whore pop stars and shows like "Will and Grace".
socialism? we can only wish, with Hellary it will be all out communism. As Lenin once said, socialism is the necessary precondition for communism.
I often wonder what Komrade Klintoon II's cabinet would look like.
Komrade Kerry for attorney general
Komrade Kennedy for defense
etc...
and of course:
Komrade Klintoon I for UN secretary general
I completely understand. LOL
I have to wonder about how much of this "increase" is simply redefinition of ordinary sexual curiosity. Not that inappropiate behavior should be tolerated - but in some cases at least criminal prosecution is completely unwarranted.
Ellen the degenerate is day-time gay.
Somehow, I don't really comprehend how this happened.. Reminds me of the "molestation" trial in San Diego were zebras were ritually slaughtered at the day care center..(inbetween molestations)...
Please explain yourself.
And easily accessable pornography. Anyone who doesn't see the connection between these sorts of incidents and the permissive sexualized society we live in is too blind to see.
THIS, like the morbid petting zoo, IS BEYOND THE PALE. Of course, maybe it's just me, but I've never seen NAKED 6 year olds crawling into stalls and molesting other six year olds.. Maybe there ARE people out there who would believe such tripe. Luckily for some, it appears the jury on Peterson case didn't believe the satanic cult defense, either.
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