As a child safety advocate, I strongly support the strict enforcement of laws against child abusers. Whatever their remorse or our capacity for forgiveness, convicted abusers should be separated from society as the law prescribes.
Tragically, the Giuffre1 victimization was made worse by the under prosecution and under sentencing of the perpetrator in 2008. The pat on the wrist apparently contributed to the belief that the offenses were not so bad, enabled him to maintain some (im)plausible legitimacy, and deterred other victims from coming forward.
The Files
In the course of an extensive, 15-year investigation, four Presidential administrations accumulated 3-6 million documents, emails, and images related to the criminal, his associates, and their activities. These files are a conspiracy theorist’s dream. There is no shortage of people of every political and social persuasion to vilify and place under a veil of suspicion.
As a result, the politicians and the press are playing us like a fiddle. The more evidence that is released, the less proof there is. A clickbait headline announces a story about a person who flew on the criminal’s plane with his wife and children five years before his conviction. Every report includes something to the effect of, “Being named in the…files does not assume any guilt or wrongdoing…”.
By now, the opposing political parties that have alternately controlled the investigation and the evidence would have disclosed any smoking gun evidence, especially against their opponents. Nevertheless, I suspect, without any beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence, that there are others who should have been prosecuted.
It might be hard to find two people less worthy of defending their morals than the 42nd and 45/47th Presidents, but here we are. Both Presidents are being accused of pedophilia and participating in the convicted offender’s crimes. Yes, they had an intermittent relationship, but there is no corroborated evidence of any criminal activity with the Guiffre offender or any association after 2008.
Those participating in a group dinner or soliciting charitable support post-conviction are guilty of terrible judgment, not of a crime. Those like Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Deepak Chopra who embraced the unreformed convict deserve censure and ostracism (if not more).
Must Have Known?
How many of the forty percent of people who cheat on their partners voluntarily disclose their infidelity? You know many of the nearly 50 million people with a substance use disorder hide it well. How many times do the friends of someone who died of suicide say they had no idea the deceased was suicidal?
What about the man beaming at girls and boys or hosting a group of underage girls overnight at his house? If you have enjoyed your children’s school events or had the fourth-grade basketball team slumber party at your house, you are a member of this “guilty” class.
Somewhere, there is evidence of my “connection” to a felon who sexually assaulted a minor and served eight years in prison. Years after we worked together, a former colleague disclosed his awful (pre-employment) crime during a phone call. Until then, I was unaware of his conviction and never suspected his involvement in any criminal activity. Nevertheless, my phone number could appear in his “file.”
What about you? Given the prevalence of abused children, you have undoubtedly interacted with an abuser. You might have shared a beer with a neighbor at the block party, high-fived the youth coach after the game, or harmonized with the church choir leader.
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Child abuse occurs too frequently and is too often unpunished. However, we cannot use these facts to presume evil intentions from everyone or to gratuitously attack them.
Rather, we should cloak our children with attentive concern and channel our energy toward protecting them and transforming victims into survivors.2 What could we accomplish if we redirected the time and effort spent reading inflammatory stories, posting random attacks, and doomscrolling toward local advocacy centers?
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1Rather than provide any recognition to the deceased child sex offender, I use one victim’s name to acknowledge and represent all of the innocent victims.
2If you have not done so, please read last week’s message for critical resources.
