Many states, mine included, treat sex offenders differently according to their relationship to their victims. If a sex offender is the child's parent, then the offender is often not charged, given probation, put in a counseling program or otherwise given different treatment than other sex offenders.
However, many states are changing this approach to incest. Read these articles to see how some states are changing their laws and approaches:
The North Carolina Experience
by Grier Weeks
The politics of child protection are awfully strange. Try to get a law changed to punish a hated crime like incest, and you'll start to see why.
Imagine a law that said an uncle who raped his niece was guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by 45 days of community service. Or one that said a father who sexually assaulted his own child had committed a minor felony, punishable by probation.
That was the law in North Carolina, before state senator Steve Metcalf proposed to reform the State's outrageous 1879 incest statutes. Change the laws, he said, and treat incest the same way we would child sexual abuse by strangers. It was a small act of decency—a promise to children living in terror that the law would value and protect them the same as it does other children.
It was also an important example to states all over the nation of how they could move to criminalize all child sexual abuse.
Continue reading this article here
Closing the Loopholes for Incestuous Offenders
By Elizabeth Donald
If a person molests a child in Illinois, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
If he molests his own child, he can get probation.
The reason is a special provision in the Illinois criminal code that allows for a lighter sentence if a person commits incest rather than molesting a stranger's child. And it has caught the eye of national children's rights groups and state legislators, who want to put an end to Illinois' incest exception.
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Illinois to Eliminate Child Sexual Abuse Loophole
Dunn-Harmon Bill Removes 19 Year Old Provision Allowing Preferential Treatment for Child Molesters. The Illinois General Assembly passed landmark legislation late yesterday that ends a two-decades long practice of granting probation to those who rape children in their own families. Contine reading this article here
Arkansas Overhauls Incest Law
Legislature Creates Tough New Penalties for Crimes Against Children by Family Members. The Arkansas legislature made history as its 2003 session came to a close last week, becoming one of the first states in the union to overhaul its incest laws and toughen prison sentences for child sexual abuse by family members. The legislation, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Percy Malone (D-Arkadelphia), eliminates preferential treatment for criminals who rape children in their own family. (Senate Bill 863/Act 1469)
"Arkansas sent a message to the rest of the nation today," Malone said after the bill's passage. "Laws that excuse child sexual abuse have no place in a civilized society."
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