Oprah is taking on the issue of family courts going light on sexual offenders who molest their own children -- and its about time. Finally, a survivor of child sexual abuse has enough power, clout, and money to take this issue to center stage. Cheers to Oprah, Jan Goodwin, and "O" Magazine for raising awareness about incest exception laws and practices that put sexual predators who hunt within their own families in therapy rather than in jail.
From the article:
What's contested about the exception laws is the assumption that adults who molest their children can be rehabilitated. Many experts don't believe treatment actually works. After witnessing what happened under the Illinois incest exception law, Poskin--who actually helped write the law in 1983--pushed to overturn the same law in 2003. "We didn't see a reduction in recidivism," she says. "In those 20 years, a lot of children were probably harmed. We now know that if an offender is put back in the home, it is highly likely he will offend again."
You can read it here: http://www.jangoodwin.com/articles/pleasedaddyno.pdf
2 comments:
How wonderful that Oprah is taking this on. This is a subject left rotting under the carpet for far too long. It needs to be brought out in the open and discussed so that children no longer live with the fear of telling after the abuse has taken place.
Ingrid Berzins Leuzy
Author
Silent Women
Ingrid --
Thanks for the comment. Yes, I agree it's great for someone visible like Oprah to take on this topic. I hope that we can do more to allow the silent women you talk about in your book and other places to be able to speak.
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