do not touch

New California Laws Against Child Abuse
by Donald P. Schweitzer


"Last year the California legislature was very busy enacting new laws designed to prevent child abuse...However, the actual effectiveness of these new laws in preventing child abuse is questionable.

These new laws are not likely to deter child molesters from obtaining jobs that require them to touch children. After all, child molesters are very manipulative and are known to go to great lengths to fulfill their fantasies. Remember John Mark Karr, the strange man who the police suspected may have killed Jon Benet Ramsey? After being charged with child pornography, Mr. Karr reportedly fled the jurisdiction to take on multiple teaching assignments with various schools. Would this new legislation have had any impact on Mr. Karr's behavior?

...Remember, it is always easy to pass tough new laws that punish perpetrators severely once they have been caught. But until our legislatures have passed new laws that create special task forces to arrest child molesters before they touch children, we are not seriously addressing this problem."