http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/2149280p-2542602c.html Doesn't it seem like recently there's been just a serious run on some really awful crimes committed against children??? we have the woman in dallas leaving her kid locked in a closet for years...andrea yates drowning her kids...lots of child molestation it seems lately...10 year old suicide bombers..etc maybe i'm just more susceptible to noticing these cases since the birth of my son two years ago. Just awful...I can't imagine hurting a child...or causing a child to suffer.
Max: Truth be told, there may actually be fewer. The difference is that now they are being reported both to police and by media. My mom and I had this discussion last year (she has worked with a lot of abused children and women) and she told me that most women's and children's advocacy groups estimate that only about half of all rapes, domestic abuse and other forms of physical and sexual abuse are reported to the police. They believe that 20 years ago, it was more like one third reported. They further believe that the increased reporting of these crimes and new laws designed to address them specifically (as opposed to general laws for assault, etc) have reduced the number of these types of violent crimes by 30 to 50 percent since 1970. With the reporting of the crimes and the increased sensationalization of the media, we just happen to be getting more of these placed in front of us. The same is true of animal abuse cases. Fifteen years ago, you'd have a hard time finding an animal abuse case in the paper or on tv each week. Now, you can see one almost every day. I try not to read stories like that. It just makes me feel bad.
Jeff - you may be right...i considered that possibility...it just seems the level of violence...the quality, not the quantity of the horror...is at an all-time high. again...a lot of this may also have to do with the fact i'm a dad now.
