Posted on 09/05/2004 4:31:47 PM PDT by freedom44
DALLAS - The arrest of a 12-year-old boy on charges that he molested a 4-year-old girl at a fast-food restaurant playground may point to a growing problem of sexually aggressive children, child-abuse experts say.
The boy was arrested Wednesday in suburban Houston on charges of indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault. Police would not discuss in detail what happened to the girl, other than to say her mother said she'd been touched inappropriately.
The arrest came a week after the Dallas Independent School District expelled two first-grade boys after one performed a sex act on another during class. While their teacher passed out textbooks, one boy slipped beneath his classmate's desk and performed oral sex on him, district spokesman Donald Claxton said.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of sexually inappropriate incidents among children is increasing, though it is difficult to track such cases, said Sharon K. Araji, a University of Alaska sociology professor who wrote a book on understanding sexually aggressive children.
The problem may be worsening because children are exposed to more graphic sexual imagery at a younger age through racier television programming, the increased availability of Internet pornography and declining parental supervision, clinical psychologist Toni Cavanagh Johnson said. Some sexually aggressive children also are victims of sexual abuse, she said.
All children mimic things they've seen at home or on television, but normal sexual experimentation in the elementary years usually doesn't go far beyond "I'll show you mine, you show me yours" play, Araji said.
The Dallas school district, however, handled about 25 cases of kindergartners who committed sexual assault last year, Claxton said.
While he declined to release details, "suffice it to say there were some fairly graphic things that happened last year involving younger kids," he said.
There are 1,331 juveniles 16 and younger registered on Texas' sex-offender database, Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Lisa Block said. While children 10 and older can be prosecuted in Texas, Block could not break down the number by age.
The Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office, which is handling the 12-year-old boy's case, receives two or three similar cases each month, said Tyra McCollum, the assistant district attorney in charge of the juvenile division.
"Unfortunately we see it quite often," she said. "It's obviously not as common as theft or drugs. It's also not unusual."
The 12-year-old boy, who is not being identified because of his age, is being held in a juvenile detention center while prosecutors weigh the case.
Prosecutors can seek one of two punishments if he is convicted, McCollum said. The lighter sentence would allow the court to have jurisdiction over him until his 18th birthday. He could face up to 40 years in prison under the harsher punishment.
In the Dallas case, an investigator with Child Protective Services also will examine the boys' home lives for an explanation of their behavior, agency spokesman Geoff Wool said.
In such situations, Wool said, CPS caseworkers talk with the child's parents about age-appropriate activities and try to make sure the child is not being abused or abusing others.
While criminal prosecutions are appropriate in severe cases or for repeat offenders, it is important for authorities to make sure sexually aggressive children and their families get counseling, Araji said. Many adult sex offenders began behaving inappropriately at a young age, she said.
"If we get these children when they're very young, when they're beginning the sexually aggressive behavior, we would have a much greater success rate in stopping sexual abuse from continuing," Araji said.
Ya think? I can't tell you how many excuses I hear from people. They claim that kids don't get the sexual inuendo so it's just fine. WRONG!!! Kids are much smarter than that. They will stay innocent only if we work to keep them that way. They will grow to be moral people only if we train them that way.
Porn madness is feeding the evil.
And putting social services in charge of the problem is often like asking the fox to guard the hen house. These people are "educated" into moral relativism. They haven't enough sense to guide these children. It's been educated out of them.
If you take out the word "textbooks", then I think you'll see what really happened...
yep. 8 years of Clinton and his "if it feels good, do it" bullspit was great for our country.
there's your legacy, Bill. 1st grade boys giving each other BJs.
Hope your surgeon is drunk.
A friend of mine's son went to spend the night with a friend when he was about 12/13.....told his mother later about turning the TV on late during the night and what they watched (porn)........she had to explain to him that THAT was NOT normal, and how AWFUL it was.....and you can imagine her shock.....and wondering where the parents were!!! She learned a very hard lesson. BUT, I think this is far more common than we think....heck we were at the library the other day, and my almost 13 yo niece saw porno on a computer screen and asked my sister "WHAT is THAT?" Porno as Freedom of Speech is BIZARRO!!! and brings us to what this thread addresses!
I believe you can add corporate-sponsored porn to the list of culprits: AT&T, DirectTV, Westin, Marriott, etc.
First-graders left unattended at their home computer are smart enough to move around the Net on a browser screen. And I'm not kidding.
I doubt it will be hard to find an "explanation," but what follows from that? At what point can anyone in authority these days say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I don't think there is a point like that anymore.
Ugh.
We're starting to see Brave New World around us more and more every day.
I hope that they do more than throw the kids out of school. At the risk of sounding like a bleeding heart, those kids need help; that's not normal behavior for first graders. It sounds like one or both of the kids has been sexually abused by someone else.
I think more comprehensive sex education, starting in kindergarten, will help a lot. (/sarcasm)
Without knowing what the boy did it is pretty hard to comment on this story. Normally you could say that the police would have a good handle on this sort of things. But, today nothing is normal. What did he do? Hug her? Is oogling a form of inappropriate transference touching?
So is it getting to the point that you go to jail if you are a child and play doctor??
I do not understand how a 12 year old can be held in juvenile for sexual assault. Shouldn't counseling be more appropriate? I'm confused and maybe just damn niave.
The Decline and Fall of American Civilization continues...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.