"The world is an evil place," my parents always tried to impress on me. But twenty years ago, as a young woman with my eyes full of stars and my heart full of dreams, I found that hard to believe. I tried to take their warnings to heart and see a would-be attacker or rapist around every corner, lurking down every alley but as time went on, I learned that your normal, every day, garden variety American is a pretty nice, good person. Oh, I knew bad things happened but I believed that, for example, child molestation was rare. A...