Saturday, May 07, 2011

Have they no decency? No, they don't!


I have often felt as if I'm bashing my head against the wall when it comes to our sex panic and how it is harming the very children it pretends to protect. Here is how the Wisconsin State Journal describes this horrific legal case.

Grant County authorities have accused a 6-year-old boy of first-degree sexual assault of a child for allegedly playing “doctor” with a 5-year-old girl in September.

The case, which is plowing new legal ground in Wisconsin, calls into question when a child’s act can be considered criminal — particularly when it involves behavior some experts say is normal for children that age — and who makes that determination.

District Attorney Lisa Riniker is the one who is prosecuting the six-year-old claiming that she alone determined he is criminally responsible for playing doctor—something that sex researchers simply do not define as assault. Dr. Lucy Berliner, who works with victims of sexual assault said this sort of prosecution is "very unusual" and that: "Sexual exploration, curiosity and play among children is common." Apparently these prosecutors have even "raised the prospect that the boy be evaluated as a potential sexual predator and suggested he not be allowed to have any unsupervised contact with children." Riniker is, of course, one of those Republicans who is so sure about the moral panic that she is willing to literally destroy a little boy's life to further her political agenda. Shame on her. Shame on the Republicans, again.


This is outrageous on so many levels.

Labels: