Sexual predators

"I hope he rots in hell," the words of Mark Lunsford, father of 9-year old Jessica Lunsford concerning 46-year old convicted sexual predator and career criminal John Evander Couey, the man who has confessed to kidnapping young Jessie from her own bed and then sexually assaulting and murdering her while he was under the influence of drugs. Couey's history of inappropriate behavior towards children dates back decades, as does his over-all criminal record, yet the criminal justice system turned him loose on society to stalk and now kill one of our more innocent citizens.

Jessica's father and others across the country have and continue to call for consideration of a national "one-strike law" concerning sexual predators. Couey's actions have made us consider the hundreds, in reality thousands of known sexual predators who walk our streets and have access to our children on a daily basis. Westley Allan Dodd was one of these predators.  Dodd, a stone cold sociopath, was sentenced to death for the brutal torture and murder of three young boys. In a statement to the court Dodd stated, "If I do escape, I promise you I will kill and rape again, and I will enjoy every minute of it."  The State of Washington insured that Dodd would never get the chance to carry out his threat.

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicated that "the average child molester," as if any such two-legged monster that could be considered "average," commits 380 acts of child molestation during his lifetime. A 1992 study in one state looked at almost 800 child molesters and rapists who had completed psychiatric treatment as part of their sentence, and noted that these "graduates" were arrested more often for new sex crimes than were those who had not been treated.  An international study found a 43% rate of "known" recidivism among child molesters, with the more violent the offense, the greater the chance for repeat behavior, while another study indicated that a group of less than 250 known child molesters had admitted to attempting over 55,000 molestations involving almost 20,000 victims. And finally, California Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth indicated that there were 33,000 sexually violent felons missing or unaccounted for in that state, a sure recipe for future crimes against children and others.

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