Your site is advertised as an advocacy for children focused on preventing sexual abuse.

Yet this, from your own site, tells a very different story: “Most parents and community members believe that they are doing everything they can to protect children from sexual predators but the disturbing reality is that registered sex offenders are obtaining employment and volunteer positions across the country where they can have unfettered access to children.”

This tells me that your focus is on people who have already committed a sexual crime and have served or are in the process of serving the court-ordered sentence.

Why? Statistics and studies tell us that virtually all children who are sexually assaulted are not victims of an offender already registered. They are victims of those in their lives with whom they are comfortable: their family members, their peers—fully a third of those who molest children are themselves children and juveniles—and their authority figures.

If we wish to actually protect children and work toward that goal, we must change our focus to a victim-oriented one, one that focuses on prevention through education, awareness, and empowerment programs.

Submitted to:

FLORIDA ACTION COMMITTEE and written by Sandi Horzek NATIONAL RSOL