I understand a monster better than most.

As a child, I was a victim of sexual abuse. I have explained this in previous blogs here.

As I grew into an adult, I was crippled by very real, pervasive fears based on the facts that accompany victims of sexual abuse. Many turn into abusers themselves, still many others commit suicide as they see the monster emerging, and almost all, even WITH therapy, will bear scars for life. I shied away from relationships out of fear that I would become the very monster I despised. Only through a great deal of introspection and therapy was I able to function to anything resembling "normalcy".

Sexual abuse is not pretty. And yet, it is my opinion that it is growing exponentially.

Why? Because many victims of sexual abuse are frightened. They do not report the crimes of the perpetrator until long after the fact, if at all. The same stigma that accompanies rape victims accompanies child sexual abuse, only greatly magnified. This is ESPECIALLY true of the male population (even many therapists tend to assume homosexual tendencies among adult victims...reporting the abuse casts doubt on one's sexuality, among other things). As a result, a given offender victimizes FAR MORE children than are usually reported; the unreported victims go unnoticed and untreated.

And thus, the monster continues into the next generation.

Bakerstreet wrote a recent article proposing removing sexual offenders from society entirely. I am completely in agreement with him, but for different reasons than his. I believe it must be done as much to protect the offender from himself as to protect future victims against the offender.

Victims of child sexual abuse live in a private hell that nobody who hasn't been there can know. The only way we can prevent this abuse from making victims of another generation is to remove known abusers from mainstream society.

It's not only humane, in fact, it is the ONLY humane response.