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The
full text of the CARE Act of 1999, as well as information
on how to help with the campaign on its behalf, is available
online at www.
careact.org.
Vachss
suggested the idea of a national database of child molesters
during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey
later became the 1993 National Child Protection Act's most
prominent champion and namesake. Vachss accompanied Winfrey
to the ceremony in which President Clinton signed the act.
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If there's one thing, more than any other, likely to ignite
the powder keg of righteous anger inside Andrew Vachss, it's
the fact that, in many places, child molesters are better
off raping their own kids than someone else's.
He calls it the incest exemption, a sentencing loophole
that allows child molesters to receive lighter sentences
if they're related to their victims. Wiping this anomaly
from statute books across the country is the latest objective
in Vachss' constantly morphing holy war against child abuse.
"It's foul," the author and activist says. "I do not know
how anybody can defend for me a different criminal justice
standard for people who rape their own babies as opposed
to strangers' babies, unless they want to say children are
property, and you're allowed to burn down your own house,
but not your neighbor's."
Currently, Oregon and 44 other states have laws that allow
people who commit incest to skate by with lighter sentences
than other child molesters, as do Puerto Rico and the District
of Columbia. In Oregon, it's theoretically possible for
offenders to receive probation with no jail time for committing
incest with a minor. According to Multnomah County Senior
Deputy District Attorney Charlene Woods, however, people
who molest children under age 14 are almost always charged
with crimes bearing mandatory prison time under Measure
11, regardless of whether they're related to the victim.
Sex Abuse I, the most common charge for such a case, carries
a minimum of 75 months in prison.
Vachss thinks he has the solution that will apply across
the country: a congressional act that would cut off federal
funds from states that failed to reform their laws on incest
and molestation. The author first pushed the cause in Parade
magazine, the usually lukewarm weekly inserted in Sunday
newspapers across the country. He describes this vehicle
for his trenchant opinion essays in purely utilitarian terms.
"No one ever wrote a book read by as many people as one
issue of Parade," he says.
A Vachss broadside on the incest exemption, published in
the magazine last year, drew interest from Washington--which,
Vachss says, was precisely the point. The result is the
Child Abuse Reform and Enforcement Act, or CARE Act, a bill
slated for debate during next year's congressional session.
Reps. Robert Ney and Michael Oxley, both Republicans from
Ohio, are the primary sponsors of the bill, which has yet
to start the pilgrimage through committee. So far, it has
attracted the support of odd bedfellows ranging from Georgian
paleo-conservative Bob Barr to Robert Underwood, Guam's
congressional delegate. Vachss says he hopes pressure brought
to bear via the Internet will bring more congressmen aboard;
ultimately, he and his allies hope to draw most representatives
into taking a position on the bill before the next session
of Congress.
Neil Vulz, Ney's chief of staff, says efforts to recruit
more co-sponsors are going well, although he notes that
no bill has an easy time in the current, deeply divided
Congress.
Vachss sees no room for ideological division on the bill.
"You've got all these people screaming, 'I like children.
I'd do anything for children,'" Vachss says. "Well, get
off your butts enough to do the right thing with this one
piece of legislation. This is not a bill you can debate
about. Who's going to stand up and say, 'Incest deserves
legal protection?' Certainly, people say that. I can't imagine
a politician saying that. We were always looking for the
litmus test. I believe we have one."
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Willamette Week | originally
published November 23,
1999
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