Monsters, Predators and child sex abusers.
Monsters, Predators and child sex abusers. The lurid headlines of last week, has given us the impetus to use them as a springboard to possible discussion about the use of language regarding abusers. We cringe when we see or hear the word "Monster" or "Predator" or other similar terms used to describe people who have sexually abused children. We fear that the media's, legislators',and others' us e of these terms help to keep the general public pointed in the wrong direction (e.g. - toward strangers or people who are not more socially mainstream) and not toward where the greatest and most common threat of sexual abuse to children exists -- toward people within the nuclear and extended family and within the family's social circle. Also that violent sexual crime is what happens overshadowing the fact that most often neither is it violent or rare. On the other hand it is the repetitive, pre planned sexual acts across a spectrum, on a