Molester Said to Leave Trail of Victims

Got this off AOL News: It has been a huge story here in San Jose.

On of the most prolific child molesters in history, Dean Arthur Schartzmiller criminal record began 35 years ago, but he never registered as a sex offender and spent just 12 years in prison. In his time on the outside, police suspect he molested as many as 36,000 children in several states, Mexico, and Brazil.

I see two problems with this story. The first is obviously the lack of sharing information and criminal intelligence between police departments in different states. San Jose Police had no clue as to what this guy was doing because they never checked up on police records in Idaho, nor did the police in Idaho checked up on records in Alaska. And I'm sure that the FBI was pretty clueless in this matter as well--it is a state police issue and we don't have any jurisdiction. There has to be a way to link the database records of child molesters of all state police departments and the FBI, so that authorities can track repeat offenders. Now I'm somewhat torn by this matter, since I am a proponent of individual rights. If a convicted child molester has served his time, is released, and remains in good standing and behavior with society (which means he is not accused or arrested for another child molestation offense), then he should live his life in society. However, if this individual keeps molesting children repeatedly, after serving multiple jail sentences for multiple convictions, then that is the kind of individual you lock up and throw away the key. That is the kind of individual you use every tool in law enforcement's disposal to keep this person off the street.

The second problem I see is that parents have got to take an active role in teaching their children the dangers of these child molesters. Child molestation is about power and secrecy. Power is in the hands of the molester, who uses it to perform his acts on the child and to control the child, by ordering the child not to tell anyone about their involvement together. Secrecy allows the molester to get away with his crimes. The molester uses his influence as an adult to order the child not to tell anyone of their acts--they did something very secret and very bad together. If the child tells their parents, or the authorities, then that child would also be very bad, be punished for what they did, and their parents won't love them for what they did. It is convoluted and sickening, but is also very effective for molesters to keep their transgressions secret. Parents have got to instruct their children that child molestation is certainly wrong--but not because of the child, but rather the molester. They have to instruct their children to avoid the situations where a molester will entice the child with candy, presents, or skateboards. And if the child is molested then they have to go to the police, the school teachers, or parents to tell of these crimes, so that the authorities can put these repeat child molesters away.