There can be no dispute that crimes against children are serious and must be dealt with harshly. It’s good that crimes such as sexual offences within families are no longer treated at private matters that see the offender get a good talking too before being shipped off for counseling. Child pornography has been around since our ancestors first learned how to draw but the circulation of kiddy porn no longer has to be clandestinely carried out by hand or through the mail. With a few clicks of a mouse, anyone with the most basic of computer skills can instantly collect or transmit hundreds if not thousands of these illicit images with relative ease.
But the consequences of these societal changes that have made offences against children more serious and technological advances that facilitate these crimes have led many people to be unduly preoccupied with offences against kids. This in turn has led to innocent people being arrested, jailed and tried when in fact no crime has taken place. The reporting of such “crime” often times borders on the hysteria. There are two recent examples that illustrate this problem.
Otis “Bullman” Hensley, to put it kindly, is a little bit of a strange character. The two time Kentucky fringe gubernatorial candidate was in a grocery store in Harlan Kentucky last month. While in the store he noticed a woman who was accompanied by two young girls, ages 11 and 13. Hensley approached the woman and offered to give her “a fattening hog” in exchange for the little girls. She was not amused and went straight to the authorities. Hensley was later arrested and charged with the offence of first degree unlawful transaction with a minor under the age of 16, presumably attempting the buy the children for a sexual purpose. Bullman spent three days in custody before making bond and when he appeared in court a week later, the prosecutor dropped the charges against him, indicating that no crime had been in fact been committed.
