Sex Molester Dodges Charges

That's the sex molester, over there on the right. Her name is Debra Lafave, she's 25, and she had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old junior high school student.

She's serving a three-year "house arrest" sentence in one Florida county for the same crime with the same boy, but prosecutors in Marion County dropped charges against her because the victim's family didn't want to put their son through another trial.

"There is no one that wanted to see Debra Lafave serve jail time more than myself," the boy's mother wrote in an e-mail to the Ocala Star- Banner over the weekend. But she said the welfare of her son was more important. (source)

I'm having a little difficulty with this. Not with the mom's protection of her son, not at all. But I have a good friend whose daughter is in a similar position, so I've seen a parent's shock and anquish up close, as a beloved daugher is suddenly in the kind of trouble one simply doesn't imagine daughters getting in.

Did this crime always exist, or is it yet another byproduct of feminism's assault on established female values? If it feels good do it. It's my body. Who are you to make rules for me? If it's love, what can be wrong with it? The application of these values gets very, very messy.

I'm also having difficulty with it because if I were writing about Devon Lafave instead of Debra, it would be a very, very different story. Devon would be prosecuted aggressively in both counties -- good because it's a crime that deserves aggressive prosecution. Unless he got the kind of judge that Bill O'Reilly builds campaigns over, Devon would get considerably more than three years of house arrest, even for a first offense. And rightly so.

Also troubling is this: As prosecutors went after our fictional Devon, they wouldn't be receptive to arguments from moms about the effect testifying would have on their victimized child. Young girls' psychological health is routinely threatened as they testify against men who hurt them deeply.

And that, apparently, is OK with our system. But if it's a boy who's going to be hurt, the Debras of the world get to walk. And that bit of sexual bias is OK with prosecutors?

hat-tip: Breitbart
Talkin' Technorati: Debra, Lafave, O'Reilly, Molester