How to Respond

Here's another feature from the Register:

Dyess story part 3: Focus on abuse misguided, advocates say
By JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

January 25, 2007

This piece was first published in September 2006


Tracey Dyess' story of molestation is a red flag that Iowans need to shift a misguided focus on "stranger danger" to a bigger threat - sexual abuse by someone known to their family, children's advocates said Monday.

Dyess' situation was extraordinary in many ways, but it's typical of Iowa abuse cases in that her alleged abusers were trusted people in her life. None were convicted sex offenders. New laws such as one restricting where registered offenders can live would not have offered her any protection, said Steve Scott of Prevent Child Abuse Iowa.

An Iowa child under the age of 7 was 40 times as likely to be raped by a family member or an acquaintance as by a stranger, according to the Iowa Uniform Crime Report.

There were 847 cases of child sex abuse perpetrated by a parent or caretaker last year in Iowa, according to the state Department of Human Services.

Dyess' memories of more than a decade of sexual abuse were told in a front-page series in The Des Moines Register on Sunday and Monday. The teen set her house ablaze in 2005 to put an end to years of sex with her stepfather, Brian Street. The fire killed her brother and younger sister.



A NEW FOCUS FOR THE LEGISLATURE?

The Iowa Legislature has poured millions of dollars into trying to stop child sexual abuse by strangers, when the most common source of harm is from a relative or a friend, Scott said.

"In essence, the legislative response is like a town that, in response to a crime wave, sets up roadblocks to prevent criminals from coming into town, while doing nothing to address the sources of problems already within the community," Scott said.

Rep. Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield, said he can think of one effective new law.

"Everyone knows what needs to be done to fix these sick SOBs, and no one has the guts to say it," he said Monday. "No one has the guts to pass a law that would require surgical castration."

After church on Sunday morning, Baudler said people approached him to say they were upset to read about the repeated abuse in Dyess' life.

"How dysfunctional does a family have to be before you stop any more forks in the family tree? I don't know," Baudler said.



DYESS' PRISON TERM GENERATES DEBATE

An Omaha priest wants Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to commute Dyess' 45-year sentence.

The governor's office said that a formal request to commute the sentence has not been made, and Vilsack was out of state Monday and could not be reached for comment on the Dyess case.

But a nationally renowned expert in child abuse and the medical director of the Child Abuse Program at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines said that by punishing Dyess with a long prison term, "we are victimizing her one more time."

"We failed to look at what caused those actions," said Dr. Rizwan Shah. "She would be better served if she received mental health treatment rather than being locked up 45 years behind bars."

No one will ever understand what went through Dyess' mind the night of the fire, Shah said.

"Children try to find escape routes and coping mechanisms, and not all are reasonable. Their efforts to rescue themselves and others from a situation may end up being more destructive, and that speaks to the pathology of the brain as a result of an avalanche of trauma."

Baudler said he believes Dyess needs to stay in prison for a long time - for her own good.

"While she's there, she needs treatment and education and needs to feel safe," he said. "She can get more help inside than outside, where she could so easily be victimized again. I don't think she's strong enough to stand the attention she would get when she got out. Someday, hopefully."

David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said society has a responsibility to evaluate the degree to which Tracey poses a danger and decide if prison is the best place for her. There's a good reason for not imposing adult sentences on teens - some are amenable to rehabilitation, despite "a crummy childhood," he said.

"But this is a complicated evaluation, and the decision shouldn't be made on slogans of 'The poor kid suffered too much' and 'The state let her down' and 'Her offenders didn't get as much as she did.' "



FINDING HELP FOR IOWA KIDS

Advocates said chances are Iowans know a child who is suffering silently, and it's up to adults - a neighbor, an aunt, a teacher - to figure it out.

"All of Iowa's Traceys deserve far better than we have offered," said Beth Barnhill, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "Children need to know there is hope, that there is a way out. Tracey saw no way out, for herself, or siblings."

Shah said the children's mental health care field is sorely lacking in resources and experts.

"This is discussed umpteen times during the year, and the legislature takes a back seat," Shah said. "This can remind them that by ignoring children's mental health issues, these problems don't go away."

Prevent Child Abuse Iowa sought $250,000 last session to expand efforts to teach children and adults how to recognize and respond to threats of child sexual abuse. Scott said the proposal had significant support but failed because of opposition from the House leadership and because the governor and legislative leaders failed to include it in the final budget deal.

More attention needs to be focused on counseling within the correctional system to help sex abuse survivors who are locked up, Barnhill said. Among women prison inmates in Iowa, 1 in 4 say they were sexually abused before age 18. For men in prison, it's 1 in 20, she said.

Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault is working with five prisons to offer groups for sex abuse survivors, most of whom also began to use drugs and alcohol to cope with their abuse, she said.

Dyess is in a program called "Managing Emotions, Seeking Safety," and will eventually be in a program for victims of a sex crime, a prison spokesman said.

Iowans need to shift the focus away from the "Say no, go and tell" programs aimed at children, which largely address stranger danger and put the responsibility on children to report abuse, Barnhill said. The focus should move back to the adults who are truly responsible for community safety, she said.

Iowans should be taught how to recognize adults who may harm children, such as adults who are more interested in children than their adult peers, ones who offer free child care and buy expensive presents, and ones who are overly interested in children's sexual development, Barnhill said.

For families who have experienced intrafamilial child sexual abuse, there are programs throughout Iowa to help the victim, the nonoffending parents, the siblings and, in a limited capacity, the offenders. The Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at (800) 284-7821 offers referrals.