Nonfiction Post #1

  I have recently been reading the nonfiction book "Child Abuse", which is edited by William Dudley. The book is a series of articles about the social issue of child abuse. The article I am focusing on is titles "Child Abuse Perpetuated by Women is a Serious Problem", and is written by Carey Roberts. The main idea for this article is that Child Abuse, when caused by a woman, is not handled the same way as it would be for a man. Mr. Roberts tells us that the punishment for a woman is less than it would be for a man simply because of the woman's sex. Right off the bat, Roberts says this "Because when a man commits abuse, it seems the story is splashed all over the front page. But when the perpetrator is a member of the fairer sex, the story is regulated to the bottom of the Police Report on page C9." This shows us that an abusive woman gets less media coverage than an abusive man does. Roberts also tells the readers about how women have "A get-out-of-jail-free-card" by saying they had things like PMS or Depression when confronted about why they abused or even killed their child(ren). This shows the readers that women get are given more leniency, by being able to claim those things and not have to deal with the punishment, such as getting thrown into jail. Roberts also tells us about how the media also influences leniency by showing a great deal of anger to when a girl gets raped by a man, but when a Woman rapes a boy/child, it is often thought of as the child "getting lucky" instead of realizing that the child just MIGHT have been traumatized. This also proves that Women, when doing crimes against children, have more leniency.
    The author clearly wants us to see that there is a social injustice happening. For women to get off lighter than men on the same type of crime is horrible. How he encourages the feelings of disgust and anger is very crafty and intelligent. He starts off with stories of women abusing children. He then precedes to tell the readers that they probably haven't heard the stories because they usually are hidden away and aren't given much publicity, because the perpetrators are women. This causes a feeling of injustice to arrive. He also gives facts about how women usually are more likely to be the ones abusing children. This brings on a feeling of disgust. Roberts also brings up the concept of "Dumpster Babies", which he tells the readers were babies found abandoned by their mothers outside, and were usually dead when found. He then precedes to tell about how a new policy was made to prevent that, and to "accomodate" the abandoners instead of, "prosecuting them". "Under New York law, mothers can now anonymously drop off their infants up to five days old. But if she later has second thoughts, not to worry. She can come back and reclaim the child up to 15 months later. That satisfaction-guaranteed-or-your-money-back offer might work at a Macy's handbag sale, but that's not how a moral society treats its most vulnerable members." In the way he words this, he not only gets the reader to feel disgusted, by comparing the life of a baby to a regular object such as a handbag, but also angry that this is allowed. This is why the author clearly wants the readers to be disgusted by the leniency towards women abusers.
     Before I even read this article I knew that there was such a thing as "Women Abusers". I had read the sad tale of Dave Pelzer's life of abuse in his book titled "A Child Called It". I as a girl, have already known that people, in general, do tend to be more lenient with girls or women. The reason is, they think of girls as "weak" or that women need to be protected, and coddled. As a girl myself, I am disgusted that women who want to be treated like equals to men in everything else, don't want to be treated equally in the case of punishment. This shows a sign on bad character and makes me feel ashamed. I personally don't judge people by their gender, but by their actions, or if I know them, their personality. If a woman rapes a child, she is labeled to me as disgusting, and deserves to be punished the way a man would be punished. What I take away from this article is that the leniency towards women is despicable. It won't stop even when a child is the victim? It disgusts me that the woman is made to be more the victim than the innocent child who didn't deserve to be abused or even killed. The leniency towards women when dealing with punishment needs to be stopped. A crime is a crime is a crime, and crimes lead to punishment, and that punishment should be dealt equally and fairly according to the crime, no matter if the perpetrator is a woman or a man. This makes me want to know more about how women are given leniency when faced with having to "Own up" to their crimes.