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Sex Crimes Against Children

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In recent years sex crimes have been getting a lot of attention. For years sex crimes have been committed, but in the last 20 years many different laws have been implemented due to very notable sex crimes. There have been many cases especially ones against children that have definitely shaped our attitudes toward sex crimes. “Since 1990, fears and anxieties about child safety and sex offenders have continued to grip the public imagination and have been closely followed in the media” (Horowitz). These sex crimes against children got a lot of attention because, we did not think that an adult would do these things to a child. Even though these acts were very gruesome it was mainly because of them why we now have certain laws that protect us, notify …show more content…

Fourteen year old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom On June 2, 2002, while she was sleeping. The kidnapper snuck up on Smart while she was sleeping and put a knife to her throat and made Smart come with her. Through all of this, Smart’s sister Mary Katherine was watching this unfold and was trying to figure out who this person was. The kidnapper, who we later find out is Brian David Mitchell. “The kidnapper, a man by the name of Brian Mitchell, led Smart out of the house and marched her for hours through the forest to a camp where his wife, Wanda Barzee, was waiting” (Biography.com Editors). Mitchell who was a polygamist actually made Smart his wife. Mitchell would rape Smart about every day and she could not do …show more content…

Elizabeth Smart’s family wanted to make sure that something like this would never happen to any other child. A couple of years later, AMBER Alert became Federal and now all fifty states have it. Both Amber Hagerman and Elizabeth Smart cases are the reasons why we have AMBER Alert. These cases got a lot of attention because no one thought it was possible for someone to get away with it. When Hagerman was kidnapped there were many witnesses but word did not get out fast enough and the murder was never solved. Then when Smart was abducted and later on found and then shortly after her family pushed for a national AMBER Alert. AMBER Alert since then has got more advanced and we now get notifications on our phones. These couple of sex crimes that occurred are the reasons why we have certain laws today. The murder and rape of Megan Kanka is the reason why we have Megan’s Law today. The kidnappings of Amber Hagerman and Elizabeth Smart is the reason why we have AMBER Alert nationwide. It is unfortunate that children had to be harmed in order for these laws to be implemented, but at least the child’s legacy lives on through these

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