There’s a lot of news lately about sex offenders. The media runs with stories that have the most impact, but is the problem getting worse or are we just talking about it more? What can be done about it? A database search revealed that there are about 2500 in the New Orleans metro area. That includes all sex offenders, not just child molesters. There are about 1.3 million people in the New Orleans metro area.

Some statistics are available at the Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit:
• Sixty-seven percent of all victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were juveniles (under the age of 18) 34% of all victims were under age 12. One of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement were under age 6.
• A 1994 National Institute of Health survey of 453 pedophiles, conducted by Dr. Gene Abel, showed these criminals were collectively responsible for the molestation of over 67,000 children. That's an average of 148 children per individual pedophile.

If 10% of those 2500 sex offenders are child molesters, then about 37,000 children in the New Orleans area have been victimized. And having been victimized, stand a fair chance of molesting children themselves. Without treatment, “the recidivism rate of untreated offenders is about 60 percent, while recidivism among those who have been treated is about 15 to 20 percent.”

So for those molesters who wish to stay in the U.S. instead of securing work as a U.N. Peacekeeper, it appears that treatment is a pretty good idea, unless we kill them or lock them up until they die. Where are we going to find the money to pay for treatment? Instead of financing international child rape, we could take some of the $22 billion we were going to give to the U.N. next year and use it to treat and track child molesters here at home.