Pervasiveness of sexual crimes in NEPA difficult to assess

BY DAVID SINGLETON

Times-Shamrock Writer

The case is burned in Susquehanna County District Attorney Jason Legg’s memory, a reminder of both the repugnancy of sexual crimes against children and why the offenses can be so challenging to uncover and prosecute.

More than a decade ago, an older man stood accused of repeatedly raping two girls. The girls came forward after several years of abuse.

As the case went to trial, and with the defendant counting on the victims’ refusals to take the witness stand, one of the girls balked, Legg said. In the end, she testified, providing key evidence, but only reluctantly.

“In her mind, if she testified, she was going to lose everything important to her. This guy had a farm, and her horses were on the farm, and she wanted to keep her horses,” Legg said. “She had forgiven him. Why couldn’t I?”

It typifies one of the constants in the child sexual abuse cases Legg has handled during his 13 years in the office, the last nine as district attorney.

“It’s all about power and control, and it’s always been about power and control,” he said. “In 13 years, I can’t really say it’s changed.”

Despite indications that sexual crimes against children are declining in the state and across the nation, sexual abuse and exploitation are still a shadowy reality in the daily lives of untold numbers of young people inNortheast Pennsylvania.

With the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal shining an unusually bright light on a class of horrific crimes that for most Pennsylvanians are out of sight and out of mind, prosecutors and others are optimistic more victims will be empowered and emboldened to report the crimes – and the public will be more comfortable listening and believing.

Their optimism is tempered, however, by the knowledge that most victims are likely to never tell, and most offenders are likely to never face justice.

Beverly Mackereth, deputy secretary of the state Department of Public Welfare, said the unfortunate truth is cases like that of Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who awaits sentencing for molesting 10 boys over 15 years, happen all the time in Pennsylvania.

The only difference, she said, is whoSanduskywas and his affiliation withPennStateand its football program.

“This is a crime that is prevalent in our society, and it always has been,” said Mackereth, who oversees the department’s Office of Children, Youth and Families. “It is just a secret crime.”

The best estimate is that only 10 to 12 percent of child sexual abuse nationwide is ever reported to a child protective service or law enforcement agency, said Kristen Houser, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. She and others say there is no way of knowing what that figure is inNortheast Pennsylvania.

“How much goes unreported? Who knows?” said Mary Ann LaPorta, executive director of the Scranton-based Children’s Advocacy Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania. “It’s so trite that I wish I could think of another really good analogy, but I think what is reported is just the tip of the iceberg.”