Scott Berkowitz, the President of RAINN, has confronted us with an unsettling fact: We have an identification surplus but a justice deficit when it comes to child sexual abuse. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, America’s most extensive anti-sexual violence organization, has shined a light on a disconcerting reality—the gap between identifying child abusers and actually bringing them to justice is vast.
This isn’t just a legal issue; it’s a civilizational failure, a sign of a broken covenant between a society and its most vulnerable members. Justice isn’t merely a matter of retribution; it’s a moral contract that safeguards the innocent and punishes the wicked. When that contract is broken, it’s not just a flaw in the system but an erosion of the social fabric.
RAINN’s efforts, whether it’s their advocacy, education, or support, highlight a broader problem we must address. But the issue goes beyond this one organization’s endeavors. We have to look at our cultural, judicial, and even technological infrastructure that allows such abhorrent acts to go unpunished.
Check out this article: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/rape-abuse-and-incest-national-network-rainn/
It’s convenient to point fingers at institutional failings, but it’s more unsettling to realize that institutions are made of people. The bureaucracy that fails to act, the legal system that drops the ball, the society that turns a blind eye—are all human constructs. This isn’t just a failure of systems; it’s a failure of wills.
Moreover, this problem should challenge our comfortable dichotomies between liberalism and conservatism. Liberal dreams of procedural justice are crashing against the rocky shores of reality, while conservative notions of moral order seem impotent in the face of this insidious evil.
We live in an age of deep political division, but if there’s one thing that should unify us, it’s our commitment to protect those unable to protect themselves. This should be the cause that cuts across party lines, that transcends ideological rifts. We must bring justice back into balance, back into the forefront of our cultural priorities. To do any less is to concede that we’ve not only failed our children but also failed ourselves as a civilization.