The Massive Problem of Domestic Terrorism

Tuesday will mark the 6th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the downing of United Flight 93. We have spent hours of coverage on this attack, and subsequent attacks in other countries, thwarted attacks here and abroad. We spent billions of dollars in Afghanistan in a response to 9/11. We have spent billions of dollars in Iraq to prevent another 9/11. We have created a Department of Homeland Security and tightened security measures in many areas of our lives.

International terrorism is a real threat and I support all the efforts to address the problem. However, there are terrorist activities happening all of the time here in America that are not being fully dealt with. The activities of men and women all over the country fall into various categories that I would label as Domestic Terrorism.

- Child Sexual Abuse
There are thousands of child victims of sexual abuse. Children are sexually abused by parents, grandparents or other relatives. They are abused by friends and acquaintances of their parents. They are abused by other children that are older or bigger. They are abused by neighbors, teachers and child care workers. Finally, there are random acts by strangers on the prowl for victims. According to this website:

• 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 18.
• 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18.
• 1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the internet.
• Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under.
• An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exist in America today.

- Adult Rape and Sexual Assault
Many adults, mostly women, have suffered the terror and humiliation of a rape or sexual assault. As in the case of children, most rape or sexual assault of adults comes at the hands of somebody the victim knows. According to this website:

• Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
• One in six American women are victims of sexual assault, and one in 33 men.
• In 2004-2005, there were an average annual 200,780 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
• About 44% of rape victims are under age 18, and 80% are under age 30.
• Since 1993, rape/sexual assault has fallen by over 69%

The last point is going in the right direction but there are still far too many victims.

- Domestic Violence
God made men and women differently. He made the man strong in order to protect his family. God made the woman to be a crowning jewel of beauty as a wife and a soft and gentle role as a mother. When the strength of man is misused against those who are weaker, it is truly disgusting. Men use their strength to physically abuse their wives, girlfriends, children and other relatives. Some claims by Endabuse.org regarding domestic violence are:

• Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse,boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.
• Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.
• Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted from November 1995 to May 1996.
• Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.
• In the year 2001, more than half a million American women (588,490 women) were victims of nonfatal violence committed by an intimate partner.

- Murder
Any of the violence described above can often escalate into murder. Motives for premeditated murder abound: theft, revenge, bigotry, etc. Murdervictims.com shows a high number of 18,000 murders happening in 1997 alone (though it does not specify, the assumption is that these are all in the US.

All of the different forms of Domestic Terrorism combine to show that the problem is as serious as organized International Terrorism. The saddest part of this is the weak response we devote to solving the problem. There are many government agencies and departments combined with billions of dollars devoted to addressing these issues, yet when it comes time to meet out justice we often fall short. We do not have strong enough laws and firm enough punishments to protect our women and children from these brutal actions. Justice can often be a revolving door, where repeat offenders are returned to society multiple times. The lives of many are lost or ruined because so many of these monsters are let back on the street to claim more victims.

We need to strengthen our resolve when it comes to Domestic Terrorism. A victim of brutality, sexual assault or murder does not care if they suffer at the hands of a radical Muslim or from the pervert next door. The problems can only be addressed when we take the situation seriously.