Sex crimes statistics from Salt Lake police reveal a startling fact: Between June 1998 and April 1999, children ages 5 to 17 were the suspects in 79 felony sexual assaults.
Thirty suspects were younger than the age of 10, with the youngest being just 5 years old. In one case, a 7-year-old boy was was caught naked with three girls, all age 4.
It's a growing problem, especially in the past two years, sex crimes unit Sgt. Don Bell said.
In 1998, 9 percent of all the sex offenses reported to Salt Lake City police were committed by children 11 years old or younger. In 1999, the number rose to 11 percent, Bell said. At the same time, all age groups 30 years old and older showed a decrease in the number of sex offenders.
Bell wouldn't be shocked if statistics for 2000 turn out the same way.
"Eleven-year-olds today are doing things that 20 years ago, 18- and 19-year-olds were doing," Bell said. "We ask 11-year-olds where they learned this stuff and they look at us like we're crazy."
Division of Youth Corrections statistics reflect Bell's opinions and city police statistics. Between 600 and 700 new sex offenders have entered the division's system in each of the past five years, division program specialist Dave Fowers said.
"Across the board we are identifying younger perpetrators. The question is, are they really becoming younger or are we more efficient at identifying them?" he said. "It's almost always males, but our female offender population is growing as well. That's hard to accept."
Mike Christensen, director of the Salt Lake District Attorney's juvenile division, calls the problem "out of hand," saying his office needs better tools to address it.
"It's a problem we really have to deal with, and it's getting more and more prevalent," he said.
In recent cases, Christensen has cases of 7- and 8-year-olds "engaging in serious sexual offenses," including "full-blown intercourse and sodomy." Two current juvenile court cases have defendants, aged 12 and 13, both of whom have 90 to 100 identified victims, he said. He said he
also knows of 7- and 8-year-old offenders who have threatened to kill members of a victim's family if she tells anyone.
Christensen is pushing for the Utah Legislature to change the laws concerning juvenile sex offenders, so that prosecutors can mandate treatment without charging the child offender criminally.
Young children rarely understand the magnitude of what is happening to them in court proceedings. In many cases, police departments don't even bother to file reports because they know the children can't be locked up and the courts won't do anything, he said.
"We really need to have a petition filed to force the family and kids to get into sexual treatment and evaluation," he said.
Of the 79 cases Salt Lake City cases in 1998 and 1999, 32 were closed with no action taken, Bell said.
"What are we going to do with a 10-year-old?" Bell asked. "Locking him up with a really bad guy isn't going to help one bit."
But Christensen and Bell agree that simply letting a suspect go doesn't do any good. It only furthers the cycle of perpetrators, Christensen said.
In one case, Christensen said he had to deal with a 5-year-old boy who was abused by a 9-year-old. By the time the 5-year-old turned 9, he was doing the same thing that had happened to him four years earlier.
Christensen hopes the Legislature will give police a new resource in dealing with juvenile sex offenders. The proposal is just in the initial stages and probably will not be ready for the 2001 legislative session, he said.
Bell agrees with those who argue that the young child who goes without treatment after committing a sex offense will likely be "worse" by the time he or she turns age 13.
"But you can't turn to law enforcement to do something, " he said. "We're not the ones to do it," he said.
Tomorrow: The offenders.
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