By Timothy C. Davis
Staff Writer

Computer technology, like any technology, has its pros and cons. We're connected to others, all around the globe, at a mere click of the mouse. We can instant message people across the world, or right across the table. We can send text messages. We can surf the Internet on our telephone. We can telephone someone from our computer. We have cellphone cameras and video recorders, which we can upload to file-sharing networks such as YouTube, or else social networking sites including Facebook and MySpace.

Despite our obvious differences, we as a country - as a planet - are more connected than ever before. Which is not to say we're any closer than we have been, but the technology is there. Want to find your birth mother? There are sites that will help you on your quest. Want to reunite with your pals from high school, or trace your family tree? There are online resources for that, too.

Unfortunately, it's also easier now for would-be sexual predators to come into contact with their potential victims - especially children. According to statistics from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, from 1991-2005 the rate of sexual violence against adults has gone down (a 13 percent decrease in offenses from 1991-2005), as the rate of victimization of children has gone up (a 37.5 percent increase over the same time period).

The bad news is...well, you just read the bad news. The numbers are indeed going up, seemingly in tune with the rise of the post-1990 Internet era. The good news is that awareness of sexual abuse of children and otherwise is increasing as well as the monitoring of that abuse and the people who commit it. Even Pope Benedict XVI, on the eve of his visit to the United States, has finally spoken out on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, calling himself "ashamed" and saying that the church "will do whatever is possible...to absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry."

April is National Childhood Abuse Prevention Month, and our hometown Coastal Carolina University has gotten involved, too, recognizing Sexual Assault Awareness Month with a week of recent activities.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Henry McMaster's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force recently nabbed its 121st Internet predator on Wednesday - most of which involved minors - some coming from our own Horry County, which, according to the Sheriff's Department, is home to some 600-plus registered sex offenders.

Technology is also at the finger-tips of the local, average resident too, when it comes to combatting sex offenders. To find out if a sex offender may be living in their particular area, an interested citizen simply goes to the Sheriff's Office offender watch website www.watchsystems.com/sc/horry and signs up for e-mail alerts for whenever a sex offender moves to his or her neck of the woods.

Sergeant Lori Avant with the Horry County Sheriff's Office updates the online sex offender registry for Horry County. Her division "does pretty much what the name implies," she says. "We follow up with information provided to us, and make sure that sex offenders are properly registered, and if they are not registered, we take the course of action we need to take to get them registered, and we make unannounced home visits to verify that they're living where they say they're living."

The department's biggest success - outside of keeping track of all known sex offenders - is the offender watch program and website, she says.

"There was a bit of community outcry for it," says Avant. "There are several sites out there that offer that service to you, but the problem with those sites is that they are privately run sites. The information they're getting, they're getting from somewhere else. The software to do it ourselves became available to us, where we could do the site and accurately enter the information as we have it. When we put something on the site, it's as verified as we can get it. This is a transient area, as everyone knows. It's a battle staying on top of it as far as making sure people are wherever they say they are. But we're making progress all the time."

Avant says that while she doesn't have any hard numbers on an increase in registered sex offenders in Horry County, that "thirteen percent, the last couple of years, has been right around the increase we've seen. We're right now somewhere in excess of 600 offenders in Horry County. But that 13 percent is the difference between the beginning of 2007 and the beginning of 2006. It's steadily increasing."

PREDATOR AND PREY

On a state level, our General Assembly appears to be ready to pass a law prohibiting sex offenders convicted of certain crimes such as first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, or committing or attempting a lewd act on a child younger than 16, from living within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, or other places where children regularly congregate.

While some politicians have been given grief for not rushing to pass the newest 1,000 foot law, there is a line of thinking out there that by taking such a politically correct, bi-partisan, so-called "tough stand" that in fact the opposite effect is being felt, and that the sex offender, with laws nationwide being enacted limiting where they can live, has been forced underground, where law enforcement can't keep tabs on him (and it is usually a him; 94.6 percent of all South Carolina sex offenders against children from 1991-2005, according to a study done by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, were men).

These offenders may be driven out of cities and into rural areas, where there are fewer resources to help them stabilize their lives, not to mention authorities to watch over them.

Perhaps more importantly, for all the airtime given television shows such as MSNBC's "To Catch a Predator," some estimate that from 75 to 90 percent of children who are sexually abused are abused by someone they know - a parent, a sibling, a family friend, an aunt or uncle, or a babysitter, according to popularly circulated statistics. To boot, there are no numbers on record that indicate that those sexual offenses undertaken by a stranger are any more likely to happen near a school, park or playground.

Many of these stringent new laws are referred to as "Jessica's Laws," in memory of young Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl who was murdered in 2005 by her neighbor, convicted sex offender John Couey, who was sentenced to death for her rape and murder. One of the more effective ways of catching these offenders is to use the tools of their trade: which means, with ever-more frequency, using the Internet.

South Carolina's Internet predator laws are said by some to be perhaps the strictest in the country. Under them, a suspected Internet predator doesn't actually have to show up at a location with a minor to follow through with a crime in order to be charged with one - simply attempting to entice the would-be victim into participation of sexual activity is crime enough.

It works like this: an undercover officer with one of the 39 member law enforcement agencies in South Carolina, working in conjunction with the Attorney General Henry McMaster's ICAC Task Force, enters a chat room or other online forum. The officer, by law, cannot bring up anything up about sex, arrange a meeting or anything of the sort, lest he be charged with entrapment. A person is arrested when they solicit a minor (or someone pretending to be a minor) for sex, or attempt to arrange a meeting.

McMaster doesn't mince words about his program, either. "Using the state's new Internet predator law, our undercover stings have been very successful in targeting these monsters before they can target our children," said McMaster in a press release. "But that's only half the battle. We must also teach our children how to avoid these predators before they become a victim in the first place."

As part of the agreement, local law enforcement agencies (of which The Myrtle Beach Police Department is one) conduct the majority of the undercover Internet predator operations, with training and resources provided by the ICAC. As part of the agreement, the Attorney General's Office gets to prosecute the Internet predator cases while the local solicitor prosecutes the other crimes. According to Mark Plowden, a spokesman for McMaster, part of the program is a propaganda battle, making potential Internet predators think twice due to all the media reports arrests from McMaster's office have birthed.

"We have developed expertise in prosecuting these cases, and the Legislature has funded prosecutors in our office who are dedicated to prosecuting Task Force cases," says Plowden. "We are confident that heightened publicity in these cases serves to create some deterrent value."

The state's ICAC program is funded through a grant by the U.S. Dept. of Justice. The original version of the program was obtained via grant while former Attorney General Charlie Condon was in office.

"At that time, there was no Internet predator law, so the activities of the office were significantly constrained," says Plowden. "Attorney General McMaster pushed the Internet predator law through the legislature in 2004, making criminal solicitation of a minor - communication with a minor for the purpose of soliciting sex, over the Internet, telephone, or otherwise - a 10 year felony. This allows the Internet stings to be carried out."

According to Plowden, McMaster started the South Carolina program with one partner in law enforcement: the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). He then decided in 2005 to begin recruiting local law enforcement to join, dramatically increasing the number of officers online across the state.

"As of today, 42 agencies have joined," Plowden says. "We provide members with legal guidance throughout their investigations. We then prosecute their cases. Beyond that, we provide each department with computer equipment and extensive training."

Plowden says more agencies are sorely needed, despite the early success of the program.

"We must all note that as we have dramatically increased the number of undercover officers across the state, so too has the number of cases risen," he says. "Meaning we believe there are thousands of predators on the Internet at any given time in our state or targeting children in our state."

BOOSTING AWARENESS ON CAMPUS

Another hotbed for sexual assaults is our state's college campuses. Kids are away from home for long periods of time, sometimes without adult supervision for the first time in their lives. Alcohol, always popular on college campuses, is a risk behavior, too. Add to this a general lack of awareness of safekeeping measures combined with what can be - especially for new students - new surroundings, and you have the potential for trouble.

CCU in Conway is committed to making sure everyone's aware of the support mechanisms the school has put into place, whether through traditional means - posters and flyers and such - or eye-opening displays. As part of Sexual Assault Awareness month, last week's activities included Sexual Assault Awareness Timelines highlighting the historical challenges that women's advocates have faced in their efforts to combat gender violence, two programs combating human trafficking in and around the Grand Strand, and a Victim's Advocacy training seminar. The school also held something called The White Out Campaign - The university community was encouraged to wear something white all week, and to decorate their dorms and offices thusly. Also included was a program on how to socialize without putting oneself in harm's way, an alcohol screening day, Denim Day (a denim-wearing protest against a judge who ruled against a woman in a sexual assault case because her jeans were too tight), and something called Walk a Mile (In Her Shoes), where men - with a "blister sister" in tow - attempted to make their way through mile-long obstacle course in while wearing high heeled shoes.

Perhaps the most visceral of all the events was the Rape Crisis Center's "The Clothesline Project," featuring T-shirts made for and by survivors of various types of sexual assault. Stretching hundreds of feet on the bridge near the Wall College of Business and the Student Center Deck, the multi-colored T-shirts, all hand-decorated, were emblazoned with statements including "When I was 6, I contracted Chlamydia - I'll give you 3 guesses how," "Love hurts sometimes...it shouldn't," and "Only 16 out of 100 women go to the cops...WHY?".

Scrawled by hand, the shirts, and the assaults they purport to document, are a powerful reminder of the human side of the numbers, however small they may seem at present. While Coastal Carolina's Clery Act-required statistics point to only a few reported sex offenses on campus from 2004 to 2006 - to comply with the Clery Act, schools must publish an annual report disclosing campus security policies and three years worth of selected crime statistics - that's not to say there aren't more that go unreported, or happen at home, off-campus, or involve a family member.

According to Capt. Thomas Mezzapelle of the CCU Department of Public Safety, the school has been studiously trying to get the word out about prevention and about the importance of reporting assaults. The number of reported assaults has risen from one in 2005 to seven in 2007 - perhaps due to the school's increase in enrollment - but more than likely pointing to an increased comfort with reporting incidents.

"Certainly, it can come from more people knowing they can report a crime," says Mezzapelle. "It can also come from anyone on campus - anyone who's considered a campus safety official or administrator - so sometimes just having different people in a given position can have an effect on who might report to them: we just added several people to counseling services, for instance. It can also be due to whoever happens to be a residence hall administrator for a given semester or year, and how comfortable people feel with them."

Mezzapelle says the school works to get the word out about its various support groups and legal avenues via a variety of methods.

"We have a women's self-defense class that we teach, and we definitely let get the word out to the students that they deal with," he says. "About 20 percent of CCU students live here on campus, and so we help the residence life staff get the word out with weekly and monthly and quarterly programs. We use posters on campus, and take out articles and advertisements in the school newspaper to let people know who to report to. The Clery Report is also mailed to every student and faculty member when it comes out in October of every year."

"Just last week we decorated our offices, and wore and handed out white ribbons to faculty and staff," Mezzapelle says. "Anything to get the awareness out there of what is available to them, we try to do. We need to make it as comfortable as possible for people o come to us, so we can help them in whatever way we can."

LENDING A HAND

Veronica Swain Kunz is the Chief Executive Officer of the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network, a statewide agency that serves as something of an umbrella group to provide services and training to organizations that help crime victims. The SCVAN acts as an advisory group to law enforcement, state and non-profit organizations, providing those agencies a place to turn when even they're not sure of how to proceed - or lack the manpower to do so.

"We do have direct service programs, but we're a hub for all the providers in the state," Kunz says. "If someone calls SCVAN and says 'I need someone to help me in Greenville County, I've been raped,' then we give them a person's name and tell them who to talk to. One of our programs is an emergency fund for crime victims. For sexual assault victims, we help pay for medicine and emergency rooms, clothing if they need it, transportation to a safe place, that
kind of thing."

The SCVAN also follows the victim through any criminal justice process.

"We also provide free lawyers to crime victims, to make sure that their rights are upheld in the criminal justice process," Kunz says. "We make sure plea bargains are fair, and make sure the victim is notified of hearings, that sort of thing. We have one lawyer paid for by a grant, and then a pool of 14 lawyers who volunteer their time. We try and help out any way we can. A lot of times people who are sexual assault victims are asked to take a polygraph test. We believe that that violates a victim's Constitutional rights to be treated with dignity and respect, so we get people to advocate on their behalf. Sexual assault centers will contact us if they've received a call from a defense attorney seeking medical or other confidential information. Prosecutors can file a motion to keep them out of court, but sometimes they're so swamped they ask us to do it."

Kunz says work at the center is never done, and notes that, from law enforcement folks she's spoken with, the same is true statewide - for all the advances being made in fighting sexual abuse and violence, especially in the reporting thereof, the crimes themselves continue to be committed.

"We lead the nation in violent crime," says Kunz. "We are right behind Washington D.C. in violent crime. Our state led the nation with 765 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2006 (violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault).

"The data is really bad. We're really high up there in aggravated assaults too. We're a very good record-keeping state these days, which is important to remember, as our numbers are no doubt a little skewed due to that fact.

"But there's no doubt about it...the numbers aren't good. But every bit of information we can share with each other, every bit of assistance anyone provides, is a much-needed help."

For more information, go to www.sckidsonline.com, www.watchsystems.com/sc/horry, www.ikeepsafe.org, www.netsmartz.org, www.scvan.org, or www.myspace.com/icacsc.