Excellent article and writing. Way to put yourself out there. So sorry and also impressed. It brought up my one near molestation. story. It’s no consolation but wife’s in the 60’s mostly stayed for the abuse and makeup circle of life. Woman have gotten smarter have more options for escape mostly. and more than a few escape after a single event. This is progress not perfect. As for pedophiles, I’ll hold my tongue. Obviously not a fan. Me and my male friends about 6 of us, ran into such a person. Single, Simi respectable, motor head with 8 classic muscle cars all in mint condition awesome stereo and sweet house. He always had weed and booze for the kids. We didn’t realize he was pedophile just ___ the car guy. Ended up he tried to molest each and every one of us. I am pretty sure he failed on every account. I was the one who dropped the dime on him to my friends and then they all blurted out similar stories. I should say that were were all like 14-15 year old little thugs. Once we figured out his game and a couple of us saw him with a young boy we never knew come out of his house no shirt, no shoes and his mother picking him up. I don’t know for sure, but I think she was pimping out her own child yuk! After we were on to him we didn’t let him know. No one went to his place anymore. But he hung out with a friends older brothers crowd so we waited and planned. At one point and I am not proud of any of this. We planned and mastermind his death. Not kidding 14 year old boys planing murder, theft and how to get rid of the body and loot. Call it angels from heaven, God, The spirt or whatever. But the most delinquent, illiterate and easily the lest intelligent of us. One day said, dudes we can’t do this. He had spent some time In Juvie and also had relatives in prison he knew what it was like. He convinced us one and all to just tell the fucker to stay away, not go near any places we go, never step foot in our neighborhood and to stop molesting little kids. We confronted him and told him that we had planned his murder and if we ever see him again we will do it. I think he believed 6 pissed of athletic kids who had fun fighting. He figured his number was up and we never saw him again. Latter we asked the brother what happened to him. He said, hell, I don’t know, went over to his place One day and he was GONE. Mission accomplished!! However, I am sure he continued to try or molest youngsters. He just moved his bass of operations. These pedophiles are really crafty, they do try and groom victims. We are too old and too tight a group for him to infiltrate and he did try one by one. None of my friends said a single thing, I think they thought the others in the group would think shit happened, they were just embarrassed and afraid that the rest of the group would think them gay now. Hey this was the 80’s. or other teenage boy worries. I was pissed when he tried to lay his head in my lap after a couple of shots of JD and a a big fat joint, Pink Floyd dark side of the moon (see I remember the album) But I freaked out a bit, he backed off and tried to calm me, it was when I was about to smash his high end stereo with a Ford galaxy piston he said he would immediately take me home. Then I call all the boys and told them what happened. It was almost as if each of us one had been the other. The stories were remarkably similar. Anyway, that’s my pedophile story and the moral is this. The least smart amongst us, saved us from a life in prison for murder, we surly would have been caught. Not sure how we would have handled the guilt of murdering someone. Not well I believe. I told my son that story when he was about 11 He was a very fair and beautiful boy. I wanted to make sure he knew the signs and to always tell me anything even if he thinks it’s the worst thing in the world or someone tells him he will hurt or kill me or his mother. Never believe then. And obviously I never let that little boy out of my sight. Sexual predators, it’s true many have been abused themselves. But that’s not an excuse to bring forward the trauma. Part of me says medieval torcher, burn at the stake or lay them out on a rack. But thats not the answer. Catch and release is also not an answer. So what do we do with the pedophiles they are alive and active. Look up the sex criminals in your own neighborhoods, they are all around us. Keep your kids safe, don’t let them wonder into a bad situation. The trauma will last a lifetime. I hate to say this because I know my family. But it seems to run in families, abusing their own and others. I am not saying don’t trust your family but we all have that one we know not to let around the kids and certainly not as your baby sitter. May you all be well, blessed and May the grace of God shine upon you and heal your wounds!!