Would You Rather Be a Man or a Woman Facing a Sexual Assault Trial?

“She admitted in court to having sexual contact in 2009 with two boys who were age 10 and 12 at the time, Smith-Norton said. The sexual contact came to light in late 2014 after the boys stepped forward and talked to authorities. They told police the sexual contact began in 2005, when they were about 6 and 8 years old, according to Talent police.”

That full story is here.

Three hundred and sixty-six years in prison:

A Victorville man is facing 366 years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting a little girl for [two] years beginning when she was only 6, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

Luis Gilbert Sanchez, 32, was found guilty by a San Bernardino County jury Monday on 29 charges that date back to 2009, the DA’s office stated in a news release.

Sanchez was convicted of 20 counts of oral copulation with a child 10 years of age or younger, one count of sodomy of a child 10 or under, one count of sex with a child 10 or under, five counts of lewd act on a minor, one count of possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct and one count of exhibiting harmful matter to a minor, the news release stated.

That full story is here. Compare the offenses, ages, and timelines to the sentencing, and the rhetoric.

When these discrepancies come up in the news, most see a male/female gender bias for the criminals, which is certainly there. As a mother of a son, however, I see a lack of respect for the little boys. The 6- and 8-year-old little boys were violated just a surely as the 6-year-old little girl, only the boys’ attacker got a relative slap on the wrist.

Apparently little boy victims don’t need justice. They don’t need reassurance that society will protect them from assault or will try to prevent attacks like they endured from happening again. No, the boys will have to deal with the knowledge that the state gave her another foster child after the accusations came to light, and while she must register as a sex offender, “She may be allowed to parent the child again if she complies with Department of Health and Human Services requirements.”