MUSCATINE, Iowa — The numbers tell the story.

Since August, 15 incidents of child sex abuse have been investigated in Muscatine by the Mississippi Valley Child Protection Center, continuing what officials say has become a trend.

“I see one to three sex abuse intakes a week,” said assistant Muscatine County attorney Alan Ostergren, of the cases that cross his desk after being investigated by law enforcement.

Ostergren prosecutes felony crimes against persons and manages Sex Offender Registry cases for the County, but did not have a solid number of the cases reported.

He said the most common sex offense in Muscatine County involves men who prey on the children of a girlfriend.

“I don’t want to profile these people because, of course, not all boyfriends or stepdads are predators. But maybe 80 percent of the cases I see show a pattern of an offender finding a victim through a family with a single mom and kids,” Ostergren said.

Det. Mike Bailey of the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office said the second most-common child-sex abuse scenarios involve juvenile misconduct — often an older child abusing a younger relative. Ostergren never sees those cases as they are handled by the Iowa Department of Human Services. The perpetrators and their families in such situations are typically given guidance through therapy and DHS services.

DHS reports that an average of 8.3 cases of child sex abuse were founded each year from 2005-2008. That number can be misleading because it only includes sex offenses committed by a parent or immediate caregiver.

If a child does or says things that aren’t age-appropriate, a parent should question where it came from, Bailey said. Oftentimes the children who offend have been victims themselves.

“That is learned behavior,” Bailey said. “It is important for parents to pay close attention to the sexual behavior their children display.”

Reported cases

The Mississippi Valley Child Protection Center investigates child abuse for Scott, Cedar, Muscatine, Louisa, Henry, Des Moines and Lee counties. According to Laura Kopp, program manager, 99 percent of those cases are sexual abuse.

The center, a forensic interview safe haven for abused children, was established in Muscatine in 2007 based on need for a nearby facility. Prior to its opening, the closest center was in Cedar Rapids.

In 2007, 81 cases were investigated through the Center.

That number increased to 136 in 2008; and so far in 2009, 167 cases from the seven counties have been investigated.

Kopp said she expected the numbers to rise as awareness of the center and its ability to provide immediate reports increased. The up-to-date facility uses technology to allow interviews to take place while prosecutors, DHS or law enforcement watch on television, and suggest questions to the interviewer. With this technology the child doesn’t have to be interviewed multiple times. There is also an examination room on site.

Known perpetrators

Since 1995, sex offenders are required to register with the state for 10 years or the rest of their life, depending on severity of their offense. As of Friday, there were 44 registered sex offenders within the Muscatine zip code.

In Iowa, registered sex offenders are not allowed to reside within 2,000 feet of an elementary, secondary school or day care.

Ostergren said that the state uses those laws as tools but that history has proven that about 95 percent of the time sex offenders are someone the victim knows and that the laws do not address the most-common offenders.

And not always are the perpetrators someone the parent knows. Authorities point, for example, to the case of Waddah Ibrahim Moghram, a 23-year-old Muscatine man who allegedly kidnapped a 15-year-old girl in August at a Grandview park and sexually assaulted her.

“He had been chatting with her on the Internet,” Ostergren said of the public reports containing the victims’ accusations.

Moghram is being held in the Muscatine County Jail on felony kidnapping and sexual-abuse charges. He is awaiting a pretrial conference scheduled for Dec. 13.

Cases reported

Many cases of sexual abuse are never reported and only about a third of the cases reported to law enforcement are prosecuted because of lack of evidence, Ostergren said.

Though detectives in the city and county are good at their jobs, sex abuse can be hard to prove without evidence and the cases are very sensitive.

Time is of the essence and preserving evidence can be detrimental to acquiring a conviction. But even if time has passed, the abuse should be reported.

“If you recognize a problem, contact law enforcement or DHS. If a child is exhibiting behavior or says a person has touched them, don’t shrug it off,” Bailey said.

Ostergren added that adults should also encourage children to talk to their teachers or anyone else they feel comfortable with.

“If a kid is reading this and they have had something bad happen to them I’d like to tell them to talk to someone or walk up to a police officer if they see one on the street and tell them what happened. They will get you help,” Ostergren said.

SOURCE:  http://www.muscatinejournal.com/articles/2009/11/22/news/doc4b076f245ed38431962973.txt

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