Dirty Dishes	Dirty Dishes Archive

Guide readers may recall August, 1999, coverage in these pages of a "child sex abuse ring" centered in York Haven, Pennsylvania. The novel aspect of this "ring" was that there were no adults involved­ police and prosecutors were busy arresting and charging kids with raping each other.

Thanks to the alert reader who forwarded coverage of another such sex ring that hard working police have busted up in Erie, Colorado. This self-styled "family friendly" neighborhood (yuch!) has been shocked as "six boys, ages 12 to 15, have been arrested in the alleged attacks on victims ranging from 8 to 15 years old" according to the Associated Press. The sexual outlaws exhibit admirable amorous flexibility: "authorities report that some of the reports involve boys assaulting boys and some involve boys assaulting girls."

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As is usual in such stories, readers have to wade past a lot of clucking moms and tsk-tsk-ing "prevention" experts before getting to any details. As near as Dawn can tell, the "ring" was exposed after a meddlesome mom without the sense or courtesy to knock burst in her 8-year-old son's room to discover that though he and his 15-year-old male friend did have their joysticks out, they were not playing video games as she'd been told. Subsequently, five more "perpetrators" were nabbed by diligent police. If convicted of sex crimes, the naughty teens may have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

Erie investigators say most of the juveniles arrested for sex crimes "don't fit the profile of a pedophile or chronic offender." Erie police lieutenant David Brown told local press, "They are kids who play street hockey, soccer and video games. They're not different from the average kid playing down the street that you see in our neighborhood."

Indeed.