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	Feds Fighting Sex Abuse Cycle in Rural Alaska By Craig Medred Alaska Dispatch December 6, 2010 http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/rural-alaska/7743-feds-fighting-sex-abuse-cycle-in-rural-alaska Hooper Bay, a village in far Western Alaska, is home to about 1,100 people, half of whom are under the age of 18. The village, located in the Yukon-Kuskokwim rivers delta, is home to 25 sex offenders, according to Alaska State Troopers. The sex offender ratio there -- 1 for every 44 people -- is about seven times greater than in Anchorage, the state's largest city. But with so many minors in Hooper Bay, the official ratio underestimates the scope of the problem. The number of sex offenders in the adult population comes to a ratio of something more like 1 in 22. Villages struggle with sex abuse cycle Despite these frightening statistics, Hooper Bay is not a bad place. It is a friendly community full of people who work hard to pry a living from an unforgiving land. It is also a village struggling with the sex and substance abuse problems epidemic in rural Alaska. "Sex abuse of minors and sexual assaults are considered huge problems in the region," The Tundra Drums newspaper recently reported. The Drums serves the community of Bethel, a town of about 6,500 that is the regional hub for 56 villages scattered around the Y-K Delta, villages with problems that cut across ages, races and occupations. Over the years, Catholic priests from Outside have been implicated in sex abuse here, but so too businessmen and respected Native elders. And too often, the people leading the villages have been the perpetrators. As one U.S. Marshall who has been working for a couple years now in Western Alaska observed, the problems there are at times eerily similar to the plot line for an old Western movie. The many good people become victim to a few bad guys who take over the town. Hooper Bay is not unique as a place in rural Alaska where sex offenders live among a large number of potential, under-age victims. The Alaska Justice Forum summarized the problem in a 2008 report that examined reported cases of sexual assault, which are believed to be a minority of the assaults reported to Alaska State Troopers early in the decade. "From the 989 reports included in this study, we gathered information on 1,050 suspects and 1,082 victims," it noted. "Most suspects (97 percent) were male and most (87 percent) were adults. Conversely, most victims (89 percent) were female and most (73 percent) were juveniles. The average age of suspects was 29 and the average age of victims was 16. The report further breaks down the statistics behind the sex abuse epidemic. Gov. Sean Parnell has pledged to try to do something to change this. And last week the Alaska State Troopers trumpeted "a week-long, multi-agency operation in rural Alaska" that would be "saturating rural communities with law enforcement" in effort to crack down on violence and sex abuse. Over the weekend, troopers aided by U.S. marshals reported apprehending almost three dozen unregistered sex offenders, parole violators and suspected manufacturers of home-brew in villages where alcohol is banned. "Normally," the Tundra Drums added in reporting on these arrests, "the villages are used to limited law enforcement. Most of them, at best, have a village public safety officer who doesn't carry a gun and doesn't investigate major crimes. Instead, the village officer protects crime scenes until troopers fly in from posts in other communities." U.S. Marshals: New sheriffs in rural Alaska Troopers have staged law enforcement "surges" out in rural Alaska before this. The results have not been lasting. But there are hopes in some circles that this time things could be different thanks to a little noticed, but extremely powerful federal ally joining the strategy: United States Marshals. "You hear the rhetoric all the time about the feds and the state not getting along," said Rob Huen, the former Anchorage Chief of Police who now heads the Alaska office of the Marshals. "But in this case the state and federal agencies involved are ideally suited to complement each other." Troopers and Marshals are working together under the authority provided by The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which gives broad new powers to go after sexual predators. It also authorized the government to run the lives of convicted sex offenders after they are freed from prison. Depending on the crime committed, the act requires convicted sex offenders not only to register with the government but to report to authorities every three to 12 months to have their photograph taken, confirm where they are living, and provide other information. Those who fail to report on time, or change their address without notifying the authorities, face felony charges. Huen said that state authorities take the lead in enforcement of the Walsh Act, which was named in memory of a 6-year-old boy found murdered in Florida two decades ago. Huen, who is familiar with the abuse epidemic in rural Alaska, believes the federal legislation could provide the tool authorities need to finally break the sex abuse cycle, which is horribly complicated by the relationships between offenders and their victims. The Justice Forum study noted that minors were at a much higher risk of abuse from relatives than were adult sex abuse victims. "While only 17 percent of adult victims were assaulted by relatives," according to the study, "41 percent of minor victims were assaulted by relatives." Huen's deputy marshals have been reaching out to Y-K Delta villages to try to break the cycle. The solution, they say, is not in really in high-profile sweeps, which catch obvious offenders and serve an important role in underlining the extent of the problem. But surges don't necessarily help children caught up in the abuse. What those kids needed, one of Huen's deputies said, was someone they can trust to protect them. And that, he added, is what the marshals have been trying to provide. "Our goal is presence," he said. "We want to offer victims a lifeline." For over a year now, the marshals have been quietly easing into the villages, delivering books to schools, talking to kids there, sometimes listening more than talking, sleeping on school floors, and trying to explain to villagers that while authorities can provide help, it's really up to "the good folks" to stand up and take their villages back. Troopers do an exemplary job in Western Alaska, but "they're a reactionary force," said the deputy, who did not wish to be named. Marshals, he added, were trying to be a proactive force, trying to give villagers a place where they can go to do more than just report a crime. They want to provide what was provided by the marshals of the Old West -- advice, counsel and, if necessary, a showdown in Main Street at noon. "I've got some highly motivated deputy marshals here who just want to help," Huen said. Whether they can make a difference remains to be seen, he admitted, but the marshals are steeped in this history of how past frontiers were changed from lawless to lawful.
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