The Sound of Silence

Silence is the strongest ally of the pedophile. It is, in fact, his only ally. He (nearly all pedophiles are ‘he’) relies on silence. He’s helped by the fact that his sordid actions instill needless shame in young victims, an emotion that will often keep them silent forever. This is why one pedophile’s victims will often number in the hundreds--and most will never say a word.

The author remained silent for more than twenty years, as did the other victims in the family in which he was raised. The silence was so deep, that not until two of them reached adulthood did the siblings together realize their father was what he was, and that each of them was not alone in that knowledge. Even then they remained silent--for another two decades. It was a silence broken only by a call from the police. That silence haunts them still, for it should never have been...

The book is a pragmatic (but not graphic) account of dysfunction: sexual abuse; the unusual family conditions that helped foment it; and its final resolution through the courts, both divorce and criminal. The author writes candidly, offering commentary and statistics on pedophilia, and the effect on its victims.