UNITED STATES
Stetson University Today
October 14, 2015
No one wanted to think about it.
Tasked with the job of prosecuting perpetrators of the unthinkable, Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian BA ’90 watched his peers do what they could to avoid handling cases of child sexual abuse.
But as a young assistant state attorney handling a variety of criminal cases, Tchividjian couldn’t ignore the horror of those that violated children. When he volunteered to aggressively prosecute all of the 7th Judicial Circuit’s child sex abuse cases, the state attorney approved and established a sex-crimes unit that handled hundreds of cases, a third of them involving children.
It was the start of a lifelong passion for fighting child sexual abuse.
“As I was prosecuting, you really see the cases up close,” says Tchividjian. “You see the victims, the families, the devastation, but you also deal with the offenders. You see common characteristics and behaviors, and get a comprehensive picture of this offense.”
The issue remained heavy on his heart as he went into private practice in 2001. “What do I do with all of this information that I learned in the trenches?” Tchividjian asked himself.
It wasn’t until a Wisconsin newspaper reporter called his law office that his calling became clear.
According to the reporter, five years earlier a Milwaukee father had reported to his church pastor that his young daughter was sexually abused by another congregation member. The pastor invited the father to meet with the offender, who cried, asked for forgiveness, and confessed gratefulness that he had been caught. Convinced of his repentance, the pastor asked the father to forgive the offender and not report the matter to police. The father agreed.
By the time the journalist contacted Tchividjian, the offender had since abused at least six more children in the church since the original incident. That was the moment Boz decided to educate Christians on how to protect its youngest members from such abuse.
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