Hardly a day goes by local news does not include at least one story of a teacher, coach, member of the clergy or some other adult with access to children sexually preying on them.

A 33-year-old man with a history of assaulting boys was recently employed as an after-school program worker at a Lakewood recreation center, which begs the question. What sort of screening and hiring practices do they, or any entity in the business of granting adults access to children, utilize?

The pedophile, Michael DiPalma, will go to prison this time for luring an 8-year-old boy from the Lakewood rec center to his car and "spanking" the boy's bare buttocks.

Twenty-two states have failed to outlaw corporal punishment in their schools, giving the green light to perverts and predators who might be employed in them to act out their darkest fantasies, at least up to a point. The problem with predators is that they often have a very tough time staying on this side of the line between legally striking children and taking violence to a further, more satisfying level.

Debates rage these days about corporal punishment in schools and homes. Many, particularly in the so-called Bible Belt of the United States, stand staunchly behind the practice of striking children, often claiming it is religion-sanctioned and more. Many believe in the absence of adult-on-child violence, there is no such thing as discipline and a child will not understand consequences.

Proponents of striking the buttocks of children loathe admitting the sexual component for both perpetrators and victims. They need only minimally research to find a huge body of evidence supporting theories that buttock-spanking is frequently eroticized by victims, which can lead to a variety of fetishes, sexual perversion and sexual dysfunction. As with many forms of violence, victims are also at risk for growing into perpetrators.

According to news reports, Michael DiPalma denies wrongdoing. He stands by his actions and insists his assaults on young boys were nothing more than his "losing it" and administering "discipline". This is the scariest sort of predator, the sort who sees himself as being pushed into bad behavior and victims as having asked for it.

I wonder how Michael DiPalma developed his fetish for striking bare buttocks of pre-pubescent boys. I wonder where such a barbaric practice first became known to him. Who taught him that striking the bare buttocks of a child is good for the child and that adults have the right, indeed obligation, to assault a defenseless child in such a manner? Who introduced Michael DiPalma to his sexual perversion?

I'm betting I could guess.

James Dobson and other high profile posers as childrearing experts sometimes encourage parents and other authority figures to hit children. Oh, sure. They insist there are right ways and wrong ways to administer the blows. Rules for hitting cover such areas as how often, how hard, with which instruments, on which parts of little bodies, for which offenses and even hitter frame of mind (i.e., never in anger). But, when it comes to violence, doesn't only one rule really make sense? Don't.