Great article, Cedars! Your reporting style has really improved.
I would suggest you change the word "sanction" in the first paragraph of "The Losing Battle" section:
"... a known pedophile could potentially call at anyone’s door on a Saturday morning with the sanction of his or her local elders."
Although you used it correctly to mean approval, it's a problematic word, especially in this legal context as the word "sanctions" can mean: "penalties imposed by courts."
noun
- authoritative permission or approval, as for an action.
- something that serves to support an action, condition, etc.
- something that gives binding force, as to an oath, rule of conduct, etc.
- Law
- provision of a law enacting a penalty for disobedience or a reward for obedience.
- the penalty or reward.
- International Law
- action by one or more states toward another state calculated to force it to comply with legal obligations.
Because of its multiple contradictory meanings depending on the context, it's just unnecessarily confusing. Probably if you said "blessing" or "approval" it would be better. Personally I like "blessing" as it has that oh-so-appropriate religious flavor. But some might feel that's "yellow journalism".
00DAD