User Reviews

In this episode a man molests and kills a little girl and the police focus on her stepfather as the culprit after finding pictures of children at his home. The story itself closely resembles a real life case in which a little girl disappeared, in 1981 or thereabouts. Her body was found and the police eventually found her killer, a man who was not one of those who lust after children but rather had been inspired to do the deed after seeing a similar act on a home video.

The show "Quincy" meant well, but sometimes when it tackled social issues it didn't get the facts exactly right. And, sometimes the show was just too trite and preachy in these shows as well. However, with "Who Speaks for the Children", the show is at its best. Not only does it expose the issue to pedophilia to light but it also got the facts amazingly correct and was way ahead of its time. It also avoided many of the mistakes other shows made in discussing these horrible people.

One advantage I have over the average viewer is that some time ago, I worked in a treatment center as well as at an outpatient clinic with both sexual offenders and their victims. After a few years doing this, I changed careers, as I realized that my providing 'treatment' made it seemed like these folks were treatable--something I came to realize is simply not the case. Fortunately, while this "Quincy" episode talks about outpatient treatment and treatment hospitals, it seems to espouse the view that such treatment often is of little, if any, value. However, back in 1981, states all over the US WERE behaving as if pedophiles could be treated instead of incarceration. Doctor Quincy and his friend (Joseph Campanella) are NOT espousing treatment in this episode!

The show begins with a child begin discovered dead. Sadly, the autopsy reveals that the girl was molested before being murdered. At first, the police go on the erroneous assumption that some stranger did this (though most molestations are done by people well known to the kids). Investigators are surprised to learn that the child's mother has a live-in boyfriend--and the pattern would sure seem like the man was the perpetrator. At first, Quincy doesn't believe this--the man was so nice when he met him. However, a special investigator (Campanella) teaches Quincy and the police about the true pattern of pedophiles as well as the myths. Not surprisingly, the mother doesn't believe the man could be guilty either--but a sick discovery convinces her that her daughter was his victim. The problem, however, is that there is another child in the home....and she's just disappeared.

I liked a few things about this show in particular. The psychiatrist treating the pedophile was a great character. He was arrogant and convinced himself he was 'curing' these people and wouldn't allow himself to be skeptical. I also appreciate how the show did not try to make excuses or make you feel sorry for the sexual offender--it was direct and unflinching. All in all, a VERY compelling and well written episode--one of the best from the series.

The following episode dealt with a father raising his two children in a suitable home. The family may claim nothing has gone wrong until suspicion first struck them without warning. The one daughter was found dead in a trash dumpster -- the target of sexual molestation and incest. What the detectives did not know until later in the episode was the barrage of kiddie porn in a green shoe box. There had been doubt that one hundred to one hundred twenty photos of kiddie porn was prevalent in the home. The warning sign: the step father was taking the other girl shopping only to kidnap her and send her to a creek and exploit her severely. It was no doubt the stepfather was a cruel bastard for using her as bait for his sick example of making the other girl sexually molest her. Fortunately, Quincy and members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rescued her from this sadistic act. Food for thought: (the late) Actor Len Wayland would have been a more sensible celebrity in playing the officer if Joseph Campanella did not portrayed the role on the show; the former would have arrested this sick bastard on second-degree murder unless he had wounded the step father first for his obscene ways of raising his children on this episode on February 25, 1981.

Who Speaks for the Children begins with a group of children at a playground where one young girl leaves without her older sister walking her home like she is supposed to. The girl goes missing and is later found dead in a dumpster with evidence of molestation. Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy and finds evidence that she was killed with a screwdriver. A police investigator (Joseph Campanella) who specializes in these types of crimes develops a profile of the killer and believes the mother's boyfriend, Donald (Jim Antonio), fits it perfectly. Quincy and the mother cannot believe Donald was responsible for this heinous crime, but as the investigation continues more evidence begins to pile up and everyone becomes concerned over the safety of the sister.

I felt this started out as a decent episode which features a crime and a murder mystery as well as the handling of some pretty sensitive material in a responsible way, but then there were other plot elements which I found to be completely stupid that brought it down a couple of notches from a quality standpoint. Specifically, during the scenes where the police are raiding the house of the family and find the child pornography, the place is swarming with cops inside and out and the primary suspect pulls up right out front in a bright orange pick up truck standing out like a neon sign, but somehow no one notices this despite that they are about to put out a huge dragnet. Seriously?? I also could not believe that even after the police confirmed their suspicions and acknowledge that the sister could be the next victim of the suspect who is still on the loose, unbelievably nobody calls the school or sends officers over there to protect her until the killer is apprehended and she is kidnapped as well. We all know that Lt. Monahan is a moron, but this puts the incompetence of him and his team at a whole new level!

It also was just a little too convenient towards the end when Quincy suddenly found evidence on the body of where exactly she had been killed which lead them right to the suspect and the sister just in the nick of time. If Quincy is supposedly so thorough, why wasn't any of this important evidence collected during the initial autopsy, especially when some of it was on the surface? Ridiculous and flawed in so many ways!

Overall, this is a Season 6 murder mystery episode which addresses some very disturbing material in a competent way, but there were just way too many plot holes in the second half to make it a good one for me.