SOURCE: "On the Subject of Child Abuse, Andrew Vachss is One Tough Lawyer Plus One Tough Author," in People Weekly, Vol. 30, No. 12, September, 1988, pp. 78-80.

In the following essay, Abrahams provides a brief biographical profile of Vachss.

Max grabbed the freak's fingertips, stretching the hand out for me. I raised the butcher knife high above my head …

The man with the knife is a private eye known only as Burke. He is a fictional character, but his feelings about child molesters—freaks, as he calls them—are real. They are the feelings of his creator, Andrew Vachss.

A Manhattan attorney who represents victims of child abuse, Vachss (rhymes with "fox") has worked 13 years in an insidious world where kids are bought and sold as objects of desire. He has also sued groups like the venerable Fresh Air Fund, which, he charged, had unwittingly sent some children to homes...