Insert your own "Field gets plowed" joke here.

A couple of weeks ago, Shawn Field was convicted of torturing and murdering his girlfriend's daughter, Karly Sheehan. Wednesday, Judge Janet Holcomb sentenced him to 46 years and 5 months in prison without the possibility of parole. It's enough, especially considering how he'll be treated in prison, where there's an odd hierarchy of acceptable crimes. Killing kids doesn't win you any popularity awards.

Karly was only three when she succumbed to the beatings inflicted by this jackass, while his biological daughter, Kaitlyn, listened from another room. The poor girl ended up testifying against her own father, all 10 years of her, clutching a teddy bear and crying.

I don't know the people involved, but it doesn't matter. These tragedies affect people far outside the inner circle of family and friends. I heard that the radiology technician who had to x-ray little Karly's broken body to survey the damage wept throughout the procedure. She was a tiny little thing.

Several studies show the number one risk factor for child abuse is simply having an unrelated adult male living in the home. Most of the time, the perpetrator is a step-father or mom's boyfriend. As a mom who brought an unrelated adult male into the home after much soul-searching and surreptitious evaluation of said male with Corvallist offspring, I become even more angry when I hear these types of cases, especially when the mom suspects there is a problem and doesn't immediately throw the guy out. You do what you can to protect your kids, I don't care how much you think you're in love.

In this case, Sarah Sheehan was told by a social worker, in no uncertain terms, not to spend the night at Field's house if Karly was with her. She left her daughter in this monster's care anyway. She'll have to carry that burden. That may be more difficult than the sentence Field received.

Finally, I don't understand Field's parents. I understand that love for one's child is unconditional. But they insist he isn't guilty. This is a man who, at 16 years of age, came up with a plan to kidnap the mother of one of his friends to raise money to go skiing in Aspen. He was previously arrested for beating the hell out of his first wife. At what point do you accept that maybe Junior isn't the sweet little thing you thought he was? I wouldn't wish this on anyone, but I wonder how many times they were called about their son and rushed to his defense. "My little angel" syndrome seems more prevalent these days.