There’s one thing I hope we get a lot less of in 2015: I’d like fewer stories about child molestation, rape and violent assaults, please. It really feels like 2014 was a year in which we were inundated with awful, terrible stories about sexual assaults, rapes and molestations. And here’s something else I would like to see less of: for all of the rapists, molesters and violent assailants, stop acting like your crimes are a PUBLIC RELATIONS PROBLEM. These are not actions that need a crisis manager and a well-written statement to overcome. These actions are crimes and you need to be in jail.

Let’s take this story, for example. Several months ago, TMZ got their hands on a video confession. Stephen Collins had admitted in a videotaped therapy/marriage counseling session that he had molested several children. It was an awful story, and it kept growing over the course of several weeks, as we found out that Collins had a years/decades-long history of molestation and criminal behavior with young girls. Well, now Collins has penned a “confession” to some of those acts in the new issue of People Magazine. Here you go:

Embattled actor Stephen Collins has released a lengthy statement to PEOPLE in which he admits to inappropriate sexual contact with three female minors. The 67-year-old – who has remained out of the public eye ever since a recording of him confessing to child molestation was released to TMZ – goes into detail about the incidents that occurred over a 20-year time span. In vivid detail, Collins explains how there were three victims from 1973 to 1994, and how “I have not had an impulse to act out in any such way” in the last 20 years.

Collins also writes about why he hasn’t apologized directly to the women he once assaulted.

“Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret. I have been working to atone for it ever since. I’ve decided to address these issues publicly because two months ago, various news organizations published a recording made by my then-wife, Faye Grant, during a confidential marriage therapy session in January, 2012. This session was recorded without the therapist’s or my knowledge or consent.”

“On the recording, I described events that took place 20, 32, and 40 years ago,” Collins continues. “The publication of the recording has resulted in assumptions and innuendos about what I did that go far beyond what actually occurred. As difficult as this is, I want people to know the truth.”

The 7th Heaven actor – who will sit down with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric for an in-depth interview based on his PEOPLE essay which will stream on Yahoo! and air Friday on 20/20 on ABC – goes on to acknowledge how he has “agonized” over whether to make a direct apology to the women he violated.

“I did have an opportunity to do so with one of the women, 15 years later. I apologized and she was extraordinarily gracious,” said Collins, who remains in a protracted divorce battle with Grant. “But after I learned in the course of my treatment that my being direct about such matters could actually make things worse for them by opening old wounds, I have not approached the other two women, one of whom is now in her 50s and the other in her 30s.”

[From People]

Wow, a statement to People Magazine and a live-streaming interview on Yahoo? That’s what I’m saying about hiring a crisis manager instead of a good lawyer. What Collins did was CRIMINAL, not “bad PR.” He needs to “confess” to the authorities, not People Magazine. We can argue about whether the statute of limitations has already expired on these specific crimes (which is likely), but that doesn’t change the fact that I would be much more likely to believe Collins is really and truly trying to make amends if he “confessed” to law enforcement or city attorney or something.

And beyond that, I don’t even believe him. I was quite the Law & Order: SVU addict back in the day (which totally makes me an expert, right?), and child molesters don’t just “quit” one day in adulthood. Nope. They just get “better” at choosing and grooming their victims.

Photos courtesy of WENN.