Sexual Offenders And The Modus Operandi Of Fenders

Of the many problems faced by children and adolescents, few provoke such moral outrage as childhood sexual abuse. Many times, as on the television show “To Catch a Predator”, such abuse can be inflicted by strangers who may gradually become familiar with the child online. Sadly, however, often times the perpetrator of sexual abuse on children is someone much more familiar to the child- someone the child may even love.

Throughout the ages, media and society have been concerned over children. Instead of youth as folk devils, children nowadays serve as the victims of folk devils (Critcher, 2002, p.532). With these trigger events popping up, stereotypes are gradually formed. In recent British history, Paedophile had become one of the most terrifying folk-devils (Jenkins, 1992, p.99). Paedophile behaviour is a moral panic one legal case and the panic is generally fuelled by the sensationalism of media in

A Hanson and Morton-Bourgon study found that over a 15 year time period, the rate for recidivism was a terrifying 35% for child molesters of boy victims and 24% for rapists. It is vital to consider that there is an abundance of victims whose trauma prohibits them from coming forward therefore a thoroughly accurate representation of repeat offences is severely limited. Brent Peter Cowan is a prime example of a sex offender, whose minimal

The statistics of prevalence for child sex abuse varies because of all the unique cases of child sex abuse that is reported. Although, statistic show that one in three girls will be sexually abused at one point in the United States and boys are one in seven to be sexually abused (Anderson, 2014). Children are not susceptible to crime as shown in the statistics because predators like pedophiles have fetishes towards little boy or girls. One study found that 10% of children experienced or came close to experiencing a form of sexual violence which would include rape, sexual assault, or harassment (Anderson, 2014). The numbers shown in the statistics are higher because of the unreported cases. 30% of cases involving child sex abuse are reported to the local authorities and 73% to 87% of female adolescents who are abused sexually are not treated or identified by by the community (Anderson, 2014). Child sex abuse is also costly because it costs the United States an estimated $103 billion for the abuse and negligence (Anderson, 2014). On another note, 80% of children who have been sexually abused have symptoms of PTSD (Anderson, 2014).

with Research conducted on the characteristics of female sexual abusers uses three specific case examples of young girls, ages: ten, twelve, and sixteen. In two of three case examples, the girls had reported being sexually abused at a young age. The third girl, age sixteen, did not explicitly state she had been sexually abused, but has close ties with her father who is a known sex-offender,; therefore it is believed that she has been sexually abused during childhood. A review of adolescent offenders of sexual abuse, under the age of 21, shows: “Chi-square analyses showed significant associations between those who targeted children and being sexually abused or having a family member subject to sexual abuse” The study also reports that those that have experienced sexual assault at a young age, and have been reported to sexually assault other children typically have poor relationships with peers and family members in addition to experiencing two or more instances of

Public Eye on Sexual Offenders In preparing for this essay it has been identified that sexual offenders are not a homogenous group of individuals and that this is an umbrella term used to describe a range of behaviours ranging from acts of voyeurism and exhibitionism, to more serious acts of pedophilia and rape. For the purpose of this essay I have chosen to focus on the more serious forms of sex offending which in my opinion, are the cause of much of the current attention. In order to understand why sexual offenders attract so much attention I will begin by considering today’s society and the emergence of post-modernist values and the preoccupation with risk.

Early intervention is a process which involves stepping into a child’s life as soon as possible to tackle problems. ‘Early’ does not necessarily mean at an early age but in this case it refers more to the stage in the development of a child’s problems. Early intervention is important as the earlier a problem is identified; the more likely it is that the problem can be corrected before serious consequences arise, sometimes resulting in a child’s death (Mahoney 2007, p-3).

It can be very upsetting to find out that sexual abuse is happening in your family. Sibling sexual abuse remains one of the last taboos to be addressed by the society- and as such, it is rarely discussed in the media, or even among survivors themselves. It comes as a shock to many people that children can present a risk to other children, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that children (even children within families) can post a very real risk. (Leder, 1991). Abuse situations similar to Tina’s can be attributed to her mother’s marriage to John’s father. Because sibling sexual abuse is often very harmful and when sexual abuse is perpetrated by a sibling, in many ways, it is even harder to break the silence, and there are certainly some special reasons that made Tina’s abuse especially difficult to disclose.

The children educated on sexual abuse often only imagine molesters as creepy strangers, while the majority of molesters are already known and trusted by the adult community. Therefore, even with sexual abuse education, children often don’t know what to do when they are put into situations in which their molester is trusted by their community and/or threatens them not to tell others. When they do tell adults about their abuse, moreover, their

Studies done by David Finkelhor, Director of the Crime Against Children Research Center, show that about one in five girls and about one in twenty boys are victims of child sexual abuse. Over the course of their lifetime, 28% of U.S. youth’s aged 14 to 17 have been sexually victimized. According to the 2003 National institute of Justice report three out of four adolescent children have been sexually violated by someone they knew very well (Child Abuse Statistics , 2012). The figure below represents children’s exposure to violence in 2011 by the child’s age. The graph shows that children from the ages fourteen to seventeen were sexually victimized the most while children aged zero to one were least exposed sexually (Childrens Exposure to Violence , 2013).

The first category introduces one of the most common forms of female sexual predation. Mothers who abuse their children are typically the most common of female sexual offenders. They take advantage of any sexual situation and usually have a history of incestuous sexual victimization (Rufo, 2011). Children who are in an incestuous relationship with their mother are often pressured into the relation with the threat of having the family broken up or taken to a foster home. Because of this, therapists have a difficult time recognizing the signs of mother-child incestuous relationships because of the child’s fear of revealing the abuse (Rufo,

Emotional congruence implies that the offenders emotional and needs correspond to the characteristics of a child. That is, sex with children is emotionally satisfying for the offender. Here, Finkelhor (1984) suggests that men are socialized to behave in a dominant and powerful manner in sexual relationships, and implies that characteristics of children (small, young, week) act as a cue for the availability of them as sexual partners (Ward, Polascheck & Beech, 2006). In support of that notion, Howells (1994) pointed out that it is not uncommon in clinical practice for child molesters to report an affinity for children. A study by Howells (1979) indicates that child sex offenders are more preoccupied with dominance in their constructions of relationships than controls, and view children as non-domineering and hence attractive (see

When surveying both men and women, it was found that abuse was an important risk factor relative to future offending habits. The author states that although evidence says otherwise, males are more likely to underreport incidents of sexual abuse than females. Kruttschnitt reminds us that it is “important to bracket the emphasis being placed on the role of child abuse as a ‘gendered experience’ in the pathway to offending” (Kruttschnitt, page 6) and compares this to the cycle of violence. Kruttschnitt briefly mentions the general strain theory, studied by Lisa Broidy and Robert Agnew. She points out that when strain is measured, for example trauma during adolescence, it is directly related to delinquency regardless if they are male or female. Upon looking at a more complex model, it was found that “the responses to strain to vary by emotions and behaviors, we find significant differences by gender” (Kruttschnitt, page 6). The General Strain Theory, in theory, is a great example of a study that sufficiently measures why one may commit a crime regardless of his or her

Female sex offending is an understudied phenomenon; consequently, there are scarcity amounts of studies within the last decade on female sexual offenders in the educational system (Martin, 2015; Blokland & Lussier, 2015; Kingston, 2014; McLeod, 2014; Ratliff & Watson, 2013; Austin, Plumm, Terrace, & Terrell, 2013; Solis & Benedek, 2012; Bexson, 2011; Knoll, 2010; Morgenbesser, 2010; and Wijkman, Bijleveld, and Hendricks, 2010). Previous studies have reported the behavior and characteristics of female sexual offenders to establish the profile for females who perpetrate abuse against children (for example, Ferguson & Meehan, 2005; Grayston & DeLuca 1999; and Faller, 1995). There is a consensus among social scientists that the factors thought

Perpetrators of sex crimes committed against children often start by gaining the trust of potential victims and the adults in their lives’ by using a tactic called “grooming.” The purpose of this memo is to give the court a baseline understanding of what sex offender victim grooming is, its purpose, and techniques. Because of the extensive amount of research and information on this topic, this paper does not detail all of the grooming techniques used by child sex offenders to groom potential victims.