Aug

7

Offenders

August 7, 2007 | Comments Off

Well how about this guy who claims to not be a sex offender yet condones having contact with children. I am on the record as saying HIDE YOUR KIDS and lock this guy up soon!

Jul

17

Don’t Mess With Texas!

July 17, 2007 | Comments Off

Here is a story from the Dallas Morning News about some Texas Heroes!

 

Mother, son credited with stopping sexual assault of boy

Garland: Mother, son pinned down suspect after hearing boy’s cry

11:07 PM CDT on Monday, July 16, 2007From Staff Reports   GARLAND – Police are calling a man and his mother heroes after they said they prevented the sexual assault of a boy. About 5:20 p.m. Friday, the two were in the 300 block of Gatewood Road in Garland when they heard the screams of a child.

Tracing the commotion to the back yard of a home in the neighborhood, the pair found a teenager involved in the apparent attempted rape of a boy younger than 10.

The man and his mother, whose names were not released, pinned down the suspect until police arrived.

Police arrested Deshuan Ridge, 17, charging him with sexual assault of a child. The charge is a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison. He is being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on $35,000 bail.

“They’re most definitely heroes,” said Garland police spokesman Officer Joe Harn of the mother and son. “It’s really nice when citizens get involved, and in this case certainly stopped the sexual assault, and no telling what could have happened.”

 

 

 

Jul

7

AMBER ALERT

July 7, 2007 | Comments Off

Washington Police Issue Amber

Alert for 12-Year-Old Girl

Thursday , July 05, 2007

 

Washington Police questioned a neighbor in the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl from Tacoma, Mark Fulghum, spokesman for the Tacoma Police Department, said the man has been ruled out as a suspect in the vanishing of Zina Linnik after an interview with authorities prompted by information from Linnik’s family, according to NewsTribune.com of Tacoma.

Click here to read NewsTribune.com article.

State authorities issued an Amber Alert for Linnik, who was last seen around 9:45 p.m. on July 4, in an alley behind her house, Tacoma police said.

Witnesses reported hearing a scream and seeing a man get into an older, gray van and drive away.

Police said the driver of the van might or might not have been an Asian male as he was described earlier by police.

A family member who saw the van speed away in the alley only saw the side of the van, and didn’t get a good look at the driver in the dark, Fulghum told NewsTribune.com

Linnik is described as a blonde, 4-foot-11-inch-tall Ukrainian girl. She weighs 80 pounds and was reportedly wearing a pink T-shirt, capri pants and red flip-flop sandals at the time of her disappearance.

Click here for FOXNews.com’s Crime center.

The van’s partial Washington plate contains the numbers 1677.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Tacoma police at 253-591-5963.

Jun

15

Nifong Shame On You!

June 15, 2007 | Comments Off

In all of my 25 years in the Law Enforcement community, I have never seen such a disaster as Mike Nifong. This is a perfect example of what never to do in a sex crimes investigation. The DA should always remain outside of the investigation until the police are finished.

Looks alot like Boulder and the Ramsey case. Watch the video here.

Jun

7

God Bless the Smith Family!

June 7, 2007 | Comments Off

Another young child is lost  and a family is suffering beyond all understanding. What are we becoming? When do we awake as a society and do something about our communities.

Watching the video of this young girl leaving the store and now knowing probably with-in hours her life was taken, I pause to ask what does the future hold for this country.

So many talk about the War in Iraq and rush to the streets to protest, yet nothing is done about the sixteen thousand plus Americans killed each year here at home.

The war is here not in Iraq!

I will predict that the suspect in this case was motivated by a twisted sexual fantasy and that much of his fuel came from pornography on the internet.

God Bless the Smith family.

Jun

5

Help Find Kelsey Smith!

June 5, 2007 | Comments Off

This young lady is missing and her family needs your help. Please go to this website and join in the search.

Jun

4

Porn Is Becoming Pervasive.

June 4, 2007 | Comments Off

This is the type of behavior we will see more of in our society unless we decided enough is enough. THis article is very disturbing and should be a wake up call. The “White collar predator” is depending on this social interaction. Many will be victims.

Web, Reality TV Help Make Porn Pervasive
By MARTHA IRVINE (AP National Writer)
From Associated Press

June 03, 2007 4:12 PM EDT

CHICAGO - Porn used to be relegated to a video hidden in the bottom drawer, or a magazine under the mattress. Today, it’s part of everyday life. 

Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends have become TV’s “girls next door.” Porn stars have MySpace pages and do voiceovers for video games. And while “porn on demand” is standard for hotel TVs and upgraded cable packages, it’s even easier to find it with a few clicks on the computer.

In April, more than a third of the U.S. Internet audience visited sites that fit into the online “adult” category, according to comScore Media Metrix.

So the message is clear: In today’s world, sex doesn’t just sell. The pervasiveness of porn has made sexiness - from subtle to raunchy - a much-sought-after attribute online, at school and even at work.

Many agree that the trend has had a particularly strong influence on young women - in some cases, taking shape as an unapologetic embracing of sexuality and exhibitionism.

“I am one of those girls,” says Holly Eglinton, a 31-year-old Canadian who recently won a talent search competition to appear as an unclothed newscaster on the Internet’s “Naked News.” She auditioned after meeting a producer for the show on a social networking site where she’s posted provocative photos of herself - an increasingly common practice.

For Eglinton, taking off her clothes for an Internet audience was freeing, fun and a little rebellious.

“It’s something that sort of suits my personality,” she says. “I’m kind of an extrovert and a bit of a camera hog, a poser.”

It’s a prevalent sentiment in our look-at-me culture. But many wonder if it really is empowering, especially for younger women and girls who try to emulate what’s already on the Web.

Too often, educators and health professionals say, the results are cases of “Girls Gone Wild” - gone wild.

Michael Simon, a therapist and high school counselor in the San Francisco Bay area, has seen an increasing number of girls and young women in his private practice after episodes in which they undressed or masturbated in front of a Web cam for people they met online.

“Instead of pornography or performative sexuality being one choice among many ways of being sexual, it’s essentially become the standard of sexiness,” says Simon. “It’s also the standard by which a man or woman is a prude, depending on how much they embrace that kind of sexuality.”

Yvonne K. Fulbright, a sexologist and author who co-hosts the “Sex Files” program on Sirius satellite radio, also has seen the shift in attitude.

She’s posted messages on Craigslist looking for people who want to comment on various topics for the show - and, instead, often receives responses from young women who send descriptions of their breast and waist sizes.

“They’re under the impression that they can be the next big thing,” Fulbright says. “Unfortunately, for a lot of females that means taking off your clothes and being sexual.

“It’s a really warped sense of what it means to be sexy.”

Indeed, there was a time when dancing for the masses in barely there outfits was the realm of music video stars and strippers. Then the Internet and reality TV came along, providing new platforms for young women to flaunt it for a shot at fame.

In one hit prime-time series, for instance, eager young contestants perform soft-core porn dance routines in hopes of becoming the next member of The Pussycat Dolls singing group.

The fascination with being “hot” also has made its way into the workplace, where confidence is often conveyed in the way one looks and dresses.

“I would say that, in the world of Washington, D.C., power brokers, it’s important to be sexy, but in a more sophisticated, muted way,” says Charles Small, a 25-year-old young professional who works in the nation’s capital. That’s in contrast, he says, to cities such as Los Angeles and Miami, “where overt sexiness is more the status quo.”

Some employers - taken aback by the trend - have responded by setting tougher dress codes. Many school administrators have done the same.

“As a high school teacher, I see 14-year-old girls dressing in a way that makes me shake my head. Where do they get that?” asks Dennis Brown, an educator and parent in Huntley, Ill., outside Chicago.

Recently, he says his own 5-year-old daughter proclaimed, “Daddy, I look fat.”

“And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, here we go,’” he says. “Now I have to start deconstructing that mind-set.”

It’s a big topic of discussion among researchers. A 2007 report from the American Psychological Association compiled the findings of myriad studies, showing that the sexualization of young women and girls, in particular, can hurt them in many ways. Problems can include anything from low-self esteem and eating disorders to depression and anxiety.

Simon, the California therapist, has seen those symptoms in several of his young female patients.

While boys tend to seek out porn for their own sexual pleasure, he sees a sexual disconnect with girls who exhibit provocative behavior they’re not ready for - from undressing online to performing oral sex on boys.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with their sexual pleasure,” says Simon. “It has to do with pleasing somebody else - the grasping for attention.

“As a parent, it makes me want to cry.”

And while they tell him they feel empowered, too often, he says they end up getting pegged as “sluts.”

Julie Albright, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, has noted that dynamic in her research. She’s working on a book about “players,” men who juggle more than one sex partner and earn a title of esteem for behavior that much of society still frowns upon for women.

“If you ‘act like a man,’ in that sense, you’re trying to grab hold of that same kind of power, that same kind of lifestyle - and claim male privilege,” Albright says.

“The problem is, you’re still female and it’s still a man’s world.”

Anna Stanley, a 25-year-old in Madison, Wis., knows all about that double standard. She also wonders if she and her peers place too much importance on the power of sexiness.

“It seems like it stems out of the ‘Girl Power’ thing of the ’90s gone awry - men objectify us, so let’s objectify ourselves and get something out of it. It’s not really progress,” she says. “But it’s something I have mixed feelings about - because sometimes I do it, too.

“Sometimes you do dress up to get noticed and attention, and you do feel more confident when you do that.”

She wishes there was more focus on helping women develop a healthy sense of their own sexuality.

Missy Suicide - founder of the “Suicide Girls” pinup Web site - couldn’t agree more.

“I think that women shouldn’t be afraid of their sexuality. It’s a part of who we are. You shouldn’t be embarrassed and ashamed of your body and yourself,” says the 29-year-old entrepreneur, who lives in Los Angeles. But, she says, it shouldn’t be the sole focus.

She and the women on her site are known for challenging the stereotypes of beauty, with their tattoos and piercings and varying body types.

“I get messages from girls all the time saying they never felt beautiful before because they never saw girls like themselves in magazines or on TV. Then they saw a girl like them on ‘Suicide Girls,’” she says of the site, an online community that attracts a worldwide audience of both admirers and women who want to become nude pinups.

Victoria Sinclair, the lead anchor on “Naked News,” also sees herself as a role model. She left a job in the corporate world to join the show as lead anchor in 1999 - and never looked back.

“Sometimes, there are moments when I think, ‘Oh my goodness what am I doing?’” says Sinclair, who recently turned 40. “But I’m really OK with it.”

She says it works for her because she has control over what she does on the show and has been allowed to age gracefully, without plastic surgery.

Still, many skeptics remain.

“To be sure, it can make you feel powerful to know that you are arousing strong feelings in other people, that you have their attention and admiration,” says Eileen Zurbriggen, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who helped compile the APA report.

“This is the same sense of power experienced by charismatic rock stars and politicians. But politicians also wield other kinds of power. They can make actual changes to the legal, economic, and geopolitical landscapes - changes that have far-ranging impacts.

“Women,” she says, “might be better off developing other sources of power.”

—

Jun

2

More To Come

June 2, 2007 | Comments Off

Here is a story from Dallas where an Assistant DA kills himself after The show “To catch a Predator” shows up in his neighborhood. So now another DA has decided the cases have no merit? Something is not right on this one.

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV  

 

The Collin County district attorney has concluded that 24 arrests made in a series of televised sex stings in Murphy last fall were not adequate for prosecution - even after Murphy police tried resubmitting the cases.

In addition, unedited video shot for the broadcast raised more questions about who actually ran the stings.

Footage for one such sting highlighted on NBC’s Dateline: To Catch a Predator was shot on a Sunday afternoon last fall in Terrell, east of Dallas. A television crew and producers sat outside the house as the host stood with Terrell and Murphy police. However, the target of the sting - former Kaufman County district attorney Louis “Bill” Conradt Jr. - killed himself as officers surrounded his home.

Defense attorney David Finn, a former prosecutor and judge, reviewed case documents for WFAA-TV.

“It’s a prosecutor’s worst nightmare,” he said. “In fact, I’ve had this when I was a federal prosecutor. The last thing you want is the news media or reality TV shows to be involved in the prosecution of a case or the investigation of the case.”

Some said they saw flaws in the procedure before the sting began. An e-mail revealed that the Plano Police Department wanted no part of the operation.

“The chief wants to ensure we have no one assisting, consulting or being involved in their operation with Dateline,” it read.

A letter from an assistant Collin County district attorney to Murphy police said they were in the law enforcement business, rather than show business.

“You’ve got problems from beginning to end,” Mr. Finn said. “This whole scenario is garbage-in-garbage-out, and here we sit with a pile of garbage.”

Murphy went ahead anyway with a sting they said they worked on for two months. However, WFAA-TV learned that Murphy’s lead investigator, Sgt. Snow Robertson, didn’t work for Murphy until one day before the sting began. That put more pressure on the group Perverted Justice, a group which NBC pays to conduct internet chats with alleged sexual predators.

The group’s methods have long been questioned.

Marsha Bartel, a former NBC producer, is suing NBC for $1 million after she was fired when she voiced concerns about To Catch a Predator’s ethics.

Her lawsuit alleges that Perverted Justice chats are “trolling operations” in which chatters “sometimes beg individuals to come to the sting locations” so they can be captured on camera.

“[NBC] unethically provides local law enforcement with video equipment and video tapes” in exchange for dramatically-staged arrest video, the suit said.

During the stings, Murphy police appeared to wear NBC cameras. Neither NBC nor Murphy police would comment.

“In regards to the series itself, we have been transparent about our reporting methods, including the role of law enforcement and Perverted Justice,” an NBC spokesman said. ” … NBC News is proud of its reporting, and this lawsuit is without merit.”

Before the final scene in Terrell, NBC was briefed on how they could get pictures of Mr. Conradt inside the house.

Mr. Conradt, who was working at the time of the sting as assistant Rockwall County district attorney, was to be To Catch a Predator’s last and most notorious Murphy target.

“These people were acting not only as police, but judge, jury and executioner,” said his sister Patricia Conradt.

Perverted Justice employees, posing online as a young boy, said Mr. Conradt solicited them on the internet and then talked to an NBC decoy on the phone, which led to the sting that Sunday.

When he didn’t answer the door, police decided to phone him with the number they got from NBC.

“If you have a suspect who’s not responding, do you storm his house?” Patricia Conradt said. “I don’t think so.”

After phone contact failed, the Terrell police’s tactical team was called in to serve a search warrant. When they broke in the door they heard a single shot. Mr. Conradt had shot himself in the head.

“It was about headlines,” Mrs. Conradt said. “Making a splash. Making a story. Jumping to conclusions. We’ve got something that is really going to bring up our ratings.”

As a matter of disclosure, WFAA-TV competes against KXAS-TV, which aired the Dateline sting and is partially owned by NBC.

Jun

1

Catholic Context

June 1, 2007 | Comments Off

SEXUAL ABUSE IN SOCIAL CONTEXT:
CATHOLIC CLERGY AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS

Special Report
by
Catholic League for Religious and Civil RightsFebruary 2004  PREFACEThe purpose of this special report is to put the recent scandal in the Catholic Church in perspective.  It does not seek to exculpate anyone who had anything to do with priestly sexual misconduct, but it does seek to challenge those who continue to treat this issue in isolation.  Indeed, to discuss the incidence of sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests without reference to the level of offense found among the clergy of other religions, or to that of other professionals, is grossly unfair. Specifically, this report was prepared to guide the discussion that will inevitably follow two major studies that will be issued on February 27.  One of them, a national study on the extent of sexual abuse of minors by priests since 1950, will be released by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.  The other is a study of the causes and consequences of the abuse crisis; it will be released by the National Review Board that was established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  Both studies were done at  the request of the U.S.  bishops.  It is the belief of the Catholic League that no meaningful conversation can take place on this issue without having some baseline data regarding the incidence of abuse that occurs outside the Catholic Church.  That was the sole intent of this special report, and if it contributes to that end, then it will have been a success.

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

 

OVERALL DATA 
The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Systems was developed by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Human Services in partnership with the States to collect annual statistics on child maltreatment from State child protective services agencies.  For the year 2001, it was found that approximately 903,000 children were victims of child maltreatment, 10 percent of whom (or 90,000) were sexually abused.  It also found that 59 percent of the perpetrators of child abuse or neglect were women and 41 percent were men.[i]   
In 2001, clinical child psychologist Wade F. Horn reported on the work of researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.  The researchers found that nearly 20 percent of low-income women, recruited through family planning, obstetrical or gynecological clinics, had experienced child sexual abuse. Horn summarized the researchers’ findings on poor women as follows: “Family friends and acquaintances compose the largest group of perpetrators (28 percent), followed by such relatives as uncles and cousins (18 percent), stepfathers (12 percent), male siblings (10 percent), biological fathers (10 percent), boyfriends of the child’s mother (9 percent), grandfathers and stepgrandfathers (7 percent), and strangers (4 percent).”  Horn was struck by the fact that 10 percent were biological fathers and only 4 percent were strangers.  “Which means,” he said, “86 percent of the perpetrators were known to the family, but were someone other than the child’s father.” [ii]According to Dr. Garth A. Rattray, about the same incidence of abuse occurs among all the socio-economic classes.  For example, he reports that “about 85 percent of the offenders [of child sexual abuse] are family members, babysitters, neighbors, family friends or relatives.  About one in six child molesters are other children.”  Unlike the first study cited, Rattray reports that most of the offenders are male.[iii]It is obvious that children are much more likely to be sexually abused by family members and friends than by anyone else.  This suggests that if preventative measures are to work, they must begin in the home, and not someplace else.
 PRIESTS 
According to a survey by the Washington Post, over the last four decades, less than 1.5 percent of the estimated 60,000 or more men who have served in the Catholic clergy have been accused of child sexual abuse.[iv]  According to a survey by the New York Times, 1.8 percent of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 have been accused of child sexual abuse.[v]  Thomas Kane, author of Priests are People Too, estimates that between 1 and 1.5 percent of priests have had charges made against them.[vi]  Of contemporary priests, the Associated Press found that approximately two-thirds of 1 percent of priests have charges pending against them.[vii]Almost all the priests who abuse children are homosexuals.  Dr. Thomas Plante, a psychologist at Santa Clara University, found that “80 to 90% of all priests who in fact abuse minors have sexually engaged with adolescent boys, not prepubescent children.  Thus, the teenager is more at risk than the young altar boy or girls of any age.”[viii] The situation in Boston, the epicenter of the scandal, is even worse.  According to the Boston Globe, “Of the clergy sex abuse cases referred to prosecutors in Eastern Massachusetts, more than 90 percent involve male victims.  And the most prominent Boston lawyers for alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse have said that about 95 percent of their clients are male.”[ix]In a database analysis of reports on more than 1,200 alleged victims of priests identified by USA Today, 85 percent were males.[x]  In another study by USA Today, it was determined that of the 234 priests who have been accused of sexual abuse of a minor while serving in the nation’s 10 largest dioceses and archdioceses, 91 percent of their victims were males.[xi]Much has been made of a survey done by the Dallas Morning News which claims that two-thirds of the nation’s bishops have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working.  But the problem with the survey is its definition of abuse—it includes everything from “ignoring warnings about suspicious behavior” to “criminal convictions.”[xii]  Thus, the survey is of limited utility. 
MINISTERS
The data on the Protestant clergy tend to focus on sexual abuse in general, not on sexual abuse of children.  Thus, strict comparisons cannot always be made.  But there are some comparative data available on the subject of child sexual molestation, and what has been reported is quite revealing.In a 1984 survey, 38.6 percent of ministers reported sexual contact with a church member, and 76 percent knew of another minister who had had sexual intercourse with a parishioner.[xiii]  In the same year, a Fuller Seminary survey of 1,200 ministers found that 20 percent of theologically “conservative” pastors admitted to some sexual contact outside of marriage with a church member.  The figure jumped to over 40 percent for “moderates”; 50 percent of “liberal” pastors confessed to similar behavior.[xiv]In 1990, in a study by the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics in Chicago, it was learned that 10 percent of ministers said they had had an affair with a parishioner and about 25 percent admitted some sexual contact with a parishioner.[xv]  Two years later, a survey by Leadership magazine found that 37 percent of ministers confessed to having been involved in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a parishioner.[xvi]In a 1993 survey by the Journal of Pastoral Care, 14 percent of Southern Baptist ministers said they had engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior,” and 70 percent said they knew a minister who had had such contact with a parishioner.[xvii]  Joe E. Trull is co-author of the 1993 book, Ministerial Ethics, and he found that “from 30 to 35 percent of ministers of all denominations admit to having sexual relationships—from inappropriate touching to sexual intercourse—outside of marriage.”[xviii]According to a 2000 report to the Baptist General Convention in Texas, “The incidence of sexual abuse by clergy has reached ‘horrific proportions.’”  It noted that in studies done in the 1980s, 12 percent of ministers had “engaged in sexual intercourse with members” and nearly 40 percent had “acknowledged sexually inappropriate behavior.”  The report concluded that “The disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for physicians and psychologists.”[xix]  Regarding pornography and sexual addiction, a national survey disclosed that about 20 percent of all ministers are involved in the behavior.[xx] In the spring of 2002, when the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was receiving unprecedented attention, the Christian Science Monitor reported on the results of national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources.  The conclusion: “Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.”[xxi]Finally, in the authoritative work by Penn State professor Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests, it was determined that between .2 and 1.7 percent of priests are pedophiles.  The figure among the Protestant clergy ranges between 2 and 3 percent.[xxii]
OTHER CLERGY AND PROFESSIONALS 
Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer is a professor of law and ethics at Loyola Marymount University.  It is his belief that sexual abuse among rabbis approximates that found among the Protestant clergy.  According to one study, 73 percent of women rabbis report instances of sexual harassment.  “Sadly,” Rabbi Schaefer concludes, “our community’s reactions up to this point have been often based on keeping things quiet in an attempt to do ‘damage control.’  Fear of lawsuits and bad publicity have dictated an atmosphere of hushed voices and outrage against those who dare to break ranks by speaking out.”[xxiii]Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, reports that 30 percent of rabbis who changed positions in 2000 did so involuntarily, and that sexual abuse was a factor in many instances.[xxiv]  The Awareness Center devotes an entire website to “Clergy Abuse: Rabbis, Cantors & Other Trusted Officials.”  It is a detailed and frank look at the problem of sexual abuse by rabbis.[xxv]The problem of sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses is evident among church elders but most of the abuse comes from congregation members.  “The victims who have stepped forward are mostly girls and young women,” writes Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times, “and many accusations involve incest.”  There is a victims support group available, “silentlambs,” that has collected more than 5,000 Witnesses contending that the church mishandled child sexual abuse.[xxvi]According to one study, .2 percent of athletic coaches nationwide have a criminal record of some sort of sexual offense.  This translates to about 6,000 coaches in the U.S. who have been tried and found guilty of sexual offense against children.[xxvii]  It is not known how many more offenders have escaped the reach of law enforcement.Between 3 and 12 percent of psychologists have had sexual contact with their clients.  While today virtually every state considers sexual contact with a client as worthy of revoking a psychologist’s license, as recently as 1987 only 31 percent of state licensing boards considered sexual relations between a psychologist and his or her patient grounds for license revocation.[xxviii]  What makes this statistic so interesting is that many bishops in the 1980s took the advice of psychologists in handling molesting priests. 
 TEACHERS 
The American Medical Association found in 1986 that one in four girls, and one in eight boys, are sexually abused in or out of school before the age of 18.  Two years later, a study included in The Handbook on Sexual Abuse of Children, reported that one in four girls, and one in six boys, is sexually abused by age 18.[xxix]  It was reported in 1991 that 17.7 percent of males who graduated from high school, and 82.2 percent of females, reported sexual harassment by faculty or staff during their years in school.  Fully 13.5 percent said they had sexual intercourse with their teacher.[xxx]In New York City alone, at least one child is sexually abused by a school employee every day.  One study concluded that more than 60 percent of employees accused of sexual abuse in the New York City schools were transferred to desk jobs at district offices located inside the schools.  Most of these teachers are tenured and 40 percent of those transferred are repeat offenders.  They call it “passing the garbage” in the schools.  One reason why this exists is due to efforts by the United Federation of Teachers to protect teachers at the expense of children.[xxxi]  Another is the fact that teachers accused of sexual misconduct cannot be fired under New York State law.[xxxii]One of the nation’s foremost authorities on the subject of the sexual abuse of minors in public schools is Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft.  In 1994, Shakeshaft and Audrey Cohan did a study of 225 cases of educator sexual abuse in New York City.  Their findings are astounding.All of the accused admitted sexual abuse of a student, but none of the abusers was reported to the authorities, and only 1 percent lost their license to teach.  Only 35 percent suffered negative consequences of any kind, and 39 percent chose to leave their school district, most with positive recommendations.  Some were even given an early retirement package.[xxxiii] Moving molesting teachers from school district to school district is a common phenomenon.  And in only 1 percent of the cases do superintendents notify the new school district.[xxxiv]  According to Diana Jean Schemo, the term “passing the trash” is the preferred jargon among educators.[xxxv]Shakeshaft has also determined that 15 percent of all students have experienced some kind of sexual misconduct by a teacher between kindergarten and 12th grade; the behaviors range from touching to forced penetration.[xxxvi]  She and Cohan also found that up to 5 percent of teachers sexually abuse children.[xxxvii]  Shakeshaft will soon be ready to release the findings of a vast study undertaken for the Planning and Evaluation Service Office of the Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education, titled, “Educator Sexual Misconduct with Students: A Synthesis of Existing Literature on Prevalence in Connection with the Design of a National Analysis.”[xxxviii]
CONCLUSION
The issue of child sexual molestation is deserving of serious scholarship.  Too often, assumptions have been made that this problem is worse in the Catholic clergy than in other sectors of society.  This report does not support this conclusion.  Indeed, it shows that family members are the most likely to sexually molest a child.  It also shows that the incidence of the sexual abuse of a minor is slightly higher among the Protestant clergy than among the Catholic clergy, and that it is significantly higher among public school teachers than among ministers and priests.In a survey for the Wall Street Journal-NBC News, it was found that 64 percent of the public thought that Catholic priests frequently abused children.[xxxix]  This is outrageously unfair, but it is not surprising given the media fixation on this issue.  While it would be unfair to blame the media for the scandal in the Catholic Church, the constant drumbeat of negative reporting surely accounts for these remarkably skewed results.[xl]Without comparative data, little can be learned.  Numbers are not without meaning, but they don’t count for much unless a baseline has been established.  Moreover, sexual misconduct is difficult to measure given its mostly private nature.  While crime statistics are helpful, we know from social science research that most crimes go unreported.  This is especially true of sexual abuse crimes.  At the end of the day, estimates culled from survey research are the best we can do.By putting the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in perspective, it is hoped that this report will make for a more fair and educated public response.
 

[i] “Child Maltreatment 2001: Summary of Key Findings,” National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, www.calib.com/nccanch, April 2003.
[ii] Wade F. Horn, “Common-sense article about abuse,” Washington Times, February 6, 2001, p. E1.
[iii] Dr. Garth A. Rattray,  “Child Month and Paedophilia,” The Gleaner, May 14, 2002.
[iv]Alan Cooperman, “Hundreds of Priests Removed Since ‘60s; Survey Shows Scope Wider Than Disclosed,” Washington Post, June 9, 2002, p. A1.
[v]Laurie Goodstein,  “Decades of Damage; Trail of Pain in Church Crisis Leads to Nearly Every Diocese,” New York Times, January 12, 2003, Section 1, p. 1.
[vi] Interviewed by Bill O’Reilly, Transcript of “The O’Reilly Factor,” May 3, 2002.
[vii] Bob von Sternberg, “Insurance Falls Short in Church Abuse Cases; Catholic Dioceses are Forced to Find other Sources to Pay Settlements,” Star Tribune, July 27, 2002, p. 1A.
[viii] Thomas Plante, “A Perspective on Clergy Sexual Abuse,” www.psywww.com/psyrelig/plante.html.
[ix] Thomas Farragher and Matt Carroll, “Church Board Dismissed Accusations by Females,” Boston.com, February 2, 2003.
[x] Janet Kornblum, “85% of Church Abuse Victims are Male, Research Finds,” USA Today, July 24, 2002, pp. 6-7D.
[xi] “The Accusers and the Accused,” USA Today, November 11, 2002, p. 7D.
[xii] Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin, “Two-thirds of Bishops Let Accused Priests Work,” Dallas Morning News, June 12, 2002, p. 1A.
[xiii] Dale Neal, “Methodist Clergy Instructed in Sexual Ethics at Conference,” Asheville Citizen-Times, May 14, 2002, p. 1B.
[xiv] Cal Thomas, “Their Sins only Start with Abuse,” Baltimore Sun, June 19, 2002, p. 9A.
[xv] James L. Franklin, “Sexual Misconduct Seen as a Serious Problem in Religion,” Boston Globe, October 23, 1991, p. 24.
[xvi] “Pastors Are People, Too!”, Focus on the Family, May 1996, p. 7.
[xvii] Teresa Watanabe, “Sex Abuse by Clerics—A Crisis of Many Faiths,” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2002, p. A1.
[xviii] Cal Thomas, “Their Sins only Start with Abuse,” Baltimore Sun, June 19, 2002, p. 9A.
[xix] Terry Mattingly, “Baptists’ Traditions Make it Hard to Oust Sex-Abusing Clergy,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, June 22, 2002, p. C2.
[xx] “Assemblies of God Tackles Problem of Porn Addiction Among Ministers,” Charisma, January 2001, p. 24.
[xxi] Mark Clayton, “Sex Abuse Spans Spectrum of Churches,” Christian Science Monitor, April 5, 2002, p. 1.
[xxii] Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 50 and 81.
[xxiii] Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer, “Rabbi Sexual Misconduct: Crying Out for a Communal Response,” www.rrc.edu/journal, November 24, 2003.
[xxiv] Roger Lovette, “Religious Leaders Must Learn to Handle Conflict Constructively,” Birmingham News, April 28, 2002.
[xxv] See www.theawarenesscenter.org/clergyabuse.
[xxvi] Laurie Goodstein, “Ousted Members Say Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Policy on Abuse Hides Offenses,” New York Times, August 11, 2002, Section 1, p. 26.
[xxvii] Michael Dobie, “Violation of Trust; When Young Athletes Are Sex-Abuse Victims, Their Coaches Are Often the Culprits,” Newsday, June 9, 2002, p. C25.
[xxviii] “Sexual Misconduct (ROLES): New Research Therapy Doesn’t Deter Sexual Misconduct by Psychologists,” Sex Weekly, September 15, 1997, pp. 27-28.
[xxix] Michael Dobie, “Violation of Trust,” Newsday, June 9, 2002, p. C25.
[xxx] Daniel Wishnietsky, “Reported and Unreported Teacher-Student Sexual Harassment,”  

Journal of Ed Research, Vol. 3, 1991, pp. 164-69.

[xxxi] Douglas Montero,  “Secret Shame of Our Schools: Sexual Abuse of Students Runs Rampant,”  New York Post, July 30, 2001, p. 1.
[xxxii] “Schools Chancellor: Four Teachers Barred from Classroom,” Associated Press, June 12, 2003.
[xxxiii] Charol Shakeshaft and Audrey Cohan, In loco parentis: Sexual abuse of students in schools, (What administrators should know).  Report to the U.S. Department of Education, Field Initiated Grants
[xxxiv] Ibid.
[xxxv]Diana Jean Schemo, “Silently Shifting Teachers in Sex Abuse Cases,” New York Times, June 18, 2002, p. A19.
[xxxvi] Elizabeth Cohen, “Sex Abuse of  Students Common; Research Suggests 15% of All Children Harassed,” Press & Sun-Bulletin, February 10, 2002, p. 1A.
[xxxvii] Berta Delgado and Sarah Talalay, “Sex Cases Increase in Schools; Many Acts of Teacher Misconduct Not Being Reported,” Sun-Sentinel, June 4, 1995, p. 1A.
[xxxviii] The study is in draft form and is not yet available for quotation.
[xxxix] The dates of the study were April 5-7, 2002.  It was reported in Roper Center at University of Connecticut Public Opinion Online, Accession Number 0402247.  Hart and Teeter Research Companies did the survey.
[xl] The Catholic League took pains to credit the media with fair coverage of the scandal.  See the “Executive Summary” of the Catholic League’s 2002 Report on Anti-Catholicism.  It is available online at www.catholicleague.org.

May

31

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May 31, 2007 | Comments Off

This is a very informative article that all parents should review.

A Profile of the Child

Molester

by Ken Wooden

During my two decades of work as an investigative reporter, I interviewed hundreds of convicted child molesters in prisons across America. My objective was to uncover how they had lured children and teens into abuse and worse. My intention was also to generate a criminal profile that could be shared with parents and law enforcement. Instead, I found child molesters and abductors to be a diverse group that possesses no tidy criminal profile.

So who are these sexual predators?

  • Males and Females
  • Young Adults, Middle-Aged Adults, and Seniors
  • Upper Class, Middle Class, and Disadvantaged
  • All Races & Ethnicities
  • Vocationally Diverse

In short, pedophilia, or adult sexual attraction to children, does not discriminate by race, gender, class, or age.

One child pornography sting operation by the U.S. Justice Department and Customs Postal Inspectors resulted in well over two hundred arrests. The occupations of those arrested was a virtual rainbow of American life, representing 44% of all occupations listed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

How many child molesters live in the United States?

Approximately 400,000 convicted pedophiles currently reside in the United States, according to Department of Justice estimates.*

Are there really female child molesters?

Yes. A 2000 statistical report by the US Department of Justice* found that female offenders victimized:

  • 12% of victims under the age of 6
  • 6% of victims ages 6 - 12
  • 3% of victims ages 12 - 17

How many victims does a child molester average?

Interviews guaranteeing complete confidentiality and immunity from prosecution, conducted by Emory University psychiatrist Dr. Gene Abel*, uncovered that:

  • Male offenders who abused girls had an average of 52 victims each.
  • Men who molested boys had an astonishing average of 150 victims each.
  • Only 3% of these crimes had ever been detected.

How do child molesters get into situations where they can exploit children?

Due to the nature of their sexual addiction, few pedophiles are able to resist their powerful urges to initiate contact with children and will go to great lengths to do so. Common strategies include:

  • Befriending parents, particularly single parents, to gain access to their children.
  • Offering babysitting services to overextended parents or caregivers.
  • Taking jobs and participating in community events that involve children.
  • Attending sporting events for children and/or offering to coach children’s sports.
  • Volunteering in youth organizations, offering to chaperone overnight trips.
  • Loitering in places children frequent - playgrounds, malls, game arcades, etc.
  • Spending time in Internet gaming and social communities, learning the online interests and lingo of youngsters.
  • Becoming foster parents.

What is the most common method used by child molesters?

The Affection Lure. (See Think First & Stay Safe Parent Guide) Most victims of abuse are “groomed” over a period of weeks, months, or years. The Affection Lure is used both offline and online to seduce unsuspecting youngsters in need of love and attention. Child molesters have repeatedly told me: When there’s a physically or emotionally absent parent in the picture, it makes the child more vulnerable than ever.

Which age group is most often targeted by child molesters?

In the interviews I conducted, the majority of molesters cited a preference for children on the brink of puberty. This is the age of sexual awakening, making it easy for molesters to prey on the sexual curiosity and ignorance of youngsters. To quote one of the predators I interviewed, “Give me a kid who knows nothing about sex, and you’ve given me my next victim.”

While we as parents are inclined to give pre-teen children more freedom and less supervision, this age group is actually the most vulnerable to abuse and abduction. We must talk frankly and often to our children about “the birds and the bees” and not allow child molesters to educate our children for us.

Wouldn’t a vigilant parent be able to detect a child molester, just by their actions?

Not necessarily. Always remember:

  • Pedophiles are notoriously friendly, nice, kind, engaging and likeable.
  • Pedophiles target their victims, often insinuating themselves into that child’s life – their family, school, house of worship, sports, and hobbies.
  • Pedophiles are professional con artists and are expert at getting children and families to trust them.
  • Pedophiles will smile at you, look you right in the eye and make you believe they are trustworthy.

Do kids and teens ever sexually abuse other children?

Sadly, yes – and many of these juvenile offenders are victims of sexual abuse themselves. A U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics report* found that:

  • 23% of all sexual offenders were under the age of 18.
  • 40% of offenders of victims under age 6 were themselves juveniles
  • 13% were 7-11 years old; 27% were 12-17 years old.
  • 39% of the offenders of victims ages 7-11 were juveniles.
  • 27% of the offenders of victims ages 12 -17 were juveniles.

What types of assaults were these?

Juvenile offenders under the age of 12 were responsible for:

  • 23% of forcible sodomies
  • 19% of forcible fondlings
  • 17% of sexual assaults with an object
  • 7% of forcible rapes

Juvenile offenders ages 12 - 18 were responsible for:

  • 36% of forcible sodomies
  • 27% of forcible fondlings
  • 23% of sexual assaults with an object
  • 17% of forcible rapes

When and where did these assaults usually happen?

The peak time for juvenile assaults was 3 pm, after school. Other spikes in the number of incidents were at the traditional meal times of 8 am, noon and 6 pm. Most of these assaults happened in the home of the victim, the home of the offender, or another residence.*

How many of these assaults were by family members?

  • 49% of offenders of victims under age 6 were family members.
  • 42% of offenders of victims ages 7-11 were family members.
  • 24% of offenders of victims ages 12 - 17 were family members.*

Are there groups of organized pedophiles that prey on children?

Yes. Small groups of militant and highly organized child molesters operate worldwide through pedophile organizations, whose members claim genuine concern for the welfare of children. The actual number of members in these organizations is unknown, though their power is evident. One pedophile organization’s newsletter correctly identified ten sting operations in five different states. Another exposed and compromised four federal sting operations. Clearly, these organizations have connections.

What are their beliefs and goals?

In general, these groups believe that sex with children is harmless; some even claim that sexual relations are healthy for children. Their goals include decriminalizing child molestation and lowering the age of consent.

Where do they meet?

In addition to attending pedophile conferences and conventions, members now meet primarily via the Internet where they may swap methods, success stories, even names, descriptions, and images of children. Since the early 1980’s, they have exploited the Internet to communicate with one another, spreading their propaganda to anyone who will listen.

Aren’t their activities illegal?

Most pedophile groups and members are careful to keep their public activities within the realm of protected civil liberties.

In 2006, a new political party (PNVD) was established in the Netherlands. Commonly referred to as “the Pedophile Party,” it seeks to lower the age of consent from 16 to 12. Opponents had asked The Hague District Court to bar the party from registering for national elections, but Judge H. Hofhuis ruled: “Freedom of expression, freedom … of association, including the freedom to set up a political party, can be seen as the basis for a democratic society.”

Are these pedophile groups a real threat?

While the average child molester does not belong to a pedophile organization, we would be foolish not to take seriously any group whose members are committed to sexual activity with children.

Final Thoughts:

While there are sexual predators who are organized and whose activities cause public ire, it is the millions of individual sexual predators worldwide whose day-to-day actions and steadfast determination are a far greater threat to the safety of our children. Knowing this – and knowing that we cannot be with our children every moment of every day – it is essential that we teach them how to recognize and evade the lures used for generations by sexual predators of every kind. As I told President Bush during the 2002 White House Conference on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children, “If predators are using the lures, shouldn’t we be teaching our children these lures?”

Parents would do well to heed the steady increase in juvenile perpetrators, as well as the 3 pm peak for child sexual assaults. This speaks greatly to the need for after school facilities and activities for latch-key children who are at greater risk of victimization, even in their own homes.

It is also important to remember that 2/3rds of all crimes are never reported. When it comes to juvenile sexual assaults, the percentage of unreported crimes is undoubtedly higher, given the nature of the crimes and the tender age of victims.

- Ken Wooden

*Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics, by Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D.; National Center for Juvenile Justice, July 2000, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs