Alixandrea Carter
Dr. Cooper
20 March 2011
Crime Causation

Title Page
Research Paper: Molesters and Rapist

Normal people have questions and often ask why a molester becomes a molester and why a rapist becomes a rapist? What goes through their minds’ to make them want to harm children or other people? What kind of help can they get and can they ever be cured? People who become sexual molesters’, predators’’, and rapists’ usually have gone through some type of sexual abuse and/or have been raped as a child. From childhood to adulthood we will see how the abuse that one has went through during childhood and may/can affect them as through adulthood, causing them to become a sexual molester and rapist themselves. Molesting one’s own child/children and family members is called intra-famial. They normally don’t go outside the family because they think that they can persuade the child/children not to report them to the police. Pedophilia is the sexual attraction to children and they desire children, they usually work very close with kids like at the YMCA, schools, and church. Pedophiles’ normally don’t have children or families. They are sexually violent offenders are the perpetrators who are most violent. My hypothesis is the children who are molested or raped grow up to become molesters and rapists who keep the cycle going, rather than getting help. Children are the main victims in today’s society to molestation and rape, one reason being is that they are the easiest prey to prey on. Molestation and rape can happen anywhere and by anyone like schools, church, vacation, by the baby sitter, their fathers, uncles, cousins, grandparents, complete strangers, someone who they have come in contact with several times, etc. Children who do not receive help are likely to grow up and become adult offenders’ and do the same things that the perpetrator did to them. It is noted the women are less likely to be molesters’ and rapists’. When women are known as molesters’ and rapists’ they usually become prostitutes or they have a male accomplice. Males are the main perpetrators that we hear about and they are the most common perpetrators out here. Once the molesters and rapist are released they have to report to a database that is specifically for sexual offenders i.e. molesters and rapists. The ratio from male sexual offenders’ to female offenders is eighty percent (males) to twenty percent (females).
Children
As children we are born innocent. We have adults, called parents, that are in our lives who are supposed to teach us the morals’, values’, and ethics’ of society and for ourselves to uphold and pass to our children, if we have any, and carry with us until we pass away. Only in a perfect world would all parents’ teach their children the correct morals’, values’ and ethics’. As we know it all families have their ups and downs and children are normally the main ones who get stuck with the short end of the deal. Some children undergo abuse, neglect, resentment, and many other bad or traumatizing things that may go on in the home. Children are supposed to be protected from seeing and hearing anything that may traumatize or harm them. As children get older they tend to carry with them the good and the bad that they have learned. Normally a child who has been abused will report to an adult that they have been abused, but it is often and not very rare that male victims do not tell because they are ashamed of what has happened to them. When they get older they lash out at society and become these heinous offenders, when really they should be lashing out at the perpetrator who has harmed them. Children who have been victims to molestation and rape, if not helped usually block the bad traumatizing parts out until something triggers it to come back up. Children are witnesses to more than we know; they are normally the ones who see their mother go through physical, sexual, verbal, and mental abuse. Most of the time as long as the other person whom is in the room is not of any threats to the perpetrator he will rape and molest in front of the person who is most likely the child/children. Children are also traumatized by what they see especially if the mother does not get help for the child and herself it can lead to the child/children doing the same thing that he/she has seen when he/she grows up. It is known that “Ninety percent of children know their offender, with almost half of the offenders being a family member” (Facts about Sex Offenders, 2001). Most children whom are the victims to molestation, rape, or any other type of abuse often ask themselves, why me? What did I do wrong? and most important of all was it my fault? When a victim receives help these are the first questions that are supposed to be answered and it is supposed to be stressed that they are not at fault for anything that happened. Some children, especially boys, do not tell and tend to keep their anger bundled up inside of them. “Children often do not tell for a variety of reasons including the offender’s threats to hurt or kill someone that the victim loves, as well as shame, embarrassment, wanting to protect the offender, feelings for the offender, fear of being held responsible or being punished, fear of being disbelieved, and fear of losing the offender who may be very important to the child or the child’s family” (Facts about Sex Offenders, 2001). Children who do not receive help can be worst sexual molesters, rapists, and offenders; because they have so much anger that is built up inside of them and when they let it out there is built up anger for sometimes years and years.
Juveniles
Juvenile molesters’, rapists’, and offenders’ account for fifty percent of the offences against children. “Juvenile sex offenders play out their sexual aggression not only out of a sexual fantasy but more out of a need for control and power over others (Goocher, 1994), thus making their offenses highly destructive to victims and society” (Nichol and Shi, 2007). Many of these highly destructive juvenile molesters and/or rapists are doing exactly what they have experiences. Juveniles do this for the power, because when they were molested or raped they lost all power and control during the molestation and the rape. “Most juvenile offenders make their first sexual offense between the ages of thirteen through age fifteen” (Nichol and Shi, 2007). When juveniles molest or rape it is very vicious and sometimes they lose any and all control because they blackout because of this it is important to take into consideration of what they have went through or may still be going through. Most juvenile offenders are young adolescent males and very rarely are they females; there are very few cases of female adolescents’ becoming juvenile molesters and rapists. Some are also the mentally challenged and mentally retarded victims and they do not understand what has happened to them and when they become older they do only as they know. In society at a certain age juveniles are said to know right from wrong and consequences of committing crimes, especially heinous ones. Juveniles are sometimes confused about the consequences due to the fact that the people who molested or raped them have had no consequences. Every state has a different age that a child/juvenile is supposed to be properly aware of right and wrong but can be different when dealing with the mentally challenged and mentally retarded. When juvenile molesters’ and rapists’ are caught and law enforcement becomes involved; the case is taken very cautiously because there are stipulations surrounding the prosecution of a juvenile. Minors also do not receive the protection of the sixth amendment “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense” ( Jefferson, Continental, & Convention, 2011). This is excluded for juveniles because they have their own judicial system. The sixth amendment is mentioned twice within the constitution that is how important it is, but the fact that juveniles cannot use it can be good and can be bad. “Because of the Juvenile Court Act, minors may be charged with regular crimes but generally face trial in Juvenile Court, rather than criminal court” (Turoff, 2001). Juveniles face a harsher time in court because they cannot have a trial by jury, unless petitioned by their attorney. “The juvenile Court Act of 1987 provides that a minor guilty of a sex offense may be subject to indeterminate incarceration with the Department of Corrections until he or she turns twenty- one years of age, at which point the sentence automatically terminates” (Turoff, 2007). After they are released back into the public they are required to register as a sex offender and they have to verify where they reside every four months for the first ten years after they are released from jail or the detention center. Those children along with what we may call perfectly normal children whom are never caught or turned in by the victim become adults who do it to children who are within the neighborhood, their children’s friends’, sometimes even their own children, women, and the elderly.
Women
Women, as children, are the victims that normally get the help that they need because they are the ones that tell the authorities that they have been violated. Since mankind has evolved women have always been the main ones, rather than the father, to care for children. Because of this women who become mothers usually want to protect their children from anything that may hurt or traumatize them rather than molest and rape. “Women accused of committing sexual offenses have a high likelihood of past sexual and physical victimization as well as ongoing physical victimizations” (Lewis and Stanley, 2000). Most of the time women who have been molested or raped and never received help become prostitutes and porn stars so that they can act out their frustrations, but not on children. If they do become molesters and rapists they are sometimes prostitutes and take it out on their Jo’s that they come in contact with because they are in control and can tie the Joes’ up or drug them. When a woman is doing this most of the time she will kill her victims because they are of no use to her and the man in her eyes is the one that did those gruesome things to her as a child. Killing them is just another step so that the victim will not be able to tell the authorities what happened. If a woman does not kill her victims they will be to ashamed to report it to the authorities because most of them are married, have good or high paying jobs, and most of all they have children. The women that have been studied by researchers whom are gathering theories on why women become offenders have been noted to have “severe character pathology, borderline intellectual functioning, and sexual assault as a child” (Lewis and Stanley). When women do molest and rape children, the children are less likely to report them due to the fact that they are women. Women, who are molesters and rapists do not abuse molest and rape adults they go after children and most of the time they have a male accomplice. They have a male accomplice because sometimes they are forced by the male, and so that they do not have to molest and rape the child/children. The male can be a boyfriend, family member, or a really good friend that has threatened them. Women are used because they are the comforters to children and children are more willing to come/go with them rather than a male, unless they know them. With a male accomplice the women feel more confident in abusing the children and they have to use very little force. The men are usually the ones that have coerced the females into helping them.
Men
Men are the main ones that molest, rape, abuse, etc. young children and they even have been said to sometimes target adults. When a man, as a child, is molested or raped he is normally sodomized and very rarely is it with a female unless the perpetrator has a fantasy of watching someone else having sex with his victim, sometimes they get off by seeing there victim having sex with another person. These acts make them feel ashamed to tell anyone and therefore they keep it bottled inside. As we know when things are bottled inside and are not talked about at some point they are going to erupt into the open whether they act out or they talk to someone about it. As some of the males who have not been helped, grow to become adolescents they act out with becoming a perpetrator. The male grows into an adult doing the same thing that was done to them they have a wide range or targets from their own children (Intra- Famial), to women, to elderly women, and sometimes to other men. Men are sneaky and try to be very secretive and some of the time they may use the same M.O. as the perpetrator who harmed them as a young child. They prey on the weak that are most likely family members, someone they may work with, children that the perpetrator has pulled from their comfort zone. Rarely do they prey on men because of the fact that men can overpower them unless they are drugged. Most perpetrators don’t want to go through the hassle of getting the drugs because for one can get them caught if getting a prescription for the. A male molester and rapist are likely to start molesting and raping family members to fulfill their fantasies, because they are the easiest prey. Perpetrators are able to come in contact with their family members more often than with complete strangers. Sometimes the perpetrator goes into the community to prey upon children, women, and the elderly because they like the excitement of being on the edge and getting caught. Most molesters and rapists intend to never get caught, they just like living on the edge, and they take every measure that they may feel necessary so that they do not get caught. In some cases the victim will be killed because they may have seen something that they should not have (key evidence) that will get the offender caught. They never try to bring any of the victims into their comfort zone due to the fact that most of the molesters and rapists are either married and have kids or in a relationship that they live with. Most offenders go to another city so that they are not anywhere in their comfort zone which is also a tougher way to get caught.
Psychological
Though once these offenders are caught and they undergo extensive psychological assessments that bring out that they were once a victim to molestation and rape. The offenders’ go through extensive psychological assessments. The psychologist digs all the way back to the childhood of the offender trying to figure out what triggered the offender to become the way that they are. The doctor takes the patient/perpetrator also through their teenage years to see if they have had any other trauma that may add on to the reason that he/she sexually molested, or raped in the first place. It is also made sure that the perpetrator is within his/her right mind meaning not being mentally challenged or retarded. Perpetrators who have psychological disabilities i.e. mental retardation, severe depression, multiple personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, etc. Once these offenders go through psychological assessments they are placed in one of two categories low risk and high risk offender. High risk men/women tend to be more difficult to treat than lower risk men/women. High risk means that the perpetrator did not respond to any of the treatment that was offered and given to them and low risk means that the perpetrator has responded well with the treatment that was set in front of them to complete. High risk also means that the perpetrator is most likely to molest, rape, etc. again within the first year to couple of years that they have been released. Low risk people offenders are supposed to be cured and will not molest, rape, or assault anyone else. There is no cure for this heinous crime but some scientist and researchers think that if the offender properly completes the program with no problems they are not likely to re-offend. “Researchers have found that high risk offenders are five times more likely to be reconvicted within two years for a sexual and/or violent offense than low-risk offenders” (Beech A. and Ford H., 2006). The men and women are placed in jail there are rules that apply. You don’t harm children, if you’re a rapist rape adults, and if you are a murderer you don’t rape and murder children. There are consequences for men and women who harm and traumatize children, they get beat and raped. Once those men and women who commit these heinous crimes are released they are required to register on a sexual offender database, http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/registry, for their state and they are not allowed to live within a certain mile radius of schools, where they can’t be around children. There are over seven hundred thousand registered sex offenders registered on the sex offender database within the United States of America, and California has the most registered offenders. Every time an offender moves he or she must register with that city and state where they will be residing. This registry is posted on a website so that the world can look at it and may have some security of resting and knowing they themselves and their children are safe. Anyone can look at this registry and most families that are relocating will look at this registry to figure out where to move and the furthest point away from where there is a registered offender. There is one survey called the National Crime Victimization Survey AKA NCVS that is used so that victims who did not report the crime that was committed can tell the survey, which you do not have to place your name on, that they were a victim. This has done every year since 1973, and used to be known as the UCS, the data that is recorded is round about time, date, location, and the type of crime that was committed. This is not very dependable because there are still people who even though that fall victim to a crime does not report the crime. Not only does it hurt them but it also hurts the United States because we have no set record of the crimes that are being committed even if they did not report it to the police. This also helps show how many people are reporting the crimes that have been committed to the police and gives us a better understanding. “Rape and Molestation victims may not report the offence to the authorities, but those who do will not always see the perpetrator convicted” (Christofferson, Soothill, and Francis, 2005).
Conclusion
During my research of theories that involved children, juveniles, women, and men it was proven that children whom are molested and raped most likely grow up to become molesters and rapists. It was also proven that very few women become molesters and rapists. Most of the women that become molesters and rapists are known to become prostitutes. The other part of women plays part as an accomplice to a male molester and rapist. In the United States we look for certain traits that stick out among sexual molesters and rapists. Most of the psychological studies that a molester and/or rapist have undergone most of the time lead back to the fact that they were molested and sometimes raped as a child themselves. They take their anger on their victims instead of prosecuting the perpetrator which can be done before five years after the crime has been committed. The offenders that are not helped as children and sometimes the children that do tell will sometimes grow up to do the same things that they were victim too. The ones who have received help even as young adults still become offenders’? We also know that the sexual offenders are usually male and not female, for two reasons. Females normally tell that they have been abused and that they get help. The female has been set in society to be the mother and to play the role as being the one who cares and nurtures us as children. Females are also talkers; they talk about any and everything so it comes easier to talk about what happened to them. Men are known to be more secluded therefore they tend to keep and hold things in more than females. Children tend to have a harder time knowing right from wrong when they grow up if they have had parents who have not taught them. Some may have parents that only do wrong like drugs, prostitution, along with many other things. This can be tricky especially when brought to trial for juveniles because they figure out everything that has went on and is still going on in the home of the child so that they have a better understanding on how to treat the child. They can also figure out if the child is most likely to be cured as they call it and not offend again.

Reference Page
Beech, A., & Ford, H. (2006). The relationship between risk, deviance, treatment outcome and sexual reconviction in a sample of child sexual abusers completing residential treatment for their offending. Doi:10.1080/10683160600558493
Christofferson, M., Soothill, K., & Francis, B. (2005). Who Is Most at Risk of Becoming a Convicted Rapist? The Likelihood of a Rape Conviction among the 1966 Birth Cohort in Denmark. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology & Crime Prevention, 6(1), 39-56. Doi:10.1080/14043850410000839Psychology, Crime & Law, 12(6), 685-701.
Department of corrections, CA. (2009). Facts about sex offenders. Retrieved from http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/facts.aspx?lang=ENGLISH
Jefferson, T, Continental, S, & Convention, C. (2011). The constitution of the united states of America, with the bill of rights and all of the amendments; the declaration of independence; and the articles of confederation. Wilder Publications & A&D Publishing.
Lewis, C. F., & Stanley, C. R. (2000). Women accused of sexual offenses. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 18(1), 73-81. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Shi, L., & Nicol, J. (2007). Into the Mind of a Juvenile Sex Offender: A Clinical Analysis and Recommendation from an Attachment Perspective. American Journal of Family Therapy, 35(5), 395-402. doi:10.1080/01926180600969710