About offenders
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Information about offenders can help us all to be more aware. They cannot be identified by anything other than their crimes. They come from every race, class, age, colour, position and occupation and are predominately male.
"There is nothing which would enable anyone, including the most clever experts, to distinguish a person who has sexual contact with a child from anyone else....they become very clever at hiding their deviant impulses."
(Glasser. The Australian 23.3.96)
Sex offending is repetitive behaviour which frequently begins in adolescence and ends with death, involving many numbers of victims. Most offenders have a 'cycle' of offending that starts with fantasies and develops into targetting victims i.e. choosing children whom they believe they can keep silent. They tend to groom the victim - a process that aims to make children and their parents comfortable and trusting. Sometimes they target parents first through legitimate activities and a common interest. This enables them to gain access to children without raising suspicions.
Often offenders will desensitise a child to certain touching eg stroking/ tickling which children enjoy before moving to abusive acts. Offenders are usually very skilled with children and understand how to entice, bribe, trick, blackmail, threaten, scare and silence their victims. For example, one offender had lollies for young children, computer games for older children and condoms and pornography for teenage boys all of which appeal to their natural curiosity. Once children have accepted and enjoyed the goodies they feel responsible and are less likely to tell because they believe they are to blame for the assaults. One offender used puppets in street shows and shopping centres using, his opportunity to identify children he thought he could ensnare.
Sex offenders " will take great pains to gain their victims' confidence .... and some prepare victims weeks, months, sometimes years in advance ..... They can pick children and form these seemingly caring relationships which ultimately lead to the sexual exploitation of the child."
(Glasser. The Australian 23.3.96)
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Disclaimer
Copyright Updated: 15 Feb 2010
The South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault acknowledges the traditional Aboriginal owners of country throughout Victoria. We pay our respects to them, their culture and their Elders past, present and future.