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)

Offenders can be classified into sadistic and non-sadistic (Salter 1995). Sadistic offenders have a shorter offending cycle and are more likely to abduct a child not known to them. Non-sadistic offenders will frequently place themselves in positions within families/schools/community groups where they have opportunities to offend. Children are much less likely to tell if the offender is someone they and their parents know because they may like/love/trust or feel sorry for the offender.

People often ask why offenders behave in the way they do. There are no simple answers because although their methods are remarkably similar their reasons are not. Some offenders have been victims of childhood abuse themselves but they are no more likely to have been victims than anyone else in the community. Very few are mentally ill or 'sick' and many have 'normal' sexual and emotional relationships with adults. They make a choice to sexually assault. Many offenders see themselves as heterosexual including those who assault boys. Homosexual men are no more likely to sexually offend than anyone else. It is the fact that their victims are children that attracts offenders. It is the power they can wield over smaller vulnerable people that is their incentive.

The single most crucial component of child sexual assault is keeping the victim silent and ensuring the secrecy. All offenders need secrecy to assault children. Children who have experienced sexual assault often keep that secret for decades keeping the guilt and shame that offenders should feel. The single most significant thing that we can do to prevent sexual assault of children is to directly tackle this secrecy with children and young people and expose the tactic that enables offenders to offend.

If we break down the secrecy, including the taboo of informing children of the danger, then we provide children with knowledge and the most powerful weapon of all - the ability to TELL.

We can prevent sexual offenders by strengthening children and making them aware of the power that children do have. We can do this by ensuring children have both the knowledge and skills to recognise their right to be safe. Being unaware of, and lacking information about, bodies, sex and sexual assault can increase children's vulnerability to sexual offenders.

Sponsor

Gippsland Centre Against Sexual Assault

Disclaimer Copyright Updated: 27 May 2009