Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition

1. Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition Chapter Seventeen: Sexual Offenders and their Victims

2. Sexual Offenders • It is property law that has shaped and defined who can be a victim of a criminal sexual act. • As women were previously viewed as the property of their husbands after marriage, this often exempted husbands, in the legal sense, from being charged with sexual assault. • It was not until 1993 that marital rape became illegally in all of the United States. • However, even though laws exist to prevent the sexual control of wives and daughters, overt cultural attitudes and practices that maintain women as a sexual commodity or property can still be found.

3. Sex Offender Types • A sex offender generally refers to anyone who has been convicted of a sex crime. • Sexual offenders often commit multiple assaults ranging across a variety of sexually deviant behavior before they are identified in the criminal justice system. A study by Abel and Rouleau (1990) found the following: • 51% had sexually abused victims from multiple age groups • 20% had abused both male and female victims • 23% of offenders convicted of abusing family members had also molested children outside of the family • Sexually deviant behavior often began early in life

4. Child Molestation • Child molesters make up the largest portion of convicted sex offenders. The children are often abused by someone within their immediate or extended family and they are chosen because of their perpetrators’ access and opportunity to be alone with them. • Pedophilia is a recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasy, sexual urge, or behavior involving prepubescent children. • Hebephilia is a recurrent, intense, sexual arousal and behaviors involving postpubescent adolescents (below the age of consent).

5. Rape • Rapists have physical sexual contact with a nonconsenting individual. • These offenders include: • Stranger rapists, • Date rapists, • Statutory rapists, and • Partner rapists. • Included within the subcategory of rapists are the deviant sexual acts that most communities condemn. Some of these acts include fetishes. • A fetish is when an individual becomes sexually aroused by an object. Examples of fetishes include necrophilia and zoophilia but more common fetishes include arousal by a specific body part or clothing.

6. Noncontact Sexual Assault • Noncontact sexual assault is any sexual crime where the perpetrator does not physically touch the victim. These crimes include the following: • Exhibitionism – occurs when offenders expose themselves to others, typically a stranger and usually in a public place. • Public masturbation • Voyeurism – occurs whena person becomes sexually aroused by watching the private activity of others, especially when it involves nudity or sexual behavior. • Sexual harassment • Child pornography

7. Offender Justifications • Sex offenders come up with a variety of ways to justify their sexually abusive behaviors and make it acceptable to themselves. Below are examples of common justifications for sex offending. • I’m a victim of sex abuse • She was asking for it • I am not a bad guy • We were just having a little fun • I’m addicted to sex • I was drunk/I was on drugs • I was just bored and curious

8. Victim Selection • The majority of sex offenders can be categorized into three subtypes related to how they select their victims. • Opportunistic – choose their victims based on access and availability. • Planful – take time to choose who their victim will be and plan out how they will accomplish the sexual assault. • Fixed victim – have very specific qualities they are attracted to and wait to come across people who possess these characteristics.

9. Grooming • Grooming or victim set-up refers to what a sex offender does in order to commit the sexual assault and reduce the chance of being caught. The following are examples of grooming behavior: • Quid pro quo or indebting • Flattery • Physical or emotional abuse • Inoculation • Substance use • Religion • Preying on naive or friendly nature of child • Pornography • Taking a position of trust