Sex Crimes

Patterns and Behavior

Stephen T. Holmes, Ronald M. Holmes

• Editorial: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Año: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781544340319
• Edición: 3
• Categoría: Sozialwissenschaften
• Categoría: Kriminologie

A comprehensive survey of sex offenders and sexual offenses This succinct and highly accessible text provides a comprehensive overview of a wide range of sexual behaviors and sex crimes, thoroughly addressing criminal actions from "nuisance" sex crimes, such as voyeurism and exhibitionism, to the most extreme, including rape, sex crimes against children, lust and serial murders, and more. Including unique and engaging case studies and first-person accounts from sex offenders, Sex Crimes: Patterns and Behavior, Third Edition provides unique insight into sex crimes, deviance, and criminal behavior theory and analysis. This engaging and easy-to-read text provides information on psychological profiling of sex offenders, the crimes they commit, the effects on their victims, and attempted treatments, in an engaging style that compels students to continue reading—even ahead of the syllabus. Key Features

• Two new chapters address Internet-related sex crimes and sexually motivated homicides
• Photos and tables have been updated to provide the most cutting-edge information and reflect the thorough updating the book throughout
• Other helpful pedagogical aids include case files and boxed news accounts that bring key concepts to life, and first-person accounts from sex criminals, medical and legal insights into the behaviors described
• A glossary of sexual behavior and related terms is provided at the back of the text

Intended Audience
Suitably brief to serve as a core text in conjunction with readings or as a supplement to another text, this provocative textbook will spark lively discussion in undergraduate courses such as Sex Crimes, Deviance, Criminal Behavior, and Violent Crimes in departments of criminology, criminal justice, sociology, social work, and counseling.

1

Sex Behaviors and Crimes in the United States

Sex crimes have for many years occupied a position of high interest in American society. Rarely a day passes without some type of sex crime or scandal being reported on the evening news. Whether it be a report of a missing child, a famous person, or a politician, we are deluged with information by the media on the sexual indiscretions of others. Whether it be from the involvement of a former president with an intern, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives chatting on-line with current and former male congressional pages, or the abduction of a child, it is big news and typically results with a lead story from the news anchorperson.

Some sexual acts involve willing partners, others are solitary events, and others are perpetrated unfortunately on unwilling and helpless victims. Some result in no or minor physical damage, yet others result in death. During an interview with serial killer Ted Bundy, he related, “He (the unknown killer) entered her vaginally from the rear, pulled her head back by the hair, and slit her throat. The most powerful orgasm this person had ever had” (authors’ files). Accounts such as these fascinate the public and scare them at the same time. But what is it about these offenders that captivates the public? Is it a willingness to try to understand what these offenders are about or is it just plain curiosity that drives our compulsion to know more about these offenders and what makes them tick? The answer to this and other questions of this kind are difficult to answer and most likely are specific to the individual.

Even without having a firm understanding of why this information fascinates the public, it is clear that everyone wants to know more about sex, sexuality, and the sexual indiscretions of others. Newspaper publishers know that a scandal will sell papers. Television news channels (especially cable news networks) will devote weeks of programming to the topic because of the boost in ratings that will follow. And magazine publishers understand that many of their annual sex surveys sell more magazines than any other issue.

The accounts of the criminally sexually deviant are so compelling that many students who enter colleges and universities want to study these individuals, and classes on profiling violent crime and serial and mass murder are often filled during the first week of registration. These accounts are moving and often very explicit. Take, for instance, an account of another serial predator who murdered two 12-year-old girls.

I woke up that morning knowing I was going to kill like I had killed many mornings before. I showered, ate breakfast, and drove to work. All morning I shifted papers from one side of my desk to the other. Finally, at lunch, I told my secretary that I was signing out to the field. I drove downtown, and there she stood. Blond haired, blue eyes, unmistakably very definitely female, cheerleader type. But before I could get to her, a car came from the side street and she got in. The feeling was so strong inside of me that I decided that the next person I saw I would kill. I got out of my car in the parking lot of the junior college and started to walk across the field by the football stadium. Two young girls were walking toward my direction. As they walked to my side, I grabbed each by the arm and forced them into the stadium itself. We walked up the steps to the second floor dressing room. I forced each into a stall separated one from the other by a half wall of concrete block. To the first I said do this, and she would not. Say this, and she would not, perhaps too shocked to hear my demands and obey them. I killed her almost immediately because she would not do as I had commanded. To the second young girl, I said do this, and she did. Say this, and she did. I told her to get her clothes back on. As we walked out of the stadium, she asked about her friend, not knowing that her friend was already dead. I told her not to worry about her friend. As we approached my car, a campus security officer stood by the sidewalk. We had to walk by him to get to my car. My pace quickened but the young girl grabbed my arm and said, “Please mister, slow down.” Why she didn’t tell the officer I don’t know, and she will never be able to tell.

I took her home and for the next eighteen hours I brutally ravished her. Her body weighed more than seven pounds more when she was found the next day. [He inserted rocks into her body’s orifices.] (authors’ files)

These statements reveal a personality that has made a vital connection between violent and fatal violence and sexual pleasure. In no society can such actions be deemed either permissible or tolerable despite the attention such celebrated killers as Bundy, the Menendez brothers, Charles Ng, or other such killers have received. These individuals commit crimes judged to be despicable and well beyond the normal range of acceptable behavior that we demand of our nation’s residents. While it is true that we must study these individuals (their fantasies and compulsions) to better understand the etiology of their behavior, we must also be careful to condemn their behavior and work hard not to glorify it or the individuals who commit these despicable acts.

Clearly no society would expect or support its elected representatives propositioning young adults into a sexual liaison the way Representative Mark Foley did. When the transcripts and allegations of his indiscretions were made public, Representative Foley resigned, and some have even claimed that the residual effects of this scandal is one of the main factors that cost the Republicans control of the U.S. House and Senate.

Maf54: ok. .i better go vote. .did you know you would have this effect on me

Teen: lol I guessed

Teen: ya go vote . . . I don’t want to keep you from doing our job

Maf54: can I have a good kiss goodnight

Teen: :-*

Teen: <kiss>,

Excerpt from Rep. Mark Foley’s online chat with a teenage, male congressional page in 1993.

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Within each society there is a culture. This culture can be seen as a normative system of behavior instructing persons on the proper way to behave. Obviously, some standards preserve the society and others are merely “nice” to have. These imperative standards allow all to live and grow as a people. These norms of behavior are called rules, regulations, and laws. In sociological terms, these standards are termed folkways, mores, laws, and institutions.

SOURCE: Weisman, J. and J. Eliperin (2006, October 6) “Lawmaker’s Intentions Appear Clear In Exchanges” The Washington Post. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100500008.html.

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Classification of Sex Offenders

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Sexual Predator

is defined as a person who has been convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, committing a sexually oriented offenses and who is likely in the future to commit additional sexually oriented offenses

Habitual Sex Offender

is determined by the sentencing court to have previously convicted of or plead guilty to one or more sexually oriented offenses.

Sexually Oriented Offender

is a person who has been convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, committing a sexually oriented offense

SOURCE: Adapted from Stark County Ohio Sheriffs Office, 2008.

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Folkways are those normal, habitual ways of behaving. Often it is simply a matter of good manners. For example, even in contemporary American society, many consider it good manners to permit one gender to exit from a door before the other. In addition, it is viewed as a sign of chivalry that a man walks next to the curb when walking alongside a woman. The original purpose for the male to walk next to curb and the female to walk away from the curb has disappeared over the years. In times past, garbage and human waste were often thrown from a second-story window or doorway into the street, and in that age it was preferable for the male to be the recipient of the thrown debris. In our time, garbage is collected, and human waste is disposed of, in a more sanitary fashion. Thus, the original intent has disappeared; it is now just “good manners.”

Folkways

The normal, habitual ways of doing things; often matters of good manners

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Most parents take great pains in preparing their children for the world in which they will someday become independent citizens. The children are taught responsibility, dependability, and manners. These behaviors are inculcated by socially responsible agents such as parents and teachers into the value system of the child. Thus, parents and other social institutions become involved in the teaching of folkways. The educational system is one such an institution. Schools teach children the various ways to channel their behaviors: politeness, punctuality, neatness, orderliness, for example. Recently at an elementary school, the children were instructed by teachers the proper way to march to the lunchroom, to remain silent while they ate, to dispose of their lunch trays, and other institutionally approved behaviors. They are taught to cooperate with one another and become “good citizens” as well as to enhance the smooth operation of the school itself and eventually to become contributing members of the society. Violations of folkways, such as eating with one’s mouth open, walking on the wrong side of the street, or talking in class, will not result in the destruction of the community or society but will or should result in some type of sanction by those in power. Only in the last two years have both authors of this book made it a classroom rule that all cell phones and beepers be turned off once class commences. And, lately, each of us has also required students to shut down their laptops during instruction periods. It is only good manners that these electronic devices be silenced for the good of the class as a whole. Only a couple years ago only a few students carried cell phones, MP3 players, laptops, or other portable electronic devices. Now it appears that everyone has one and, without these rules, it is nearly impossible to hold the students’ attention for the duration of class.

There is, however, another set of folkways that are termed mores. The mores are those behaviors that, if violated, would result in the destruction of society. The mores certainly carry more serious repercussions for their violation. Violations of them are thought to be of such seriousness that society has created laws that forbid them because such actions would destroy the moral fabric of society.

Mores

Those behaviors or customs that must be followed to prevent the destruction of the common culture of a society

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We do not, for example, allow people in our society to kill indiscriminately. The multiple and continuous killings depicted in television shows would be harshly dealt with by the criminal justice system and the courts. Recently a 15-year-old boy, Charles Andrew Williams, entered his own school in California and killed 2 fellow students and wounded 13 others. He was tried as an adult by the court and was eligible for the death penalty. Even the demonic Hannibal Lecter of Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising would be viewed differently if he were an actual killer rather than a fictional murderer from the mind of author Thomas Harris.

Of course, under special circumstances we do permit the taking of another person’s life. For example, one is permitted to protect one’s own life if the killing of another is necessary to protect your body or those in close proximity to you. In war, killing is often encouraged. Even on such occasions, however, killing is still sometimes seen as atrocious and wrong. Witness the recent disclosed case of civilian men and women killed by the U.S. Army in Iraq. Apparently in all wars innocents have been slaughtered along with the enemy. Some would call this collateral damage; others (including the authors) would judge it to be murder.

Many states in our country permit legal executions. A few of them allow the convicted to choose the method of death; for example, the prisoner may choose between lethal injection and hanging. In Kentucky, on the other hand, there is only one choice, lethal injection, for those condemned to die. We will not debate states’ or society’s right to execute; it is sufficient to say that a legal execution is generally seen as a way to terminate a life that is consistent wit...