HETEROSEXUAL AGGRESSORS VS. CHILDREN: CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE OFFENSE
The aggressors vs. children were older—about thirty-one—at the time of their offenses than the other aggressors, a fact in keeping with the tendency for all those who committed offenses against children to have been older than those who committed offenses against adults.
Most of the men(40 per cent) were separated, divorced, or widowed; one third were married; and slightly over one quarter had never married. These proportions are not unlike those of the heterosexual offenders vs. adults. The high percentage of separated or divorced males is no surprise in view of their record of brief marriages.
The aggressors vs. children were more prone to have had a prior sex offense than their counterparts, the offenders vs. children. Among the latter, 40 per cent had committed a sex offense prior to the “offense vs. children”; among the former, the equivalent figure is 53 per cent. Similarly, a large number had had two prior sex offenses (30 per cent vs. nearly 20 per cent), and over one fifth had three prior sex offenses.
Despite this record, only 7 per cent of the aggressors vs. children were ever diagnosed as psychiatrically disturbed. Not one was under the influence of drugs at the time of the offense. On the other hand, there is a marked correlation with alcohol. Two thirds (the largest proportion recorded for any group) of the men were definitely drunk at the time of the offense and another 10 per cent were mildly to moderately intoxicated. Both pedophilia and force are associated with intoxication and in these aggressors we have them combined. For some 72 per cent of these men alcohol played a significant role in their lives. Specifically, 40 per cent (the largest figure recorded) had been or were alcoholic, 32 per cent had been or were frequent drinkers (again the largest percentage), only 20 per cent (the smallest figure) were moderate drinkers, and a mere 8 per cent were abstainers.
Relatively few (74 per cent) of the offenses were premeditated; in fact, this is the smallest percentage displayed by any group.
To break the two powerful taboos embodied in forced sexual acts with preadolescent girls and to disregard the singularly violent social response that such acts always bring requires some suspension or distortion of rationality, and in this case alcohol fulfills the requirement. The aggressors frequently profess an amnesia regarding their offenses or else refer to them as madness—”I must have been crazy” is a common remark.
Such drunken unpremeditated assaults are solo affairs; in none of our cases were other adult males involved in the offense. In fact, knowledge of the presence of another adult would probably have served as a deterrent in an offense against a child.
As with the offenders vs. children, the offenses involving force took place most often in residences and next most often out-of-doors. Third rank, which among the offenders vs. children was held by theaters, is held by offenses in automobiles. Public toilets account for most of the remaining cases.
The great majority, slightly more than two thirds, of the children were strangers to the offenders, 8 per cent were acquaintances, 15 per cent were friends, and 8 per cent were relatives. Comparing these figures to those for the offenders vs. children, where two fifths were strangers, it is evident that familiarity serves in some measure to prevent the use of force. Probably this is not only a concern over identification, but also reflects an anthropological axiom: humans find it easier to be cruel to strangers than to those they know.
Few (3 per cent) of the victims were aged under five, 24 per cent were five to six, 17 per cent were seven to eight, and 55 per cent were nine to eleven. As a whole, the children were older than those involved in offender vs. children cases.
Perhaps the greatest difference between the offenders vs. children and the aggressors vs. children lies in the percentages who had or attempted coitus. Among the former only 6 per cent had or attempted coitus, but among the aggressors 23 per cent attempted intromission and another 23 per cent succeeded. It is this coital behavior that se*;s the aggressors apart from the offenders and engenders resistance and force. Mouth-genital contact, which was involved in nearly one fifth of the cases, also frequently provokes fright and resistance, particularly when attempted by a stranger.
It is almost superfluous to note that the child’s behavior was overwhelmingly that of avoidance and resistance—according to the official record in some 95 per cent of the cases. The aggressors themselves painted a more favorable picture, but even they reported resistance in 65 per cent of the cases.
In nearly two fifths of the offenses the aggressors engaged in preliminary talking and caressing designed to elicit voluntary sexual cooperation, and resorted to threat and force only when these overtures failed. In the other three fifths of the cases the behavior was aggressive from the onset.
It is difficult to assess the element of threat by words or gestures. Often no mention was made of threat, or else the record merely states that threats (undescribed) were made. Actually, whether put into words or not, the element of threat exists in all forced relationships. The use of some physical force implies the possibility that greater force may be exerted. This sort of threat by implication is particularly effective when there is great disparity in strength.
We find that among the aggressors vs. children about 4 per cent employed no force but used only threats; the majority (46 per cent) used some force, one quarter employed much force, and another quarter used force to a degree that could not be ascertained. The adjective “some” would apply in instances where the force was chiefly restraint: preventing the victim from fleeing or fighting, but not inflicting injury. The adjective “much” applies where there was striking, ripping of clothing, strangling, and other violence that often resulted in injury.
In approximately two fifths of the offenses circumstances made the apprehension of the offender probable; this is a high figure. As in all offenses against children the cardinal point is whether or not the child will maintain secrecy, but where physical violence and/or threat has been used a child is less likely to protect the adult or be able to conceal the incident.
In slightly over one third of the cases we do not know how the matter came to police attention. However, among the cases for which data are available two thirds were reported by relatives or adult friends of the child. The remaining third were reported by witnesses— this high percentage being testimony to the intoxication of the males, who not infrequently made little effort to arrange privacy for their offenses.
As for admitting or denying their offenses, relatively few of the aggressors made a full admission of guilt either to the authorities (48 per cent) or to us (54 per cent). A moderate number (10-14 per cent) made qualified admissions; these were usually denials that they had used force. The striking thing is the large number who claimed amnesia as the result of intoxication and psychological upset: 14 per cent made this claim to the authorities and 21 per cent to our interviewers. A typical response was, “If they say I did it, I guess I must have, but I don’t remember a thing about it.” Of course, some of these responses were pure evasion. This left a core of 28 per cent who flatly denied their guilt to the authorities and 11 per cent inasfar as our interviewers were concerned.
The final legal plea, which frequently bears little relation to the convicted man’s admission or denial, was in only 61 per cent of the cases a plea of guilty—the second smallest proportion of guilty picas recorded.
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