(Continued)
By Katherine Ramsland
Duncan is among those offenders who established a pattern of child abuse when he was an adolescent and had become addicted to it. Sharon K. Araji, a professor of sociology at the University of Alaska, writes in her review of child sexual abusers for Serial Offenders: Current Thoughts, Recent Findings that little research has been done on this "hidden" group. Most of what we know refers to adult male offenders. Pedophilia is the result of an intensely arousing fantasy, triggered by the sight or smell of a child, and many adult child abusers got their start before the age of 18. In fact, juveniles commit anywhere from thirty to fifty percent of sexual acts against children (usually against someone they know). Araji states that the typical juvenile sexual offender is male, age fourteen, white, and living with both parents. He generally has numerous victims before being caught and may be a victim of abuse himself.
The average number of victims for these offenders is seven. Like Duncan, they're generally opportunistic, calculated, and interested in victims who appear to be vulnerable. They rely on bribes, threats, and coercion, and have often befriended young children because they're not comfortable with their own age group. They may then experiment with them sexually and even develop delusions that children desire them, when in fact it's more likely that children simply cannot physically resist them. "Most come from families with multiple problems," Araji indicates, "such as lack of sexual boundaries, frequent exposure to pornography, substance abuse, and abusive and conflicting family interactions."
They experience anxiety when not with their fantasy object and will attempt to alleviate it with child pornography or substances, but eventually they respond to the urge to go out and seek the real thing. In order to fully operate, they require anonymity, so if they get caught and placed on a sexual offender registry, they chafe at being thus restricted. It's not surprising, then, that they often move their residence to attempt to escape community awareness. Forced separation from children exacerbates their anxiety, which in turn heightens their tendency to violate. The recidivism rate for those who prefer male victims is about twice that of those who prefer females.
If abusers are psychopathic and experience no remorse over what they do to children, then they have no internal moral guard against their impulses. They will repeat their offenses, growing more secretive and escalating in intensity. Those who also need to violate with pain will often evolve toward torture and murder. If that excites them, then unless they're stopped, they will undoubtedly become serial killers.
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