Steven Briggs - Criminology For Dummies

Forty-eight states now require certain professionals, such as teachers and health care providers to report to child welfare agencies if they see evidence of abuse. These are known as mandatory child abuse reporting laws, and are a significant tool in the fight against child abuse.

Sexual violence can take many forms, from improper sexual touching to sodomy and rape, and most states have numerous laws that punish each and every one. For example, a state may have several degrees of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse that vary based on the age and mental capacity of the victim and on the offender’s use of force.

In this section, I take a closer look at what constitutes rape, sodomy, and child molestation, as well as what sentences these crimes carry with them.

The crime of rape traditionally requires proof that someone (usually a man) forcibly compelled someone else (usually a woman) to have sexual intercourse. However, rape can also involve consensual sexual intercourse between an adult and a partner under the age of 18 (a crime called statutory rape ) or intercourse with someone whom the law deems incapable of consent because of a mental handicap. The word sodomy refers to forced anal or oral sex or to those same acts when they’re done consensually between an adult and a juvenile.

Society once believed that rape and sodomy were offenses committed by men unable to control their sexual desires. But in the past 30 years or so, society has come to see crimes such as rape and sodomy as violent acts that result in lasting physical and emotional damage to the victim.

Today the most common type of rape is rape committed by a person the victim knows. In fact, according to the 2019 National Crime Victimization Survey, more than 70 percent of rape victims knew their offenders.

For example, date rape, a kind of rape that appears most often in campus settings, is when someone you know forces you to have sexual intercourse, usually at the end of a date or other social outing. One reason why date rape appears in campus settings is because a large percentage of all rapes are committed by men under the age of 25. Higher levels of alcohol and drug abuse, which are also common on campuses, likely play a role, too.

The media has paid lots of attention to date-rape drugs, such as gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), that are put in a victim’s drink to render that person more susceptible. Keep in mind, however, that alcohol consumption plays a much more significant role in making women vulnerable to sexual offenses.

The heavy consumption of alcohol or drugs by a victim not only makes the victim more susceptible to abuse but also makes prosecuting the offender more difficult. This is because the victim may have a poor memory of the events and may have engaged in conduct that the defendant will offer as evidence that the victim consented to the act.

Victims of rape experience a wide range of lasting physical and emotional effects. For example, for purposes of prosecution, women are encouraged to be examined by a doctor to obtain forensic evidence of rape (such as semen, pubic hairs, and blood). This experience can be frightening and embarrassing. Rape victims may also contract venereal diseases, become pregnant, suffer economic loss, and struggle with the significant emotional impacts. Fortunately, police and victim services have become much better at recognizing these challenges and helping victims through their ordeals.

Although each state is different, forcible rape and sodomy are usually punished by severe sentences, somewhere between 5 and 20 years, depending on the circumstances. Statutory rape, involving consensual sex between an adult and a minor, usually results in shorter punishment and often no prison time.

Few crimes provoke more public anger than child molestation, a sexual offense against a prepubescent child. And, yet, this type of crime occurs with alarming frequency. Statistics on the exact number of child molestation cases are difficult to come by. (One reason for this lack of stats is that the National Crime Victimization Survey, one of the most reliable measures of crime, reaches out only to people older than 12.) However, of all acts of child abuse with kids aged 1-17, over 8 percent constituted sexual abuse.

Frequently, child molestation involves someone in the child’s household. But other molesters may hold jobs or volunteer positions that place them in close proximity to children; they may be youth counselors or coaches, for example. Whoever the child molester is, he often “grooms” a child for the crime by trying to convince him or her that sex with an adult is okay.

I once prosecuted a case that provides a classic example of grooming . A man spent lots of time at a community swimming pool during the summer. Of all the kids who came swimming every day, he identified two susceptible 8-year-old boys and quickly befriended them, talking about video games, skateboards, and so on. He eventually persuaded one of the boys to engage in multiple acts of sodomy. (This man was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.)

Molesters also separately groom adult parents and community members, seeking to gain their trust so they can have greater access to their children. They go to great lengths to persuade parents that they’re trustworthy and reliable. Although offenders are almost always male, the child victims may be male or female.

Quite often, sentences for sexual molestation of a child are similar to sentences for forcible rape on adults, 5 to 20 years (see the “ Rape and sodomy” section for more details).

Why would someone molest a child? That’s the million-dollar question. Clearly, some people have sex drives directed toward children — psychologists and psychiatrists call this condition pedophilia. But how this sex drive ultimately leads a person to actually violate a child is difficult to say.

Criminologists can certainly speculate that the increased use of the Internet has had a profound effect on the crime of child molestation. Just a few decades ago, a person with some sexual drive toward children would’ve had a tough time obtaining child pornography or finding like-minded people to associate with. Today, child molesters communicate with one another online, discuss strategies, and generally encourage one another that their behaviors are okay. And, of course, child pornography flows across the Internet virtually unabated. The combination of support from like-minded people and stimulation from child pornography may lead some people down a path where they ultimately molest a child.

Some research suggests that children who have been sexually abused are more likely to become abusers than children who have not been abused. A 2001 study by Gene Abel, MD, and Nora Harlow found that more than 47 percent of child molesters admitted being similarly abused as children. Of children who were abused more than 50 times, 82 percent became pedophiles when they matured.

Along with the greater risk of becoming molesters themselves, victims of molestation can suffer dramatic, life-altering emotional damage and possibly even destroyed familial relationships. For example, if the molester is a family member or the boyfriend of the mother, the prosecution process may pit the child against his or her own relatives. For this reason, many children are reluctant or unwilling to cooperate with police. Detectives and prosecutors with specialized expertise often work with child sex victims to help conduct interviews and get the full story.