Thank you for the articles Marilyn, but I'm not quite sure I can fully agree with the first....and have a few questions about their findings. This is not "at" you, just for the discussion. :seeya: I plan to go back and read the sources they listed to see what specific group stated this...and if they have updated themselves in the past 3 years.
Quote:
The majority are not exclusively attracted to children, have adult emotional relationships, and have not molested multiple child victims.
1. The article doesn't go on to say why the majority still do it if they aren't attracted to them. According to this we should be way more concerned about uncle Barney and other family and friends and forget the stranger danger. They also neglect to say "healthy" adult emotional relationships. This group may be full of manipulating emotional, mental, financial or physical abusers..?
2. They have not molested mutiple child victims? So they have only molested one child...and all the research saying child molesters cannot be rehibilitated are incorrect; along with all the reasoning behind the mandated registration of such majorities. ???
As to your first question, the quoted portion doesn't say that child molesters are not attracted to children. It says they are not
exclusively attracted to children. I take that to mean that they are attracted to both adults and children.
Stranger rape is about 10% of all rapes (both with children and adults) although it is over-represented in police reports. It is way, way over-represented in prosecutions because even with a police report, prosecutors remain deeply unwilling to prosecute acquaintance rapes.
As to the second question, research done on the subject of rape in general may shed some light. Two studies, well constructed and on large populations of men (Lisak et al and McWhorter) both found that men will self-report to acts of rape so long as the described acts are not identified as rape. For example, men will admit to "having sex with someone who is so drunk that they are unable to give consent" but not to "raping someone who is so drunk they are unable to give consent." Both acts are rape but men will not admit to the second wording.
Based on those studies, about 7-9% of all men have committed rape. Of those men who admitted to committing acts that fulfil the legal definition of rape, about half only did it once. The other half had an average of over 8 victims each (I think... now I can't remember if it was over 6 or over 8).
Extrapolating to child molesters, that means that about half of all child molesters have one victim and half have multiple victims. It is a bit of a stretch to make that extrapolation but I don't think it is completely unlikely that the two populations of assaulters share characteristics.
Tangential point: this is another reason why unprocessed rape kits are such a problem. If you have one person who reports an acquaintance rape and gets a forensic rape exam, the chances are that rape kit will not be processed. Prosecutors think of it as a "she said, he said" situation and are unwilling to bring charges.
But if those rape kits were processed, I'm betting a lot of them would point to the same acquaintance rapists. It's one thing to think it's just a matter of "she said, he said" if there is only one victim. But put together reports and rape kits from six victims and it sure as heck looks like a lot more than "she said, he said." It looks like a pattern and it is a pattern that research shows is the most common type of rapist.
