I'm probably going to be offending everyone today but describing a pedophile as a just a big kid who is into little kids because that's simply his mental age, his peer group, is what apologists for pedophiles always say.
It is a misconception. Sandusky is NOT a little kid or mentally stunted or emotionally retarded. He is a cunning, sociopathic predator who manipulated his young victims and their families (you better believe he wasn't just a "big, goofy kid" when it came to the parents of these victims), and later used the same techniques to try to manipulate the public and the jury. That failed.
Being able to snow young children with the act of being the kindly father figure or fun "uncle" or big brother, and being able to snow potentially concerned adults around those victims with the facade of the noble man who cares about and wants to rescue the hurt, is part of the game for these sickos. It is a diabolical part of their act and they get off on it.
Sandusky's letters to his young victim did not display, IMO, the mindset of an emotionally immature person who feels on par mentally with his victim. They showed a frightening monster who knew how to push his victim's buttons and who was trying, desperately, to maintain his psychological hold, via techniques that worked before, such as guilt trips and reminders of what were supposed to be innocent, father-son memories that his victim so needed to have and would have treasured had they not been irrevocably destroyed through the reality of child rape.
Pedophile are not adults who never grew up. They are evil monsters who relish catching weaker, defenseless prey and slowly destroying that prey. Make no mistake about that.
