Situational-Type Child Molesters
Inadequate This pattern of behavior is difficult to precisely define and includes those
suffering from psychoses, eccentric personality disorders, mental retardation, and
senility. In layperson’s terms he is the social misfit, the withdrawn, the unusual. He
might be the shy teenager who has no friends of his own age or eccentric loner who
still lives with his parents. Although most such individuals are harmless, some can be
child molesters and, in a few cases, even child killers. This offender seems to become
sexually involved with children out of insecurity or curiosity. He finds children to be
nonthreatening objects with whom he can explore his sexual interests. The child victim
could be someone he knows or a random stranger. In some cases the child victim
might be a stranger selected as a substitute for a specific adult, possibly a relative of
the child, whom the offender is afraid of approaching directly. Often his sexual activity
with children is the result of built-up impulses. Some of these individuals find it
difficult to express anger and hostility, which then builds until it explodes — possibly
against their child victim. Because of mental or emotional problems, some might take
out their frustration in cruel sexual torture. His victims, however, could be among the
elderly as well as children — anyone who appears helpless at first sight. He might
collect
, but it will most likely be of adults. This offender usually lacks
the interpersonal skill to effectively groom or seduce his child victims.
Almost any child molester might be capable of violence or even murder to avoid
identification. In spite of a few notable exceptions, most of the sexually motivated
child murderers profiled and assessed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
have involved situational-type child molesters who display the morally indiscriminate
and inadequate patterns of behavior. Low social competence seems to be the
most significant risk factor in why a child molester might abduct his victims
(Lanning and Burgess, 1995).
