Child Sexual Abuse in the Broader Society

There is so much in the media this week about pedophilia and child rape. Since I am writing about instances of this in the Move, I've been pondering what drives it. My questions this morning were basically situation or interest? Warren Jeffs conviction this week of sexual abuse and rape of underage girls made me wonder if access made the monster. Corey Feldman's shocking assertions on Nightline that many child actors are abused by Hollywood "moguls" also made me wonder why, why, why?  Elissa Wall, the author of Stolen Innocence whose testimony helped convict Jeffs, cried on national television yesterday saying, "We have been screaming" for someone to listen to us. 


Would the Hollywood heavy hitters go out of their way to find children if they did not have the casting couch? Does the power drive the interest in some way? My naive questions led me to some illuminating answers. 

Child sexual abusers fall into two main categories;

• Situational - does not prefer children, but offend under certain conditions.
  • Regressed - Typically has relationships with adults, but a stressor causes them to seek children as a substitute.
  • Morally Indiscriminate - All-around sexual deviant, who may commit other sexual offenses unrelated to children.
  • Naive/Inadequate - Often mentally disabled in some way, finds children less threatening.
• Preferential - has true sexual interest in children.
  • Mysoped - Sadistic and violent, target strangers more often than acquaintances.
  • Fixated - Little or no activity with own age, described as an "overgrown child."

So, I'm guessing that most of the abusers in Hollywood and the Move are situational and regressed. Access does drive the behavior. Many Catholic priests would be preferential and fixated since their attraction seems mainly to be oriented toward children. According to recent news stories of Warren Jeffs' violence toward his nephew and niece, he is likely a preferential msyoped. Somehow, understanding this makes me feel safer as it is less random. 

I found this on wikipedia;

Typology

Early research in the 1970s and 80s began to classify offenders based on their motivations and traits. Groth and Birnbaum (1978) categorized child sexual offenders into two groups, "fixated" and "regressed."^[106] Fixated were described as having a primary attraction to children, whereas regressed had largely maintained relationships with other adults, and were even married. This study also showed that adult sexual orientation was not related to the sex of the victim targeted, e.g. men who molested boys often had adult relationships with women.^[106]
Later work (Holmes and Holmes, 2002) expanded on the types of offenders and their psychological profiles. They are divided thus:^[107]

• Situational - does not prefer children, but offend under certain conditions.
  • Regressed - Typically has relationships with adults, but a stressor causes them to seek children as a substitute.
  • Morally Indiscriminate - All-around sexual deviant, who may commit other sexual offenses unrelated to children.
  • Naive/Inadequate - Often mentally disabled in some way, finds children less threatening.
• Preferential - has true sexual interest in children.
  • Mysoped - Sadistic and violent, target strangers more often than acquaintances.
  • Fixated - Little or no activity with own age, described as an "overgrown child."
  
  Offenses may be facilitated by cognitive distortions of the offender, such as minimization of the abuse, victim blaming, and excuses.^[110]