The Court and Juvenile Sex
Offenders
Tom C. Rawlings
Director, Office of the Child Advocate
State of Georgia
tom@gachildadvocate.org
www.tomrawlings.com
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Unruly schoolboys or sex offenders?
Sunday, July 22, 2007
SUSAN GOLDSMITH
The Oregonian Staff
The two boys tore down the hall of Patton Middle School after lunch, swatting
the bottoms of girls as they ran -- what some kids later said was a common
form of greeting.
But bottom-slapping is against policy in McMinnville Public Schools. So a
teacher's aide sent the gawky seventh-graders to the office, where the vice
principal and a police officer stationed at the school soon interrogated them.
After hours of interviews with students the day of the February incident, the
officer read the boys their Miranda rights and hauled them off in handcuffs to
juvenile jail, where they spent the next five days.
Now, Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, face the prospect of 10
years in juvenile detention and a lifetime on the sex offender registry in a case
that poses a fundamental question: When is horseplay a crime?
Bradley Berry, the McMinnville district attorney, said his office "aggressively"
pursues sex crimes that involve children. "These cases are devastating to
children," he said. "They are life-altering cases."
Last year, in a previously undisclosed prosecution, he charged two other Patton
Middle School boys with felony sex abuse for repeatedly slapping the bottom of
a female student. Both pleaded guilty to harassment, which is a misdemeanor.
Genarlow Wilson
Politics
―People seem to forget that two teenage girls, including
a minor, are the victims. The 17 year old girl accused
the young men of rape. She has never recanted. Sex
with a semi-conscious female who cannot grant consent
is rape. A minor cannot give consent. I stand with the
girls. Genarlow Wilson is NOT the victim. The two girls in
a hotel room with 6 stoned adults are the victims.‖
―I also stand with future possible victims of politically
correct apologists who want to turn loose convicted
sexual predators. There is very real danger involved.
One of Mr. Wilson’s buddies in the hotel room, while
awaiting trial, impregnated a 12 year old and has been
convicted of statutory rape.‖
Sen. Eric Johnson, Majority Leader, Georgia State Senate
Georgia’s ―Seven Deadly Sins‖
The superior court shall have exclusive jurisdiction over the trial of
any child 13 to 17 years of age who is alleged to have committed
any of the following offenses:
(i) Murder;
(ii) Voluntary manslaughter;
(iii) Rape;
(iv) Aggravated sodomy;
(v) Aggravated child molestation;
(vi) Aggravated sexual battery; or
(vii) Armed robbery if committed with a firearm.
Politics
Could this happen to your child? Your
brother? Your friend?
―Genarlow Wilson sits in prison despite being a good son, a good
athlete and high school student with a 3.2 GPA. He never had any
criminal trouble. On the day he was to sit for the SAT, at seventeen
years old, his life changed forever. He was arrested. In Douglas
County he was accused of inappropriate sexual acts at a News
Year’s Eve party. A jury acquitted him of the allegation of Rape but
convicted him of Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of
oral sex with another teenager. He was 17, and she was 15.
Along with the label ―child molester‖ which will require him
throughout his life to be on a sexual offender registry, Genarlow
received a sentence of eleven years — a mandatory 10 years in
prison and 1 year on probation.‖
Who even knows what works?
In the early 1980s, a therapist named Robert Longo was treating adolescent boys
who had committed sex offenses. Their offenses ranged from fondling girls a few
years younger than they were to outright rape of young children. As part of their
treatment, the boys had to keep journals – which Longo read - in which they
detailed their sexual fantasies and logged how frequently they masturbated to those
fantasies. They created "relapse-prevention plans," based on the idea that sex-
offending is like an addiction and that teenagers need to be watchful of any
"triggers― (pornography, anger) that might initiate their "cycle" of reoffending. And
at the beginning of each group session, the boys introduced themselves much as an
alcoholic begins an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: "I'm Brian, and I'm a sex
offender. I sexually offended against a 10-year-old boy; I made him lick my penis
three times.―
Sex-offender therapy for juveniles was a new field in the 1980s, and Longo, like
other therapists, was basing his practices on what he knew: the adult sex-offender-
treatment models. "It's where the literature was," Longo, a founder of the
international Association for the Treatment of Sexual
Abusers, told me not long ago. "It's what we'd been doing.―
As it turns out, he went on to say, "much of it was wrong."
New York Times, 7/22/07
Juvenile Sex Offenders
One-third of sexual offenses against
children are committed by teenagers.
Sexual offenses against young children are
typically committed by boys between the
ages of 12 and 15.
National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth
Juvenile Sex Offenders
Recent prospective and clinical outcome
studies suggest that many juveniles who
sexually abuse will cease this behavior by
the time they reach adulthood, especially
if they are provided with specialized
treatment and supervision‖
Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers
Juvenile Sex Offenders
One study suggests that approximately 40
to 80% of adolescent sexual abusers were
victims of sexual abuse
Hunter, J. and Becker, J., "Motivators of Adolescent
Sex Offenders and Treatment Perspectives‖
Adam Walsh Act
Regarding juveniles, the act defines a conviction
for purposes of registration and classification to
include juvenile adjudications if the juvenile
offender is at least 14 years of age at the time
of the offense and the offense adjudicated is
comparable to or more severe than the federal
offense aggravated sexual abuse.
Could include engaging in oral sex with a child
under 12
Normal Sexual Development
In the first year of life
Most children discover the pleasure of genital-
self stimulation
From two to six years of age
Children may begin to engage in sexual play
with peers. Penile erection, by rubbing in female
preschoolers, sexual exploration games,
touching and rubbing of one’s genitals,
exhibitionism, voyeurism, use of dirty language
and flirtatious behaviors have been described in
normal children 2-6 years of age.
Normal Sexual Development
Middle Childhood
Sexual interest during the middle
childhood years waxes and wanes with the
degree of sexual stimulation and sexually
sensitizing experiences
Growth of Healthy Sexuality
Intimacy learned through interaction with peers
Learning personal roles in and out of one’s
family
Changing ideas as a result of puberty
Sexual feelings find an appropriate place in one’s
life
Learning societal rules
Learning about reproduction
What Is Sexual Abuse?
―A sexual offense involves the use of
greater age, force, prestige, intelligence or
other source of power to coerce another
person into a sexual act to which they
might not otherwise consent‖
(Breer, 1987 )
What Is A Sexual Offense ?
The offender uses his/her greater power to exploit
his/her victims
Criteria :
Age
Force
Power
Consent
Place
What Is A Sexual Offender ?
A part of the sexual gratification obtained
by the sexual perpetrator arises from
controlling, dominating, and/or humiliating
the sexual partner.
(Breer, 1987 )
Offending vs Experimentation
Greater than 3 year age difference
Sexual involvement with pre-pubertal child
Difference in status and sophistication
between the sexual partners
Offending vs Experimentation
Exploitation and control are features of
offending and not experimentation.
Force clearly identifies an offender.
Sexuality with focus of control, domination, and
/or humiliation is not a characteristic of
experimentation
Guidelines for Assessing Sexual Behavior
What are the power positions of the
participants ?
Is force or intimidation involved ?
Is ritual or sadistic abuse involved ?
Was secrecy involved ?
How developmentally appropriate are the
sexual acts ?
Sgroi (1988)
The Bottom Line: What (Most) Judges Want
Education on the issue
What does ―Juvenile Sex Offender‖ mean?
What do all these reports mean?
What caused this child to act in this manner?
Risk Reduction
What are the chances of it happening again?
What can we do to reduce the likelihood of
reoffending?
Is this child dangerous, misguided, mean, mentally ill,
reacting to prior abuse, etc?
The Bottom Line: What (Most) Judges Want
Satisfaction for the Victims and
Community
Treatment for the Offender
What programs work? Can you afford them?
Cover
Not necessarily a bad thing
Judges need the freedom to do what is right,
but with sex offenses that often will require a
lot of explanation.
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Email me: tom@gachildadvocate.org
Call me: (478) 757-2661