There will inevitably be accusations that Jerry Sandusky is a pedophile. But being a pedophile isn't a crime. Sexually offending against children-- molesting, fondling, any form of sexual touch, intercourse, child pornography, the range is vast-- is criminal, all over the world. Sexually desiring children is not.
A sexual preference for children, pedophilia is a disorder, according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental and Behavioral Disorders-IV-TR (DSM-IV-TR, 2000). Pedophilia is defined as having a sexual preference for prepubescent children. That preference is manifested in persistent and recurrent thoughts, fantasies, urges, sexual arousal, or behavior.
The DSM is a manual of the mental and behavioral disorders, not crimes.
Probably because we are so afraid of people being turned on by our children, and we're terrified of childhood sexual abuse, the association of desire and criminal behavior has become a foregone conclusion in the minds of the American people. And because of this naive conclusion, it is hard to find those with sexual desires for children who never act upon them. The actual epidemiology of pedophilia, the prevalence, is total guess work. We can't find those afflicted by it who have never acted upon their desires. But we know they are out there because they respond, anonymously, in empirical research investigations, surveys. Not knowing who they are, it is hard to study them.*
We can find sex offenders, of course, people who have been arrested for having sexual contact with children. It is estimated that only 30-50% of sexual crimes against children are committed by pedophiles. The rest of these sexual offenders have other issues, perhaps anger, sociopathy, or sexual disinhibition under the influence of alcohol and other substances.
Pedophilia is a sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. The difference is having more or less mature sexual preferences. Heterosexuality indicates a sexual preference for members of the opposite biological sex. Homosexuality indicates a sexual preference for members of the same biological sex. Neither is associated with predominant sexual desire for children, and neither is pathological or illegal.
But pedophilia, having persistent sexual desires, preferences for children, is considered a disorder. And like homosexuality and homosexuality, it is not a crime.
Because Mr. Sandusky can't say loudly enough how much he loves children, how much he adores them and loves being with them, even wishes he never had to leave childhood (see reference to his biography in the post below), having the context of sex abuse allegation, it is hard to see him as normal, not a pedophile. Whether or not that's true will come out in psychiatric examination, we hope. If the accusations against him are validated, he will be considered a child sex offender, if not a pedophile.Or both.
The point of differentiating, even with Jerry Sandusky, is that it isn't fair, lumping the two together, child sex offender and pedophile. Having persistent desires for children, yet refraining from acting upon them is praise-worthy, extremely laudable. We need to hear from people who don't act out their sexual desire for children, they need to be teaching others, telling it like it is, that sexual contact with children isn't right, and it doesn't have to happen.
It is when one has desires and can't refrain from acting upon them that societal controls, social sanctions, punitive measures, are needed. And yes, public humiliation, inevitable. Even, we think, appropriate.
Linda Freedman, PhD, LCSW, LMFT
My thanks to Michael C. Seto (Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children, 2008) who worked for 15 years to sort through, analyze, and disseminate what we know about pedophilia and sexual offending against children today.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Penn State and the Privilege of Being an Athlete
It's not at all a new story. We've been talking about it for over over a decade, the privilege of being an athlete. When an ordinary student on campus brawls anywhere-- on campus or off-- breaks a bar stool over a head, perhaps, that student is suspended or disciplined, maybe expelled. There might even be civil charges.
To meet the same disciplinary standards, an athlete on campus, a hero, has to kill someone. Think University of Virginia lacrosse star George Huguely, who is accused of shaking his girlfriend Yeardley Love, bashing her head against the wall. Yeardley, a young woman with so much goodness, so much potential, died in an early morning conflict in her apartment; it's been said to have been a quarrel about breaking up.
Huguely had been disciplined previously by the school, and ordered to alcohol rehab, but none of it sunk in, and he kept playing, we're pretty sure. He's in jail now, awaiting trial for beating Yeardley, for leaving her to die.
That story, and many stories about interpersonal violence, is very much about alcohol abuse, a transgenerational problem. George Huguely's father, George Wesley Huguely IV, is currently charged with a DUI. Alcohol abuse is the enemy when it comes to relationship violence, it's worth noting. It is invariably associated with accidental death in group statistics.
The latest is that Joe Paterno protected his ball players from academic disciplinary measures and suspension. In 2007, two dozen football players broke into an apartment and violently bashed heads with broken bottles. Dr. Triponi, Vice President of Student Affairs, complained that the players weren't cooperating in the investigation. In a meeting with Paterno, University President Spanier, and others, she was told that it would ruin team cohesion if the players testified against each other.
No one missed a game. Paterno's version of discipline for head bashing? The team takes responsibility for cleaning the football stadium after a game.
Any one of us would be tried, fined, jailed. Something. Accused of other campus rule infractions in the past, Mr. Paterno forced players to train to exhaustion, run. It is a military model. A hundred and fifty pushups for scowling, more for smarting off.
Ms. Triponey resigned, couldn't be a part of an institution that relegated privilege to student athletes.
Obviously the sex abuse scandal that put Penn in the spot light, the cover-up, the very thought of Jerry Sandusky raping young children in campus locker rooms, disgusts and appalls. That investigation will go back to 1975, as it should. Assuming Sandusky is found guilty, the 1.7 billion dollar Penn State endowment, a haul to the credit of football supportive alumni, will feel the pinch, much as the Catholic church is feeling the pinch for sexual assaulting clergy.
But it is just a pinch. The only good thing about the scandal is that the other issues, this one about privilege, are in the public consciousness.
It is a privilege to represent a university or a college in any capacity. Despite the thinking, each and everyone of us is replaceable. When the behavior of one, especially the behavior many, demeans the honor of an institution, it can't be tolerated, can't be swept under the rug. One thing about the Internet. There are no rugs big enough anymore.
We impeach presidents in this country for lesser crimes. Let's see if team cohesiveness, if team performance, actually does suffer when teammates, even coaches, are held accountable for breaking the law. It's not a proven hypothesis by any means.
Linda Freedman, PhD, LCSW, LMFT
To meet the same disciplinary standards, an athlete on campus, a hero, has to kill someone. Think University of Virginia lacrosse star George Huguely, who is accused of shaking his girlfriend Yeardley Love, bashing her head against the wall. Yeardley, a young woman with so much goodness, so much potential, died in an early morning conflict in her apartment; it's been said to have been a quarrel about breaking up.
Huguely had been disciplined previously by the school, and ordered to alcohol rehab, but none of it sunk in, and he kept playing, we're pretty sure. He's in jail now, awaiting trial for beating Yeardley, for leaving her to die.
That story, and many stories about interpersonal violence, is very much about alcohol abuse, a transgenerational problem. George Huguely's father, George Wesley Huguely IV, is currently charged with a DUI. Alcohol abuse is the enemy when it comes to relationship violence, it's worth noting. It is invariably associated with accidental death in group statistics.
The latest is that Joe Paterno protected his ball players from academic disciplinary measures and suspension. In 2007, two dozen football players broke into an apartment and violently bashed heads with broken bottles. Dr. Triponi, Vice President of Student Affairs, complained that the players weren't cooperating in the investigation. In a meeting with Paterno, University President Spanier, and others, she was told that it would ruin team cohesion if the players testified against each other.
No one missed a game. Paterno's version of discipline for head bashing? The team takes responsibility for cleaning the football stadium after a game.
Any one of us would be tried, fined, jailed. Something. Accused of other campus rule infractions in the past, Mr. Paterno forced players to train to exhaustion, run. It is a military model. A hundred and fifty pushups for scowling, more for smarting off.
Ms. Triponey resigned, couldn't be a part of an institution that relegated privilege to student athletes.
Obviously the sex abuse scandal that put Penn in the spot light, the cover-up, the very thought of Jerry Sandusky raping young children in campus locker rooms, disgusts and appalls. That investigation will go back to 1975, as it should. Assuming Sandusky is found guilty, the 1.7 billion dollar Penn State endowment, a haul to the credit of football supportive alumni, will feel the pinch, much as the Catholic church is feeling the pinch for sexual assaulting clergy.
But it is just a pinch. The only good thing about the scandal is that the other issues, this one about privilege, are in the public consciousness.
It is a privilege to represent a university or a college in any capacity. Despite the thinking, each and everyone of us is replaceable. When the behavior of one, especially the behavior many, demeans the honor of an institution, it can't be tolerated, can't be swept under the rug. One thing about the Internet. There are no rugs big enough anymore.
We impeach presidents in this country for lesser crimes. Let's see if team cohesiveness, if team performance, actually does suffer when teammates, even coaches, are held accountable for breaking the law. It's not a proven hypothesis by any means.
Linda Freedman, PhD, LCSW, LMFT
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