Child molesters remain largely uncaught and dangerous to children everywhere, according to Cory Jewell-Jenson told parents at a workshop.
Jewell-Jensen is a director at the Center for Behavioral Intervention in Beaverton. She has worked on between 4,000 and 5,000 sex crime cases over 20 years. Her husband, Steven Jensen, also a director at CBI has worked there for 30 years.
During the program, Corey showed videos where sex offenders talked about their crimes. One assistant youth pastor in Oklahoma told how he selected troubled children who would not be believed if they accused him of molesting them.
Indeed, he escaped accusation twice with members of his church and community standing up beside him against the accusations. He was convicted the third time he was accused.
Almost any time a person is accused by a child of a sex crime, it is true, but it is not always believed, Jewell-Jensen said. In fact, the majority of sex crimes are never reported. Only about one report in a million is false.
This pastor had molested about 100 children, Jewell-Jensen said. His case shows that a molester could be anyone. Just recently, two ministers and a soccer coach have been arrested in the Portland area.
Approximately 25 percent of children are sexually abused before their 18th birthday, Jewell-Jensen said. One study suggested that one in seven boys and one in four girls are molested.
Usually, someone they know well, like a relative, neighbor or friend, molests them.
One study shows that as many as one of every 10 men has molested a child, Jewell-Jensen said. Of the abused, only 16 percent are able to tell someone, and only 3 percent of sex offenders are caught and prosecuted.
“Most offenders are able to get away with molesting children for years before they are reported to law enforcement,” Jewell-Jensen said.
To gain sympathy, some 80 to 90 percent of offenders reported they had been abused themselves, Jewell-Jensen said. More recent studies, using polygraph testing, are showing they have been abused at rates similar to the rest of the population.
Another molester interviewed on a video said he started fondling children when he was 16 or 17 years old. By his mid- to late-teens, he knew he was attracted to boys about 11 or 12 years old.
Because of his attraction, “I felt shunned and hated by society,” the man said. “I had this overwhelming need to find out about myself.”
Jewell-Jensen warns that there are seven national pedophilia organizations, like the North American Man Boy Love Association, which has about 1,000 members nationwide.
Members of such organizations do not see their actions as sex abuse at all, but one expert on a video points out the problem with that position: “Children can’t give consent because they don’t know what they’re giving consent to.”
Researchers have been searching for a reason for the preferences of molesters for years.
“The biochemical thing hasn’t really panned out,” Jewell-Jensen said. “It looks like it’s more a learned sexual behavior.”
Of molesters, 76 percent start offending under the age of 15, Jewell Jensen said. Men who molest girls will victimize 12 to 20 before they are caught. Men molesting boys will victimize 50 to 100 before they are caught.
The most effective prevention is for parents, schools, churches and community groups to develop prevention programs that incorporate parent training and encourage reporting.
Jewell-Jensen talked about a dozen cases where an abuser had re-offended because the family had let them babysit because “it was Uncle Joey or Grandpa Don.”
Some children don’t know the difference between affection and sexual behavior, Jewell-Jensen said. Molesters take advantage of things like this. They will tell children a variety of things to keep them from telling anyone about the crime.
They may tell them no one will believe them or warn that they will be punished if they talk. They may threaten physical violence or that a parent may blame the child if they talk.
Children are most likely to tell a friend, who will tell a parent, who in turn tells a school official.
In 1985, a study showed that a victim had to tell nine people before anyone went to police, Jewell-Jensen said. She suggests believing the children and reporting the abuse.
At this point, Oregon has 10,000 registered sex offenders, tracked since 1992. With Oregon’s population, the state probably has about 180,000 sex offenders.
The parents workshop was held at the Jim Riggs Community Center on May 20. The junior high PTC and Youth Initiative sponsored the workshop. Thirty to 40 parents attended the workshop.