Sandusky: A Typical Story on Childhood Sexual Abuse

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Nov. 4 charged retired Pennsylvania State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, 67, with 40 counts of sexual molestation against eight young boys from 1994 to 2009.

“This is a case about a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” said AG Linda Kelly. “It is also a case about high-ranking university officials who allegedly failed to report the sexual assault of a young boy after the information was brought to their attention.”

The university’s athletic director and vice president are being charged with perjury and failing to report the molestations.

This headline news, unfortunately, tracks the pattern of a very typical Childhood Sexual Abuse case.

In a survey of incarcerated sex offenders, the average sex offender had only two known charges and five known offenses on his criminal record. But by the end of the second round of polygraph testing, each sex offender had confessed to an average of 110 victims and 318 offenses. Their confessed history of offenses went back an average of 16 years before they were first arrested.

Therapist Dr. Carla van Dam says the molester’s process is that: “[T]here must first be sexual attraction to children. Second, molesters must justify having sex with children to themselves, at which point they groom the adult community to gain access to children. Finally, they must groom children to maintain security.”

In 89% of the cases, the molester is either a relative or a person known to the victim.

Sandusky had founded a nonprofit organization for at-risk youth called the Second Mile Foundation. All of the boys Sandusky is accused of molesting were involved with his Second Mile Foundation.

Why did it take so long for Sandusky to be charged with any of these crimes?

An article published in the journal Psychology, Public Policy and the Law studied multiple retrospective surveys and found that 60% to 70% of adults who were survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse reported that they did not disclose the abuse during childhood. An astonishing 38% of those who reported Childhood Sexual Abuse on the survey said they had never told anyone until asked in the survey.

In those infrequent instances when a child does confide in an adult that someone has molested them, 24% of the adults don’t pass on the information to anyone else.

Incredibly, even a third of parents, about 31%, are nonsupportive of their children after a molestation. Despite proof of the abuse, they continue to believe that the abuse complaint was a lie, a misunderstanding, or the child’s fault. These parents rarely support pressing charges against the molester.

A 1998 Penn State security staff investigation of sexual behavior between Sandusky and young boys in the locker room showers was reported to school officials but not to local law enforcement. In 2002, a graduate assistant reported to head coach Joe Paterno that he saw Sandusky sexually assaulting yet another young boy in the showers. That eye witness account was also not reported to police.

One study estimates that only 3% of child sexual abuse cases are ever reported to the police.

Perhaps one positive result of the Penn State scandal will be that those persons who are required to report abuse will now see it is in their own self-interest to consider a child’s safety as more important than professional reputations or personal friendships.

Sharman’s column runs every Tuesday. He lives in Madison.