Freda Briggs - From Victim to Offender: How child sexual abuse victims become offenders

How child sexual abuse victims become offenders

What do offenders see as the cause of their offending? What rewards do they get from offending? And what use is such information? Quite simply, we have little chance of changing an offender's behaviour unless we know more about that behaviour and what causes it. Offenders often see the causes of their offending quite differently from how other people see them. Unless we can understand behaviour from the offender's perspective, we run the risk of targeting them with inappropriate programmes and therapy which will do little to address the real causes of their offending. The causes they give for offending or the way they perceive their behaviour may seem totally irrational or unacceptable to us but it is the reality of their world. Only by seeing it through their eyes can we understand what motivates their behaviour to help them change.

Dr Meryl McKay, Department of Justice, New Zealand, 1993

In 1992, a study was undertaken which involved the investigation of the early childhood and family experiences of male prisoners who had been convicted of offences against persons (as distinct from offences involving property). Although all of the men declared that they had not been sexually abused in childhood, when they were asked about their early 'sexual experiences', all but one of the convicted child molesters revealed that they had suffered prolonged sexual abuse at the hands of several different adult offenders but that they had not defined that behaviour as abuse for a variety of reasons. And although, when we interviewed them, all of the convicted child molesters were about to be released on parole and some had also served previous prison sentences for similar offences (which they freely admitted), none had been involved in any sex offender programme to address their behavioural and attitudinal problems. Given that they regarded their early sexualisation as 'normal' and were unaware of its damaging influence on their lives, none of the men had sought counselling relating to their childhood experiences. And while all admitted being sexually attracted to children, they either blamed their victims or denied the offences for which they were currently in prison.

Because child sex offenders are despised by the rest of the prison population, all of the interviewed men had experienced violence at the hands of other inmates. They viewed their survival in jail as being dependent on concealing the nature of their offences, isolating themselves and 'keeping a low profile'.

All but one of the prisoners were early school leavers who had experienced emotional and physical abuse in large, affectionless, impoverished families or foster homes. Those who lived in two parent families had either absent or non-functioning, brutal fathers, most of whom were alcoholics. And all of the men had histories of chronic ill health, unemployment and unsatisfactory sexual and social adult relationships.

A survey of newspaper reports showed that, while professional, middle-class men were convicted of similar offences, in South Australia they were much more likely to receive a good behaviour bond than a prison sentence. In 1993, with the assistance of the Australian Criminology Research Council and departments responsible for correctional sendees, the study was extended to include 84 child sex offenders in other prisons and other States. Their childhood histories were then compared with those of men who were sexually abused in childhood but who had not committed offences against children. Altogether, two hundred men were interviewed.

It was recognised that the researchers were entirely dependent on the honesty of this group of 'non-offenders'. It is to their great credit that they provided very frank information relating to the ways in which their abuse had damaged their sexual development, their capacity to engage in trusting adult relationships and had influenced their tendency to view boys in particular as being 'sexually attractive'. Twenty-one men were removed from the 'non-offender' group following admissions that they had sexually molested younger boys during childhood and adolescence. Most of these offences had been instigated by male adult caregivers. Most respondents viewed their childhood family relationships as affectionless; none of the offences were reported and most victims assumed that they were victimised because they were obviously homosexual, albeit at five or six years of age.

Listening to these abuse survivors, it became clear that the strongest deterrent to the commission of offences with children was their sensitivity to the damaging effects of abuse on their own lives and their reluctance to inflict the same curse on other human beings.

None of the men in the 'non-offender' group had married. Regardless of age, they had no interest in and little experience of sexual relationships with women and although some had joined the 'gay' community, this decision was not taken lightly and involved a great deal of counselling. The majority of abuse survivors felt that they were in a sexual void.

Although 38 per cent of the subjects in the study had been victimised by older females, 100 per cent were abused by men. It appears that their early sexualisation was recognised by deviant adults and they were all re-abused by other offenders. The only boys who realised that what was happening was wrong and reported it were those who were subjected to sadistic forms of sexual abuse in boarding institutions: they were either punished or re-abused for disclosing the offences.