IDENTIFYING CHILD MOLESTERS-CHAPTER ONE

Dr. Carla Van Dam’s book, Identifying Child Molesters: Preventing child sexual abuse by recognizing the patterns of the offenders, provides readers with a wealth of usable information. She focuses on child molesters whose “charm, respectability, and agreeable demeanor” make it easy for them to gain access to children. (Van Dam, Carla. Identifying Child Molesters (p. 11). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.) There are other types of child predators, but they have different behavioral cues. Dr. Van Dam is focusing on those predators that you would find in schools, daycares, and other public places.

In Chapter 1, The Problem, Dr. Van Dam introduces the readers to case studies, some of which will be used throughout the book. These case studies show how various communities allowed a predator access to children. There were five case studies. An elderly, male gentleman loved by the community, an young, male teacher, a male blue-collar worker who molested over two generations, another male teacher who molested between 50-70 children, and a female teacher, just to show that men and women can be child predators.

The last case study involved a named victim, Donna Bouchard, who took her molester to court. She provides a first-hand description on how her predator manipulated her, her family and her school. Donna said,
My name is Donna Bouchard, and more than a decade and a half later I am only now
finding my voice. My story is not unlike that of other victims of sexual assault. Do not
be fooled by the fact that I was offended against by a female, rather than a male. The
dynamics are quite the same. They say hindsight is twenty-twenty, and I can certainly
attest to that. However, if telling my story might help someone else to recognize the
signs of sexual predators, to therefore avoid what happened to me, then tell it I will.
(Van Dam, Carla. Identifying Child Molesters (p. 31). Taylor and Francis. Kindle
Edition.)

The predator insinuated herself into Donna’s life, and she began a process of isolating Donna from her family and her class mates. The predator exposed Donna to sexually explicit materials, gave her medicines like muscle relaxants, and generally made her feel “special”. She points out that child predation is more an exercise of power than sexuality.

As found in Psychiatric Clinics of North America,
We look only at the disparate, most superficial pieces as they present to our
attention. We process those pieces serially, each as a novelty, never allowing them to
coalesce into a meaningful whole, and never allowing a fresh and receptive analysis
unprejudiced by previous dispersions. We may accept, one at a time, any number of
surprising examples, each of which contradicts traditional knowledge, and still hold
each as an exception with only peripheral significance. Unlike ordinary, unprejudiced
discoveries, these clues are not allowed to add up to increasing understanding.
Instead, like the plethora of medieval observations that contradicted geocentricism,
such unwanted discoveries only increase the intellectual challenge to explain them
away. (p. 419)
(Van Dam, Carla. Identifying Child Molesters (p. 37). Taylor and Francis. Kindle
Edition.)

Child predators will engage in behaviors that, individually, seem harmless, but when put together, paint a picture that identifies what is happening. The trick is getting the bigger picture. Societally speaking, one in four girls, and one in six boys are abused. (Finkelhor, 1979a) We need to be able to identify the behaviors we can see, and keep the bigger picture in mind.

Dr. Van Dam begins showing us how to do that in Chapter 2.

News Stories
– Claremore Man Sentenced for Sexual Abuse
– Wagner Man Sentenced for Abusive Sexual Contact
– Hagerstown Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for Sexual Exploitation of a Child
– Dion Oliver Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison Following Convictions for the Shooting of a Wilmington 6-Year-Old Boy and the Death of a Newark Woman
– Dion Oliver Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison Following Convictions for the Shooting of a Wilmington 6-Year-Old Boy and the Death of a Newark Woman
– U.S. Attorney Totten Announces Federal Charges In The Kidnapping Of 2-Year-Old Wynter Cole-Smith
– Grand Island Man Sentenced to 60 Years for Conspiracy to Produce Child Pornography and Production of Child Pornography
– Texas teen forced to ‘play daddy’ as sex slave for years after mom said he vanished: report
– Man who inspired ‘Sound of Freedom’ hits back at CNN guest, liberal reporters over ‘grotesque’ criticism