Sexual Offences: A battle on multiple fronts

Sex Offences: The Textbook Way

A sexual offender is an individual who has committed a sexual act that involves the use of force or a threat against a nonconsenting person. Such force may be physical, psychological, or both.

As per State Laws:

The definition of a sex crime differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. However, there are core offences that are common to most jurisdictions, but some states outlaw additional particular acts. The common sex offences fall into the following categories:

• Crimes against adults: rape, sexual assault and marital rape

• Crimes against relatives: incest

• Crimes against children: pornography, exploitation, molestation, abduction

• Crimes against nature: indecent exposure, sodomy, bestiality

• Crimes against sex for sale: prostitution

Now putting away the textbook knowledge, why don’t we think what actually provide the breeding grounds for sexual offending?

There are multiple contemporary theories which are associated with the development of sexual offending (Knight & Sims- Knight, 2003; Malamuth, 2003; Ward & Siegert, 2002).

These theorists have given models which suggest that adverse family environments provide the breeding grounds for sexual offending. Lacking nurturance and guidance from their surrounding environment, the potential sexual offender develops problems in social functioning (e.g., mistrust, hostility, and insecure attachment) that, in turn, are associated with

• social rejection,
• loneliness,
• negative peer associations and
• delinquent behaviour.

Further contributing to the risk of sexual offending are beliefs that permit nonconsenting sex. Attitudes allowing nonconsenting sex can develop through the individuals’ trying to understand their own experiences and adopting the attitudes of their significant others (friends, family, abusers).

Such a model suggests that, apart from sexual deviancy and lifestyle instability, there may be three additional characteristics of persistent sexual offenders:

1. negative family background,
2. problems forming affectionate bonds with friends and lovers, and
3. attitudes tolerant of sexual assault.

Hence, the lifestyle, the people around us, and our family environments plays a very important role on our future, due to there all-time upbringing these offenders find their behaviour as rational and seek maximum rewards. Along with the actions of the offenders, the actions of their surroundings also play a major role in their behaviour, hence not just punishment, every offender requires therapy too.

Sex offender therapy:

Working with those who have been convicted of a sex offence is a specialised field of counselling.

Such individuals  are often extremely varied, and the dynamics get much more complicated when the offenders are adult males, adult females, or kids. The study conducted on each population differs greatly. There is a deficit in the study on female sex offenders, and research on the ever-complex adolescent offenders is still relatively limited (but expanding).

Sex offender therapy is difficult regardless of the type of the clients, and other circumstances play a role as well. There is always the question of treatment resistance, especially when therapy is a requirement of supervised release or probation.  Criminogenic thinking dominates the environment, and counsellors must be on the lookout for the often-subtle indicators of that attitude.

Individuals acquitted of sex offences, for example, can be extremely manipulative not just with their therapist but also with anyone else in their therapy groups. Power plays, deflection, grooming, and lying are a few characteristics of criminal thinking. Many offenders will also bring a virtual encyclopedia of “thinking errors” with them. 

Not just that, topping the cognitive distortion list, we have:

• Victim stance ("This label is unfair"),
• Minimization ("All I did was grope her"),
• Justification ("We'd had sex previously and she didn't complain"),
• Entitlement

Not just that, sometimes counsellors also have to deal with additional variables, such as addictions, co-occurring disorders, and, of course, shame, guilt, and very degrading self-talk, in addition to cognitive distortions and the possibility for criminogenic behaviour.

The ultimate objective of sex offender therapy is relapse prevention, which is founded on accountability and accepting responsibility for offending behaviour. When all of these variables are considered, the counsellor is frequently greeted with denial on several levels: denial of facts ("It wasn't me"); denial of intent ("I was intoxicated"); denial of impact ("She didn't seem to mind"); and denial of the need for therapy.

Throughout the process, they will very certainly be faced with the responsibility and often irritation of teaching those who will not care. However, as counsellors, their primary focus remains on caring and utilising their expertise to the best of their abilities. They are aware that they cannot undo what has occurred, but they can do all possible to avoid future victims.

This is also for family and friends; many would advise you to simply throw away the key rather than offer therapy. But it's high time that the general population must be educated on these concerns. Furthermore, legislators, government agencies, and policymakers must be pushed to listen rather than merely attempt to enact more "tough on crime" laws that sometimes make no sense and may, in fact, contribute to more victims.

The Cases Unknown...

Let's talk about two of the most surprising cases that I came across while researching...

The Mike Tyson Case: 

Michael Gerard Tyson is an American former professional boxer who was nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" during his early career. Did you know that the boxer was charged with raping 18-year-old Desiree Washington in 1992 He was sentenced to six years in jail but was released after serving just under three years,  having to register as a sex offender!

To know more read: https://www.newsweek.com/mike-tyson-sexual-assault-rape-conviction-1992-1596437

The Unnao Rape Case:

In this bizarre and perplexing rape case, the offender, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, assaulted a 17-year-old girl in 2017. Following that, In 2018, the claimed victim's father was imprisoned under the Arms Act and died in custody after reportedly being beaten up by Sengar's brother and others. Also in 2018, Yunus, a witness to the alleged assault, died and was buried by his family without an autopsy or communication with police or investigators. Yunus' wife and relatives stated that he was unwell and died naturally. Due to an 18-year-old gun-firing case, the accused victim's uncle was caught and sentenced in 2018. Then In 2019, a truck with blacked license plates collided with the vehicle in which the alleged victim and others were travelling. As a result, the victim's paternal and maternal aunts were murdered and the alleged victim and her lawyer were both gravely hurt. The police officers designated to provide protection for the claimed victim were not present, citing a lack of room in the car in which the alleged victim was travelling. This is one of the most perplexing cases, with, of course, no justice served.

To know more read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Unnao_rape_case

Want to know how these crimes went about? Watch these true-crime story based movies!

We often comprehend better by watching rather than reading, therefore here's a list of incredibly confusing sexual offences that will play mind tricks with your head while still making you grasp the situations very well!

1. The Girl in the Box (2016)

 

The biography of Colleen Stan Case is dramatized in this film. Colleen was kidnapped by Cameron and Janice Hooker in 1977 and held as a sex slave for seven years. She spent much of her time in captivity in a box beneath Cameron and Janice's bed…

2. The Girl Next Door (2007)

The film is based on the true storey of Sylvia Likens' torture and murder. Sylvia, then 16, was held hostage and tormented physically, emotionally, and sexually for three months by her babysitter, Gertrude Baniszewski, her children, and the youngsters of the neighbourhood in 1965…

3. The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

  The mockumentary horror film displays tapes upon tapes of "found video" showing Ed Carver's numerous heinous murders. The kidnapping, torture, and rape of Cheryl Dempsey, which is partly based on the Colleen Stan/girl in the box case from the 1970s, is one of the key atrocities depicted on these videos…

4. Compliance (2012)

Becky, a fast-food employee, is taken into the manager's office on suspicion of stealing from the establishment. A cop on the phone directs the manager/other workers to search her, which leads to sexual abuse, only to discover that it was all a deception. This movie is based on the strip search phone call scam, which occurred between 1992 and 2004...

*All the images are taken from India Tv and Wikipedia, we provide full credit to the sources and no credit is taken by this page.

-An article by Sanya Kapur

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