Sexual Offenses

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I am writing this blog as a response to Waterloo Teacher Arrested.

A couple of years ago an old teacher from my high school who had not been teaching there for years was accused of sexual misconduct with a student. The student in question would currently be around the age of 30. Soon after, a couple of other people came forward. This makes me wonder whether these people were too afraid to speak up. Or perhaps had repressed those memories and the report recalled the memories. Another part of me is skeptical, why wait so long? Sexual abuse is not something I particularly like to think about, but this article started my mind rolling.

In these cases (my school and the Waterloo incident), the student would not be so young as to not know that the activity was inappropriate. A reason many young victims do not report abuse until later in life is that they didn't know it was abuse at the time. It surprised me that the student in the Waterloo case actually went to the teacher's house outside of school. Sure, students answer to teachers and receive grades from them, but a student should be able to realize when something is out of hand. On the same note, the student could have felt threatened by the teacher after the first incident and that is why they continued for months.

This leads to the other reasons why a victim might remain silent. These people could feel embarrassed, threatened, guilty even. And in some cases a victim may feel like admitting that something happened to them would be a burden on their family. The reason multiple victims might report at the same time lie within these reasons. They feel a sense of camaraderie and support.  

What these victims need to know is that the sooner they admit their situation the sooner they can get help.   I know of a woman who was raped and immediately went to the hospital. There, she was examined and helped, and because she went directly after she was able to recall the incident with many details. Later, the perpetrator was convicted. Sexual abuse takes a large psychological toll on victims, and problems build up if they keep it a secret. Victims of sexual abuse often have eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and sometimes become sexual offenders themselves. It is a dangerous cycle like that of physical child abuse.  

Yet, I feel that there are few steps in preventing sexual abuse. The main idea that prevents sexual offenders from committing crime is knowing that it is a crime and considered wrong by society. On a side note- in the case in Waterloo, and even now a new case in Iowa City, the possible offender's name is released. While I understand that the victims' names are not given for privacy reasons, I do think it is unfair that the public knows the possible offender's name (every person is innocent until proven guilty). No matter the outcome of the case, his name will be tarnished forever, because most of us find even the idea of possible sexual abuse disgusting and will now associate his name with it.

These offenders have a true problem. As psychologists we should be looking into similarities between perpetrators and finding common threads. Many offenders have psychological disorders, but those who have no diagnosis may have an entirely different disorder involving strange sexual desires. If we are able to define this disorder we may be able to diagnose it and at some point we might be able to prevent these crimes. Sexual abuse is not something that people like to talk about or think about. But not taking the time to think about it and research ways to prevent it allows the problem to continue in its cycle.

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2 Comments

I completely agree with you. It is unfair that the media has permission to release the Offender's name. Why did they release his name is what I would like to know. Also if the victim did get sexually abused one of the reasons why he/she could have remained silent about it was probably because of the way he/she was raised, or his family might have a great title in the city or state. I would also like to know the Offender's motives on why he did what he is accused of doing, if he did it. I know this will completely sound different but what if the victim actually wanted that kind of attention or some type of attention is that why that victim kept going to the house? Then suppressed it for some time and finally revealed it to someone and that someone told the victiim that, that's wrong and you should report it. I am not saying or making an excuse for the Offender (if he did do it) but there is some really disturbing psychological reasons why they both did what they did.

I agree to some extent with the two of you. Regarding to the teacher/student cases, first if the child is under 18 in most cases they can not give the name out. The teacher is a state employee, which means that the public has the right to know what is going on. especially those partents who send their child to school with a teacher who clearly has some problems.

We could also go on and on why the child/student didn't say anything. Their are many reasons for that.

Teacher's have this degree about them that makes a child feel safe, have trust in them, and often times find comfort in them. Teacher's who involve in sexual acts with student is bottom line sick. This is a person with a college degree who has dedicated their studies to being a teacher, and they mess it up with sexual encounters...something's wrong there.

I think this is a subject that could go back and forth forever and that is sad to think about. It is sad to see how many cases there has been with teacher/child relations. makes me sick.

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