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Introducing Dr. Krystal!
143 Plays1 month ago
Krystal shares her dissertation with all of us!
Listener discretion is advised.
May contain explicit language and unfounded accusations.
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Transcript
Introduction and Special Guest
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome back to the Mothers of All Crime. This week, we have a very special episode featuring the new Dr. Crystal. How are you, Doc? I'm good. How are you?
00:00:34
Speaker
I'm great. I can't wait to hear what you have to talk about today. I know the doctor still makes me, it feels weird to be honest. Well, it's new. You'll adjust.
00:00:46
Speaker
Yeah.
Dr. Crystal's PhD Journey
00:00:47
Speaker
so for people who've been with us, I've been working on my PhD and recently finished my dissertation, defended and graduated. Amazing.
00:00:58
Speaker
PhD in criminal justice and criminology. So I'm very excited to never go back to school again. Yeah. Oh my goodness. I bet. This has been quite a journey and I'm very, very impressed with how much you've been able to juggle while achieving something like this incredible.
00:01:16
Speaker
So I just, I know the doctor thing, you know, it's, you're still settling with it, but I just like hope you're also super proud of yourself because it's a huge accomplishment. Thank you very much. Yeah, no, it's been it's been cool.
00:01:28
Speaker
I think with this journey, my favorite part really was kind of building the dissertation just because the first time really in your academic career, you truly get to pick 100% of what you're doing versus going through ah other things. You're taking the classes you're told to take regardless of your interest for a lot of them.
00:01:50
Speaker
And with this one, it was finding something that was lacking in the academic world and could help, in my opinion, help hopefully someone out there and see it from start to end.
00:02:05
Speaker
Like we all go through school and we read these academic journals and these books and things like that. And they're just written by other academics. So was kind of cool to create something, have it get published, uh, and see the whole thing through. So it was a sad
Research Focus on CSA During COVID
00:02:24
Speaker
topic. So kind of forewarning anyone who's listening to this episode, um, there is a lot of talk about CSA, child sexual abuse,
00:02:33
Speaker
um and those involved in that and victimization and ah around the covid time frame so it was a heavy topic which posed its own challenges when you're reading about these things day in and day out it gets heavy um oh yeah and for sure So i I was very fortunate to have people around, including yourself, to kind of vent with and listen to me when I'm talking about things like this. so
00:03:08
Speaker
But I do think it's something that is under-talked about, which we've mentioned on this show before, is if you don't talk about something, and nothing's going to change.
00:03:19
Speaker
So hopefully, little by little, change can happen. And then the future... little ones and years down the line, less victims will be out there. So that was always the hope.
00:03:32
Speaker
um But today we're kind of going to go through basically my dissertation, some hot topics on it. I won't bore you guys with the super academic and statistics part of it, but I think it's relative to kind of the stuff we talk about a lot on this podcast where not only we Are there victims out there, but there are perpetrators? And how do you get there? And what do they look like? And it's not always the creepy man standing in a dark alleyway.
00:04:05
Speaker
So I think that's a big thing that people should keep in mind. think that's an excellent point and sometimes evil is hiding right there in plain sight and I do think lack of awareness lack of education things like this like it doesn't help anyone and I think that studying why things happen and how things happen who's most likely to be hurt and harmed it it can only help And hopefully, like you said, decrease some of this stuff from happening. And I know that sometimes we are like a little lighthearted when we're talking to each other, but it's conversational like this podcast is.
00:04:46
Speaker
And we do deal with like very... difficult and disturbing topics, but it doesn't make them less impactful to us. It's just you can't be crying while you're talking about stuff because that also isn't productive.
00:05:01
Speaker
So sometimes you do need to be able to talk about things logically. There's going to be moments of brevity. And I think that that's also okay. Yeah, exactly.
Female Sex Offenders: An Understudied Area
00:05:11
Speaker
So what I looked at was specifically female sex offenders and COVID-19 and that impact on how victimization was before the pandemic and during the pandemic.
00:05:25
Speaker
And looking specifically at female sex offenders, just because it's so understudied, sex offenders in general, but the female subcategory is something that is kind of a newer Yeah.
00:05:38
Speaker
look women in general, and again, i feel like I'm going to say this a lot, we've said before, is the assumption that they're the caretakers. They're the ones that are going to help if you get lost, go find a woman or a mom.
00:05:56
Speaker
And that always resonated to a point for me of not all women are nice women. Like in this podcast is a prime example that there are plenty of people out there that are capable of terrible things that are female.
00:06:13
Speaker
So finding that little knowledge gap there is something that I dove in on. But because of that societal pressure and kind of resistance, the sample size that came about was very small.
00:06:26
Speaker
And along with other researchers who looked at female sex offenders, Very small. So when I was diving into this, a lot of what I found is the research and the information being used for female sex offenders were actually using male offenders to get their data.
00:06:46
Speaker
Which if if you're generalizing something to a different sex, it's going to propose its own challenges. So it was really important to me to do something with female offenders and using female data so that it can be applied to those persons.
00:07:05
Speaker
Because the same thing with anything else, if you're ah male actions and a female actions, your motivations going to be different. Your history is going to be different. Your whole interaction with your victim your societal understanding.
00:07:20
Speaker
So that's part of why I looked at that, but also COVID. And COVID kind of gave us an opportunity to see how the society impact would change if you removed that social standing.
00:07:38
Speaker
Because a lot of the time when you say, oh if you just remove yourself from the situation, you won't get victimized. But in standard American life, it's social, it's outgoing, you're interacting with people.
00:07:52
Speaker
And you can't just never leave your house. So when COVID kind of happened and the stay-at-home orders and the shutdown happened, it actually gave us an opportunity to see what that impact truly was.
00:08:06
Speaker
What happens when you don't go out and interact with others? What happens when you are forced away from societal? And is there an impact there or is it going to continue or is going get worse because the offenders are inside your own home?
00:08:22
Speaker
So it was, that was kind of my connections for everything. and how we could kind of use COVID to our advantage because there were so many issues with COVID. There's an increase in domestic violence. There was troubles with school and integrations.
00:08:39
Speaker
um It would be curious when I was starting this, if COVID also impacted this or if this was something that it was going to be consistent or not. That is really interesting. And I definitely have heard that domestic violence incidents went up during COVID and,
00:08:58
Speaker
I guess maybe I just don't know how that ah impacted sexually based crimes. And maybe it's just because it's talked about less, but I'm definitely super interested to find out more about it.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah. That was my hypothesis for it all was that there was going to be an increase in both the actual victimization, an increase in arrests.
00:09:22
Speaker
I thought that there was going to be more, offenders within the household so your familial offenders um which is a couple of the things that I was looking at but I think before we get into the results and what was found some background would be helpful for people who don't necessarily know as much about this topic yeah the sex offenders in general are a male or woman who have been arrested or reported as an assailant for an incident of an unlawful sexual activity
00:09:57
Speaker
again, males or females.
Stereotypes and Reoffending Rates
00:10:00
Speaker
However, females make up less than 10% of those sexually related crimes that get reported to law enforcement. And of that 6% are the ones that get arrested.
00:10:12
Speaker
So again, we have an extremely small size of the population. So when you're looking at Female sex offenders, typical ages range from 26 to 36 years old.
00:10:26
Speaker
Their victims often are in their social circles or in their care. So they could be someone typically a mother, a babysitter, teacher, those general, again, stereotypical female roles.
00:10:39
Speaker
However, I mean, it makes sense also. Right. You need access. Exposure. 100%. Yeah. um And they don't typically have criminal records because a lot of the male sexual offenders have additional criminal records.
00:10:56
Speaker
And typically will use more of that aspect. So it's not just sex offenses. Versus the females offenders also are more likely to use threats of abuse. They're more likely to use force. They're also more likely to commit multiple acts than their male counterparts. the Men are typically going one incident and then they're kind of done.
00:11:20
Speaker
Which I thought was surprising.
00:11:24
Speaker
I guess... Just right off the bat, it kind of makes sense to me that maybe a woman would be able to get more access to kids on an ongoing basis without it being weird.
00:11:36
Speaker
And so maybe that's already an opportunity for multiple incidents because it's just going to take longer to get caught, especially like you're saying, it's mostly people that don't have any kind of criminal records. So people, no one's looking at them as a potential threat to anybody, let alone a child. Yeah.
00:11:53
Speaker
Right. And I think that's also one stereotype that brought into question for the male side is you always hear like, oh, there's a sex friend and woman in that neighborhood. They're going to do it again.
00:12:07
Speaker
And from a statistical point, that's actually not true. They're actually less likely to do it again than someone is
00:12:17
Speaker
is like, wow, aggressive or like an a assault charge or something like that. So it's kind of peculiar with, I think it's just because society thinks they're icky.
00:12:28
Speaker
And they don't like talking about it. um That's just an assumption I have. I don't have anything to back that up. But it is an interesting balance between the genders.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, that is, I mean, already right off the bat, this is very interesting. So there's no like ethnicity that is really dominant over anything. um And they tend to get their stimuli from gender rather than gender.
00:13:00
Speaker
the like actual physical actions. So females looking for that but like stimuli, male want that gender specific.
00:13:10
Speaker
So again, I think it's also looking at their accessibility, kind of like what you're talking about. But one thing that dove in on here is the female sex offender having an independent operation or having a co-offender.
00:13:26
Speaker
So when they operate independently, the female sex offender is 11 times more likely to have a DSM disorder, have relationship issues, and substance abuse.
Motivations and Justifications of Offenders
00:13:35
Speaker
But when they're operating together, they tend to be blame their counterparts, blame the male in the partnership for their behaviors. Right.
00:13:45
Speaker
and once they're arrested, they're more likely to admit their behaviors and are willing to kind of talk about it versus their male counterparts or partners.
00:13:58
Speaker
Who are just going to continue to lie about it? either lie about, i like I don't know much about the male, I didn't do have too much into the males, but kind of looking at a lot of criminals in general aren't necessarily going to be like, yep, totally did that. Here's why. like for sure.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah. But like females tend to get involved in like explaining their justifications or motivations and because they are different.
00:14:27
Speaker
And it seems to be that they're more willing to have those conversations with than the males that are arrested for the same crime okay that makes sense But so the solo offenders, again, are looking at negative mood outlets. They have a desire for intimacy. They feel like they have no control.
00:14:46
Speaker
And they're more likely to believe that there's treatment for them. And what I also thought was crazy um is they tend to have a partner who's supportive of them getting treatment for their issue, issues in air quotes.
00:15:04
Speaker
oh Like, just from a personal standpoint and not an academic, I don't know if I would be supportive of partner with these kind of tendencies. I can almost promise you that I wouldn't actually.
00:15:18
Speaker
um Yeah, I was gonna say, I think that i think that you you would not be. But i um I think you would want said partner to get help, but you would probably not be sticking around for it.
00:15:31
Speaker
Wait, I'm not going to be your supportive partner, but I hope the best yeah that you get this help. Yeah, I think that's a good point. Yeah, we hope for everyone else in society that you get help. But I and know it it is probably like ah a judgment and like an inherent bias that like maybe is worth unpacking because I think for a lot of other issues that could come up.
00:15:54
Speaker
you would be supportive and I would be supportive. um Like if my husband had some other kind of, I don't want to, it's hard to compare it to something else. Yeah. um It's not an addiction, but like, let's say like an addiction or a mental health issue or a physical issue or something like that. Like I can't, I would, I would be supportive through that and I would try to be helpful. But I think this is this, I would have to draw the line very hard and you need to go get help.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I'm going to call the police and get help for myself because I'm very traumatized at the thought it even.
Controversial Movements and Ethical Concerns
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there is like a social movement that I did not explore, but would be interesting to explore of there being like a, cause there's the whole gender identification and gender preference for sexual attraction.
00:16:50
Speaker
There is a movement happening of like age attraction acceptance. Like they're trying to make it that They're trying to argue that as a biological makeup that it should be okay because the Romans did it and it's okay because I'm wired this way. like There is a movement within those categories of people.
00:17:20
Speaker
that it would be very interesting to kind of dive into. I personally haven't, um but I am aware of those groups of people trying to make movement on that.
00:17:32
Speaker
Like NAMBLA, right? Like National Alliance of... Men loving boys, I think, is what was. Or man boy loving or something. Yeah. i So, because I don't it's new. And I think that... It's not new. It's just gaining traction right now because of the climate that we're in And I don't know it's necessarily people supporting it as much as people just trying to figure out what it is. Because, it's again, it's not something that's commonly known, but...
00:18:07
Speaker
It's interesting. I mean, I feel like when we talk about other
00:18:13
Speaker
sexual forms of sexual expression, we we talk a lot about consenting adults and how, you know, it's all good as long as there's consenting adults and no one gets hurt, essentially.
00:18:26
Speaker
um And that's why it's not really comparable, but I could see the, you know, the mental gymnastics that someone could go to to compare it. The word salad if you're Keith Raniere.
00:18:39
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Or fair Abraham. Yeah, 100%. um But so when we look at female sex offenders, they, again, have three kind of ways that they got to their behaviors, right? So you do have the biological, which we kind of touched on.
00:18:59
Speaker
I didn't explore it super much, but as a kind of general statement, there's theories that do suggest that the offenders have a higher level of sex hormones or an issue with the hippothamus, the amygdala that alters that sexual orientation.
00:19:15
Speaker
So that is that biological justification. um Again, I didn't look at it just because i think the justifications and motivations are...
00:19:27
Speaker
a little bit more relevant in my opinion. um I can't say that I won't look at it in the future because I do think it would be curious to compare them, but motivation-wise there's five main ones.
00:19:40
Speaker
ah Sexual, feeling of power, personal need, jealousy, and a history of victimization. So motivations, starting with the sexual part, it's particularly present in the solo of female offenders.
00:19:56
Speaker
they Because female offenders typically aren't found to have fantasies about abusing children, but they happen. And this group is a little bit more at like a sexual ease around younger persons than peers their own age.
00:20:12
Speaker
So it's more of a sexual relaxation kind of. They don't feel that pressure. um The next is feeling of power. 90% female offenders will report that they felt that they didn't have any control or power in their current life at the time of their offense.
00:20:31
Speaker
And this was a way to have power. personal need. ah They were looking for love, affection, it was lacking in their lives, and they determined that that need was more important than whatever their victim's problem was, or victim's concern, or victim's well-being.
00:20:51
Speaker
Basically rationalizing the overall abuse. The only difference here is with the solo offender, they think of their need of I need X, Y, z And in a co-offending relationship, they think of their partner's need.
00:21:04
Speaker
So my boyfriend really needs sexual gratification. so we're going to do this or he's going to be upset if I can't get him off or whatever the case is. um Yeah, I know.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah. The there's gonna be a lot of struggling feelings when it comes to when we talk about the co offenders. um Because again, it's a lot of complacency. It's a lot of participation rather than responsibility, in my opinion.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. But personal victimization here is story. I think this is the one that most people jump to of they did it because they had it happen to them.
00:21:48
Speaker
And one in four did report having sexual violence and they were reenacting their trauma or they genuinely believed that these actions were suitable for children. And, again, it's from their personal history teaching them that.
00:22:05
Speaker
So, one in four is still high, but it's not as high as I thought it was going to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's really not very high. It's 25%.
00:22:17
Speaker
um But then the most rare is jealousy. So this is typically found with co-offending relationships where the female of that dynamic feels rejected or jealous of the victim during the interactions.
00:22:32
Speaker
And that's why their motivation is a of involvement. So i know. Then we also have the justifications after the fact. 90% of females, sexual offenders will identify themselves as weak and they were not in control of their actions.
00:22:52
Speaker
where there's two
Co-Offending and Relationship Dynamics
00:22:54
Speaker
main ones. You had world perception their, again, personal need. So starting with world perception, this is where like a co-offender can justify the retribution from their partner, again, stemming from jealousy of the victim.
00:23:10
Speaker
But with a co-offender, it's belief that the victim's age actually makes them a safer partner than someone that's their age. So kind of looking at the adult man as dangerous.
00:23:21
Speaker
So they're going to trigger towards the younger person. Personal need has three subcategories. You got personal harm, assuming sexual maturity, and entitlement.
00:23:35
Speaker
Entitlement is exactly what it sounds like. They basically have decided that their sexual gratification is the only thing that matters and it doesn't matter how it gets and obtained. Okay.
00:23:46
Speaker
Next, you got that perceived harm. Here is a complicated one from an emotional standpoint, but the offender will justify their actions because they believe it's out of love. They don't see these actions towards their victim as harmful when it's just the solo offender.
00:24:04
Speaker
And the co-offenders believe by participating in the actions, the abuse is less harmful than if it was the male offender by himself.
00:24:16
Speaker
And then you have that sexual maturity, which again, is exactly how it sounds. Their perception of the victim is that they are sexual beings. They're willing participants. This one's a higher one. 58 to of offenders claim their victims received a sexual gratification, enjoyed it, or blamed the victim for the incident occurring overall.
00:24:42
Speaker
That sounds just like Mary Kay Letourneau. i Yeah, right? And again, I think it's one of those, she was a big one for her justifications. It wasn't me, it was him He pursued me. He loved me.
00:24:56
Speaker
ah He was mature. Yeah. He was so old for his age. Mm-hmm. And I think yeah as we've talked about, not even just the sexual ones on this, you could kind of apply these to some of the other crimes that we've seen females do.
00:25:13
Speaker
um Like the jealousy of, you're jealous of your child and now, because they're getting the attention, looking at like... anything kind of with munchausers if my kid's getting the attention okay now i'm getting the attention because oh my god poor me having this six-bathetic baby like i think these kind of could parallel with some of the other crimes but these are specifically for female sex offenders yeah definitely like
00:25:45
Speaker
So within that, there are a couple other groups. We have extra familial and intrafamilial. um Basically, intrafamilial is someone who is within your family.
00:25:58
Speaker
They're using those grooming techniques. Extrafamilial is a stranger, typically involving force and fear in relation to the abuse. But the big one that we kind of categorized through is the name of the offender.
00:26:18
Speaker
And this is something that people use interchangeably a lot. However, there is a huge difference. So you have child molester and pedophile. And i think from the common person, they look at these as the same person, right?
00:26:36
Speaker
And i completely see where they're coming from. I can't say that early in my career, I probably grouped them the same as well until I started really learning about victimology and the different sections.
00:26:53
Speaker
But a pedophile is actually a diagnosed DSM term. And they have their own requirements. So in order to qualify this person as having pedophilia diagnosed, they have to be at least 16 years old.
00:27:12
Speaker
They have to have intense and reoccurring sexual urges and or fantasies towards a prepubescent minor. And those fantasies have to happen for at least six months. And And then they typically will also have that viewer of adult relationships, specifically involving intimacy, and will typically victimize people five years within their age or older.
00:27:37
Speaker
um And they are self-reported motivating as a personal need for that group. versus child molesters are simply an adult offender who is sexually exploits a child for sexual gratification.
00:27:54
Speaker
um That group does typically look and offend inter-familially. They have a lack of overall criminal history. They also tend to involve drugs and alcohol to try and suppress their own sexual urges.
00:28:12
Speaker
and they justify their use pretty much across the board entitlement power maturity need so the child molester really is that incident that i think all of us think of versus pedophilia and a pedophile is so much more and has levels to it versus just the one incident of opportunity or
00:28:42
Speaker
experimentation or depending on how you want to look at it depending on the situation um but like we could take a simple example of a i don't know a 16 year old and a 17 year old 17 year old turns 18 gets arrested because his girlfriend's technically still 16 could become a sex offender but it doesn't make him a pedophile if that makes sense
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah, it it does make sense. It does make sense.
00:29:18
Speaker
So there are two other kind of categories. um Hebophilias, which is a sexual offender who targets and is attracted to post-pubescent children, mainly between 11 and 14 years old.
00:29:33
Speaker
And epiphylias who are... offenders attracted and targeting older adolescents. um For the study I did was about 15 to 18 years old. um So I kind of categorized them out in age for attraction to that population.
00:29:51
Speaker
Okay. So those two terms are not as widely accepted academia. um But I did want to just kind of add them in there because they do exist and they are conversations and terms that the general person don't typically think about versus child molestia and pedophile are very overarching and kind of can collect any victim depending on how you look at it
00:30:23
Speaker
Yeah, I get what you're saying. They're like the more, maybe they're misused, but like broad terms that are used in a lot of situations when maybe these other terms would apply more specifically. And I think we talked about that when we talked about Mary Kay Letourneau, who I knew would come up a bunch during this episode because that's who I keep thinking about. um Because I remember during the episode we were talking about if she was a pedophile or not and we were and you were saying that he was basically older then a child that would be um considered by a pedophile and that it's a different, it's a different kind of problem basically.
00:31:03
Speaker
um And I think that in, when people look at that case, the, the term pedophile gets thrown around a lot and child molester gets thrown around a lot. um And she was charged with like the abuse of a child and yeah statutory rape, but it's, he wasn't six years old.
00:31:23
Speaker
And it is a different thing when someone's pubescent. Right. And that's the the developmental of it. Right. um Right. We also did a episode about grooming. So I'm not going to go too much into that. If people want to learn about the grooming history and the techniques for it, please go back to that episode.
00:31:43
Speaker
um But basically, again, utilizing your position to gain access to a child And then one thing that's important for grooming is you're not just grooming the child, you're grooming the community, you're grooming the family to not only gain that access, but also to be able to fight against any kind of accusation, um your represent your reputation could withstand that versus thinking like the, think it was Penn State that had that big sexual obligation story of yeah for years it was always
00:32:22
Speaker
oh look at all these like success he's had he would never do something like that that was part of the grooming the grooming parsing was my community my peers my the parents of the other kids like you want to be able to withstand an accusation you don't want someone to look at you be like yep nope totally would do it it kind of takes away your access again yes ah but But yeah, so one thing that makes me super sad, um but we looked at the Children's Bureau from 2020 and there was ah about almost 58,000 reports of child sexual abuse during 2020.
00:33:06
Speaker
And that ranges in age, gender or race. Doesn't matter. That's a lot of kids that experience something like that. um African-American children are two times more likely to be sexually abused compared to white children.
00:33:19
Speaker
Those in the foster care system are 10 times more likely. And those in a single-parent household are 20 times more likely. Very, very sad. More than foster care? Yeah, 10 times the more likely if you're in foster care.
00:33:35
Speaker
But in a single parent household?
CSA Statistics and Theories
00:33:37
Speaker
Yep. Is it more likely than if you're in foster care? You're less likely in foster care than you are in a single family household. Wow. I did not know that.
00:33:46
Speaker
You would think it's the other way around, right? i would i I did. Yeah. I mean, I guess unless it's – I wonder if that applies to like a single parent foster family.
00:33:57
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like is that presuming it's a two-parent foster family? Um, I, it didn't specify from off the top of my head. Um, cause single parent households is going off of, I think your, like if it's your biological child or your adopted child, um, versus the foster system.
00:34:18
Speaker
So if they're in the foster system, that's what they're going off of what I assume. Um, but I also think if we dove into, there's a lot more single parent households that I think people think there are.
00:34:33
Speaker
And there are a lot of them in lower income areas that have kids that typically are home alone more that are being in situations that are utilizing the babysitters, the daycares, the afterschool clubs where you're not necessarily with your kid as much.
00:34:54
Speaker
So it does give that opportunity for grooming to occur. ah So I think that kind of plays a factor there. Sure. Also, the parents dating like the single yeah dating strangers coming into the home 100 yeah i would imagine that's a very large percentage unfortunately Yeah. And so like, obviously males and female children can be abused. There's no question.
00:35:23
Speaker
However, a lot of male victimization for sexual occurrences in across the board and around your age is vastly underreported.
00:35:34
Speaker
And that's known. We know that men and men boys don't report these types of things as much as the females do. So, it's important to kind of keep that in mind that when the data is saying, hey, historical data is saying females are twice as likely to be victimized as male, that's not necessarily saying...
00:35:58
Speaker
in it's not necessarily always going to be true because there's going to be a lot of males that we know haven't reported. ah But of the history historical data, females are more likely. They're more a likely way to be abused by people within their own household and over a period of time.
00:36:16
Speaker
They're, however, less likely to be exposed to physical violence and force during their sexual abuse. Males, on the other hand, tend to be victimized by people outside of their home,
00:36:28
Speaker
tend to be victimized outside their residence and will have a single occurrence, but are more likely to have violence and or force during that interaction.
00:36:42
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. That also kind of lines up with what I would assume. So age-wise, four to nine is really where children are at the highest risk. um They have that need to please adults. They're a little bit more innocent to the world. it creates that vulnerability, but also they're easier to manipulate.
00:37:02
Speaker
By 14 years old, there is a vulnerability decrease. um They're more likely to disclose. Some of them enter puberty, so they're no longer the preference of the offender, um or they just are not on access anymore.
00:37:17
Speaker
Um, so again, kind of what we thought about, i think a lot of that is very consistent with the stereotypes that we have for child sexual abuse and the victims that go along with that.
00:37:35
Speaker
Um, but again, it was ah staggering number when I know there's a, so many more kids in this country that don't experience it, but it's still a, for me, that's a, that's a big number. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
00:37:57
Speaker
So there's two main theories that i kind of looked at. One is the most common one when you talk about sex offenders. It's called routine theory activities theory.
00:38:09
Speaker
Basically what routine activity theory states is there are three aspects of crime. You have a motivated offender. In this case, it's someone who wants to commit crime.
00:38:22
Speaker
They're looking for sexual gratification. They need to find something that's valuable. Next, you have the suitable target. Again, this one is pretty obvious. It's going to be whatever the victim is.
00:38:37
Speaker
The third part of it is going to be the lack of capable guardian. And this one is basically something that is over the target that's there to protect them.
00:38:50
Speaker
When you look at other cases like other types of crime, this could be anything from a security camera to a parent to guard dog and Depending on the situation, right?
00:39:04
Speaker
But for sex crimes, the capable guardian could be your parent who also could be your motivated offender.
00:39:15
Speaker
So when they're one of the same person, it eliminates that capable guardian, therefore creating the three pillars, allowing crime to happen.
00:39:29
Speaker
Well, and definitely. if Yeah. If your parent's the offender, they're not going to be protecting you from the offender. Right. They are the offender. So it automatically disappears. But say your motivated offender is your parent, but you have a really amazing coach that you spend a lot of time with and you're part of the soccer team and you're training every day and you go to the gym And you're never really home.
00:39:57
Speaker
You have this guardian over you that keeps up with you, checks in on you. And now COVID happens. Your guardian's gone.
00:40:07
Speaker
Which then impacts your motivated offender. Suitable target's there. No more guardian. Crime can happen. So that's kind of where that COVID started playing a factor for me and looking at if these victims had an outlet, if these victims had somewhere else, like, or grandma. Grandma shows up every day after school.
00:40:31
Speaker
As long as grandma's there, nothing happens. COVID happens, grandma can't be there anymore. Now crime can happen. So it was a first time where these alternative guardians were removed without really any warning, without option.
00:40:52
Speaker
You went home because that we were ordered to. Right.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, school is such a big safety net in itself for kids and for The opportunity that someone could pick up on abuse or problems at home or, i mean, that whole safety net is just, was just stripped away. And kids were, who were already having difficulties at home, which there's many, many types that there could be.
00:41:25
Speaker
Now they're in that environment with no break.
00:41:30
Speaker
Right. Exactly. So that's a very common one that you're going to see when reading about kind of sex offenders in general. um The other one I picked was differential association theory.
00:41:42
Speaker
um This one kind of brings back to the... it happened to me. So I did to others kind of mentality. Um, it, there's nine points in the overall theory, but it basically is that you learn behaviors from your intimate relationships and those you consider primary sources. Um,
00:42:06
Speaker
And you can learn criminal behavior from personal history. In this case, sexual trauma, sexual victimization. it creates a normality for you that you then reenact your trauma onto other people.
00:42:21
Speaker
Because that's what you were taught and you believe it's a normal interaction. So when you are experiencing this, but then let's add COVID in, um you have no external teachers. You have no external sources.
00:42:36
Speaker
So your primary source amplifies and you are only having those one molding behaviors that you're not a victim. This is normal.
00:42:49
Speaker
So you do want to others.
00:42:54
Speaker
That's very scary think about. Yeah. so kind of giving most people know COVID, but just to give you a little brief, i think COVID entered the United States in January
COVID's Impact on Victimization
00:43:08
Speaker
2020.
00:43:08
Speaker
ah And the country pretty much shut down by March. So what I did is I looked at four different states, New York, Connecticut, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
00:43:22
Speaker
And I kind of put them into regions. So Midwest was your South Dakota, Wyoming, and your Northeast is going to be New York and Connecticut. The reason that I picked these two groups was they handled COVID very differently.
00:43:39
Speaker
So the Northeast, where we were, so took it very, very hard, very, very strict. um March of 2020, there was a shutdown.
00:43:52
Speaker
The stay-at-home orders were put into place. You weren't going pretty much anywhere. Well, I was going to work because I work in a hospital.
00:44:03
Speaker
in the hospital So I... I'm essential, was essential. And so we didn't close at all. But certainly i wasn't seeing anybody that I didn't work with at all.
00:44:15
Speaker
Yeah, a go to work, go home and then sit there. Go to work, go home, go to work, go home, go to work, go home because there was nowhere else to go. All the restaurants are closed. I mean, there we weren't supposed to be having social gatherings. It was ah very dark time.
00:44:33
Speaker
yeah so and we got put into a state of emergency and so the state of emergency lasted in new york until june of 2021 connecticut lasted until july of 2021 however that was not consistent across the country wyoming in march of 2020 they did a stay-at-home order and then they ended it in may of 2020
00:44:59
Speaker
So from March to May, they had their stay-at-home order, and then they ended the quarantine travel, the business restrictions, and the stay-at-home orders. Versus South Dakota, they pretty much denounced they weren't going to do a state ah statewide mandate.
00:45:16
Speaker
They're not going to do a statewide mandate. um lockdown restriction the governor pretty much said if a town would individually like to do something they're welcome to implement their local measures if they desire to but she was not going to mandate anything so they pretty much stayed open the entire time
00:45:38
Speaker
which i have complex feelings about but i will say
00:45:45
Speaker
There's just a much more like a much more spread out population, obviously, in that area. like I worked in New York City during COVID, and obviously that is a place that is extremely densely, densely populated. And then we live in New Jersey, which is extremely densely populated. So it is different than being in South Dakota or being in Wyoming, where maybe there's acreage and people are way more spread out.
00:46:13
Speaker
Right. But also let's remember like New York City versus New York State, very different places. so New York State, you have places upstate that you can drive for miles and miles and miles and not see anybody.
00:46:26
Speaker
So it kind of, but you're right. There is a less population in those areas. So I kind of was like looking at what are our shutdown levels? What is our interactions?
00:46:37
Speaker
How far are we going to go here? um I utilize something called NIBRS, which is the National Incident-Based Reporting System, and the UCR, which is the Uniform Crime Report.
00:46:49
Speaker
And this is where I collected the data from 2019, so before COVID and 2020 during COVID, looking at the regional differences. I looked at their ages, the genders, the race, location of the incident, if it was in a home and out of a home, were they solo offenders, were they co-offenders, and what was the relationship of the two.
00:47:14
Speaker
So with a bunch of statistics, ah the first one we're going to talk about is just kind of that overall victim offender relationship. For these going into it, I was expecting there there was across the – regardless of year, was going to have a higher familial than other relationships. Okay.
00:47:38
Speaker
But during 2020, I was expecting a big jump on internal for the home. So your siblings, your parents, your maybe grandparents, depending on the situation.
00:47:51
Speaker
i was expecting that height. I did not find that, oddly enough. um Really? Yeah. So when you look at 2019 in the Northeast, the highest one was just otherwise known.
00:48:06
Speaker
So otherwise known is a catch-all category. It is something that's not able to be put into everything else. And let me tell you, there are a lot of categories. So this is in my opinion, someone that they knew, but they didn't necessarily identify.
00:48:25
Speaker
It is someone that couldn't fit into another category. So a coach, for example, or um someone that had slight interactions with um your friend's parents, your camp counselor, things like that.
00:48:45
Speaker
I knew them, but they didn't fit in one of these other categories. Yeah. Right. Versus in 2020, the highest one i did was something i expected. The highest one for 2020 in the Northeast was the victim was your child.
00:49:01
Speaker
Very, very sad. However, unfortunately, not surprising. Yeah, not surprising. Yeah. When we looked at the Midwest, the highest one in 2019 was an acquaintance.
00:49:16
Speaker
She kind of knew who they were, not particularly close in any other category. Midwest, again, was consistent for 2020, was acquaintance. um However, one thing that popped my interest for the Midwest, the next two highest groups for both those years was the offender was the victim, which basically means they were both under a certain age where
00:49:47
Speaker
they are bull a victim and an offender Because you can have someone who is in that category.
Complex Roles: Victim and Offender
00:49:57
Speaker
And I thought that was kind of interesting because you have someone who legally is an offender, but at the same age, also a victim.
00:50:12
Speaker
So it's two kids the same age or it's two kids of different ages? Or both? It's within that same group. um So if you have someone that could be qualified as either. So it doesn't necessarily have to mean they're the exact same age.
00:50:29
Speaker
But someone that participated in the event that can be categorized as both. So two persons under the age of consent. They may have consented in the behaviors or didn't knowingly know what they were doing if they were...
00:50:47
Speaker
very very young and reenacting something but they were both the person doing the act but also ah victim in the behavior because it was mutual so something similar to that yeah that that makes sense Yeah, again, back to our, like, if you have, like, a four-year-old and a six-year-old touching each other inappropriately in a fondling nature, and they're both touching each other, neither of them is the aggressor, neither of them, but both of them are doing it. Both of them are a victim, and both of them are an offender.
00:51:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:33
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. The rest of these, again, are pretty neutral. They're scattered. um And it kind of lacked some reporting.
00:51:45
Speaker
Unfortunately, a lot of... man This isn't a mandated reporting field, so you can't necessarily rely 100%. wish we could. um the When you looked at things like the stranger effect, 2020 in the Northeast was lower than 2019, which makes sense with the shutdown. There's less access.
00:52:07
Speaker
The Midwest 2019 and 2020 was exactly the same. We were consistent. um Boyfriend girlfriend though, 2019 in the Midwest was drastically lower than in 2020.
00:52:21
Speaker
And child ah victims, Midwest, no lockdown, consistent 2019, 2020. So that starts to kind of spark the the shutdown helped with some stuff.
00:52:36
Speaker
But did it help with other stuff? Because it did increase during COVID. um Although sibling victimization decreased during COVID, other family members increased northeast in COVID.
00:52:54
Speaker
um increased your friends, in but decreased boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. So it is an interesting kind wave that would be very interesting to look at as you go farther out and more people report crimes that happened a little couple years ago.
00:53:17
Speaker
Because unfortunately, sex crimes is not something that typically... there's a lot of people that report later on. It's not something that consistently is reported right when it happens.
00:53:28
Speaker
So it would be interesting to kind of do it again in another couple years to see if the numbers changed.
00:53:35
Speaker
Yeah, that would, it would be interesting. Hmm. Some of that I'm a little surprised about, but i wonder, the sibling thing I'm surprised about because you would think,
00:53:50
Speaker
rates of abuse between siblings would have gone up during COVID just because of right proximity, proximity lack of other lack of other people also. um So that's interesting.
00:54:05
Speaker
Right. Particularly when the child results going up, but the siblings ones going down, it However, I do also, my last one, I guess, is in the Northeast, there were zero reports in 2019 of the babysitter and the child of the significant other.
00:54:28
Speaker
But there were reports in 2020 of victims that were beat the baby of the babysitter and of the child of this parent's girlfriend or boyfriend.
00:54:40
Speaker
So i think it is opportunity. um It's connection. But the sibling one, you're right, is that outlier than all the other ones that just they kind of make sense.
00:54:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's the one where I'm like, hmm. I mean it's certainly not a bad thing for that to go down. I was just am surprised. Yeah. Oh, yeah. um And then when you're looking at of those offenders who got arrested,
00:55:11
Speaker
Obviously, due to the highest number of offenders being acquaintance, the highest number of arrests was also a acquaintance. um But in 2020, the only person that was arrested was a boyfriend or girlfriend.
00:55:27
Speaker
That was it.
00:55:29
Speaker
And compared to, like we just talked about, you had this heightened number of acquaintances is as an offender in the Midwest.
00:55:41
Speaker
Only one of them that was arrested that. that So it's a, it's a curious connection. um excuse me, four of them.
00:55:53
Speaker
And we know that there are ah lower number of resties for sex crimes because they're a hard case to charge. They're a hard case to prove. They're a hard case to get to court.
00:56:06
Speaker
Um, and being a female offender, you're even less likely to be arrested. So I'm not surprised that there were super low numbers here, but in 2020 in the Northeast, only having one arrestee and that person being a boyfriend or girlfriend, when that group was so low in the Northeast, it was disheartening, I think is a good word for it.
00:56:35
Speaker
It is very disheartening.
00:56:40
Speaker
But as we go, let's take a quick look at the victims. um I had mentioned earlier that the victim's gender was kind of a drastic difference from a historical perspective.
00:56:55
Speaker
However, found it a lot closer in percentage. um Across the board, there were 30 40% were male, 50 to 60% were female.
00:57:09
Speaker
It's a lot more of an even split in the data that I found than twice as likely. um the caucasian children are more likely to be victimized across the board also a little bit different than what i found um from a historical data perspective the but then we also had like a regional side that american indian or natives are higher obviously in the Midwest categories than in the New England categories simply because of the number of population.
00:57:55
Speaker
But again, the number was pretty consistent and that's where i was kind of surprised. The relationships changed, the ages changed, but the number of victims didn't drastically change.
00:58:09
Speaker
So in the Northeast, you had 69 victims in 2019 and 67 in 2020. and sixty seven and twenty twenty The Midwest had 90 in 2019 89 in 2020.
00:58:20
Speaker
So it didn't necessarily change the number, just the relationships and location.
00:58:31
Speaker
I guess I would have thought that perhaps it would have gone way up or way down for a variety of reasons because it's either like, you know, that this type of abuse is increasing a lot because everyone's stuck at home or it's not being reported and not being caught because we're eliminating that safety net of school. But I guess it it just really did not have that effect.
00:59:00
Speaker
Yeah, I was also surprised. um But looking at the co-offenders versus the solo offenders, Then also kind of consistent.
00:59:13
Speaker
ah There were more solo offenders in both years than there were co-offenders in the Northeast. And the same with the Midwest.
00:59:24
Speaker
There were kind of a jump. But when you're looking at the co-offenders location, there was obviously that's where we found that shift.
00:59:38
Speaker
Co-offending within the home was 100% in 2020 versus co-offending in the outside of the home in 2018 was much, much higher.
00:59:50
Speaker
So it really showed the locational difference of complicity maybe because I don't know. Kind of going back to those motivations and justifications that female sex offenders have when you are locked in your home, um you're more likely to start complying with if you have a domineering partner.
01:00:13
Speaker
um It increased from 77% to 100%. Like wasn't a couple percent. like it wasn't ah couple percent Like that's a big jump. significant
01:00:26
Speaker
But again, very small sample sizes, so it would be good to eventually do this again at a larger scale. um But when you look in into kind of the dynamics, the solo offenders versus the co-offenders...
01:00:45
Speaker
were were tough because you had kind of a non-statistical find for a lot of them, and which is really frustrating because you're looking at information and you expect there to be a difference when a lot of them didn't find significant correlation.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. And going through like the statistics of each of it, only one of the four that I found ended up being statistically different and only by a smidge.
01:01:22
Speaker
A smidge. A smidge of a difference. Just a smidge. ah But when we look at our descriptive statistics statistics for the offenders, the solo offenders in the Northeast, it did decrease a little bit, like I mentioned.
Trends in Offense Types and Locations
01:01:40
Speaker
The Midwest was pretty consistent um between them. But when you're looking at the ages, that's where things kind of wiggle. Yeah.
01:01:50
Speaker
So the co-offenders in the Northeast had a slight decrease in age, about five um five incidents went down, but their ages went up, excuse me.
01:02:01
Speaker
So they increased by eight years. And that was kind of significant compared to the Midwest ages decreased by seven. So they kind of flopped. And drawing across the board, the minimum age, Northeast, Midwest, 2019, 2020, it didn't matter.
01:02:22
Speaker
The age of the offenders was very low, ranging from 8 years old to 13 years old. And according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, females reached sexual maturity around 11th.
01:02:39
Speaker
So when you have like a five-year-old, for example, in the Midwest and 11-year-old in the Northeast, these are very young and under the age of sexual like development.
01:02:58
Speaker
So it's not like, what what did you experience to have you behave in such a way? And that again, supports that literature that children or sexual abuse histories reenact those experiences because how many five-year-olds know what know what oral sex is?
01:03:21
Speaker
So that is something that kind of supports that idea that there's people just don't behave in a certain way without some kind of leading
01:03:35
Speaker
especially for children because how else would they really even know about that as as a thing that you do unless they experienced it seen it something like that something very age inappropriate for them in general yeah and I guess so like kids experience experiment or whatever but i don't think that yeah there's a level where it's it at what age is it not experimentation yeah yeah but know particularly when there are co-offending situations so like the female sex solo sex offenders ranged from nine to eleven and co-offending six to eleven
01:04:20
Speaker
So it's kind of strange when you're looking at these groups of kids and the maximum ages are staying consistent.
01:04:31
Speaker
So the Midwest was 56 years old, 53 years old. 86 years old. midwest ah northeast eighty six years old um there was a significant job in co-offending compared to solo offending in the northeast 68 uh 65 years 66 for 2020 but 2019 was 86 years old 57 years so that was interesting eighty six years old to fifty seven years old so that one was kind of a big difference from ah covid and
01:05:03
Speaker
interesting interesting But the one of the last things I kind of want to mention is the types of crimes and then the location of the crimes.
01:05:16
Speaker
So types of crimes across the board. Most common one was going to be fondling ah that your indecent liberties, your child molesting is by definition of law No matter what the year is, no matter what the location is, that's the most popular.
01:05:31
Speaker
It's closely followed by rape across the board, statutory rape. um And then there is a handful, depending on the region of sodomy, sexual assault with an object.
01:05:45
Speaker
And the least reported was incest. um i think fondling again is the assumed because it's the introduction right a lot of our grooming that we had talked about in that episode is you're going to test the waters you're going see what you can do not always the case but a lot of them are that behavior but then also if we talk about the kind of differential association theory of I was touched this way, so I'm going to touch someone else this way without knowing that it's inappropriate, that would be fondling.
01:06:23
Speaker
So I can see how those numbers would be higher than some of the others.
01:06:30
Speaker
A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could see how that just physical behavior also is easier to start doing than the other ones.
01:06:42
Speaker
but also witnessed, right? Like if you are felt up on a subway, someone else might see it versus a lot of sexual incidents occur behind closed doors.
01:06:54
Speaker
So it's a lot harder to get to this point of reporting. Okay. ah But the one thing that I thought was surprising, but also not at the same time, and some colleagues of mine in my cohort kind of talked through this one because, again, it's it wasn't surprising, but it was just interesting.
01:07:20
Speaker
The location of the female sexual offender incidents. Yeah. Across the board, most popular one is inside the resident mental hall. I think that was something that was expected. I think a lot of people assume.
01:07:34
Speaker
But then you start going into the female-dominated spaces. So elementary schools and secondary schools. doctor's appointments.
01:07:46
Speaker
um We had drugstores, doctor's visits, hospitals, um parks and playgrounds. You had college and school.
01:07:57
Speaker
You had these female dominated areas that were being reported. Obviously, there's ones that were not. um Amusement parks, specialty stores, nightclubs. like You have other things that aren't necessarily...
01:08:16
Speaker
female dominated. um But then you see things that you can assume as more vulnerable, right? So an ATM that's separate from the bank is a category.
01:08:27
Speaker
And there's a decent number of solo offenders for that or co-offenders in the Midwest. Because again, it's a more vulnerable time. You're by yourself in one of these little boxes.
01:08:42
Speaker
So that wouldn't necessarily be one of, well, assuming the ages because i don't we don't have it in front of us but those are probably your more adult victims than your children victims but looking at these areas there's very female dominated locations consistent with that stereotype of women doing certain things
01:09:14
Speaker
yeah if that makes sense especially the schools I would you know, that lines up with what I would assume. But also we have our... The ATM thing though. Right, the ATM. um Is that one instant or are there multiple?
01:09:30
Speaker
There are multiple. Yeah, there's multiple ones. um so there's ones in the Northeast 2019. There's some in South Dakota for co-offending in both years.
01:09:43
Speaker
There's the... Wow. Let's see. Connecticut solo offender. Yeah. So again, it's something that clearly happens, but never would have thought about it.
01:09:56
Speaker
ah Yeah. I'm so... kind of trying to imagine what happened but um just seems like a that's like the last thing i would be worried about at the atm but i guess maybe maybe you need to be thinking about that yeah the the categories are very very inclusive um and four eight twelve
01:10:27
Speaker
I think there's 25 of them um that were reported for those years. ah But I do think that relates back to our relationships we talked about.
01:10:41
Speaker
So the otherwise known category doesn't have a – like the relationships option, there's no teacher option. They would be under otherwise known. And we have a very high number of – schools, elementary, secondary, high school, and college that those people would be in.
01:11:01
Speaker
So I think you can see those relationships that are female dominated spaces that aren't necessarily home, that we saw those upticks in relationships for the relationship section.
01:11:14
Speaker
But either way, at the end of the day, why does it matter? Right?
Prevention Through Education and Awareness
01:11:19
Speaker
That's the whole point of any of this. And the first thing that I think it should help with is just education.
01:11:30
Speaker
I'm a big component of the more you know, the better. Even if it's scary, even though it's hard, you don't know what you don't know. And how can you protect yourself and your loved ones against things if you don't know what's going on?
01:11:46
Speaker
And there is a significantly lack of education regarding sexual abuse, sex education. And it was found actually in April 2019.
01:11:58
Speaker
There was no specific program designed and tailored specifically looking at the risks of child sexual abuse that was given out, which was a little mind boggling for me because,
01:12:12
Speaker
We just kind of assume people know it's out there, but we don't actually teach anyone how to not be a victim, how to protect their children from being victims.
01:12:26
Speaker
If you are the child and it's someone, how do you deal with that? How do you report it? How do you realize it's not okay? Um, so through research like this, we can help work on designing education on protecting ourselves and the children in our country.
01:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, that totally makes sense. And i I, think that it's such a, it's a hard thing to think about. It's a hard topic to talk about, but it's just a reality that,
01:13:01
Speaker
children are being sexually abused adults are being sexually abused it's a reality and I think that it's important especially for i mean everyone that comes into contact with children to just be aware of this is a possibility and I think for you know teachers and parents it's good to be informed Yeah.
01:13:27
Speaker
I mean, child sex abuse from an economic standpoint is over $9 billion with a b Like impact on the economy.
01:13:39
Speaker
um The state of New york York did something with their public school system. They enacted Aaron's Law, ah which is basically an education system to teach child sexual abuse and exploitation in kindergarten to eighth grade.
01:13:58
Speaker
And it's a program that is in the New York public school system that just got implemented. It kind of went live in 2020.
01:14:09
Speaker
um And you can't opt out of it. So a lot of education's parents can sign a waiver and be like, nope, I don't want my kid being educated on this.
01:14:20
Speaker
New York public school does not allow. You have to have this education. Okay. However, they don't send it outward. So your students are getting this, but the caregivers aren't, the parents aren't.
01:14:35
Speaker
It's great that the kids are getting educated, but what about everybody else around them? Particularly the younger ones. And it's so important because when you looked at specifically New York victimization, specifically kids between zero and 10, well, birth and 10 years old, from 2019 to 2020, the rate of victims for that group increased by 266%.
01:15:01
Speaker
Wow. Like, I think this law is going to be very impactful once it gets going because it truly will teach kids what is going on.
01:15:24
Speaker
But I also think that's something that we could expand on. um Just because it's in New York doesn't mean it can't be everywhere else. Like, start getting it at a national level, implementing it into other states, having the other states do their own version.
01:15:41
Speaker
um Self-education, protected education, forcing people to, unfortunately, learn what they don't want to learn. Yeah. um But then also, i think it would help with reporting.
01:15:58
Speaker
I think through this research, we kind of found that there's a lack of reporting and mandation for participation with these overarching data.
01:16:09
Speaker
So, NIBRS and UCR aren't required to be reported to. you go to like For example, you go to your local law enforcement, you make your police report.
01:16:21
Speaker
They file their report. Some police departments then report it out neighbors in the UCR, which is regulated by the FBI. Not all agencies do this.
01:16:34
Speaker
In my opinion, they should. Because how are you able to create national opinions? How are you able to look at statewide, if not 100% of your state reports, how do you figure out what's going on in your state?
01:16:53
Speaker
and If you don't have the information, it doesn't matter. If it's not all-inclusive, it doesn't matter. Because you can make a rule, but if 50% of your agencies didn't report, that 50% might not impact them.
01:17:10
Speaker
That 50% could have completely different data that's going to skew it. Maybe it's a lot older than you thought it was. Maybe it was a lot older. younger. Maybe it's a different gender. Maybe it's another race.
01:17:25
Speaker
Without the full information, you just can't make solid claims. And looking at the states that I looked at, 70% of them in New York reported, 88% in Wyoming.
01:17:42
Speaker
That's a big difference. I know 88% sounds like a really high number, but that's still a lot of agencies that didn't Some states are better.
01:17:53
Speaker
Connecticut and South Dakota, 100% of their agencies as of 2024 reported to the Nibers, which is amazing. And I think those states are going to have a better ability to start moving in directions.
01:18:07
Speaker
But it also looks at how that impacts. So with my example, New York does not-so-great job of having their agencies report outside. and I found such small numbers, like under 20 for the state versus in the states that have 100% reporting, like Connecticut, over 50. South Dakota, over 80.
01:18:37
Speaker
Like you have, you can see the impact of increasing reporting because now you have the increased numbers. You can actually start making assumptions.
01:18:51
Speaker
So that was pretty much the gist of it all. um I know it's kind of hard without all my pretty graphs and having a walk along with. um But is there anything that kind of stuck out to you or any questions that you have?
01:19:09
Speaker
So I, first of all, think you did a great job. And I'm very impressed by all the research that you've done. And I'm sure the presentation is the PowerPoint that you have and the graphs and images would helpful. Maybe we can add some of those to the posts that we do for this episode even. um i guess I...
01:19:34
Speaker
i was expecting just, you you know, more of an impact really from COVID. And it's interesting that it seems like regardless of a pandemic, the, you know, the rates of child sexual abuse don't seem to change significantly. And that's scary um to think about, but also makes sense.
01:19:57
Speaker
um And in terms of questions, hmm.
01:20:08
Speaker
I guess
01:20:12
Speaker
if I was thinking about like because what I'm thinking about is like how can we prevent child sexual abuse but I don't know if we have that answer from this alone like if there was like a point in research that you think would be the most beneficial for people to know in terms of preventing child abuse.
01:20:32
Speaker
I think from a prevention standpoint, it's really just learning what grooming is and understanding that process because normal relationships can turn dangerous.
01:20:48
Speaker
I'm not saying all of them are going to. Like, I don't want people to take that as the potential is there. So they're never going to go outside and their kid's never going to do anything.
01:20:59
Speaker
um But I think it's just open communication also with your kids that or creating a safe space if you're a teacher or Whatever the case is, but if you understand that there are dangers everywhere and try and looking at the warning signs from things like goat grooming, that might be your best bet.
01:21:22
Speaker
I don't think it's ever 100% be able to be preventative, but I do think that would be a good place to start.
01:21:33
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. And maybe trying to disregard some... like just judging based on appearances because I do think sometimes when people don't look dangerous, we just assume that they're not.
01:21:48
Speaker
And that's not really a good way of assessing a situation. And you got to treat everyone with skepticism as hard and sad as that is. um And it's,
01:22:02
Speaker
you're right. Danger is everywhere.
01:22:06
Speaker
but otherwise I think you did a great job but explaining and i learned a lot and I'm sure the listeners did as well so thank you so much thank you well thank you for listening and your support throughout the process and I'm excited for our next mom and probably refer to this for some other stuff yeah definitely it's a good reference point and that's why we keep the academics on staff around here i ah so until next week Until next time. All right. Bye.