The stereotype of the child molester is that of a senile old man whose second childhood includes a second round of sex play with children. Actually, such men are quite uncommon in the present sample—perhaps no more than one in 20 in a group of offenders vs. children. Among these men deprivation is a dominant feature, with impotence as a fairly common complication. Many of them are not old—some are in their forties—and many are not overly bright to begin with, so that moderate mental impairment resulting from age, disease, and often alcohol, has a more pronounced effect on them than it would on a more intelligent man. Judgment is weakened and taboos become blurred, so that these men yield readily in situations where easy sexual gratification is possible. They might with some validity be termed as situational offenders because of intellectual deterioration. Like the mental defectives, many of the senile deteriorates are lonely, and appreciate affection and attention from children. They differ from the defectives in that the deteriorates represent the ruins of a former adequate being, while the defectives never were adequate. Generally the offense behavior is brief or a one-time thing, but individual cases may endure for some years.
A typical case is that of a barber in his sixties. He had had a very restrained premarital life, his fianc?e and subsequent wife being his only nonprostitute sexual partner, and prior to marriage he did no more than hug and kiss her. This restraint presumably prevented extramarital coitus with other women in his old age when marital coitus declined and ended. Impotence began to trouble him in his fifties, and in the three years prior to his offense he had had no coitus. He began playing with little girls who came to his shop, giving them candy, twirling them in his barber’s chair, and inducing them to masturbate him. As the prison psychologist stated, “This man is entering a period of laxity of judgment precipitated by senile breakdown.” Like most elderly first offenders, he could not admit to himself or to others what had happened, and felt his life was ruined—a feeling not without justification.
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Tags: Erectile Dysfunction | Men’s Health
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