Media_Analyis_of_Sex_Offenders

INTRODUCTION Child sexual predators have been a big issue in the last couple of years. With the introduction of the internet to the public, it opened many new doors of ways for people to have information at their fingertips but it also allowed for persons to get personal information of others and commit new types of crimes. Most of these crimes are of the fraudulent or theft nature. However it began the age of predators finding or seeking out people so as to receive sexual acts. Among the legal, being of age (18 years old or older), meetings there are also the illegal meetings of adults and minors (children of 17 years old and younger). These properly named predators are going onto online chat rooms such as AOL instant messenger, Adult Friend Finder and Yahoo messenger. These instant messenger sites are ways persons can get in contact with others, such as friends, instead of the telephone. However since there is not a virtual policing force that monitors every single conversation, sometimes the messaging system gets misused. These predators go into social networking sites such as the afore mentioned, and find kids and use them as targets. Unsuspecting kids use these sites often to keep up with friends and, on some sites such as Facebook and My Space, are giving out personal information for everyone on the internet to see. According to Microsoft.com (2009) these predators seduce their victims through attention, affection, kindness and gifts. That is absolutely true in the ten cases that were examined. Since this wave of predators caught the eyes of many in the public, the media covered it. In the MSNBC show Dateline, many of today’s important issues and topics are researched in depth and presented. On host, Chris Hansen, covers many such news stories. On of his most famous is To Catch a Predator. This show specifically deals with these online predators. From its start in 2004 To Catch a Predator has done twelve investigations from outside New York to Los Angeles and many cities in between. In a 2007 interview, host Chris Hansen said that “We’ve been doing these investigations for almost three years and I’ve interviewed more than 200 potential sex predators from all walks of life and all ages” (2007). These twelve investigations have brought up a new awareness that did not exist before Dateline started to do this, according to Hansen (2008). In order to catch these predators Dateline sought the help of Perverted Justice. Perverted Justice is an online organization that seeks to “create a "chilling effect" in regional chat rooms and other easy targets of opportunity online such as social networking websites. Simply stated, we want to poison the well of these rooms and places by covering enough of them that even if you're looking for underage females, an extra bit of paranoia will cross your mind” (Alternative 2008). Perverted Justice sets up conversations with these predators by creating false profiles as decoys and waits for potential predators to engage in conversation. To avoid entrapment Perverted Justice waits for the predators to make first contact and state their intentions. When they get a predator to come meet the decoy they set up a rented house with cameras and microphones to document what happens. An actor playing the decoy online is there to meet them and as soon as the predator gets comfortable host Chris Hansen comes out and confronts the predator and proceeds to question them. In this analysis many cases were watched and documented. Of the many looked at, eight were chosen as they were the ones that stood out the most. All of the eight cases their actual transcripts between the decoy and predator were found and read over. Three hundred and seventy-five pages were read over and in the most shocking case only half of the conversation was read due to its great length being over two hundred pages. CASES The first case watched and read was that of David Kaye. Kaye is a fifty-five year old, at the time of investigation in 2005, rabbi from Fairfax County, Virginia. He thinks he is meeting a thirteen year old boy named Conrad. Kaye walks in completely unaware that this is a set up, as most of the predators do. When Hansen comes out his demeanor completely changes. Without saying a word Kaye explains to Hansen that “we both know I am in trouble and I don’t want to get into more” (2005). When asked why he is here his response is one of honesty, a trait not had by many of the predators. He says that he is here “doing something I know is wrong” (2005). Once Hansen reveals himself and what he is doing here Kaye flips once again. He turns angry and attacks the cameras and Hansen and claims “they don’t have the right to do this”. He leaves and is later arrested and convicted to six and a half years in prison. Many excuses and lies are given to Hansen when asked why the predator is here. These will be looked at in depth later. Along with the analysis of excuses the transcripts of the eight will also be looked at and analyzed in depth. Safraz Kahn a twenty-seven year old from Flagler Beach, Florida was next. He like Kaye, was aware he should not be there. Kahn was very calm and cooperative during his questioning by Hansen and is quick to apologize. He seems to be familiar with what is going on and what will happen and asks if his family will see this. He was arrested and convicted on the charges of sending a minor harmful information, using the internet to solicit child sex and lewd battery sex with a victim 12-15 (Florida Law Enforcement 2009). The next predator, Dustin McPhetridge, is a twenty-six year old from Surgoinsville, Tennessee. His case was the first one to actually be surprising. What made it surprising was that he has cerebral palsy. Also surprising was the length of his transcript. The first two read were eight and fourteen pages respectively while McPhetridge’s was fifty-six pages and span just short of a month in time. Another shocking aspect of this conversation was that this also was the first one to start to use appalling and vulgar requests and speech and in the conversation he stated that he had been caught before doing this but didn’t get arrested because it was settled outside of court. He was arrested after the interview and charged with intent to engage in sex with a minor. Even in the interrogation room he still was passing blame to the decoy saying “she lead me on”. In an interview with Dateline the decoy said she felt bad at first because of his disability but then remembered that he was here to have sex with a minor (2007). Next, James Fowler a thirty-four year old from Murfreesboro, Tennessee was chatting to a decoy whom he thought was a thirteen year old named Nattie. His claim for being online was because “he likes to pleasure and be pleasured” and the he “doesn’t just chat but he meets”. While in the decoy house talking with the actor/decoy he suddenly stands up and quickly moves toward her at which point Chris Hansen comes out. He stated that he “thought this would never happen” and that he has also seen the shows and commented that those people were bad, yet he was one of them. What made this case stand out was that Fowler had been convicted before in 1995 for a sex offense with a minor but said it was all just a misunderstanding. Michael Patterson a twenty-four year old was an interesting case. This conversation only was four pages and only took two hours, which proved that he was impulsive about his decision to drive the five hours to the decoy house. But what made it really a good case was that he told the decoy that he was a police officer. However upon being arrested his records showed that he was only a trainee but got let go and also had a record of impersonating an officer. Along with the police claim he stated that he had a gun with him at all times, which scared the decoy. A thirty-six year old named Todd Lewis from Export, New Jersey was the next to get caught. When questioned he said that he was just “taking the weekend off” and “probably would’ve chickened out” when going to engage in sexual acts with the minor. Lewis, like Patterson, was a previous offender. Except in this case Lewis was on a Megan’s Law website for sexual assault of a fourteen year old and is on probation. Like some predators, he said he had a notion that something was up. But driving six hours “just for something to do” (Lewis 2007) counter acts that thought. The last two cases that were looked at were the two most shocking and appalling. John Kennelly, a twenty-nine year old from Falls Church, Virginia was the most fascinating case of the eight for two reasons. Reason one was because he arrived completely naked to the decoy house and reason two was because after being caught, the next day Perverted Justice found him again online and chatting. This was amazing the Perverted Justice and Chris Hansen. At the first interview he arrived naked as stated. Similar to Lewis’ case he said he would’ve “chickened out” and he “knew what he was doing was wrong” (Kennelly 2005). Proving that these predators are wanting to get what they describe online his first conversation took just under one hour for Perverted Justice to convince him to come to their decoy house. After he was let go Perverted Justice found him, using the same screen name, online the very next day. This time he used a different name yet it took him again a short time to “meet” with the decoy fourteen year old, only about two hours. Chris Hansen confronted him at the place they were going to meet and was nothing short of being in disbelief. Kennelly claimed then that he “needs help and is seeing a psychiatrist” (Kennelly 2005). Among the shocking transcripts, encounters, and interviews of these seven previous predators, Lorne Armstrong is by far the most deplorable. Lorne is thirty-seven from Nashville, Tennessee. His transcript is the longest one to date. The half that will be examined is one hundred and twenty-two pages but the entire conversation happens over a span of one month. Yet many chat logs are extensive it’s about what is said during this dialogue. Within the first minute he starts by asking the decoy’s age, gender and location. He finds out he will be chatting with a thirteen year old female from Kentucky. He acts as an adult figure at first telling the decoy that chatting online can expose her to vulgar comments and weird things. Armstrong even goes so far as to tell her to “trust no one on the internet” and not the give her information to anyone, but him. Towards the end he starts expressing to the decoy that he would like to marry her and starts to call the decoy by her name with his at the end. When he arrived at the decoy house he was very excited and had it in his head that he would be getting to engage in sexual acts with a minor. However he was later arrested for attempted unlawful transaction with a minor. IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS When looking at these cases they all had a series of patterns that are relevant to sociological and criminological theories. All the cases displayed these theories and are perfect examples of them. A table analysis can be seen in table 1.1. Schemas and Scripts Schemas are pre conceived ideas or organized patterns of a thought or behavior. These schemas can be seen in everything people do in society. A simple example of a schema would be that nice people cannot do anything that’s not nice. If a schema goes against what our schema of that is, then we perceive it as unique. In the analysis of the eight cases there were some schemas that stood out that could be seen as being “unique” from the common person’s schema. Many of the predators had common occupations, such as construction worker, that do not have a specific way, or schema, about them that tells us how they are supposed to act. However three of the cases contradict their schemas. David Kaye the rabbi. John Kennelly the eleventh grade teacher. Michael Patterson the former police officer. All three of these cases go completely against what they represent. Scripts are a specific type of schema. They have a sequence of expected behaviors for a given situation. For example if you put a dollar in a Coke machine it will dispense a beverage. A type of script that existed in the cases was sexual scripts. These are the same as scripts except that they have to do with sexual encounters. During all of the conversations that were read, these sexual scripts were seen. Some of them jumped or skipped over the scripts completely. The longer chat logs such as Dustin McPhetridge’s, used the scripts. He starts by just having a simple conversation with the thirteen year old decoy, just asking name and what the other person was doing. Slowly as the conversation continued compliments and flirting like “ur a sweet beautiful smart gurl” (McPhetridge 2007) start to occur. These ways of “wooing” a person of the opposite sex are common sexual scripts in life. Paradox of ‘fear of crime’ In a study by Esther Madriz on the ideology of crime said that “Images and representations shape American’s fear of crime” (1997). We see that crime is committed by our own images. That image is of a male minority, middle aged and typically targeting weak people usually women. However in the cases that were studied seven of the eight cases were white males two of whom were targeting other males. Therefore the preconceived notion that criminals are of a specific gender and race is false. Criminals come from all walks of life. Because of these stereotypes the wrong people can be labeled wrong consequently being “dehumanized” or “othered”. Dehumanizing means that a person that has been labeled now is not seen as another person in society. Othering is when people of the “othered’s” same type, do not acknowledge that person as being the same as them therefore being ousted. Routine Activities Theory Routine Activities Theory (RAT) was developed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen. It states that “crime will happen normally and it depends on the occasion” (Felson, Cohen 1979). In the world of internet sexual predators the opportunities are there, therefore crime will happen. Three factors are at work. Motivated offenders are present. These predators want to take advantage of these thirteen and fourteen year old girls and boys. Also most of the predators stated that they were “looking for something to do” or “were lonely”. This pushes the offender to do what they did because of their boredom or loneliness. The second factor is the suitable targets. These predators think that they are talking to young children. Young children, especially ones just entering their teenage years, are very vulnerable and easy to coax. Lastly these social networking sites and chat sites are full of young people. These sites are thus called “hot spots” and that just furthers the chances of a predator to take advantage of the situation. Control Theory Control Theory was introduced by Walter Reckless. It says that “people are inclined to get involved in deviant behavior and will continue to unless we are controlled by outside forces” (Reckless 1973). The predators that were studied showed that they had no outside force that controlled them and that is why they were involved in these crimes. The predators showed that they had no control over many things in their lives. Some still lived at home with their parents as a middle aged adult and some have since lost jobs or cannot get one. This lack of control makes them seek out something or someone that they can control hence the younger children. This is their expression of control and power. Self-Control Theory Developed by Hirschi and Gottfredson in 1990, self-control theory says basically that the lower one’s self-control is the more likely he or she will get involved in crime. This can be seen in one’s impulsivity and addictions to sex. All of the predators, with the exception to Kennelly, drove long ways to get to the decoy house to meet someone they never have before. Adding on that, it only took a handful of them an hour or two to be convinced to drive the long distance just for what they thought was sex with a minor. Grooming Grooming, in specific child grooming, is actions taken deliberately with the aim to befriend a minor in order to lower the inhibitions of the child in preparation for sexual abuse. This is present in all the cases of online predators in this study and all others. All the predators start by “testing the waters” of what they can say to the decoys. When they see that they are “in” they start to groom. It usually starts with the common “I wish you were older” or “why can’t you be eighteen'” From there it gets more and more sexual i.e. “I would like to kiss you” or “do you want to have sex'” These long chats are full of grooming all the way up until they actually meet. Neutralization Theory By far the most important of the findings in this study is this theory. Gresham Sykes and David Matza came up with this theory. It is how deviant people justify their deviant actions by giving alternate definitions of their acts by explanations given to themselves and others trying to prove they are not guilty. There are five types of this neutralization: Denial of responsibility (It wasn’t my choice), Denial of injury (There is no victim here), Denial of the victim (The victim was asking for it), Condemning of the condemners (The police break laws), and Appealing to higher loyalties (Morals go beyond law). This happens without fail every time the predator is caught by Chris Hansen and even in some cases it continues when police are involved. Every time Hansen comes out he asks what the predator is doing in the decoy house. The most common justification type is definitely the denial of responsibility. Saying “I don’t do these things because of my religion” or “It’s common for people to meet online” are perfect examples of this. Denial of injury comes in second place of most usage. Condemning the condemners and denial of victim are also sometimes used. In McPhetridge’s case, he used both all the way until his court hearing. He stated that “they have no right to be doing this” and “I was lead on by the decoy who was in a chat room where this stuff happens so I’m not to blame”. TABLE 1.1 |LATENT CODING |MANIFEST CODING |EXAMPLES FROM MEDIA | |Predators are narcissistic |being obsessed with self image, self issues |Safraz Kahn: obsessed with age and looking older | | | |Armstrong: trust no one but him online, don’t talk to | | | |anyone but him | |Predators as groomers |coaxing the decoy into whatever they are looking|Giving compliments, bribes, finding out background and | | |for |information, sex talk | |Predators are reoffenders |some have gotten caught before, did not learn |James Fowler, Dustin McPhetridge | | |lesson | | |Predators and neutralization theory |Using justifications |Not going to do anything/its just chatting/Was lead | | | |on/just being a friend | |Predators cannot be ID'd on looks alone |come from anywhere, look like anybody, can blend|Rabbi, construction worker, teacher, police office, | | |in |wants to go to college | |Predators have uncontrollable urges |control theory, have needs that can only be |start off by saying this is wrong but then end up | | |satisfied one way |getting caught | |Predators seeking entertainment |chatting online, meeting is fun and exciting to |Michael Patterson, James Fowler, fantasies with minors | | |some | | |Predators have prethought intentions |online looking for sex and plan out way to get |said they didn’t come to have sex brought condoms, | | |it |pills, beer, gun | CONCLUSION This analysis has proved many things about the sexual predators that are online and connected them with the theories and concepts that have been developed in the socio-criminological world. These predators and this online form of crime is like any other type of crime, it happens. By looking at and reading about these predators and there encounters on To Catch a Predator proves that these men exhibit qualities of all common criminals. They are narcissistic to a point. A well thought out plan to get sexual acts with a minor are thought out as well as ways to prevent themselves from being caught which shows that they are good at this, thus proving that they are doing this a lot. Some who are legitimately new at this and doing it for the first time are just seeking entertainment. Grooming is the most common tactic used by these predators. Along with their thought out plans they have extensive dialogues that show their grooming techniques. Most of all these predators are like most criminals in the way they are liars and try to save themselves. They will come up with stories, once caught, and stick to it either blaming the authorities/decoy, or creating false alibis. I spent a good amount of time watching these interviews and predator videos as well as reading page after page of the actual chat logs from the predators. I found most of the things that were said online to be surprising. I found myself laughing sometimes at what the predators were telling the decoy because it was so “out there”. I then had to remember that the people at Perverted Justice have to keep these predators hooked and play their character in order to catch them, but it made me think that how could somebody in their right mind actually go for this' I do not agree at all with child sexual abuse or sex offending in general. I hold that belief very strongly. I think that these predators are sick people and there is a very small chance that they can be cured from what they do. I believe that once caught or convicted with sex offending, especially with a minor, that person’s rights no longer exist. These people commit a heinous crime and deserve every punishment they receive. APPENDIX Bagliss, Megan. The Grooming Process of a Child Sexual Predator. 2006. http://mental-health.families.com/blog/the-grooming-process-of-a-child-sexual-predator. Hansen, Chris. Reflections on To Catch a Predator. 2007. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/17601568/us/dateline_nbc/. Hansen, Chris. The Hansen Files. 2009. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24128499/ns/dateline_nbc-the_hansen_files_with_chris_hansen. Madriz, Esther. Image of Criminals and Victims. 1997. http://0-gas.sagepub.com.libus.csd.mu.edu/cgi/reprint/11/3/342. Microsoft. Online Predators: Help minimize the risk. 2009. http://www.microsoft.com/protect/parents/social/predators.aspx. MSNBC. To Catch a Predator Videos. 2009. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/19964414/#22424871 MSNBC. Dateline Videos. 2009. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12680788 Perverted Justice. Online Offender Files. 2009. http://www.perverted-justice.com/