Repercussions of Sexual Abuse

Repercussion of Sexual Abuse

By Samuel Rusch, Kennesaw State University

KENNESAW, Ga. - People burgle out of a desire to own something that they don’t have or to survive in desperate times. Arson can be committed as a result of desperation to collect insurance money or in an attempt to ruin the lives of others. Murders are at times fueled by rage....What poses a human being to become a sexual offender? They could be mentally unstable, abused as a child, confused, lost, lonely or misunderstood.

In an attempt to rehabilitate sexual offenders, behavior correction centers such as Medlin Treatment Center and The Behavioral Medicine Institute of Atlanta offer mental health counseling and psychiatric evaluations. Post-prison counseling sessions are often mandatory for sex offenders to attend. They attempt to show patients that their actions were horridly wrong. Victims of sexual abuse go through similar methods of therapy to help them overcome devastation and trauma.

In American society today, too often are stories of sexual abuse told only from an outsider’s point of view. The subsequent confessions from both victims and assailants of sexual abuse have been transcribed in an attempt to shine light on a different side of the story. The following events, arrests and testimonies are real. The assailants and victims of sexual abuse are represented by fake names in an effort to protect their identity.

Friends with benefits

Convicted for child molestation in 2010, Shelby, 44, hesitates to call the male involved in her arrest a victim. When describing the story from the beginning, Shelby laughingly said, “Well, you know, he hit on me.” Admitting “what I did was wrong,” Shelby recalled a series of unfortunate events that ended with her being labeled a child molester.

With her boyfriend out of the picture long before she knew she was pregnant, Shelby was forced to raise her son James on her own. James joined a local baseball league when he was 12 years old. After James became friends with fellow teammate Jared, 14, James’ mom quickly became friends with Jared’s mom Stevie.

“We would go out drinking and then I would often crash at Stevie’s home,” Shelby said. “And Jared was real flirty. He had a crush on me. Everybody knew he had a crush on me.” Shelby said that she was 39 when Jared began to show an interest in her.

Shelby said that the intoxicating effects of alcohol played a role in her willingness to agree to Jared’s alleged sexual desire for her by aiding her in “making bad choices.”

“I can’t admit that I made a mistake,” Shelby said. “There is such a big difference between a bad choice and a mistake.”

Jared would send Shelby sexually explicit photos of himself and would flirt with her in person, according to Shelby. Falling victim to temptation, Shelby sexually encountered Jared three times.

“The first time was just oral and the other two involved everything,” Shelby said. After five weeks of mental deliberation, Shelby could no longer bear the burden of hiding such a morally unjust secret from Jared’s mother.

“It’s a matter of sleeping at night or keeping it in,” Shelby said. In response to her confession, Shelby said that Stevie “didn’t know what to do with the information.”

“If the tables were turned and it was my child, I would go to the police,” Shelby said. Confessing to child molestation, Shelby turned herself in to the authorities and received a two-year sentence at a probation detention center.

“The two years that I spent down there helped me grow and become somebody better, I think,” Shelby said. “I got a handle on mental health issues that I did not want to face.”

Shelby will remain on probation until 2032. Unless she successfully appeals to be removed from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Sex Offender Registry, Shelby’s name, crime and address will be posted for life.

Currently on mental health disability due to her medication, Shelby makes money by doing part-time photography work for a friend. Living with her mother in a small suburban house, Shelby plans to attend her counseling sessions for the remainder of her probationary period.

As she waits to be seen by her counselor, Shelby quietly sits next to other sex offenders in a small room. Shelby defends her actions as she overhears other sex offenders muttering to themselves, “It was just a mistake.” She said that such actions are much bigger than what most people would label to be a mistake.

Shelby has received polygraph tests where she is required to disclose her entire sexual history and to admit or deny to the consumption of drugs or alcohol. Her probation officer visits her house once, sometimes twice a month to check up on her. At any given time of any given day, Shelby’s house can be searched.

“Honestly it’s made everything…we’ve bonded a lot more,” Shelby said describing her relationship between her and her family after her conviction. “They were able to see me as a real person who has bad judgment.”

Shelby has ended several friendships due to her friends’ inability to “make me take responsibility for my actions,” Shelby said. After hearing her story, one of Shelby’s male friends responded in a way that encouraged her activity by suggesting that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Half-heartedly admitting to being a victim of sexual abuse as a child from her father and grandfather, Shelby said that the abuse she received as a child forever changed her outlook on life. Approximating that only 30 percent of sexual assault cases are reported to authorities, in 2012 there were 62,939 reported cases of child sexual abuse in America, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A family affair

Carol, now 44, was shocked and disgusted when she learned of a horrifying family secret between her 26-year-old fiancé and her 14-year-old cousin.

Carol’s fiancé Tim liked to take her out to eat at restaurants quite frequently. Playing the role of babysitter, Carol’s cousin Lucy would take care of her 7-year-old son Stan while the couple enjoyed some alone time.

Little did Carol know, on the many nights that she was out on the town with her fiancé, Tim had arranged for Lucy to have sex with his 25-year-old friend Jake.

Carol, who failed to report the abuse to the police when Lucy had confronted her, said that Lucy’s mother might have contacted the authorities.

“When the Division of Family and Children Services arrived, they said I was unfit to be a mother," Carol said. "They kicked down my door and tore my house apart."

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Lucy and Tim were having sexual relations as well.

Tim and Carol were both convicted of aggravated child molestation in July 1996. Carol received 10 years behind bars and 30 years of probation while Tim will remain in prison for life. Carol was arrested due to her being the owner of the property of where the sexual acts occurred. Carol is outraged by the charges against her.

While in prison, Carol would hear other sex offenders receiving threats from inmates and guards. Even though Carol never engaged in a sexual act with a minor, in the eyes of the law, she is a sex offender.

Once Carol finishes her probation, she may apply to have her profile removed from The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Sex Offender Registry. However, she said that she will forever be on the registry due to the difficulty and expense of being removed.

According to Carol, Lucy gave consent to willing fully perform sexual favors for both Jake and Tim. Carol described her fiancé’s behavior as that of a pimp.

“I wasn’t able to raise my son properly,” Carol said as a result of this incident.

Attempting to make the best of a bad situation and move on, Carol began to explore an interest in another man named Kyle. A potential father figure for her son, Kyle was appalled when he discovered Carol’s past.

“Kyle promised to ruin my life because of the charges against me and threatened to shoot me in the face,” Carol said. Quickly ending their relationship after Kyle’s threatening remarks, Carol doesn’t see herself being in another relationship for fear of a similar incident occurring .

Finding a home

Prohibited from being within 1,000 feet of any school, church or areas where minors gather, the odds of sex offenders finding a home in highly populated areas are not often in their favor. Sex offenders can be forced to relocate away from their families and in some cases can become homeless.

An avid Christian pastor in south Florida is attempting to make finding a place to call home outside of prison easier for sex offenders.

Dick Witherow, 76, is the minister and property manager of a small community in southern Florida called Miracle Village. Founded in 2009, the small community is located on the banks of Lake Okeechobee and has approximately 150 residents. Most of which are convicted sex offenders.

Surrounded by hundreds of acres of sugarcane, Miracle Village is isolated from any highly populated area. If residents of Miracle Village are unable to find work elsewhere, odd jobs within the community are available to help them pay their weekly rent of $100. Many residence of Miracle Village must abide by a 7 p.m. curfew and wear ankle monitors at all times.

Working in prison ministries for nearly 30 years, Witherow continues to recruit tenets by distributing brochures that advertise Miracle Village to prisoners. In his book The Modern Day Leper, Witherow reveals a bigger motive for wanting to help sex offenders than meets the eye.

When he was 18, Witherow was allowed by a judge to marry his 14-year-old pregnant fiancé.

In today’s society, Witherow would have likely been charged with sexual battery of a minor and received a 10-25 year prison sentence. Somehow escaping the label of sex offender, Witherow relates to the residents of Miracle Village on more than just a religious level.

Innocence ruined

Amanda, 18, was sexually abused when she was five years old by a man she believed to be in his mid-forties. While visiting a friend’s house in a foreign country, Amanda experienced something that mentally scarred her for life.

Amanda recalls that unforgettable night.

“In the middle of the night, my friend’s dad comes in the room and he starts, like, touching me,” Amanda said. Knowing that what was happening felt odd and uncomfortable to her, Amanda wasn’t truly aware of what was happening. Amanda’s assailant, the father of a close friend, removed his clothes as he began to undress her.

“Eventually he tried to have sex with me, but it wasn’t working because I was just really small, I guess,” Amanda said. As a result of the abuse she received as a child, Amanda feels “not like a human and kind of worthless.” The life altering event affected Amanda in a way that made her scared to shine light on her victimization.

Amanda said that it breaks her heart knowing that other people go through what she has experienced. Amanda became very sexual at an early age which she said brought forth a numbing sensation to her everyday life.

“I became really depressed when I was 13 and I started cutting myself,” Amanda said. “I used to attend counseling sessions that my parents thought were for an unrelated matter. The counselor made me extremely suicidal so I stopped going.”

Fighting back tears, Amanda said that it isn’t easy to tell your mother you were almost raped. She doesn’t want to burden her mother with such a terrible thing because she loves her so much. With her assailant never being convicted for his crime, Amanda said she thinks her mother would want to kill him if she found out.

Megan’s Law

On July 29, 1994, in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, Megan Nicole Kanka, 7, lost her innocence and her life. Megan walked inside her neighbors home after a man lured her in with a puppy. In the house down the street from her home, Megan was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered by a two-time convicted sex offender.

Megan’s parents gained a tremendous amount of support from their community as they collected more than 430,000 signatures petitioning the right to be made aware of sexual predators in their community. In 1996 Congress passed the federal version of Megan’s Law.

Megan’s Law requires all 50 states to have a registration program for sex offenders. These registries provide authorities with up to date information regarding sex offenders and aid the public in making them aware of where sexual offenders reside in or around their community.

Parents for Megan’s Law and the Crime Victims Center are two not-for-profit organizations devoted to the deterrence and management of child sexual abuse. These organizations tabulated data from all 50 state sex offender registries and reported that there are currently 799,929 registered sex offenders in America.