A Deeper Look into Jerry Sandusky

           

           It’s interesting to think that the Jerry Sandusky Penn State child sexual abuse scandal happened a few months ago and it was all many could talk about, but it’s faded from the thoughts or many and some of the front pages of the news.  Currently, I am in a sexual offenders class where we are being taught to define and explain different types of sexual offenders, so I decided to take a look at Jerry Sandusky’s Grand Jury file.

This entire case was first brought to attention when a graduate assistant walked in on Sandusky anally raping a boy age 12 in a locker room.  When the victim came forward and was questioned by the grand jury, he described many disturbing altercations with his coach over a time period of a year.  Sandusky indecently fondled him on a number of occasions, performed oral sex on the victim on many occasions and had the victim perform oral sex on him on at least one occasion.  This victim was 11 or 12 when he first met Sandusky through The Second Mile program in 2005 or 2006.  In 2007, Sandusky began hanging out with the victim weekly, having him stay overnight at his residence, took him too professional and college sporting events as rewards for good doings.  He even went so far as to have the victim sleep at the Sandusky residence in the finished basement bedroom.  Victim 1 went on to describe that on some instances, other boys would stay the night but for most of the time, it was just him.  Sandusky encouraged this victim to volunteer at The Second Mile charity so that they could hang out more often and keep an eye on him.  Sandusky also groomed this victim by giving him gifts such as golf clubs, a computer, gym clothes, dress clothes and cash.  He also took him to restaurants, swimming at a hotel near Sandusky’s home and to church.  Not surprisingly, after these accusations surfaced, five other men now ages 22-28 have also testified against Jerry Sandusky for sexual crimes committed in years past.  They all explain that he sexually assaulted them when they were ages 10-12 while he was coaching them at The Second Mile charity.  They also describe the grooming techniques that victim 1 describes as well as similar sexual assaults.  One victim age 10 has also come forward, but has not yet testified to the sexual charges.

            With all the information that I gathered in the grand jury file, it is clear that Jerry Sandusky is a textbook definition of a pedophile.  He is primarily attracted to kids less than 12 years old and also prefers the company of children.  He has a stable job where he is in control of many people and has been professionally honored multiple times.  His attacks have always been planned, calculated and very strategic; he also organizes when and where he is going to commit the attack and his plans are almost nearly fool proof.  Sandusky stated in a couple of his public interviews that he is attracted to young people, he loves being around them, and it “makes him feel young again.”  Unlike the technical definition, he does not live alone or with his parents, he in fact has a stable relationship with his wife, Dottie Sandusky.  Sandusky is furthermore defined as an exclusive pedophile because he does not have any accusations of preying on adults and minors.  Considering Jerry Sandusky has not had the stamina to come out and speak about his conditions, we do not know whether or not he has had any recurrent fantasies that he have or may not have acted upon.  If I were to take an educated guess, I would say that some of his fantasies would be raping a child in the locker rooms that himself, his coworkers and team all shower in. 

            Jerry Sandusky is a professional at seducing children and making them believe that he was a great man who could really help them with their future.  He is an expert at positively grooming his victims to keep the secrecy of his deviant acts only to the victim and himself.  Some of the positive techniques that Sandusky used were to gain trust from the victims, gain trust from the families, give the victim plenty of unique opportunities and experiences that the victim could not say no to, delivered lavish gifts and provided adventurous trips for the victims and finally gave plenty of complements, emotional support and encouragement to the victims from a man who is well admired in the community.

          It is important for us as people working in the criminal justice system to be able to properly identify a child molester from a pedophile and be able to appropriately name grooming procedures that could potentially save other victims from being caught in a similar situation.  Hopefully, with the help of the criminal justice system, justice will be served for the victims in which Sandusky took grave advantage of.

http://www.freep.com/assets/freep/pdf/C4181508116.PDF