Common Myths, Urban Legends, and

Dangerous Beliefs about the

Sexual Predator

1. The Predator shies away from locations and activities where a lot of people gather or congregate.

2. The Predator is deterred by a well-educated group of people, who are taught to identify "red flag" behaviors.

3. The Predator will be deterred from applying for admission at a college or university which requires its students and faculty to sign a sexual harassment and abuse policy.

4. The Predator understands that a "sex savy" college student population is more likely to detect sexual predators. 

5. Predators are less likely to target locations, such as schools and colleges, where there is an emphasis on "sex respect" and other gender-related topics.

6. Predators are less inclined to attempt to groom those who have been fully educated on issues dealing with sexual assault.

7. Predators tend to be less likely to target colleges and universities which have a strong "sexually aware" and "sexually knowledgable" student body. 

8. Colleges which promote "Sex Week" activities are of less interest to Predators.

9. Colleges which host annual "Sex Week" activities make it less likely Predators will specifically select those campuses as their "hunting ground."

10. Predators are less likely to participate in "Bondage" types of activities, as the thought of sexual aggression, sexual deviant or "kinky" behaviors, and the ide of the "partner" being uncomfortable actually makes them passive and uncomfortable.

11. Predators are uncomfortable with women who have "gotten into" the Fifty Shades series and movies, as the Predator does not really know how to act with a woman who would willingly allow herself to be bound without a struggle.

12. Incarcerated Sexual Predators tend to be uncomfortable with knowing that so many women have "gotten into" the Fifty Shades series.

13. Participation in bondage-type activities make it less likely that a man will become a sexual predator, as he has "an outlet" for his sexual fantasies.  

14. Predators, whose primary targets-of-opportunity are college women, are less likely to target women who have participated in "Sex Week." 

15. The Predator will appear socially awkward or strange.

16. The Predator will appear to be "creepy."

17. The Predator will most likely access children within a church through unlocked doors.

18. Predators are most dangerous when no one is watching them.

19. Predators will not be able to pass a background clearance.

20. Predators will be reluctant to sign a Child Abuse Policy Agreement Form.

21. Predators are awkward around other adults, especially those in leadership positions.

22. Predators are usually: poorly educated, of lower intelligence, under employed, employed at entry level positions, single, change jobs frequently, inclined to shy away from religious activities... unless they have decided to become serious about their spiritual growth.

23. Child sexual offenders are more inclined to offend against children when experiencing low self-esteem.

24. Child sexual offenders will be driven to molest children who are at the same age they were when they were molested (i.e. reenacting the abuse perpetrated upon them).

25. Child sexual offenders lack the insight and awareness necessary to fully understand what is driving them to offend children.

26. Child sexual offenders come out of families where abuse and neglect were the norm.

27. Child sexual offenders battle with "stinking thinking," which overrides their best of intensions.

28. Child sexual offenders battle with a sexual compulsion.

29. Child sexual offenders need the compassion and understanding of a church congregation in order to receive the support necessary to avoid re-offending.

30. An act of child offending can be the exception in a person's life, where he somehow lost his senses, slipped up, and made a very bad decision.

31. Child pornography can somehow accidentally appear on a person's computer. 

32. The attraction to children starts early in life, and represents significant deficits in the offender's personality development, and finds it's roots in a lack of ability to establish healthy adult-to-adult intimate relationships.

33. Child sexual offending is inevitably the result of early trauma in the offenders life, usually through having been molested himself.

34. With enough support and understanding, the child offender can learn to relate to adults and children appropriately.

35. Most child sexual offenders have more girl victims than boys.

36. Most child sex offenders live with a tormented conscience, and therefore need a church to help them accept the Lord's forgiveness.

37. Most child sex offenders, who consistently attended chapel and other religious activities while in prison, are more likely than not to have been changed in positive ways upon release from prison. 

38. If a convicted child sex offender "successfully completed" sex offender treatment, and was assessed to be something other than "High Risk," then he is much more likely to be successfully rehabilitated.

39. Former child sexual perpetrators, if successfully integrated into the life of a church, can serve as an encouragement to others struggling with sexual sin, to help them understand that no one is beyond redemption, and that the Lord can help take the broken pieces of our lives and make something beautiful out of the mess. 

40. Becoming involved in the full life of the church is the best way for a former child sexual perpetrator to see healthy relationships modeled, and to experience God's unconditional forgiveness and acceptance.

41. Since we have all sinned, we are all in need of God's grace. As such, church is the best place to enable a former child sexual perpetrator to experience a sense of community, so that he does not have to feel like he must wear a scarlet letter. The world already does that to him, so the church must be different with respect to how it ministers to this once lost sheep.

42. With enough love and understanding extended to him from the church on Sunday mornings, and with enough sound teaching, the former child sexual offender will be able to continue to experience the personal growth necessary to help him leave his old ways behind.

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Dangerous Myths underlying the most widely used forensic sex offender assessment tool in the US and Canada.

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These underlying myths skew the results of the clinical evaluation in favor of a lower Clinical Risk Level for the most dangerous of child sexual predators (in terms of sheer numbers of victims). As such, the offender is able to take a lower level of treatment, enabling him to become eligible for Parole sooner than would otherwise be the case.

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1. The propensity toward sexually offending children decreases with age.

2. Predators do not lead a stable and socially-responsible life.

3. Predators are impulsive.

4. Predators have difficulty managing their impulses.

5. Predators have a difficult time managing their emotions and anger.

6. No previous criminal history means that the perpetrator poses a lower risk of reoffending in the future.

7. Perpetrating incest makes the Predator less dangerous.

8. If the perpetrator knew his victim he is less likely to pose a risk in the future.

9. If the Predator is male, and he had female victims, he is less of a threat to repeat his behavior than if he only had male victims.

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