If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. NATIONAL ~ CENTER FOR I-' M MISSING& EXPLOITED ..CHILDREN Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis For Law Enforcement Officers Investigating Cases of Child N Sexual LO Exploitation N m In cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ~ r- ________________________~ Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis For Law Enforcement Officers Investigating Cases of Child Sexual Exploitation December 1992 Third Edition Kenneth V. Lanning Supervisory Special Agent Behavioral Science Unit Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Academy Quantico, Virginia © National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 149252 U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the p~rson or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated In thiS document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represont the official position or policies of the National Institute of Justice. Permission to reproduce this copyrighted material has been gr1iJa~1I1 ctr. for Missing & Exploited Children/DOJ/FBI to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permission of the copyright owner. Prepared under Cooperative Agreement #86-MC-CX-K003 and revised and reprinted under Cooperative Agreement #92-MC-CX-K001 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin­ quency Prevention, Office ofJustice Assistance, Research, and Statistics, U.S. Deparhnent of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this book are those of NCMEC and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Deparhnent of Justice. A version of this book was published in Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation: A Multi­ Disciplinary Approach, edited by Robert R. Hazelwood and Ann W. Burgess (New York: Elsevier, 1987). Contents Foreword v 1. Definitions of Terms 1 Child Molesters 1 Pedophiles 1 Important Distinctions for Law Enforcement 3 Classification Typologies 4 2. A Law Enforcement Typology 5 Needs of Law Enforcement 5 Kinds of Child Molesters 5 Situational Child Molesters 6 Preferential Child Molesters 8 The Role of Law Enforcement 9 3. Problem Areas 11 Combination Offenders 11 Sex Rings 11 Incest Cases 12 Female Offenders 13 Adolescent Offenders 13 4. Identifying Pedophiles 15 The Preferential Child Molester (Pedophile) 15 5. Collection of Child Pornography and Erotica 23 Child Pornography 24 Child Erotica (Pedophile Paraphernalia) 26 Motivation for Collection 27 Use of Collection 28 Characteristics of Collection 29 The Role of Law Enforcement 31 6. After Identification 37 The Pedophile's Defenses 37 7. InvestiGtl.tive Difficulties 41 The Ideal Victim 41 Maligned Investigator 42 What Constitutes Sexual Activity? 43 Societal Attitudes 43 Appendix I: Considerations in Obtaining and Using Expertise Search Warrants in Cases of Preferential Child Molesters, by Janet E. Kosid, Esquire 45 Appendix II: References 61 Appendix III: Additional Reading 63 Appendix IV: Cycle of Violence 65 Appendix V: Sexual Victimization of Children 67 Foreword Much valuable law enforcement training work • 114,600 attempted abductions of is being done by the FBI Academy and Na­ children by nonfamily members tional Academy, the Federal Law Enforce­ • 4,600 abductions by nonfamily ment Training Center, and the National Cen­ members reported to police ter for Missing and Exploited Children • 300 abductions by nonfamily mem­ (NCMEC). In fact, through September 1992, bers where the children were, gone NCME,C alone has trained more than 118,000 for long periods of time or were officers nationwide and in Canada. Nonethe­ murdered less, there is still a critical need in law enforce­ • 354,000 children abducted by fam­ ment for information and publications on spe­ ily members cific investigative topics. Since its inception, • 450,700 children who rp'n away NCMEC has published and distributed free of o 127,100 children who were thrown charge 260,000 copies of two such training away publications: Parental Kidnapping and the • 438,200 children who were lost, in­ Investigator's Guide to Missing Child Cases. jured, or otherwise missing In December 1989 NCMEC published a companion text to Child Molesters: A Behavioral The link between missing and sexually Analysis, entitled Child Sex Rings: A Behavioral exploited children is a -strong one. For ex­ Analysis, also by Kenneth Lanning, which pre­ ample, from July 1980 through February 1984, sents the latest information on investigating the police / social work team of the Louisville / child sex rings and ritualistic abuse. The sec­ Jefferson County Exploited and Missing Child ond edition of this text was issued in April Unit (EMCU) in Kentucky investigated ap­ 1992. proximately 1,400 cases of children suspected Currently, a prime mission is to extend the of being victims of sexual exploitation. A full facilities of NCMEC to the law enforcement 54 percent (756) of the children were found to practitioner community for the purpose of' be victims and an additional 31 percent (434) publishing short books or monographs on of the children were considered probable vic­ sexually exploited children or pedophiles­ tims. During this time period the EMCU particularly as these subjects relate to the miss­ prosecuted hundreds of adults for various ing child phenomenon. Our aim is to merge crimes involving the sexual exploitation of various U.S. Department of Justice initiatives children. Over 40 major cases resulted in the for proactive marketing in order to expand the successful prosecution of adults involved with practical effect of all our efforts. over 12 children each. As a society our efforts to prevent crimes Even though the EMCU was reputed to be against children have not kept pace with the the national model of investigations in sexu­ increasing vulnerability of our young citizens. ally exploited children by the end of the third In May 1990 the U.S. Department of Justice year of work, such was only to demonstrate an released a study reporting that in 1988 there effective" ambulance service at the base of the were as many as: cliffs." A new approach was needed. As a v ------------------------------ proactive effort for the early intervention into the adult-abused as a child-becomes the this cycle of sexual exploitation, the EMCU abuser or exploiter. While there has been team began handling all missing child cases in activity in social services research and analy­ Jefferson County, Kentucky, in January 1983. sis of the nature of and effects on child victims Now the EMCU began to "build fences at the of sexual exploitation, law enforcement has top of the cliffs." been found wanting for reliable information The data developed on the first 830 miss­ on the nature of the behavior and emotional ing children indicated that approximately 10 patterns of child molesters to assist in their percent of the missing child population was detection and apprehension. exploited while missing. Data further indi­ Any criminal behavior that appears con­ cated that up to 85 percent of these commer­ sistently and universally must be recognized cially exploited children were missing at the as having high predictive and preventative time of the exploitation offense. value for law enforcement and child protec­ The EMCU's handling of missing child tive services. Of critical importance is the cases functioned as an early warning system complexity of the dynamics, typology, and for cases needing child protective services, investigative handling of child molesters-a counseling, or law enforcement services-all label not always synonymous with pedophile. of which are vital for the successful detection, Supervisory Special Agent Kemleth V. Lanning investigation, arrest, and prosecution of adults of the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Acad­ in child sexual exploitation. emy has provided formative research and Information gained through interviews, analysis of this topic and, most important, always both investigatory and therapeutic, tailored the approach to be of extreme practi­ kept tearn members very much aware of street cal importance to law enforcement investiga­ activity, identified havens for missing youths, tors. and allowed team members to "burn bridges" Law enforcement is charged with the de­ to hazardous environments and endangering tection and observation of acts and behaviors adults before the child could become sexually that are violations of the law for which the exploited. New investigatory techniques and child molester can be charged and from which methodologies were developed and refined children must be protected. While psychiatric with an absolute ethic (and policy) that youth labels fall far short of being useful to the inves­ were never to be used in any endangering tigator, Mr. Lanning's typology offers a con­ capacity nor allowed to volunteer to do so to struct for investigators that provides insight further an investigation. This background and guidance in practicing child protection­ experience clearly indicated that the status not just labeling it for treatment. The ability to itself of being missing (runaway, homeless, understand and recognize the behavior of child abducted, etc.) is a very large window for molesters before their arrest or identification is entrance into child sexual exploitation. a prime weapon for the investigator handling Furthermore, the cycle of violence (see IfAp­ cases of sexual abuse or exploitation. If inves­ pendix IV,") now appears