Criminology Project

Student Name

Institution

Detailed Overview of the Offender’s Profile

This project describes Drake Carter aged about 25 years of age. He is a sex offender who has been convicted and put on rehabilitation program as means of integrating him back into the society. He is a subject of a case study of the sex offenders and what drives these people to engage in such crimes. Carter lives in the white neighborhood where the population is not dense, and people are friendly to the neighbors.

This community also has many single mothers. Carter was very friendly and ready to help the ladies in fixing in their homes. It was during these moments that he would identify his target and develop a rapport with her. He also had toys and candies that he would use to entertain the children in his home.

Carter was born in a family of three children, and he was the firstborn among two girls and one boy. The other two are Tiffany Carter and Jennie Carter. While he was still young, a neighbor had accused him of touching her young girl indecently at their garden. This incident had been settled by the two families arguing that he was young and may not have understood the implications of such actions. Carter’s mother, Rose Carter was a French woman while his father was an American citizen.

Rose had been known to be tense, quarrelsome and attention seeking. Rose spent much of her time struggling with herself. When Drake, was home, he shut himself up in his room to avoid the controlling nature of his mother. He also sometimes ran away to the garden where he kept to himself because his upbringing had made him lose confidence in him. Her mother’s condition had taken a toll on him and the rest of the family. He had not known at that young age that his mother was struggling with drug abuse.

At school, he was described as timid and quiet by his school mates. Even the teachers had noticed that he was very reserved and seemed to be neglected by his parents. He kept no friends and would be seen walking alone most times. His character did not change much in high school. He never had a girlfriend because of his low self-esteem that would not let him talk to a girl.

 He feared that he was not good enough and would be rejected by a lady if he attempted to approach her. Drake confessed that he had always fantasized about having sex with the girls at school and the women at home yet he could not bring himself up to approach any of them for fear of rejection. He said he had hidden several times behind the door and watched the nanny changes her clothes, and he desired so much to sleep with her. He would rush back to the toilet and masturbate. Slowly he began watching pornographic materials quench his thirst.

            He finally found a way to satisfy his need when he met young Maria at his home. Maria was a six-year-old neighbor whose mom had dropped at his house as she ran for an errand. Rose was in the garden while Drake was left to watch over Maria in the living room.  Drake used this opportunity to actualize his fantasies. He began touching the private parts of the young child who was not quite aware of what was going on. Luckily his mother walked in, and he stopped. From this moment on, he was attracted to the children because he saw them as easy targets.

 He also knew he would easily get away with the children by offering a reward of distraction. This went on until he day he did the same to Lilianna a 15-year-old neighbor who could not keep quiet. She reported him to her parents and this lead to his conviction.

Causes of Crime

The facts leading to Drake’s character had a lot to do with this upbringing and the conditions that he was exposed to at home more than anything else. His mother’s condition seemed to have contributed to a significant degree his reaction to the challenges he was facing. The dynamics of Drake’s behavior can be analyzed through various dimensions that include the biological, social, environmental and genetic causes for his condition (Beech et Al, 2009).

Potential Environmental Causes

Environmental factors have been found to have impacts on the behaviors such us unconventional sexual conducts. Our environment plays a significant role in our growth and development. The environment determines our character and behavioral patterns. The influence of the peers and the family would shape out thinking the pattern and the manner in which we respond to situations. Family environment is very crucial for the upbringing of a child. If there may be a problem in the family, the young boy and girl will be hard hit since most of the consequences will affect his or her life directly.

Drake’s problem may have been a by-product of the condition of his mother. Even as a young boy, he had been neglected and subjected to conditions that would have adverse effects on his personality. His mother always had a breakdown that leads to her harsh reaction to everyone including the children. A further analysis of the family revealed that the last born turned out to be a drug addict while the second born did not proceed to college.

She dropped out and began working as a waiter in a nightclub. This is a sign of a broken down family unit. The origin of the problems that lead to the deplorable conditions that this family was experiencing had its roots in the mother’s drug addiction. It made the home an unfavorable environment for the proper upbringing of the children. The family risk factors include poverty, parenting practices, education and the family structure. Because of the mother’s condition, she could not work.

Her violent nature would not let her socialize well with the others in a job setting. She was therefore at home most of the time. The father was a factory worker who spent most of the time in his job since he took up to three jobs in a day.  He did not have much time to give the children the attention they desired. Furthermore, he had to spend the time to take care of his wife whenever he was home. The family therefore never had much money to afford a decent life and this too was having a toll on the children.

 They were neglected and did not have a comfortable life. Sociologists argue that exposure to such conditions may stir up antisocial behavior in an individual. The research on the environment especially the family setting on the development of a child reveals that the type of family environment created by the parents would have far-reaching effects on the character and behaviors of a child (Schmitz, 2003).

The relationship between the parents and the children would determine if they can influence the child behavior either negatively of positively.  Poor communication and weak family bonds have been singled out as the primary contributors to the child welfare. They have a correlation to the child criminal behavioral patterns (Garnefski and Okma, 1996). The abuse and neglect of the children would contribute to their antisocial behavior as they grow up.

 Statistics has shown that the children are at an about fifty percent risk of engaging in criminal and antisocial behavior in the case that they are abused or neglected by the parents, family of the other members of the community. This factor has appeared very prominently in many types of research on the criminal behavior of offenders.  Drake and her siblings had been neglected. The mother also meted out psychological abuse due to her cruel and harsh treatment of her family, children, and neighbors (Holmes et Al., 2001).

Potential Social Causes of Drake’s Behavior

Sociology is the way in which we interact and develop a relationship with others. This would determine our behavior in the society. Positive socialization process would result in good characters and habits while negative social relationships would lead to antisocial behavior. The way we fit in our social structure would have tremendous impacts on our behavior. Drake may have experienced a social environment that would have aggravated his desire to commit these crimes.

At home, Drake spent most times alone with one to play with. He was locked up in his room and denied the social interaction. Slowly, his ability to socialize thinned out to a point that he would not build any meaningful relationships. His self-esteem and confidence as the man were significantly dented and thus he would not approach of his age.

He always felt that others are better than him and that he did not belong to any decent social group. His behaviors were out of the ordinary and for a better part of his life he lacked manners. He only gained some level of confidence when he found comfort in the children. He learned to be warm to them and to look harmless in front of the parents or guardians. 

Because of his characteristics, Drake was shunned at school by most of his colleagues. They found him queer and odd. He only had one friend who seemed to share the same characteristics. It has him who first introduced Drake to pornographic material that he referred to as his best companion. Steve was always watching or reading an obscene material whenever he was alone or with Drake. As a result, Drake picked this habit that grew into an addition.

Watching porn videos in his room heightened his desire to practice. It piled pressure on him. This it the time he would sneak around and look at the nanny undress. He would also run off to the bathroom to masturbate. Steve was an addict of child pornography. It was him who made Drake realize that he could use the children to ease off the excess pressure that had built up on him due to his indecent internet activities.

The other social factor that contributed to the behavior of Drake was the videos and movies he was watching over the internet. They were hardcore obscene material that activated his urge. The children were an easy target because of the social nature of the community where people learned to live together as a big family and not as an individual. Drake had moved to this new locality where nobody knew so much about his past. He had however built relationships with the parents by showing some warmth and attractive social behavior.

This was a character he adopted as a deception tactic to gain access to the children. He would work to win the trust of the parents and use the available opportunity to commit his vile acts. Social interaction has been proved to be a significant influence on an individual’s character.  People behave in a manner that is correspondent to their social environment.

We are a product of our social environment that defines how we look at the society and the world around us. Our response to the issues that we meet in life in the daily routine is based on the level and type of socialization. Drake was denied the required socialization, and this contributed to his antisocial behavior. He became a sex offender due to his social environment.

The Potential Biological Causes

 Biological factors are related to the sexuality and development in the sexual awareness. During puberty, the young person may not be able to distinguish between sexual and aggressive urges. This would result in sexual aggression that has the outcome of leading to social offense. Drake was introduced to pornography at this critical time in his life. It was during this period that his inclination to sexual offense began to become apparent.

He was struggling with the adolescent sex issues while being introduced to sexual indulgence. This contributed much to his confusion and subsequent involvement in the sex matters. Low self-esteem, impulsivity, poor interpersonal skill and poor social behavior aggravated the depth of Drake’s participation in the sexual behavior. The factors integrate and designed a strong web that this offender would not find easy to break from. He was in a state of mental and psychological turmoil.

Discovery of sex at puberty has been identified by the researchers in this area to have a damaging effect on the behavior of the young adults. The pubescent boys would use sex as a means of coping with inadequacy and unhappiness. Throughout his life, Drake had always felt inadequate and unworthy in the social sphere.  His lack of confidence and low self-esteem as contributed by the family and school environment had made Drake run to pornography and subsequently sex offense as a means of sorting this need and feeling some worth and self-gratification.

 In the face of the personality deficit, situational factors like intoxication, stress, or the sexual stimuli will influence an individual’s poor coping skills thus leading to involvement in the sexual offense. Sex offense is maintained by the reinforcement of effects of deviant sexual activity, and development of cognitive distortions that would legitimize the sexual offense by the individual who is suffering from these deficiencies. Drake had experienced this scenario in his life and was one of the contributors to his sexual behavior (Ward et Al, 2006).

The Genetic Causes of the Behavior

Genetics in an individual can cause criminal behavior. The research has exhibited that genetics has integrated with the environment to make an individual a sex offender. Children born of a parent who had been accused of the sexual offense have a high likelihood of growing up to be sex offenders. Genetics has been identified to have a 20% to 50% risk of contributing to a sex offense. In the past, researchers had proved that our genetic makeup affect our sexuality. It determines our sexual orientation as we grow up.

The same idea was extended in the research on the relationship between sex offense and genetics.  However, genetic predisposition would not be used to be used to profile one as a sex offender. For such cases, the risks of a sex offense are insignificant. Genes contribute largely to the antisocial behavior in people. Sexual aggression among many other antisocial conducts is directly linked to particular genetic makes up and variations in individuals. Drake may have suffered from the same problem.

His first incident as a child is a possible impact of his genes on his behavior and response to sex. His father, Joe Carter, had once committed a sex offense back in elementary school. He had to spend most of his time in the juvenile school since he was a minor. It was not very clear if that was the first sex offense he had committed.  However, that was the officially recorded incident of sex offenses that had a direct link to him and was proved beyond doubt.

From Drake’s admission, his mother too was not straight when it came to sexual matters. She had been involved in several sex scandals during her visit to the drug dens and when the father was not around town. This was on of the primary origins of the fight between the two whenever the father came back home to a report that she had been caught with another man. Tiffany, who worked in the club, was a prostitute of some kind. She would sleep with any man to earn extra cash for her upkeep.

Drake had visited the club many times and had to come to her rescue from the vile men who wanted to take her forcefully or who refused to pay. The last born followed in the mother’s footsteps of drug and indiscriminate sex. Drake’s family was riddled with sex and drug stories both of which antisocial. He was therefore bound to be a sex offender. His father and mother may have passed these faulty genes to him. The sons of the parents that had been convicted of the sex offense before have been found to exhibit the same traits. This has lead to the scientific conclusion that genes have very significant impacts on the social behaviors and characteristics of individuals (Baker et Al, 2010).

Type of Offender

Drake was a sex offender who had been accused of molesting young girls. He fell under the category of pedophiles. The child sex offenders have been found to be people who are known to the children and their families. They adopt this cunning behavior towards the children and their families as a way of winning their trust as they wait for the opportune moment. This tactic had been observed in Drake when he moved to the neighborhood where he perfected his art of child molestation.

 The offenders would take much time to garner all the necessary information that would be useful in the final act. Deception and enticement are the hallmark of the characterization of this group of people. They would have in their possession the items that are very alluring to the children that they would use to deceive the target and get her in the situation that is easy for them to engage them sexually. The abuse of the child would take a long time relationship building between the offender and the target.

The abuse would begin from a simple manner like hand-holding and touching of the non-sensitive areas. The offender would then proceed to the sensitive areas like the breasts and the genital areas. This act would escalate to the physical penetration of the child by the adult. The child sexual offenders had previously been attached or attracted to the adults before resorting to the children. They would bend back to the children owing to their inability to begin or sustain sexual relationships with the adults.

Drake had suffered from low-self esteem and personality disorder. He would not engage a girl of proper age in a healthy sexual relationship. It becomes hard for the children to tell on the sex offenders for a variety of reasons. The person may have threatened to kill someone that the child loves if she told anyone about their activities.

The young girl may also feel ashamed, embarrassed or guilty to talk about the act to anybody who they believe may not understand or may judge them. The child may feel the necessity protect the offender especially if this is a person who has a reputation in the family such as the father or the uncle.  She feels that if she talks about it nobody would believe, and it would lead to the whole family disbelieving her of punishing her for the act.

            The offender may hold important significance in the family of the child. This would make it hard for her to talk openly about this law because of the reaction from the family. She fears that the reaction would be directed at her instead of him. The situation becomes even more complicated when the child begins to develop feelings about this person. This may stretch the offense for a very long time without anyone getting to know.

Sex addiction is one of the strong habits that are very hard to break. Sex offense is a negative energy that emanates from undesirable sexual behaviors. It is hard to break since it is linked with pornography to a larger degree. The negative images imbedded in the brain become very hard to erase.  This negative energy cannot be suppressed .

Otherwise it would consume the person. These are advised to loo for avenues to direct this energy.  The therapy for child sex offenders is to join support groups where they can share their stories, create a social interaction cycle. Through these groups, they may be able to boost their inadequate social skills and meet the adults of proper age with whom to build sexual relationships.

Apprehension

The criminal profiling of Drake would have been used to apprehend him sooner before he would continue to inflict pain on the innocent young children. A brief look at his family background, personal records, and behavior patterns would have easily identified him as a sex offender. He exhibited all the traits of a potential child sex offender just by the way he carried out himself. A visit by the behavior analyst would have profiled him as a sex offender and have him watched for further proof. According to the law, the authorities are not allowed to arrest and individual based on the assumptions.

 However, they are authorized to open a file for them and analyze them further until it can be proved beyond doubt that he ha committed the offense. A background check on the family and the family history of Drake would be one of the important points to look at in the process of profiling him as an offender. The father of this offender had been convicted of the same offense in his formative years. The mother on the other side was not necessarily a sex offender but had been involved in several sexual escapades and liaisons that contributed to the breakdown of the family unit.

Drake had a troubled childhood that would have a significant effect on his social behavior. The family alone was, therefore, a starting point for the behavior analysis and profiling of Drake. His history as a child could also be used to profile him as a sex offender. As a young boy, he had been accused of touching a young girl indecently. Even though this incident was sorted out through a mutual settlement by both families, this opened a file into the criminal characteristic of Drake.

The chance of a sex offender commuting the same crime is very high thus this should have lead to his arrest sooner.  The team would easily be identified as repeat offender due to his consistent queer behavior. However, the change in tactic for the purpose of creating the trust with the children and the families could have served better to dupe the public a little bit. This would not deceive the behavior analysts because of their deeper knowledge of the behavior patterns of these groups of offenders.

The behavior of this particular offender would be used by the authorities to profile other potential offenders. Sex offenders exhibit similar traits that can be readily observed and used to identify them for further analysis. They are in the same age group as Drake. This is the critical age that most offenders are found. They range from 20 years to 55 years with the majority of them being in their 30s. They show peculiar attraction and interest to the children, especially the pubescent girls who are in their prime of development.

These people would be found with child pornographic materials and other materials that are used to entice and lure young girls into their homes. They have low self-esteem and would not muster up enough courage to talk to the big girls. It is because of this fear of rejection and humiliation that direct them to innocent young girls who would be helpless to their tricks and machinations. They take advantage of the vulnerability of the girls to satisfy their queer sexual drive.  The profile of these people also reveals broken or unclear relationship status.

They may have been in a relationship before which ended up badly and hurt their ego as men. This would have lead to the recoiling into their shelf and look for other ways to gratify them. The other section of this group is those who may not have had any relationship in their life because of the personal disorders and the antisocial behavior. Drake did not have a clear relationship status yet he was of fond of the children and close to the families.

He showed some extraordinary warmth that the sex offenders would exhibit before them committing the act. They would also be using warmth to cover the eyes of the parents as they continued with their crime unnoticed.  Drake and others like him show personality disorders that are very evident even with a quick look at their behavior patterns. He showed a true profile of a child sex offender that would be used to profile other potential offenders in this category.

Policy Implications

In the year 1994, the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, 42 U.S 14071 was passed that provided a framework for the tracking the locations of the sex offenders. This act stipulated the registration of the residence of these people so that government may monitor their whereabouts.

Two years later in 1996, Megan’s Law, 42 U.S.C 13701 was enacted which authorized the states to publicize the names of the sex offenders and maintain this data in an internet registry that is accessible to the public. The community notifications are also used to increase the awareness of the offenders. The laws restrict where the convicted offenders can live. These laws are put in place to reduce the risks that repeat child sex predators would have by limiting the opportunities.

These people are prevented from living in areas that have proximity to parks, school bus stops, schools, day care centers and other locations that are frequented by the young ones. These laws may have contributed to the safety of the children and prevented them from repeat crimes; however they have led to increased cases of homelessness of these offenders. The offenders have difficulty finding compliant houses due to the restriction.

These laws limit the rights of these people to have decent, safe and affordable housing. These laws hence slow down the process of integration of these people back to the community. Many individuals fear to come out and seek help due to fear of being incriminated and being subjected to these laws.

Reference

Holmes, S. E., Slaughter, J. R., & Kashani, J. (2001). Risk factors in childhood that lead to the     development of conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Child Psychiatry         and Human Development.

Baker. L. A, Tuvblad. C, Raine. A (2010) Genetics and Crime. http://www.sagepub.in/upm-            data/54473_McLaughlin_paperback_handbook_ch_1.pdf

Beech. R. A, Craig. L. A, Browne. K. D (2009) Assessment and Treatment of Sex Offenders: A      Handbook. John Wiley and Sons-Psychology

Ward. T, Polascheck. D, Beech. R. A (2006) Theories of sexual offending. John Wiley and Sons-    Psychology