Thursday, March 30, 2000
Child rape case 'heartbreaking'
Accused, 11, was prior victim
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN — A rosy-cheeked 11-year-old boy is accused of forcefully raping a 7-year-old girl in a closet at his home — a crime so horrible the boy would face life in prison if he were old enough to be tried as an adult.
“It was just as heartbreaking talking to him as it was talking to her,” Detective H. Fredrick Shuemake, a 23-year veteran of the Middletown police force, said Wednesday, looking at photos of the fresh-faced youngsters. “The crime he's charged with is the most severe form of rape under our state's law.”
The boy's age, coupled with his reported history of being sexually molested by an adult male four years ago, presents a dilemma for the juvenile justice system.
While his age makes it more likely that the boy's al leged behavior could be changed through therapy, few treatment programs are appropriate for such a young offender. And, at the same time, authorities must consider how to exact some measure of justice for the girl if he is guilty.
“He's got to be responsible for his behavior, yet he does need treatment,” said Kathy Vallance, director of the Butler County Children Services Board. “Is the juvenile court going to go more with treatment, more with punishment, or a little bit of both?”
The boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age, is scheduled to appear in court Monday. Juvenile court officials say they can't remember the last time one so young was charged with rape, said Toni Pagano, court spokeswoman. The boy would have to be 14 to be tried as an adult.
Although the boy's age makes his case unusual, his reported status as a victim is more typical.
About 70 percent of juvenile sexual offenders have themselves been victimized, says Jim Sarris, a licensed social worker for Catholic Social Services Inc. in Hamilton.
When a victimized child becomes a perpetrator, he is sometimes called “a sexually reactive child,” because he's trying to overcome his own sexual abuse by repeating the behavior against others, Mr. Sarris said.
“Boys tend to identify with the aggression of what happened to them, that dominance and that power,” he said. That's why such boys often don't choose based on gender, Mr. Sarris said, but rather on which child they can lure to an isolated place.
It's important to try to change these behaviors “before the pattern becomes habitual,” Mr. Sarris said. Several studies have shown that about half of adult sex offenders committed their first sex offense during adolescence, around the ages of 13 to 16.
Detective Shuemake said he's hopeful the 11-year-old Middletown boy can be rehabilitated through therapy, but he's concerned that the boy apparently used a rather sophisticated ruse to get the girl alone.
The girl's mother, who was attending a neighborhood cookout at the boy's house, opened the closet door and interrupted the attack, police said.
In his 22 years as a therapist, Mr. Sarris estimated, he has counseled 1,000 juvenile sex offenders, including fewer than 50 who were age 12 or younger.
“It's not a highly studied group of offenders when they're that young,” he said. “Unfortunately, they're becoming more studied because we are witnessing it at a higher rate.”
It's hard to tell whether the number of such incidents is actually increasing or whether people are just becoming more likely to report them, officials said.
“I think you just didn't hear about it before,” Detective Shuemake said. “It was too nasty to talk about 20 years ago.”
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