We all think we know what a sex offender looks like: a serial pedophile, likely male and middle-aged, who lurks in Internet chat rooms or hides behind church authority or children’s programs to prey on little kids. But an estimated 200,000 registered sex offenders in the United States are children, many as young as eight years old. Most never come off the registry and many end up committing suicide. The few who don’t have trouble finding jobs as adults and face violent attacks wherever they go, even though they haven’t…
Read MoreDay: December 7, 2014
This woman is trying to stop juvenile sex offenders — by helping them
Elizabeth Letourneau is one of the country’s leading experts on sex crime — why it happens and whether there are better ways to stop it. She focuses in particular on juvenile sex offenders: people who commit a sex crime before they turn 18. This is an important group to understand in the fight against child sex abuse. Juvenile sex offenders perpetrate approximately one-third of sexual offenses against minors. They are also are more likely than adult offenders to commit crimes against younger victims. That’s why it’s so important to figure…
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