WI- Sex offenders: Who are they?

11-30-2008 Wisconsin:

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series examining sex offenders and their impact on victims.

They number 272 in Sheboygan County.

They share a simple label — sex offenders — but they range in age from 18 to 84 and have been convicted of 30 different offenses dating back as far as 1971. Online registries show what they look like, and local ordinances increasingly control where they live, but who are they, really, and what danger do they pose?

Experts say there is no simple answer.

"There's just not one kind of sex offender," said George Limbeck, a Sheboygan defense attorney who represents child sex offenders in about one-fourth of his cases. "They could be everyone from the stereotypical creepy guy who preys on children to the kid next door that makes a mistake of having a girlfriend who's a little too young, and everyone in between."

Sex offenders land on the state registry for offenses that include underage sex, forcible rape, possession of child pornography and exposing a child to sexual material. But known offenders are responsible for only a fraction of the sexual assaults committed.

Eighty-four percent of sexual assault victims do not report the offense, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Center for Sex Offender Management. One in six women and one in 33 men in the U.S. will experience an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime, the center reports.

"A lot of times people like to think it doesn't happen in our community because we're a family community, we're a church community," said Mary Fontanazza, director of advocacy for Safe Harbor, which provides shelter and support for Sheboygan-area victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. "They don't realize it happens everywhere."

And Sheboygan police say sexual assaults happen — or at least are reported — with increasing frequency in Sheboygan. The number of sexual assaults reported in Sheboygan through the end of September rose 15 percent from the same period in 2007, and the number of sex-related crimes, which include lewd behavior and child pornography, soared by 70 percent.

"I don't believe the community is panicked about sex offenders, but I think people are very well aware of what sex offenders can do and the damage they can do to a community," said Capt. James Veeser of the Sheboygan Police Department.

Residents are more aware than ever of the sex offenders in their midst — online registries and resources such as The Sheboygan Press sex offender database show what offenders look like, where they live and what they've done — but Fontanazza warns the information can also be misleading.

"So many assaults are unreported," she said. "People need to be aware and on guard and (not think), 'We're safe in this neighborhood because there's no sex offenders living there.' There probably are."

Differentiating sex offenders
The state sex offender database — created in 1997 and maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections — reveals Sheboygan County sex offenders are typically middle-aged white males, but experts warn against stereotyping.

"Sex offenders can be smart or not smart, they can be rich or not rich, they can be employed or not employed, mentally ill or not mentally ill," said Dr. Charles Lodl, a Mequon-based psychologist who has worked with sex offenders and testified in their court proceedings for 25 years. "There is no standard profile that in some way, shape or form indicates that an individual will be more likely to act out sexually in an abusive way."

The most common thread lies in the offenses, as 187 Sheboygan County offenders, or 69 percent, committed crimes against children. Sixty percent of those offenders — 112 people — were convicted of the same charge: second-degree sexual assault of a child between the ages of 13 and 15.

But that offense includes boyfriend-girlfriend encounters that were consensual in fact, though not in law, as well as sexual assaults by older perpetrators, a distinction Lodl said is crucial.

"Even though legally an 18-year-old having sex with a 17-year-old or 16-year-old is designated a sex offender … psychologically, that's not the case," he said. "There is usually nothing in that kind of scenario that really warrants any real kind of psychological intervention."

At least 45 of the county's 272 sex offenders were convicted when the offender was 20 or younger and the victim was 13 or older, though not all sexual encounters were consensual, according to accounts in court records and Press archives.

Judge Timothy Van Akkeren said the inclusion of these cases in the sex offender registry can lead to incorrect assumptions about the young offenders.

"It'll look like a very serious sexual assault" on court records and sex offender registries, the judge said. "An employer will say, 'I don't want this person on board.' … The person may have used some poor judgment, but they're not likely to engage in sexual contact with another person without that person's consent."

It's a different story for the more serious offenders, those who molested younger children or raped adults, said Joseph Henger, who runs sex offender treatment programs in Sheboygan County and throughout southeastern Wisconsin,

"This is about having extreme, distorted thoughts about what they're doing, plus they develop deviant (sexual) arousal," said Henger, of Milwaukee-based Henger Enterprises.

The making of a sex offender
Lodl said there is some evidence that pedophilia is rooted in genetics, but Henger said the sex offenders he sees are typically products of their environment and experiences.

"People aren't born this way," Henger said. "They unwittingly evolve and condition themselves into it."

Patricia Brinkman, a therapist at Northshore Clinic of Sheboygan who has worked with juvenile sex offenders for about 20 years, said many offenders have parents who provide little accountability, are poor models and make excuses for the child's behavior.

"A lot of times sexual offenders don't have real healthy home lives," she said. "Children that are more easily treated (in therapy), they don't come often from real bad situations. The more serious offenders, probably their structure, limit-setting, maybe modeling — usually that was more of a problem."

While Lodl warns against profiling, he said offenders who commit certain crimes do have some similarities in their personalities.

Offenders who commit forcible rapes are likely to have anger management problems and difficultly developing and maintaining relationships, Lodl said. They may rape someone out of sexual desire or simply anger. Child molesters are often looking to fill an emotional and sexual need rooted in social disorders that prevent the offender from finding more appropriate people to meet those needs.

Henger said offenders know their victims in about 85 percent of cases.

Brinkman said teenagers who molest young children often do so out of what she termed "inappropriate curiosity."

"For young men that either are shy or embarrassed or not as popular as some of the other kids where they wouldn't have a girlfriend, they'll experiment on children," she said.

Recidivism after conviction is rare
Experts say sex offenders often victimize multiple people, but registered sex offenders likely pose less danger since recidivism rates drop dramatically after conviction.

"If we hear about some type of sexual crime, that's a high priority for us just because … the history of sexual predators is that they have more than one victim," said Veeser, the police captain. "If we can prove a case against a sex offender, it might help someone in the future or someone who is involved with them right at that time."

Van Akkeren, the judge, said few sex offenders return to his courtroom for a second sexual assault case.

"As a result of the punishment they've received they (may) have been dissuaded … or it could be they've gotten more sly and they haven't been caught the second time," Van Akkeren said.

Lodl said sex offenders re-offend at lower rates than many other criminals. More than 50 percent of those convicted of crimes such as burglary and battery are convicted later of a similar offense.

"The recidivism rate after a fellow has been caught is somewhere around 13.5 percent," he said. "Before they're caught, that's a different story. Especially with incest offenders, the likelihood is they're going to keep doing what they were doing if there's no intervention."

One study found less than 15 percent of sex offenders committed another sex offense within five to six years of their release from prison, according to the Center for Sex Offender Management. Another study showed recidivism rates of 20 percent after 10 years and 24 percent after 15 years.

Brinkman, the therapist, said offenders are more likely to re-offend if they've had multiple victims, refuse to take responsibility for their crimes or employed force or threats in a sexual assault. She estimated more than 10 percent of sex offenders she sees as juveniles fit into this category.

"It depends a lot on … how much they've done it before, what age they're caught and whether they go through treatment," Brinkman said. "(If) their conscience is questionable or it's not very strong, they don't have a lot of remorse for what they did … then we're starting to get more into the sex offender that's always going to be a sex offender."

Sex offenders sentenced on individual basis
Van Akkeren said every sex offender in his courtroom must be considered individually, though most face similar charges.

The felony counts involving sex with a minor carry high maximum penalties — up to 25 years in prison for second-degree sexual assault, the most common charge — so judges have flexibility in sentencing, Van Akkeren said.

"We have what essentially are statutory sex offenders" in teen sex situations, and on the other side of the spectrum, "those who are the real threats to the community," the judge said. "We need to be sure that we deal with things appropriately."

A father convicted of molesting a child may face substantial prison time, while a teenager charged with the same offense from a consensual encounter may receive probation or a deferred conviction agreement that dismisses the charge if no further crimes are committed for a year or two. The judge also has the option to not require sex offender registration in boyfriend-girlfriend cases.

"I think we do a good job in this county of distinguishing between the various kinds of sex offenders," said Limbeck, the defense attorney.

He said Sheboygan County judges take sexual assaults more seriously than they did a decade ago.

"Nowadays when you have a real significant age difference between the defendant and the victim, the likelihood of a prison sentence has increased," Limbeck said. "The criminal justice system has kind of grown with the community in general as we've become aware and better educated about the crimes that are being committed." ..News Source.. by Eric Litke • Sheboygan Press staff