NPR had an interesting piece about geriatric sex offenders. One of the interesting ideas explored is why some people become more likely to commit sex crimes as they get older:
Susan King has been the prison psychologist at Laurel Highlands for seven years and runs the sex-offender programs. She says it's difficult to figure out why some older men would suddenly become sex offenders.
"I think at times they're perplexed -- I know we certainly are -- as to why this would suddenly happen," King says. "I think part of it with the elderly [is that] they are still sexual. There might be frustrations, and they act it out on children because they are an easier target. Your performance doesn't maybe have to be perhaps up to your normal standard for you to offend a child."
The piece also addresses a problem among elder sex offenders that they do not want to seek counseling or treatment:
It could be one of the reasons many of the sex offenders here refuse to attend counseling. They're called "non-admitters." Harry, 84, is one of them. He was convicted of abusing his granddaughter, but he refuses to even say that much. He's been here since he was 74.
Like a lot of non-admitters, Harry was difficult when he first arrived, staffers say. Harry says that at his age, he just didn't like people telling him what to do.
It's a very interesting article on an underexplored issue in sex crimes.
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