Sandusky child molestation case teaches wider lessons
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach convicted Friday of child abuse, was so obviously guilty that even his own attorney said an acquittal would be so shocking that he’d “die of a heart attack.”
If only all pedophiles were as easily punished. But they aren’t. If they were, Sandusky himself would have been caught long ago, before he had a chance to rape so many young boys.
OUR VIEW Ask yourself: What would I have done?
Despite the 45-count conviction, Sandusky’s history of preying on children at Penn State since the mid-1990s is a case study in the difficulty of exposing pedophilia. Among the lessons:
-Pedophiles cloak themselves in respectability. Typical abusers are not scuzzy strangers in trench coats. They are more likely to be respected teachers, doctors, coaches, scout leaders, clergy or others with jobs that give them access to young people. A local wrestling coach testifying on Sandusky’s behalf called him a saint. The community saw him as generous and charismatic, a man who took disadvantaged boys under his wing in his Second Mile charity. The boys got attention, football tickets, trips and invitations for sleepovers at the coach’s house. Even the victims were tugged in two directions, compartmentalizing the good Sandusky from the evil one. Abuses were psychologically buried, like “putting things in the attic and closing the door,” one victim testified.
-Many victims cannot bring themselves to talk
about, let alone report, abuse. Sandusky came close to getting away with his crimes. If it hadn’t been for a single teenager and his mother who finally went to authorities in 2008, a dozen years after the first incidents occurred, he might never have been brought to justice. Victims too often feel humiliated and blame themselves. They fear that no one will believe them. Or that the abuser will retaliate. One of Sandusky's alleged victims, now 28, told jurors that Sandusky threatened that he’d never see his family again if he told anyone of the assaults.
In the Catholic Church, where abuse by priests spanned a half-century, more than 10,000 young people had been victimized by 1990. Yet fewer than one in five had come forward. The full extent of the crimes became known only after the scandal made national headlines and more victims felt safe to step out of the shadows. Even then, high-ranking church officials continued to cover up the abuse, and over decades knowingly left abusive priests unpunished and in positions of power where they could continue victimizing other boys. Only one of those, Monsignor William Lynn, has been convicted, fittingly on the same day as the Sandusky verdict.
-Even eyewitnesses to abuse can be reluctant to get involved. Two adults caught Sandusky in the act. That’s a rarity in sex abuse cases. And still they looked the other way. In 2000, a janitor saw Sandusky in the locker room shower performing oral sex on a young boy. In 2001, again in the showers, Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant coach, witnessed a boy, who looked to be about 10, pressed against a wall with Sandusky behind him. McQueary told his boss, legendary coach Joe Paterno, and he spoke to top university officials.
But McQueary didn’t intervene during the incident. Or call 911. Experts on sex abuse cite several explanations for such failures of character. McQueary was a lowly assistant, Sandusky a big man in town. People “are afraid to tug on Superman’s cape,” says Santa Clara University psychology professor Tom Plante, author of a book about the Catholic sex abuse scandal. They fear that they’ll get in trouble, or not be believed. Or they can’t believe what they’ve seen.
A subtle form of gender bias is also in play. Society thinks “boys can protect themselves” against abuse, says psychologist Walter Bera, who has treated 120 victims. And if they don’t, people tend to see the acts “as consensual.” Victims get caught in that myth as well, blaming themselves for the abuse. When girls are abused, society is sometimes more protective, though not always.
-Powerf-l institutions close ranks. In this, Penn State and the Catholic Church have much in common. Athletic director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz were told in 2001 about the shower incident. The result? Sandusky was told not to use Penn State athletic facilities with young people. No one called police. Apparently, no one even tried to find the boy in the shower.
Since the scandal broke last November, and as the Sandusky trial unfolded in recent weeks, millions of Americans have asked themselves what would they have done if they had been in McQueary’s place, or Paterno’s, or Schultz’s or Curley’s. Sadly, the facts suggest that most would fail the test. But if enough people keep asking the question, perhaps more will step up and do the right thing.