Not Monsters

Analyzing the Stories of Child Molesters

By (author) Pamela D. Schultz

Publication date:

20 January 2005

Length of book:

248 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742530577

In the wake of recent violence our nation has experienced, and the paranoia that has ensued, we've directed our attention to potential terrorists in our midst. Yet our children face more risk from people they know than from terrorists they have never met. An estimated one in five girls and one in ten boys in the United States experience some form of sexual abuse by age eighteen. What could possibly motivate a person to molest a child? Not Monsters documents the stories of nine convicted child molesters through one-on-one interviews, listening to what offenders have to say about their crimes and exploring the roots of these behaviors from a social constructionist perspective. Their words paint a compelling and frightening portrait of how sexual abuse works in Western culture to perpetuate a political and social system of dominance and control.

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 1 The Impact of Child Sexual Abuse
Chapter 4 2 "Truth" and the Social Construction of Child Sexual Abuse
Chapter 5 3 Tony—The Actor
Chapter 6 4 Red—The Martyr
Chapter 7 5 Billy—The Monstrous Child
Chapter 8 6 Darrell—The Altar Boy
Chapter 9 7 Abe—The Family Man
Chapter 10 8 Greg—The Victim
Chapter 11 9 Ben—The Defeated Soldier
Chapter 12 10 Matthew—The Lost Boy
Chapter 13 11 Rick—The User
Chapter 14 12 Making Sense of the Senseless
Chapter 15 Appendix
Chapter 16 Bibliography

Not Monsters is a valuable book that is both well written and highly informative. Pamela Schultz has done an excellent job in providing straightforward information about the impact of sexual abuse on victims as well as on men who sexually abuse children, looking critically at the motivation behind their behavior. Working in the field for almost three decades has taught me that punishment alone will not prevent sexual abuse from occurring. We need to fully and completely understand it. Not Monsters provides a daring look into child sexual abuse and furthers our understanding of this public health problem, lending support to the national efforts to prevent child sexual abuse.