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American Morning

Victims of Child Abuse Not Predisposed to Becoming Abusers

Aired May 16, 2002 - 09:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to move on to the "Big Question." Can child molesters ever change? In newly released documents in the case of former Boston priest, Paul Shanley, an alleged serial sex abuser, the revelation that Shanley was abused himself. The 1994 church memo suggests that Shanley was so personally damaged that his pathology is beyond repair, it cannot be reversed.

In a 1995 letter, Shanley himself writes that, "I, too, had been sexually abused as a teenager and later as a seminarian by a priest." So are the victims of child sexual abuse more likely to become abusers themselves? Well, conventional wisdom says yes, but our next guest doesn't buy that.

Psychologist David Ingle treats both victims and offenders and is a survivor of sexual molestation that began when he was in fourth grade. He joins us from Philadelphia -- good of you to join us this morning, doctor.

DAVID INGLE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nice to see you.

ZAHN: Nice to see you.

So let's start off by talking about this document that's been released, essentially saying that Reverend Paul Shanley was beyond repair. Do you buy that assessment that was made by doctors?

INGLE: Well, that's very strong language. With the treatment of sexual abusers, what we tend to think about is not a cure, but management. This is true for most mental health disorders; actually, most medical disorders. That cures are rare, but teaching an individual to manage their impulses to, to manage their behaviors, to limit contact with children is something that we're actually fairly successful with.

ZAHN: But Reverend Paul Shanley, as you know, is accused of molesting at least 26 kids. What does that suggest to you about the way his case was dealt with?

INGLE: Well, I'm not familiar with all of his case, but it does suggest to me that he probably was not treated by competent professionals who know how to handle sexual abusers and know how to help these individuals deal with their problems.

ZAHN: I want to make the story a little more personal because you came forward in your hometown newspaper, where you practice, and you say that you too were a survivor of child abuse. And I know it engendered a lot of reaction even from your own family members who wondered if you could be trusted with your child.

INGLE: This is true, yeah.

ZAHN: Tell us about the process you had to walk through once you made this admission.

INGLE: Well, one of the biggest problems for child victims is that they become enmeshed with the abusers in webs of secrecy. Children can very easily be persuaded to keep secrets for their offenders. And so really what I had to deal with was years of doubt and worry, mostly centering around what would happen to my family. The person who abused me, starting in fourth grade, had threatened my family members with harm.

I spent lots of years keeping the secret so that my family members wouldn't be harmed. And then when I was able to extricate myself from that relationship as I got older, I had to deal with my own self-doubts, what would happen if I told people, what would be the consequences, et cetera. So I really had to deal with that.

When I finally did come out to my family, there's always the questions of what will they say? What will they think about me? What will happen? And so those consequences varied, really.

ZAHN: And Dr. Ingle, is it true that one family asked you point blank if you had ever molested your own son?

INGLE: Yeah. That was quite a surprise to have the first response be that. But it's not an uncommon response in the culture. I mean I can forgive that family member because it is conventional wisdom who are sexually abused will eventually harm other people sexually. Now this isn't the case, but it is a fairly commonly held notion.

ZAHN: And I know you feel very strongly that if these abusers are given the proper treatment maybe they won't strike again. But I wanted you to comment on a long-term study that was done that basically tracked child molesters for at least 15 years. And there was a pattern that developed that basically showed that those that were convicted of molesting boys were far more likely to repeat their crime than those who hurt young girls. Why is that?

INGLE: Well, in our culture it's very acceptable and encouraged for adult men to spend large amounts of time with juvenile males. And so it's just easier for men who offend boys to gain access to young boys. I think another issue is that in research conducted on victims of sexual abuse, male victims, child male victims are much less likely to seek help for this.

So when you combine the social appropriateness for older men to spend time with younger boys and the fact that boys tend not to seek help, boys tend more to seek their own solutions to the problem and not involve others, it just makes it easier for these men to find victims and to remain insulated from the consequences.

ZAHN: And in closing here, I don't want to make it sound like that you support all these alleged abusers, but I know you've said in interviews in the past that child molesters sometimes have a very unrealistic notion of how their victims are feeling. What are they thinking?

INGLE: Well, the thing to remember about pedophiles is that they're very socially immature. They're much more comfortable with children than they are with adults. And so they really have a large amount of personal and interpersonal identification with the children that they're with. So you really are, when you're treating these individuals, you really are dealing with someone who has a very juvenile maturity level but adult intellect.

ZAHN: All right. We're going to leave it there this morning. Psychologist David Ingle, thank you for sharing your personal story with us and helping us to better understand the kind of work your facility tries to do. Appreciate your time.

INGLE: Thank you.

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