It's been a disturbing trend lately, we're talking about the amount of people arrested and accused of child molestation or child pornography. "Children don't lie about sexual assault, they just don't,” said Dr. Bernadette Muscat.
Dr. Muscat an expert in criminology and who has worked with child sex offenders and victims says she's not surprised by the five men who have recently made headlines.
“Really we're just scratching the surface this is not at all the realm of what's out there and what exists,” said Dr. Muscat.
Dr. Muscat says there's a commonality among child predators. They want control and they prey on the young to get it, typically going after children younger than 12-years old. Recently two teachers in Los Angeles and a teacher in Clovis were arrested - and accused of horrific sex crimes against children. Then this week two more cases. In Tulare County - a man was arrested accused of molestation. And Madera County - a man is arrested for having thousands of pictures of child pornography. Heather Steele helps train law enforcement and the public about the problem through the innocent justice foundation.
“All our evidence shows that by the time they actually look at child pornography on the computer it's quite likely that they've already had quite a few victims,” said Steele
Dr. Muscat says in most cases the perpetrator knows their victims and it's crucial for parents to communicate with their children about inappropriate touching.
“It's important to not just focus on stranger danger as parents traditionally do and focus on that it could be anybody. Including someone within the family, a teacher, a coach, a friend, you know any of those kinds of things,” said Dr. Muscat.
Dr. Muscat says the reason why we're hearing more about these predators getting arrested is because more parents are talking to their children and more victims are coming forward and reporting it.
