BishopAccountability.org
	Sex Predators Proliferating in Cyberspace, Experts Say By Shirley Ragsdale Des Moines Register September 30, 2007 http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070930/NEWS/709300330/1045/LIFE05 Louis Stroschein Jr., 31, remains in the Black Hawk County Jail since his Sept. 13 arrest. Police say the well-regarded Catholic school principal from Harlan drove to Waterloo to meet a teenage girl - his Internet chat friend - and take her to a motel for sex. Instead, he was met by Lt. Kent Smock of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department, and arrested on felony charges of enticing away a minor. Stroschein's wife has taken their children and left Harlan, school officials said. No one else has stepped forward to help the principal, who has been suspended from his job without pay, to make bail. He is being held on $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 8. Officials with the Diocese of Des Moines, like people in Harlan, were stunned by the charges against Stroschein. He had passed the Catholic Church's rigorous new background check and had taken child protection training required of every employee. He came highly recommended from his previous job at St. Anthony Catholic School in Dubuque. "There were no red flags anywhere," said Luvern A. Gubbels, Des Moines Diocese superintendent of schools, who said he "was just floored. I would never, never expect it." Stroschein's arrest is the latest in a string of similar cases being filed in Iowa. Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court revoked the license of Michael Blazek, an Iowa lawyer, who is serving a 19-year sentence after being convicted in February 2004 of attempted enticement of a minor for sex. On Aug. 8, a Des Moines County jury found Michael Ray Evans guilty of enticing away a minor after he attempted to have a sexual encounter with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl he met in an online chat room. By several measures, the prevalence of online predators is increasing, despite the risk of being caught. "You would think (Stroschein) would see NBC's 'To Catch a Predator' like everyone else and behave himself," said Dr. Donald Black, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and author of "Bad Boys, Bad Men." "Clearly, intelligence and education don't have a lot to do with it," Black said. "These men respond to very powerful urges without seeing that their behavior may have bad consequences." Officials with the Diocese of Des Moines, troubled by a child sexual abuse scandal that has battered the church since 2002, believed they have done all they can to protect children in its churches and schools. All people who have contact with children, from volunteers to teachers and administrators, must undergo criminal background checks and child abuse training. They all sign a code-of-conduct agreement. Yet, 6,000 criminal background checks later, Stroschein slipped through. The arrest sent a ripple of disbelief and shock through Shelby County Catholic School, the pre-K-8 school where he had been principal for two years. People are flabbergasted at the allegations against Stroschein, who was admired as an educator and prominent in the community. "It was like getting kicked in the stomach," said the Rev. Robert Hoefler, pastor of St. Michael parish in Harlan. "He came to us with an excellent record from the Archdiocese of Dubuque," said Gubbels, the diocese superintendent. "Since we started the program in 2003, we've done more than 6,000 background checks and we've only come up with a few hits. Most of those were things like DUI, not child-related crimes." Experts said that the reasons someone becomes an Internet predator are complex, but almost universally, those who participate in the behavior think they're going to get away with it. "We don't have any idea what would compel a person like Stroschein to do something like this, but it is an increasingly common problem," said Smock, of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Department. "We've made 51 arrests in the last 25 months. It's really sad. "We have a policy of proactive investigation," Smock said. "I can go online and pretend to be a young boy or girl and monitor things. If I go to a chat room, easily in 30 minutes a half-dozen people will talk to me inappropriately, by their own hand. The conversations are nothing I initiated." Internet chat rooms make pursuing predatory behavior easier, the experts said. They also give perpetrators a false sense of security. Someone like Stroschein doesn't fit the stereotype of a sexual predator, according to Rachel Bandy, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Simpson College. "It's the reason they're able to fly under the radar and get away with it," Bandy said. "I'm never surprised when a person in a position of power uses it to create a victim pool. A school principal would be aware of youth culture, how to speak to youth and groom youth to make them comfortable." Black and other mental health professionals said almost all Internet predators are men. "But people in all walks of life, all levels of society, engage in this behavior," Black said. "People I have seen and treated in the past who exhibit this behavior respond to very strong sexual drives. "They make decisions and choices that to us are not rational, which puts them at risk for arrest and prosecution," Black said. Shelby County Catholic School teachers and administrators have urged parents to listen to their children and report any suspicions to local police or the Black Hawk County sheriff. To this point, diocesan officials, educators, and law enforcement officers have received no other allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior by Stroschein. Religion Editor Shirley Ragsdale can be reached at (515) 284-8208 or sragsdale@dmreg.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.