By Janell Ross
The Tennessean
April 13, 2009
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090413/NEWS03/904130348/1006/NEWS01
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| Louis Levine |
In the days since a Middle Tennessee teacher and former employee of several child-oriented organizations was arrested on federal charges of producing child pornography, there is at least one question that looms large.
If Louis Levine really spent three decades doing the things he's accused of, why didn't anyone speak up?
The answer lies in a web of shame, self-blame and societal attitudes toward sex and power. Those who deal with abused children say there's no way for outsiders to understand the emotional trauma a victim experiences. And Levine's neighbors say they didn't feel confident calling police or were criticized when they did.
"How common is this kind of secrecy? In a word: very," said Raquel Hatter, a Nashville psychologist who specializes in sexual abuse.
"There's a lot of stuff most people don't want anyone to ever know that doesn't even equate to this situation. So you can begin to imagine what the victims in this situation may be dealing with."
Federal authorities charged Belle Meade-area resident Levine, 52, last week with producing child pornography after recovering more than 400 homemade tapes from his padlocked bedroom. If convicted, he faces a minimum prison sentence of 15 years.
The tapes depicted teenagers engaged in sex or masturbation, recorded in Levine's house or an outbuilding in the back yard. To the outside observer, it might seem that any one of the teens could have reported what happened to their parents, school officials or even police. It turns out a clear line linking victimization, investigation and punishment is the exception rather than the rule.
People need look no further than the Catholic Church to understand, said Linda Lebelle, director of Focus Adolescent Services. The national nonprofit organization helps teenagers and families find resources to prevent abuse or heal from it.
"In many cases, the victims kept that abuse secret for decades," Lebelle said.
" … You had victims who were being victimized by a trusted authority figure. That speaks to both how these things occur and how they remain secret."
A 2006 U.S. Justice Department study found about 58 percent of all crime is not reported to police. The reporting rate for sex crimes committed against victims between the ages of 12 and 19 was just under 34 percent.
Silence is complex
While the majority of the nation's teachers, priests and other individuals working in the "helping professions" are not sexual predators, the professions attract pedophiles because they give predators two things: access to children and a reservoir of trust from other adults and children, Lebelle said.
Before teaching in public schools in Murfreesboro and Nashville, Levine taught at what is now Currey Ingram Academy and worked at a museum now known as the Adventure Science Center.
The reasons so little sex crime is reported to police are complicated, but they're similar from case to case. Nearly every adult is far better equipped to intimidate a child or explain away questionable situations if discovered by others. And there is almost always a power differential between the alleged victim and perpetrator, said Hatter, who is a sexual abuse survivor and president and CEO of Children and Family Service, a Nashville organization working to help victims of abuse heal.
A federal judge described Levine as the holder of "substantial assets." He is a son of Morris Levine, the late Metro councilman who was once one of the city's most prominent attorneys and the original owner of the home where his son allegedly committed his crimes.
Asking why the victims of sexual abuse didn't report the crime is understandable but the wrong question, Hatter said.
"The person already has the burden of their own victimization that they have to live with," she said. " ... If you think about it, reporting the situation, that is a new burden you are asking them to take on."
Then there's the issue of shame, Hatter said. Some former victims today may hold prominent positions in the community or have families. They may have struggled for years privately with ongoing difficulties trusting others, dealing with rejection and maintaining a healthy sense of self-worth, issues common among sex abuse victims.
Parties well-known
In Levine's neighborhood, there are also few easy answers.
His Halloween parties were the stuff of community legend, where the kids got candy and the parents got pornography, said Sandra Griffith, who has lived two doors down from Levine for 10 years.
In the last two years, some noticed a pattern of six or seven teenagers coming and going from Levine's house at times when they should have been in school, she said. But the magazines and the trail of teenagers were the only things visible outside the house.
"It's a long stretch from porno magazines to child pornography and exploiting teenagers," Griffith said.
"Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and I think we all wish that we had known and reported what we know now," she said. " ... With Louis, I think the weirdness of his house, the condition and his weirdness … I think it just all became one conversation, part of the package."
Levine's house failed to meet Metro building codes on two occasions.
In 2000, shortly after moving to the neighborhood, Michelle Nowell's family, including her then 2- and 4-year-old sons and now ex-husband, dropped by the Levine home on Halloween at the suggestion of a neighbor. When the family came home, Nowell said, her older son dumped out the day's haul.
"We didn't know there was pornography," Nowell said. "Two women on the front cover — you can imagine what they were doing. I freaked."
Nowell called police. But when they arrived, no action was taken because no crime had been committed, police said. The magazines were given to adults.
Afterward, Nowell said, neighbors made her feel that she and her family had done something wrong, never mind supporting her in revealing the activity. She was the woman who called police on the legendary Levine Halloween party.
"Nobody liked us," she said. "It was one time of the year when parents can come, men can get their pornography, and it's OK. … Nobody wanted their kids to play with our kids. Nobody wanted to know us."
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