Allegations against Former Music Teacher Wiliam Jackson Serve As Reminder, Experts Say

By Ivey Dejesus
The Patriot-News
September 20, 2012

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/09/allegations_against_former_mus.html

William Jackson

Reports that a member of a church community has been charged with sexually molesting boys who were under his charge raise troubling scenarios for child sexual abuse experts.

Authorities allege that William Jackson, 57, a former music teacher at Bible Baptist Church in Shiremanstown, began molesting boys in his music class two years ago, court documents state.

Sean McCormack, chief deputy district attorney and head of the child-abuse unit in Dauphin County, said child predators usually get away with their crimes for a longer period of time than law enforcement initially suspects.

“It doesn’t surprise me when we begin investigating a case to find out that somebody has abused someone else in the past,” he said. “The statistics show that when someone gets caught, they’ve usually had X number of other victims prior to getting caught.”

Moreover, after decades of media scrutiny of the clergy child sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, the case serves as a potential reminder that child predators know no religious — or secular — boundaries.

On Wednesday, Jackson was charged with sexually assaulting seven boys, ages 8 to 18.

McCormack said that not every child abuser is a pedophile, the latter referring to a psychological disorder that predisposes a person to be sexually attracted to children.

“You have people that are abusers of opportunity. Maybe it’s a family member,” McCormack said. “Sometimes they gravitate to an occupation that puts them in contact with children.”

McCormack said child predators are typically manipulators who work a situation to their advantage to take advantage of a child.

“I’ve seen cases of people who are in drama classes and have kids talk about their problems, and the teacher would use that to identify vulnerable kids, then move in on the vulnerable kids,” he said.

Police said the younger boys, who were taking piano lessons from Jackson in the school’s music room, told them Jackson would fondle them underneath their clothes.

But whether a predator molests a child underneath clothes or over clothes is immaterial, said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survival Network of those Abused by Priests.

“Whether you are robbed at gunpoint or knifepoint, is it relevant? It’s the violation and the fear that is the most damaging,” he said. “The same is true with child sex abuse. It’s the act of being treated like an object and selfishly being used for some adult self-sexual gratification that causes harm. Whether it’s above or below the waist or there is clothing or not or whether there is actual penetration.”

Clohessy said the allegations in this case serve as a reminder that abuse can happen across the faith spectrum and is not contained to the much-scrutinized scandal in the Catholic Church.

“Predators always have and always will seek out positions of access to kids and power over kids,” he said. “Schools, camps, therapy, churches, scouting programs.”

He said SNAP worries more about children in Protestant denominations than those in Catholic parishes because the former churches tend to be more decentralized.

Still, authorities these days have the benefit of harsher penalties.

In the last few years, the Legislature has broadened the definition of various indecent aggravated-assault crimes and increased the corresponding penalties.