an inch from murder - weblog

« Suspect in child porn case faces sex assault charges | Main | Convicted child molester a suspect in 1998 disappearance of 8-year-old »

November 15, 2004

Sexual predators studied

By MAYA CARPENTER -- Special to The News-Press

Duane Dobbert spent 35 years studying the minds of criminals.

Four years ago, that career took another turn.

That’s when he heard about a case involving a 6-year-old child who was abducted at a soccer game by a convicted sexual offender.

One child’s grandparents were recording the game. When the family sat down to watch the tape, they noticed five suspicious men in the stands. They turned out to be convicted sexual offenders.

The father of four girls, Dobbert said the case propelled him in a different direction — the study of sex crimes. “It really bothered me a lot,” he said.

He decided something had to change, that people needed to be armed with more information to prevent such crimes.

“Parents and educators have to know that this isn’t a tiny occurrence,” said Dobbert, a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. “There are millions of these people that are predators.”

He put his ideas to work, and Dobbert recently published a book “Halting the Sexual Predators Among Us: Preventing Attack, Rape and Lust Homicide.”

It covers some difficult topics. It explains psychological terms such as narcissistic personality disorder, which involves a self-love that’s so extreme it doesn’t consider anyone else’s feelings. And it tackles sexual topics such as exhibitionism, which involves exposing oneself to a nonconsenting person.

Dobbert leads the reader through the factors that cause sexual predators to commit crimes.

“The disorders are something that keep building over years,” said Dobbert, a former forensic examiner who now teaches forensic psychology. “They don’t just wake up one morning and the desire stops.”

Though he says he isn’t an overprotective father, his work has affected the way he raised his children and the way he teaches his grandchildren. He instilled in them the importance of being aware of their surroundings at all times — a topic he repeatedly shares with the reader as well.

Sexual predators, he believes, are everywhere. And they like public places, because that’s where they find their victims. Also, many obtain jobs to be near children, similar to infamous 1970s serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who targeted young men and abused and killed them.

If people are more aware of their surroundings and the people in them, they may be able to avoid victimization, Dobbert said.

“I take it on as my responsibility in my career to make sure I don’t see another child or adult hurt by a sexual predator,” he said.

To Port Charlotte resident Joanne Lalli, who bought the book on Amazon.com, Dobbert’s work answers the difficult question — “‘How ... why could anyone do that to a child/to me?’”

“Dr. Dobbert provides keen insights and understanding into the motivation of child molesters,” Lalli said.

The 58-year-old educator was raised in Detroit where drug abuse, poverty and crime were common. “I grew up in the ’hood, I had family who violated the law,” he said.

But he didn’t want that kind of life. He intended to become a doctor. One semester, he took a psychology course. His life’s plan changed.

After receiving his master’s degree from Michigan, he began working as a probation officer.

“I did that for 18 years, and then I got tired,” he said.

Because sexual assaults were the worst crimes he’d dealt with, Dobbert began studying sex offenders.

“This book is out there to get people’s heads out of the sand,” Dobbert said.

Posted by Nealus at November 15, 2004 11:58 AM

Comments

Post a comment