All of a sudden I was aware that my friends were not watching the movie, but their attention and eyes were focused on the man. His raincoat was open and he had fully exposed himself and was manipulating his genitals. He seemed to be almost laughing softly, and sat there staring at us. We did not fully understand what was happening. We sat there and stared in awe with feelings of curiosity and inquisitiveness while greatly mixed with emotions of distaste and repulsiveness.
Yet, we did
not scream or break into hysterics, but sat as
though we were hypnotized. We must have all felt as
though the sight was wrong, because in unison the
three of us quietly left our seats and headed
towards the back of the theater.
Contrary to common assumptions, old men are relatively uncommon
child molesters, and their approaches to children might be judged as
quite harmless, as the following cases attest.
When I was very young, maybe seven or eight years
old, I got to know an old couple who lived next
door fairly well. I never really liked the man,
though, because he was hunched over and always
seemed a little too friendly, especially when his
wife was gone. One day my friend and I were supposed
to take something over to the neighbor lady,
but the lady wasn't home and only the old man was
there. He was friendly to us as usual and gave us
candy.
Then he told us that he had something special
to show us, but we had to promise not to tell
anyone what we saw. Of course we were curious, so
he took us in the bathroom, unzipped his pants and
showed us his pubic hairs, saying that they were
about the longest ones anyone could have. We were
really shocked and left immediately. I don't think
that I was so scared by what happened as by what
could happen if anyone found out.
"Grandpa" (my aunt's father) who was about 85 years
old, piled the three of us on his lap to read us a
story from a children's book. At age seven, I still
enjoyed having older people read to me. After he
finished reading, he placed the book on the coffee
table and just talked with us about what we had
been doing. As he was talking, I felt his aged hand
reach into my underpants and touch me. I was pretty
young so I really didn't know what to do or say. I
felt like telling what he was doing, but I was too
afraid so I remained completely silent.
The middle to late thirties, and the late fifties, are major age
groups from whose ranks so-called molesters come. (Mohr, 1964). In the
following case, the man "probably in his late thirties" is bold and
persistent in soliciting the child's cooperation. The child's fear of
further aggression had she cooperated and left the store with the man
seems reasonable in this case.
It was a Saturday morning and my parents had
left me in the store to look at toys. I was
around six at the time.
The toys that I was
interested in were on the back shelf so I could
not reach them. As I was still attempting to
reach for them a man, probably in his late thirties,
came up to help me. At first I thought he
was a clerk. He gave the toys to me and started
to ask me questions. He seemed to be a rather
nice gentleman. After about ten minutes of conversation
he left.