NCJ Number
173365
Journal
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: January 1997 Pages: 75-86
Date Published
1997
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Information from 24,000 pages of archival records formed the basis of this analysis of the offender and criminal methods used in well-documented cases of child pornography in a child care center known as Alicia's Preschool; the defendant was tried and convicted, and the victims were successful in a civil lawsuit.
Abstract
The data came from the extant files of Alicia's Preschool, the police records, the more than 3,000 slides, the criminal trial transcript, the psychiatric evaluations, the civil lawsuit documents, and expert depositions. The identifying details and the names used in the study were all fictitious. The case involved a police raid in 1980 on the home of the well-educated owners of Alicia's Preschool. The husband bankrolled his wife's preschool and made himself available for routine but annoying tasks that facilitated his objective of gaining access to the children. He created both pornographic slides and standard portrait photographs of each child. No teachers, teaching assistants, or staff saw any overt evidence of his sexually molesting the children, which occurred in the bathroom or nap room behind closed doors. He maintained a home life that involved minimal contact with his family to minimize the detection of his crimes. These characteristics help explain why the crimes remained undetected for so long. In retrospect, it appears plausible that the offender would have been apprehended sooner if the preschool parents had shared their concerns with each other. However, such crimes were effectively closeted between 1974 and 1980, and the social atmosphere for discussing child sexual abuse was more constrained. However, the children experienced many adverse short-term and long-term psychological consequences. The requirement that each parent identify the pornographic slides ultimately made the parents symbolic witnesses to the crimes against their children, thereby helping create profoundly disturbed families. Nevertheless, individual children and individual parents varied greatly in the psychological impacts experienced. The information may help extend understanding of the psychological template of child pornography and child sexual abuse in child care settings. 8 references