Wives of Child Molesters Within the Family

This pioneering volume brings a rarely-studied population--wives and girlfriends of men who molest children--into the clear focus necessary to understand the dynamics of these disturbed families. Details of the study spotlight interview methodology, format, structure, and safety as the subjects provide crucial data--about their partners as well as themselves--typically overlooked by law enforcement and other professionals. Findings clarify or replace popularly held ideas about the psychology of partners of child molesters, and of the abusers themselves, in key areas such as childhood experience of sexual abuse and the construction of elaborate fictions to cover the abuse. In addition, a comparative analysis of findings by American and Dutch researchers provides early possibilities for cross-cultural research.

Included in the coverage:

• The interviewees: developmental and abuse history, relationship with the molester.
• The molesters: abuse, arrest, and mental health histories.
• Practical suggestions for conducting interviews.
• Opportunities for intervention in primary care.
• Common behaviors of molesters.
• The involvement of pornography.

Child molestation cases are among the most difficult in terms of obtaining information. Taking original steps toward capturing the whole story,Wives of Child Molesters within the Family is as significant to law enforcement personnel as it is to mental health professionals dealing with molesters and pedophiles.

Robert R. Hazelwood, M.S. is a retired Supervisory Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is currently affiliated with the Academy Group, Inc., in Manassas, Virginia. He holds a BS in sociology, an MS in counseling psychology and he attended a 1 year fellowship in forensic medicine at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology while a major in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps. He has co-authored five books, ten book chapters, and published more than 45 articles. He has testified as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases in city, county, state, military and federal courts and has appeared before the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees.