Absolution: How to Recognize a Sex Offender

By Prof. Michael A. Davis

Absolution; How to Recognize a Sex Offender is a fictionalized account of real events that occurred during Michael Davis's 7 year experience treating adult sex offenders at the Adult Diagnostic & Treatment Center, in Avenel, New Jersey. It is an depth look at what happens in sex offender prisons from the standpoint of a treating psychologist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 24, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462808168

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Copyright © 2011 by Prof. Michael A. Davis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Epilogue***

Glossary

Appendix

Chapter I

How to Recognize a Sex Offender

I’ve always enjoyed evaluating someone’s mental state. It is one of the pleasures, if you will, of being a psychologist. If the person before you has recently raped and murdered a prostitute, you become more anxious to evaluate and explain why he did this. Every time you evaluate deviant behaviors, there is always this secret hope that your evaluee is really a monster from another species. That never occurs. There is always a human inside there, which is both frightening and comforting at the same time. As a professional, you are supposed to act neutral to the act of rape and murder. Yet, the truth of the matter is that the ‘act’ of discussing the specifics of raping and murdering a woman is repulsive for any healthy psychologist (let alone other professions e.g. homicide detectives, coroners, lawyers). The quote for a professional is when you score a touchdown, ‘act like you’ve been there before’. For me, that translates into act like you’ve interviewed plenty of murderers and to take control of the meeting. Do the job and get out. The job is to evaluate this man and decide whether he is sexually compulsive (1) or that his act was not part of a pattern that he couldn’t control. It’s sort of a cat and mouse detective process. You have to eliminate other factors that would have caused him to rape and murder a woman. Is he insane? (2) Did voices or hallucinations motivate this man to do these specific acts? This 32yr old black man, from the streets of Trenton, sitting across the desk from me, is surely not insane. He’s coherent in all three spheres. Objective testing shows a reality based approach to responding, and he does seem to see the consequences of his acts. Insanity is not a factor in motivating him to rape and murder a woman. Okay, if not insane, is he mentally retarded? (3). Why did he and his friend grab this prostitute off the streets and rape her? Was it because of a lack of mental capacity? Or did he have some obvious inability to appreciate that stabbing her in the chest, until the knife bent, was wrong? This is a ‘no brainer’, excuse the pun. Mr. Patterson was exactly my size, 5’11", 170lbs. Standing erect and appearing very confident. His demeanor was that of a choirboy. Although lacking in formal education, it’s easy to see that this man has used his wits to survive in a tough and unforgiving environment. Any test device that concludes he is mentally retarded, would follow the other fictions created to justify research. No… not retarded. At a glance I can quickly realize that Mr. Patterson is too smart to be dumb. The prostitute is still dead. So the next thing I want to eliminate is the big tricky one (4). If you’re motivated by this one, there’s no hope for you according to the experts (not that there’s much hope for you if you’re mentally retarded or insane in this society). Mr. Patterson developed a habit of getting high off cocaine, offering some to prostitutes in exchange for blow jobs and other sexual favors. When he didn’t have cocaine, he would find prostitutes anyway and maneuvered them into the position of being raped. He would say he did that quite a bit.

Was he motivated by the big one when began to suffocate his victim with a pillow so her cries for help were muffled? It’s my judgment call to decide that this man is a Sociopath or not. If he’s a sociopath, our general rule is that he shouldn’t be admitted to Avenel because he’s a) not sexually compulsive and b) is untreatable because his character disorder is based in a lack of conscious (in other words he doesn’t care). I totally agree. If a man is untreatable and just happened to rape and murder a woman once, perhaps it was just something sociopaths do if prostitutes are anywhere in the area. But the man in front of me admitted that he liked going to prostitutes and didn’t care if he had to rape them. In fact, he would prefer to rape them. This was his past time. As he uttered . . . all women are dogs… he felt better when they begged for their lives while he heaps humiliation on them. Was he just a sociopath? Is it just that he doesn’t care? Is it like stealing a car because you want to get to the other side of town? Is it like taking a radio from a car to buy drugs? The car and the radio are merely a means to an end. The inadvertent raping of woman is a means to what end? To an ejaculation? To hearing a woman beg in submission and pain? Is it that a sociopath wants anything to hurt? Kids, birds, cars, tables, vaginas, and minds… . whatever is available? No way. This guy in front of me likes raping women and can’t help himself when it comes to sex. He raped his own girlfriend when she was drunk one night. She didn’t press charges and he doesn’t remember doing it. How about going to a friend’s house to buy drugs and finding his girlfriend home alone. Then eventually raping his friend’s girlfriend before he leaves. Is it that Mr. Patterson has a problem taking things or does he have a problem taking things sexual?

That is the question that determines whether this man is a sociopath and does not need to come to Avenel for intense therapeutic intervention. It’s like saying you don’t need to understand why you have raped and murdered a woman. It is also the denial of reality. The only way to stop someone from raping and murdering women is to learn how we produce people who want to rape and murder. Isn’t Mr. Patterson’s behavior sick enough? Doesn’t it sound like he couldn’t help himself? If you had significant time to practice murdering a woman by using rape to totally control them, it would be easy to complete the act when it felt right. He can no more resist raping women then you can resist drinking a beer, if that’s what you like. Not only is this man repetitive and compulsive, he has increased the thrill with the ultimate control of a woman by possessing her very life.

He should rightfully be placed under the New Jersey Sex Offender statute and be sent directly to Avenel for intensive therapeutic intervention. The State of New Jersey has long recognized that very sick people should be handled in a special way. In many cases, being sent to Avenel is a life saving event in a sex offender’s life. The man finally has one more chance to answer his own questions of why he can’t stop raping women. Why it hurts at least a little bit each time you do it. Trust me, without playing hardball with the need to rape people, you will only continue the cycle of sex offending. For each very sick sex offender sent to Avenel, I would guess we are sparing hundreds of possible victims a year. That number would be tenfold, in number of lives spared, if Avenel wasn’t also sick. Regardless, being sent to Avenel is a godsend in the State of New Jersey. This brother sitting two feet away from me was definitely sick.

Hi, I’m Mike Davis. I say as I stare him in the eyes and grip his hands with my patented double handshake. It never occurred to me to adjust my handshake because I know he has killed with his.

Yeah, hi. Patterson mumbles.

I’m the psychologist doing your evaluation. Taking direct control as we sat down simultaneously. Whether he realizes it or not, I have no time to waste.

Okay, let me explain what I’m supposed to do. No matter what I say next, I can’t tell him the plain truth. If I tell him the truth he might make up things. He may fake like he’s a sex offender who can’t stop raping prostitutes.

I will write a report to the judge on your mental state and its relationship to the crime you were convicted of.

Uh huh. That’s all he could muster because I must have confused him. Nevertheless, the game begins.

I’m gonna ask you some questions and take notes… so just relax. I say calmly as I cross my legs and pull out a power pen. Before I ask a question I notice this stunned look on his face that said ‘this is the first black professional he has seen since he was arrested for the murder’. He has absolutely no idea what to expect from me. Mr. Patterson had never trusted anyone, not white people, not women and especially not an adult black man. Yet he could sense that he would be helpless against what I wanted from him. It would be easy to say nothing to me since he had already been found guilty of murder one, kidnapping and rape. The worst thing he might hear is that he would be executed. So he didn’t have to say anything to some psychologist asking questions. In fact, Mr. Patterson was in control and knew it. But he could not keep it.

Tell me about growing up with your family… did you like your mother?

What does that have to do with anything?

In order to rape and murder a woman you must have some bad feelings towards women, especially if you say you aren’t crazy. He has no defense against my eyes and my knowledge. I already know why he killed this woman. He doesn’t know yet why he killed this woman and he begins to realize he should follow my directions.

My mother was a prostitute and I hated her for doing that. He says, as I continue.

Was your father around? The doors are open and he can’t help himself and neither is he scared for a change.

He was around for awhile when I was young but he was drunk and mean all the time. He was gone after some big fight when I was 8. After this point on I was totally in control of this murderer. I convinced him that he should not fear me because I have nothing to gain under this three piece suit I was wearing. The interview had begun with my own self disclosure. I immediately let him know I grew up on the streets of Newark. He knew not to give me some bullshit about his feelings.

When was the first time you had sex? How old were you?"

I was about ten years old and the girl was ten. Now he’s hooked, he begins to relive his development.

After that I began to have sex all the time.

Were you getting high at the same time? He hadn’t noticed that I had already decided that he probably was exposed to alcohol and drugs along with sexuality during his childhood.

I started drinking and smoking marijuana around age 12 and I was fighting with other kids. He continued. I thought I was average.

I don’t think it is ‘average’ to be having sex and smoking dope at 11. I said with a casual arrogance knowing that he actually agrees with my feelings. After listening to him answer a few more basic questions, I go for what he wants me to ask about… raping and murdering this prostitute. He should not expect me to ask "why’ he did it. To me as the psychologist and him the perpetrator, the question of why he did it is useless to the both of us and it would show a lack of understanding of the problem.

Tell me what you’ll did. Believe it or not I didn’t want to ask the question or to be around when the answer shows up. That was the first time I sensed that this was no ordinary job for me. During the interview I realized how dangerous a job this was. I finally regretted this ability to see with my mind’s eye. There was a sense that I would not be able to separate my feelings from what he was about to tell me. But even worst, I was going to make a picture of his words and what he did was going to be too real to me.

A lot of people would go and get prostitutes to suck them off, if you have cocaine to trade for sex. But that’s all you want because they carry diseases. Mr. Patterson did not want to catch aids. His goal was to find a woman to get on her knees and suck on his dick until he comes. She also had to act submissive and act like she enjoys his control. Prostitutes had to act like they’re in pain but enjoying the domination from this particular John. If she did not ‘act’ right she might get hurt or cheated or both. On a wrong day she could die. It makes me think of astronauts who never talk about being afraid to die in space. Every prostitute must sense that a malfunction in any given John could mean her life. The very nature of the job is not to have anyone around while she does her thing. A prostitute can’t make any money unless she risks being alone and consequently death. They have more guts than an astronaut.

Me and this guy had some cocaine and we decided to go Front Street to find a prostitute. Everybody does that in Trenton. Anyway we got her to go into the basement of this abandoned building so she could do us and get paid in cocaine, He said, as we stared into each others’ eyes and he continued to tell what they did. The official version that I wrote said:

. . . once inside the basement, Mr. Patterson brandished a knife and ordered the woman to take her clothes off. Mr. Patterson then forced her to the floor and raped her. The co-defendant subsequently raped the victim as well. Shortly thereafter, the victim stood up and was stabbed in the chest by Mr. Patterson causing the knife to bend in her chest. The victim fell against a wall. Mr. Patterson’s co-defendant then began to strangle the victim with a belt. While the victim was still kicking and gasping for air, Mr. Patterson stabbed her three times in the ribs. Mr. Patterson finally used a pillow on the victim’s face in an attempt to suffocate her. After checking her vital signs, the co-defendant carried the body to the back of the basement Mr. Patterson later used some sheers to hit the motionless victim over the head two or three times to ‘make sure she was dead’. Both men then went to another apartment and fell asleep.

My official version was considered to be accurate by Mr. Patterson himself. The reason the description was so accurate is because my mind is able to make a photo of the evidence which makes it easy to describe on paper. Without a doubt I could see the knife bending in this woman’s chest complete with sound effects and gushing blood. Screams of pain that required one of the killers to muffle her mouth with a pillow. Imagine your sister or mother being stabbed to death and strangled by surprise without having any real reason why it is occurring.—Humans seem to suffer a special horror when there is thinking time while they are dying or appear to be dying. Terror is an aggravating factor in any crime, especially rape and murder. Nevertheless, I push on.

Is there a reason this occurred? As I marvel at my skill to avoid the word ‘why’.

If it wasn’t for the coke I wouldn’t be here. We wanted sex that night and didn’t have any more coke. He said with a sincere frown on his face. I spent some time exploring his simple emotions about the crime and somewhere along the way he used the word ‘sorry’. However, it was truly unclear whether