I agree, modesty blaise. Something happened during their captivity...was it something spiritual, even, that convicted them during this crime? Did the girls start praying? (Remember the little boy who was kidnapped and started singing a favorite gospel song in the back seat until his captor stopped the car and told him to get out?
)
Also...at first we were told they'd been dropped off at a home in Richville, and escaped. But the fact that there are only two crime scenes (their vegetable stand area and the home of the perps) rules out another home being in the picture. So I think the later version (that they were dropped off by their captors--the version at the press conference)--must be the accurate one.
I think they got scared and wanted to get rid of them quickly. I;m hopeful they haven't done this before and the publicity scared them.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20140817/NEWS05/140818993
Mose (father): "Its sad, They must have ruined their whole life.
Barbara (mother): "grateful to have her girls back home, but daily life has not yet returned to normal at the two-story white farmhouse they share with their 14 children" "We feel relieved we have them. Its still not like it was,
(older sister, age 19) said her two sisters are not speaking much about their ordeal.
(Talking about it) just makes it scarier for them, she said.
And they shouldn't talk about it. I've read a lot about trauma in children and talking about horrible things re-traumatizes children. There are better ways to help them heal - tons of community and family support, going back to normal and having control over certain aspects of their lives are fantastic, apparently.
"Myths and Facts"
April 2014
The Office of Sex Offender Management (OSOM) and the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) are not endorsing any of the research cited below, nor taking sides on these issues. Instead, we are presenting a balanced summary of what we know (and do not know) concerning these issues.
Myth: Children who are sexually assaulted will grow up to sexually assault others.
Fact: A percentage of sex offenders were abused as children, although certainly not the majority
Becker and Murphy (1998) estimated that while 30 percent of sex offenders were sexually abused as children, 70 percent were not.
Hindman and Peters (2001) found that 67 percent of sex offenders initially reported experiencing sexual abuse as children, but when given a polygraph ("lie detector") test, the proportion dropped to 29 percent, suggesting that some sex offenders exaggerate early childhood victimization in an effort to rationalize their behavior or gain sympathy from others.
Myth: Only males commit sex offenses.
Fact: Although most offenders are male, females commit sex offenses too.
As of April 2014, about 2 percent (769) of the people required to register under New York's Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) were female (data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, Sex Offender Registry).
http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/nsor/som_mythsandfacts.htm
It totally depends on the study:
Results:We observed a higher prevalence of sexual abuse history among adult sex offenders
than among non-sex offenders (Odds Ratio = 3.36, 95% confidence intervals of 2.234.82).
The two groups did not significantly differ with regard to physical abuse history (OR = 1.50,
95% CI = 0.882.56). There was a significantly lower prevalence of sexual abuse history
among sex offenders against adults compared to sex offenders against children (OR = 0.51,
95% CI = 0.350.74), whereas the opposite was found for physical abuse (OR = 1.43, 95%
CI = 1.022.02).
Conclusion: There is support for the sexually abusedsexual abuser hypothesis, in that sex
offenders are more likely to have been sexually abused than non-sex offenders, but not more
likely to have been physically abused.We discuss potential mechanisms for the relationship
between sexual abuse history and sexual offending, including the possibility that a third
factor might account for the relationship.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=TMx_2t_blXperh4j9QhlwQ&bvm=bv.73231344,d.cGU
Among the studies that have examined childhood maltreatment (including sexual victimization) among sex offenders, there is quite a bit of variation. But there does seem to be a relatively high prevalence of sexual or physical abuse among samples of sex offenders. This seems to suggest that there may be some sort of relationship between having been maltreated and later engaging in sex offending behaviors, especially when other kinds of vulnerability or risk factors are present. But in and of itself, there is no research that supports the notion that it actually causes sex offending. And we know that there are many people who have been subjected to physical, sexual, or emotional abuse during their childhood or adolescence, yet they never go on to commit sex offenses. You may also find it interesting to know that when researchers have attempted to explore recidivism among sex offenders based on a history of sexual abuse, no relationship has been found.
http://www.csom.org/train/etiology/3/3_1.htm
I actually think the numbers are much higher. There is evidence that criminals usually downplay abuse they themselves suffered. For example, Bundy described an idyllic childhood. He denied abuse. But family members and other described his father/grandfather as violent and abusive, who abused his wife, the family pets, tortured animals and threw his daughter down the stairs for sleeping in.
It is unlikely Bundy was being truthful.
