A 23-year-old man from Eau Claire has been charged with child enticement and sexual assault. The charges stem from an incident involving a person under the influence of an intoxicant who was incapable of giving consent.
According to the source (citing the criminal complaint):
A 16-year-old girl told police [the accused] had sex with her when she went to his home so he could apologize for being inappropriate.
She told police they were facetiming one another earlier when [the accused] said he wanted to have sex with her. When she said she did not, she said he told her he would rape her because he is pedophile. When the girl went to [his] house so he could apologize, she said he gave her more than 10 shots of vodka. It was after that he assaulted her. https://www.wqow.com/news/crime/eau-claire-man-charged-with-child-enticement-and-sexual-assault/article_464609be-85b2-11ef-b33a-63e5d4b4a663.html (Oct. 08, 2024).
Commentary
The accused stated to the victim that he was a "pedophile" and he wanted to "rape" her. Instead of reporting the conversation to a parent or to law enforcement, the victim went to the home of the accused so "he could apologize" face-to-face to her. Instead, he gave her more than 10 shots of vodka and sexually assaulted her.
If one concludes that because the accused warned the victim and the victim ignored the warning, that some of the fault lies with the victim. That would be the wrong conclusion.
The correct conclusion is that minors do not always make the safe decisions especially when it comes to interaction with adults, including young adults. Minors do not always look at young adults the same way as they see their parents or other adults, but instead they view them as equals, which makes minors vulnerable to younger predators.
Most important, adults, even very young adults, are expected to always protect children and never exploit children for their own gratification, no matter the circumstances.
As this matter exemplifies, younger perpetrators can often present a greater risk than older perpetrators. If the accused was a 55-year-old man, the victim would have likely made different decisions. Almost guaranteed she would not have gone to his home alone so he could apologize.
However, because the accused was young (only seven years older than the victim) and it is presumed she knew the accused from other settings (or thought she knew him), the victim saw the accused as a trusted peer that simply crossed personal boundaries and was not a physical threat.
The victim in this matter did report the crime, but sadly most victims do not.
Here are some reasons teenagers do not always report sexual crimes against them by younger and older adults:
- Believes the abuse was normal
- Believes the abuse was in the past and should be forgotten
- Believes it is too late to report the abuse
- Believes their consent made the abuse legal
- Fears the abuser
- Loves the abuser
- Depends on the abuser
- Does not want the abuser to go to jail/prison
- Does not want others that failed to report the abuse to get into trouble
- Believes they will be blamed for the abuse
- Does not remember details about the abuse
- Believes the abuser is too powerful to report
- Fears being ignored
- Fears not being believed
- Fears being ostracized from the community
- Fears the stigma associated with abuse
- Fears the abuser may hurt them or the people they love
- Fears they will be accused of making a false report
- Fears pornographic images/videos will be made public or released
- Fears alcohol/drug use or acts of wrongdoing will be disclosed
- Fears reporting will prevent life/career goals being met
- Fears law enforcement
- Fears the process of reporting
