By Dr. Duane Dobbert
The 2007 abduction of then 13-year-old Ben Ownby from his bus stop in Missouri suggests that child sexual predators "cruise" bus stops looking for any child that is unescorted. While this appears to be an opportunistic behavior, it is not.
Michael Devlin, arrested and convicted for the abduction of Ownby, was also convicted of abducting, sexually assaulting, and holding Shawn Hornbeck captive for a few years.
Both Ben and Shawn were abducted at the time of their puberty thus suggesting that Michael Devlin is afflicted with hebephilia. In contrast to pedophilia, in which the afflicted person's fantasy love group is prepubescent children, a person afflicted with hebephilia's fantasy love group is youth who have arrived at sexual maturity. Further, there is a gender preference.
Michael Devlin's fantasy love group is boys who are at sexual maturity, yet sexually inexperienced. It is this "virgin" quality that precipitates recurrent, intense, sexual arousal in the hebephile. Michael Devlin possessed the delusion that these boys, once they had their sexual encounter with him, would love him equally in return.
The abduction of Ben, the second boy, lends credibility to the diagnosis. Shawn was no longer "just" arriving at puberty and had been sexually assaulted by Devlin for years. Devlin was no longer intensely sexually aroused by Shawn and needed a new young man who was just reaching puberty and was a virgin.
Devlin was not opportunistic; he was premeditated. He was locating a specific age and gender. He is not aroused by girls or women, nor prepubescent or post-adolescent males. His fantasy love group is middle school age boys.
Consequently to meet his intrinsic psycho/sexual needs, he had to search out a specific fantasy lover from his fantasy love group. It just happens that Ben was his victim. Devlin could have found an unescorted pubescent boy at age group soccer practice, little league baseball, boy scouts, etc.Devlin abducted Shawn and Ben because they met his intrinsic psycho/sexual needs, not because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dr. Dobbert presented the accredited seminar "The First Line of Defense Against Sexual Predators" and the workshop "Law Enforcement & School Transportation Collaboration on Amber Alerts" during the 2009 STN EXPO in Reno, Nev.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Remembering Everette Johnson, 5-Year-Old Atlanta Boy Killed by His School Bus
Tragically, no matter how much school bus safety training is provided to them or how much it’s pounded into the heads of school bus drivers to check their mirrors constantly before leaving bus stops, it seems there will be incidents like what happened on Tuesday.
An Atlanta Public Schools bus ran over 5-year-old Everette Johnson, a kindergartner at Usher Elementary School in the north part of town, after several children unloaded at the afternoon stop. According to news reports, Johnson turned around and headed back to the bus after unloading and apparently dropped his backpack beneath the bus. The driver didn’t see him and began to pull away from the curb as Johnson reached beneath the bus for his backpack.
Per School Transportation News research, Everette’s death was the third since August, the second of the regular 2009-2010 school year and the 16th of the 2009 calendar year. The Kansas Department of Education surveys all 50 states each year to determine the number of student fatalities that occur in the so-called school bus danger zone, the approximate 10- to 12-foot area around the vehicle where the majority of student deaths occur as opposed to inside the bus.
From the 1970-1971 through the 2007-2008 school years, the KDOE’s pupil transportation unit data shows that 718 students have been killed by the school bus during the loading or unloading process.
Results for 2008-2009 are expected late this year or in early 2010.
An Atlanta Public Schools bus ran over 5-year-old Everette Johnson, a kindergartner at Usher Elementary School in the north part of town, after several children unloaded at the afternoon stop. According to news reports, Johnson turned around and headed back to the bus after unloading and apparently dropped his backpack beneath the bus. The driver didn’t see him and began to pull away from the curb as Johnson reached beneath the bus for his backpack.
Per School Transportation News research, Everette’s death was the third since August, the second of the regular 2009-2010 school year and the 16th of the 2009 calendar year. The Kansas Department of Education surveys all 50 states each year to determine the number of student fatalities that occur in the so-called school bus danger zone, the approximate 10- to 12-foot area around the vehicle where the majority of student deaths occur as opposed to inside the bus.
From the 1970-1971 through the 2007-2008 school years, the KDOE’s pupil transportation unit data shows that 718 students have been killed by the school bus during the loading or unloading process.
Results for 2008-2009 are expected late this year or in early 2010.
Monday, September 14, 2009
N.C. Pregnant Teen Shot Dead
The title itself is horrifying and the details are no better. Moments after a relative left Tiffany Wright, a pregnant 15-year-old, at her bus stop, she heard three gunshots. Moments later, that same relative found Tiffany dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Tiffany was a student at Hawthorne High School in Charlotte, N.C. Her baby was born alive but is not expected to survive.
Parents Tackle Fear of Walk to School
In a recent New York Times article, writer Jann Hoffman looked at one mother's decision to allow her daughter to walk to school against a backdrop of fear of strangers, what some consider over-protective parents, and a nation that is slowly learning some of the horrors that await children that are victims of sexual predators:
The trip to and from school has become emblematic of the conflict parents feel between teaching children autonomy and keeping them safe. In parenting blogs and books, the school-bus stop itself is shorthand for the turmoil of contemporary parents over when to relinquish control.
According to the article, in 1969, 41 percent of children either walked or biked to school, a number that dropped to 13 percent by 2001. Another study from the Journal of the American Planning Association, showed that half of the San Francisco Bay Area parents surveyed would not allow their children to walk without being supervised, while 30 percent said their decision was based on "fear of strangers." According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited children, almost 800,000 children are reported abducted each year. Are we bring too protective?
The trip to and from school has become emblematic of the conflict parents feel between teaching children autonomy and keeping them safe. In parenting blogs and books, the school-bus stop itself is shorthand for the turmoil of contemporary parents over when to relinquish control.
According to the article, in 1969, 41 percent of children either walked or biked to school, a number that dropped to 13 percent by 2001. Another study from the Journal of the American Planning Association, showed that half of the San Francisco Bay Area parents surveyed would not allow their children to walk without being supervised, while 30 percent said their decision was based on "fear of strangers." According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited children, almost 800,000 children are reported abducted each year. Are we bring too protective?
Friday, September 11, 2009
Teens in "Miracle in Missouri" Case Recount Their Ordeal on 48 Hours
By Lisa Hudson
You may recall the shock, joy and sadness that came with the "Miracle in Missouri" back in January 2007. At the time, 13-year-old Ben Ownby went missing on January 8, 2007 when he did not return home from school and authorities came to believe he was abducted after exiting his school bus.
Four days later, a series of tips led to police to the apartment of Michael Devlin and they were stunned to find not just Ben but another teen, Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for 4.5 years. The elation that came with the boys' rescue was tempered when the full horror of what they went through at the hands of Devlin was made public. Devlin ultimately was charged with 80 counts of sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted murder and was sentenced to 72 life terms, and an additional 170 years in prison for his crimes.
In the wake of the incredible outcome to the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, the CBS-TV news program 48 Hours recently provided a fresh update to their original September 2008 piece where both Shawn and Ben discuss their ordeal. A video and transcript of the is online.
You may recall the shock, joy and sadness that came with the "Miracle in Missouri" back in January 2007. At the time, 13-year-old Ben Ownby went missing on January 8, 2007 when he did not return home from school and authorities came to believe he was abducted after exiting his school bus.
Four days later, a series of tips led to police to the apartment of Michael Devlin and they were stunned to find not just Ben but another teen, Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for 4.5 years. The elation that came with the boys' rescue was tempered when the full horror of what they went through at the hands of Devlin was made public. Devlin ultimately was charged with 80 counts of sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted murder and was sentenced to 72 life terms, and an additional 170 years in prison for his crimes.
In the wake of the incredible outcome to the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, the CBS-TV news program 48 Hours recently provided a fresh update to their original September 2008 piece where both Shawn and Ben discuss their ordeal. A video and transcript of the is online.
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