Satterfield, Val B.

English

Northwestern University Illinois, School of Law: Scholarly Commons

Journal of Criminal Law and CriminologyVolume 42Issue 3 September-October Article 15Fall 1951The Education of a Metropolitan PoliceDepartment Respecting Sex MolestationVal B. SatterfieldFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclcPart of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and CriminalJustice CommonsThis Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationVal B. Satterfield, The Education of a Metropolitan Police Department Respecting Sex Molestation, 42 J. Crim. L. Criminology &Police Sci. 403 (1951-1952)THE EDUCATION OF A METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPART-MENT RESPECTING SEX MOLESTATIONVal B. SatterfieldVal B. Satterfield, M. D., is the Consultant Psychiatrist, St. Louis Police Academy,and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Washington University, School ofMedicine, St. Louis. Dr. Satterfield has been active in the formation of the Academyof Forensic Sciences and is serving now as Chairman of its Psychiatric Section. Thispaper was read at the 1950 Annual Meeting of the AcademyEDIMTOR.The St. Louis Police Department is continuing its program for theeducation of its personnel respecting sex molestation, and a brief outlineand description of ifts nature and progress is given herewith.The conception of the program occurred following the first meetingof the Academy of Forensic Sciences in January 1948, sponsored by theSt. Louis Police Department. The interest aroused in scientific methodswas intense, and the possibility of educating the Police Department inreference to specific topics was considered. As a part of this develop-ment, it was believed that the problem of sexual molestation could beprofitably surveyed. St. Louis has never had an acute sexual molestationproblem, and no pressures of any type encouraged this selection. Thetopic was considered limited in scope and one that might be dealt withas the subject matter of two hour lectures.The St. Louis Police Academy gives a week of intense refresher expe-rience to every police officer in St. Louis, passing them through theAcademy in small groups throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall ofeach year. In addition, recruit classes are given a full course of instruc-tion, and this project was included in the recruit class curriculum. Theproblem then consisted of organizing material on a plan of instructionfor sixty men utilizing a two hour period. The program was started inthe Summer of 1949 and was very timely in that the project was wellalong when national interest became focused upon a nation-wide flurryof cases of sexual molestation. Again, this increased activity did not hitSt. Louis with any force, but the newspapers and general public werereassured by the well organized plan of the St. Louis Department. Asa result of this interest a new state law covering the management andinstitution of sexual psychopaths was passed by the legislature, and con-siderable favorable publicity came to the City of St. Louis.The members of a large metropolitan police force can be consideredto be quite different in their experience from the average collection ofstudents. They have had wide experience in all types of human activity,and although they have not been able to critically analyze much of thisexperience, they have in a usable form a very profound understandingVZL B. SATTERFIELDof city dwellers. It was considered that it would be necessary to "talkup to" their experience using common every-day language and drawingfor them dramatic pictures of the events and personalities involved insexual molestation. A presentation that would be provocative of thewide experience of these men would bring into the discussion periodmaterial that was more acceptable because it came from their fellowofficers. In the beginning it was evident that several types of resistancesand difficulties had to be overcome. Although officers of the St. LouisPolice Department are accustomed to instruction in the Police Academy,it was considered that resistance to instruction, especially from one otherthan a police officer, must be made acceptable through the avoidance ofany unrealistic handling of the material. It was also evident that manyof the members of the St. Louis Police were devout and had strongfeelings of right and wrong and of social appropriateness. To meet thiscondition there had to be an honest dealing with social morality freefrom cynicisms. The disturbing quality of the material under discussionwas considered, and the presentation of the material and the manage-ment of the class was conducted in such a way as to reassure and relievemembers of the class who were visibly affected.The teaching periods were divided into two portions. The first portionwas devoted to demonstration and lecture, and the second to questionsand answers and class discussion. The material selected for the lectureand demonstration was as follows: As an introduction there was areading from the Book of Leviticus of the Holy Bible, beginning at verseten of chapter twenty. This was done for the purpose of giving a his-torical background beginning in ancient times, and led into developmentsin the last century including the Jesse Pomeroy case of Boston. Therewas then a brief survey of conditions as they exist at this time through-out the world. The theme of this background was social morality, dis-cussing the attitude of society toward behavior, including and puttingemphasis on the other types of behavior that are objectionable to society,keeping sex out of the foreground until there appeared to be acceptanceof what social attitude and its fluctuation means. This was then inte-grated into religious, aesthetic, and social idealism. The approach tothe biological and physiological aspects of sex behavior proved to bevery acceptable, provided that the parallels of bladder and bowel func-tion and nursing were thoroughly discussed. The similarity betweenmale and female anatomy and the potentials for variance were under-stood readily if diagrams were used for demonstration. For the purposeof instruction, sexual variance was discussed in its longitudinal aspect[Vol. 42EDUCATION RESPECTING SEX MOLESTATIONwith the infantile, adolescent, and adult variance emphasized. Thepsychological mechanisms involved were explained with recourse to theirown infantile and developmental experience. In order to maintain asense of proportion, the types of behavior discussed were kept in a truerelationship to all other types of social behavior of the individual of thesame age.It was evident throughout this teaching experience that any swing farinto the field of sexuality distracted from the result with a drop ininterest due to a loss of orientation. It was necessary at all times to keepthe problem in some true proportion to the other types of behaviorproblems. As an introduction to the psychology of the offender the roleof the victim of molestation was discussed. Police officers have a deepinterest in the prevention of crime, and it was evident as lecture followedlecture that the officers were as interested in the characteristics of thevictim that made him or her the object of the offender as they were inthe mechanisms that brought about the act on the part of the offender.As a result of the discussion periods it was evident that there was astrong need for the police officer to accept all types of antisocial andasocial behavior as being of the same order, and this was adopted as amethod of presentation.The sex offender was discussed emphasizing his personal and socialproblems and attempting to define the similarity and difference betweenhim and other types of criminals. Here again it was apparent that therewas willingness to accept the sexual criminal as part of the generalcriminal population. There was acceptance of the fact that the "abomi-nable" nature of the offense, and the quick reaction that "there must besomething the matter with the mind of a person who would do that"frequently interfered with the inclusion of sex crimes into the mass ofcriminal offenses. It was not difficult to differentiate between crime as anexpression of a maladjusted individual and crime as an expression of apsychotic individual.The question-and-answer and discussion periods found the officerssurprisingly free in an expression of opinion and quick to narrate per-sonal experiences with various types of offenders. The breadth of ex-perience on the part of the sergeant and upper rank officers was evidentin the more reasonable understanding that they possessed about theoffender and his crime. The younger men were more frequently sur-prised and found it more difficult to orient themselves in respect to thematerial. In the order of frequency, questions raised had to do withthe influence of family training, the influence of bad associates, the1951]VIAL B. SATTERFIELDdanger to police officers in their relationships with offenders, the influ-ence of the suppression of prostitution upon the frequency of sex offenses,the necessity of supressing homosexuality, the effects upon the characterand intelligence of sex perversion, and the method of treatment of theoffender of this type and in general offenders of all types.As part of this educational program it became apparent that "livematerial" was invaluable as illustration. It was decided that the statis-tician of the St. Louis Police Department would begin a systematizedgathering of reports to provide material respecting the offender, thevictim, the time, the circumstances, and geographical peculiarities. Ananalysis was made of all available material and this proved invaluablein the strategic handling of the police work necessary to protect theadults and children of the City of St. Louis.As part of the educational program the work described above wassupplemented by a period of instruction aimed at integration of thismaterial into police procedures.In summary the Police Department of the City of St. Louis hasexperimentally approached this topic to explore whether it might beintegrated into the habits and experience of the police officers of thatforce. It has been a timely and valuable experiment in that it has giventhe community a sense of security and has acquainted the departmentwith the material required for a closer application of prevention and en-forcement to the real needs of the community. As part of the researcha questionnaire was sent to other police departments throughout thecountry, and it appears there is little in the way of statistics at handrespecting the experience of a metropolitan police force with the subjectof sex molestation. As a continuation of this study it is expected thatrefresher material of a live nature will be provided for subsequenttraining periods of the Academy. The organization of the experience ina presentable fashion for distribution is contemplated.(Vol. 42

The Education of a Metropolitan Police Department Respecting Sex Molestation

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The Education of a Metropolitan Police Department Respecting Sex Molestation

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