Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

that I was so scared by what happened as by what
could happen if anyone found out.
“Grandpa” (my aunt’s father) who was about 85 years
old, piled the three of us on his lap to read us a
story from a children’s book. At age seven, I still
enjoyed having older people read to me. After he
finished reading, he placed the book on the coffee
table and just talked with us about what we had
been doing. As he was talking, I felt his aged hand
reach into my underpants and touch me. I was pretty
young so I really didn’t know what to do or say. I
felt like telling what he was doing, but I was too
afraid so I remained completely silent.
The middle to late thirties, and the late fifties, are major age
groups from whose ranks so-called molesters come. (Mohr, 1964). In the
following case, the man “probably in his late thirties” is bold and
persistent in soliciting the child’s cooperation. The child’s fear of
further aggression had she cooperated and left the store with the man
seems reasonable in this case.
It was a Saturday morning and my parents had
left me in the store to look at toys. I was
around six at the time. The toys that I was
interested in were on the back shelf so I could
not reach them. As I was still attempting to
reach for them a man, probably in his late thirties,
came up to help me. At first I thought he
was a clerk. He gave the toys to me and started
to ask me questions. He seemed to be a rather
nice gentleman. After about ten minutes of conversation
he left. Just a few minutes later the
man came up to me again and said that he had
been thinking it over and he wanted to buy me
the toy that I was looking at. He took my hand
and walked me over to the appropriate counter.
He told me to reach into his pocket for money. I
was shocked when there was no pocket and I
touched bare skin. Quickly I took my hand away.
The man said I had put my hand in the wrong
pocket, and that I should try the other one. I
was not going to be fooled again and I refused.
Then he offered to buy me the toy plus give me
fifty cents. I really wanted the toy and with
the added incentive, it was too tempting an
offer to resist. I found out that the other side
did not have any pockets either. He told me to
reach in further because the money was deep. I
felt something fleshy and hard and I did not
know what “it” was. I got scared and took my
hand away.
He then offered me a dollar if I would go out
of the store with him. This was a lot of money
for a little kid. However, I remembered what my
parents had said about leaving the store with
strangers. So I did not leave.
67