Friday, May 31, 2002
Speaker Dr. Phillip J. Resnick has given consultation or testimony in several high-profile cases, including Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When she rebuffed the advances of a male co-worker, he used the Internet to victimize her.
Posing as the woman, the man sent out her name, address and phone number, asking men to show up at her door and fulfill her sexual fantasy -- a rape fantasy.
When strange men showed up at her home offering to rape the woman, she placed a note on her door telling these strangers to stay away.
Her co-worker found out about the note and sent a new message over the Web, telling its readers that the note on the door is all part of the fantasy.
"There is no way to be safe on the Internet," said Kimberly Resnick Anderson, a psychiatric social worker practicing in Liberty. "There's no way to protect yourself from Internet crime, even if you don't own a computer."
Resnick Anderson uses this woman's example to illustrate the threat of Internet sex crimes.
She will be discussing cyberstalking during a "Psychiatric Aspects of Sexual Crimes" workshop for law enforcement personnel Monday at Youngstown State University.
Resnick Anderson also will discuss common misperceptions about criminal sexuality and how they might affect law enforcement responses.
Well-known speaker
Also appearing at the workshop is Resnick Anderson's father, Dr. Phillip J. Resnick, director of the division of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
The nationally known Dr. Resnick has provided consultation or testimony in several high-profile cases, including Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, Jeffrey Dahmer, William Kennedy Smith, Timothy McVeigh, John duPont and Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
Dr. Resnick said it is important to inform law enforcement officers on sexual crime matters so they can better handle suspects, interviews and evidence gathering.
"Law enforcement officers have a great deal of discretion in who they arrest and whether they take someone to a psychiatric hospital or take them to jail," he said. "And more understanding of sexual crimes will allow them to do a better job."
He added that the better police understand those who commit sexual crimes, "the more effective they can be in policing the community."
Dr. Resnick said the workshop also will help new and veteran officers better understand the "subtleties of a brand new phenomenon" in the Internet crime area, and also give them a better idea how to handle cases involving the relatively new issue of stalking, which became criminal in 1991.
During the workshop, he will address power rape, anger rape and sadistic rape. He also will discuss stalking.
Motivations
Resnick Anderson said a key point she will make during the workshop is that there are many motivations for sexual crimes, and that law enforcement personnel should consider this before interviewing a suspect or recommending a form of punishment or treatment for a convicted offender.
Also appearing at the workshop will be the director of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Cleveland, one of 30 funded by the Department of Justice, and an FBI agent who will touch on undercover child pornography sting operations.
The seminar is sponsored by YSU's Criminal Justice Department, the Mahoning Valley Police Chiefs Association, the prosecutors offices in Trumbull and Columbiana counties and the sheriff's departments in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Other sponsors are the Center for Behavioral Medicine at Forum Health and Resnick Anderson's Clinical Concepts in Sexual Health practice.
A similar workshop for mental health workers will be June 10 and Resnick Anderson has plans for workshops geared toward teachers and parents.
The general public is invited to attend the Monday workshop in the Chestnut Room at YSU's Kilcawley Center for a $70 fee. For information, call (330) 965-3315.
viviano@vindy.com