Photo By Amy Perry | Lt. Col. Lloyd Jackson, a reservist and chief/team leader of the Lexington, Ky.,...... read more read more
FORT LEE, Va. - Most presentations on sexual violence in the military typically include reporting procedures, victim assistance programs and command responsibility. During two presentations at Wylie Hall on Jan. 21, however, community members got an inside look at perpetrators of sexual violence.
Lt. Col. Lloyd Jackson, a reservist and chief/team leader of the Lexington, Ky., Veterans Center outpatient treatment and readjustment counseling service, made his presentation – The Motivated Logic of a Sexual Predator – during the special sessions.
Jackson has spent much of his career learning about sexual predators – doing extensive therapy sessions with them to discover how their mind works in hopes of stopping future perpetrators.
“My first case was a serial rapist,” he said. “As I sat across from him, I wondered if I could even do the session. A lot of therapists can’t do this type of work. Even though I had his file – and I knew what type of person he was – he mesmerized me.”
That individual – along with many of the other perpetrators Jackson would go on to work with – amazed him, he said.
“They were the most affluent communicators,” Jackson said. “Their emotional intelligence was high. You want to think the people we identify as perpetrators are borderline intellectual functioning. You also may think the offensive behavior is obvious to others.
“But the reality is, a lot of the folks I’ve worked with over the years, are at genius level in terms of their emotional intelligence,” he continued. “You almost have to be at that level to be able to groom people.”
Grooming potential victims is a large part of how these sexual predators avoid detection, said Jackson.
“These perpetrators take someone who doesn’t have the emotional intelligence most people have and use them as a transitional object,” he said. “Someone who is strategically grooming the group has done it for years. It’s not new to them. They have been grooming since middle school or high school, and they are taking notes. Grooming starts from day one.”
Jackson urged the audience to keep on the lookout for people who have to the potential to be groomed by a predator.
“We’re looking for the person who is not part of the group,” he said. “I’m looking for the person who is not part of the clique. I’m looking for someone with meekness about them. I’m looking for the person who hasn’t has success and is having challenges. I’m looking for someone with body dysmorphia – who doesn’t like how they look and sound. I look for the person who consistently doesn’t like who they are.”
It’s also possible that the victim is someone who has been abused before, said Jackson, and those individuals may actually seek out the perpetrator.
“I have worked with so many victims who said they didn’t know why they were associated with the perpetrator, but the reality is, many of them are groomed from an early age,” he said.
These high-functioning perpetrators can be tough to detect, said Jackson, and many are predators for years.
“You have people you are going to catch who are mid-grade perpetrators, but you’re not catching the exceptions,” he said. “They are masterful at what they do. Some may think they are catching them, but I’ve talked to these guys, and you’re not catching them. They are masterful at intimidation and manipulation. Some of these guys can physically assault someone for three years, move to another duty station and make the victim think they broke the perpetrator’s heart.
“Over the years, the perpetrators have shared with me the skill set they have, and the sick thing about it is, their stuff is on point,” Jackson continued. “They can see and read stuff most of us cannot because we’re not looking to harm others and we aren’t looking for that edge. We have our health and we have our happiness.”
Many of these perpetrators become predators because their needs aren’t met through conventional means, said Jackson.
“People do this because they want the power and control that it makes them feel safe,” he said. “If they perpetrate and they control people, they feel like they are great and in charge. They feel better about themselves and are validated.
“They will hurt others because they believe they need to do so in order to maintain a sensibility of homeostasis,” Jackson continued. “They believe if they don’t show power and control, if they don’t dictate their will, they aren’t going to get their needs met.”
Maj. Gen. Darrell K. Williams, CASCOM and Fort Lee commanding general, said he wanted Jackson to give the briefing for his community after hearing it while serving overseas.
“I worked with Lt. Col. Jackson in Kuwait, and he gave this presentation all over the Middle East in varying forms,” he said. “What I’ve always found powerful about this presentation is we always think about this from the point of view of the victim. What we wanted to share with you was the mindset of the perpetrator.
“The reality is on an installation of this size – unless we’re wearing blinders – there are perpetrators,” Williams continued. “They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. The only way we root this out is that we, as leaders, become more educated in some of the possible signs of what a perpetrator looks like and what their behavior might be. I think the education is going to be absolutely invaluable.”
| Date Taken: | 01.28.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 01.28.2016 08:22 |
| Story ID: | 187226 |
| Location: | FORT LEE, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 552 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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