Patterson violated his parole when he was found in possession of pornographic materials. A search of his home revealed videos of Patterson having sex with various women, additional pornographic materials, and numerous articles of female underwear. Police discovered that the underwear had been taken from his neighbor in the adjoining duplex and that Patterson had cut a peephole in his basement wall leading to his neighbor's basement. Patterson was convicted of theft and burglary.
At his preliminary hearing, the State sought to classify Patterson's crimes as sexually motivated acts, so that they would fall under the Kansas statute requiring him to register as a sex offender. Patterson appealed arguing that his case was merely one of burglary and theft, and was therefore, not sexually motivated.
Holding: The appellate court agreed with the trial court and held that Patterson's crimes were sexually motivated, thus requiring him to register as a sex offender under Kansas statute.
To fall under the statute, Patterson's acts must be deemed to be sexually violent crimes. A sexually violent crime is "any act which at the time of sentencing for the offense has been determined beyond a reasonable doubt to have been sexually motivated." Under the Kansas statute, sexually motivated means that "one of the purposes for which the defendant committed the crime was for the purpose of the defendant's sexual gratification." Any crime committed for sexual gratification is, therefore, sexually violent.
The court reviewed the legislative history behind the statute including Hendricks, and found that the legislature intended the statute to protect Kansas residents from all crimes committed for the purpose of sexual gratification. Although Patterson denied that his acts were committed for sexual gratification, the court found to the contrary. He would have to register as a sex offender under Kansas statute.
| Wade Myers III, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry Univeristy of Florida College of Medicine |
Dr. Myers comments: The Appellate Court's decision in Patterson is another in a series of legal decisions making life increasingly difficult for the sex offender and arguably better for American society.
In Patterson, the court had to determine whether the defendant committed a sexually motivated, and ultimately a sexually violent crime, requiring him to register as a sex offender under the Kansas Sex Offender Registration. Act (KSORA). The appellant argued that his crime should not have been classified as a sexually motivated crime. This seems logical enough at first glance. What do burglary and theft have to do with sex anyway? Patterson contended that he received no sexual gratification from the theft of the victim's underwear.
The stealing of women's underwear for sexual gratification in clinical terms is called paraphilia, specifically, fetishism. According to The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM IV), paraphilias are recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, urges or behaviors involving nonhuman objects, the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner, children or other nonconsenting partners.
Paraphilias usually become more defined during adolescence and early adulthood. The typical paraphiliac is male, has more than one paraphilia and interacts with multiple victims based on each perversion. Some sexual offenders may victimize enormous numbers of victims.
What appears to be a relatively harmless paraphilia, for example a foot fetish, may be accompanied by far more serious and even violent tendencies. For example, Jerome Brudos began stealing lingerie from neighbors' yards as a teenager. By early adulthood he had developed a foot fetish. He later evolved into a serial killer who chose his victims based on their footwear. He sometimes cut the feet off of his victims and kept the appendages' in a freezer. Then, at his leisure, he could take a foot out of cold storage and dress it up with various shoes for sexual excitement.
One early adolescent boy I treated had been breaking into neighbors' homes and stealing panty hose and lingerie. He would then return home, dress up in the stolen goods, and masturbate. The cause of his fetish was likely due to early developmental experiences. As a toddler, living in a foster home, he was dressed in female clothing and treated as a girl. Although he had no memories of his abusive past, it had nevertheless left an indelible mark on his psyche. By the time he came for treatment, he had the cardinal features of transvestic fetishism.
What about the treatment of a person with fetishism? This can be a daunting clinical challenge, and funding to support treatment programs are scarce. The deviant behavior offers highly rewarding sexual satisfaction. Paraphilias are often at least partially caused by early developmental events and can be deeply rooted in personality structure. Persons with fetishes are usually not motivated to give up their deviant behavior, unless their sexual behaviors begin to cause problems in their lives. For instance, one spouse may threaten to leave the marriage if the other refuses to seek help. Or for someone like Patterson, arrest may be enough to drive the individual to seek help. Acceptance of a problem is crucial and not just by the rest of society. Many treatment programs will not accept persons with paraphilias, unless they admit to their deviant sexual interests and behaviors.
