Three words we should never have to say and yet they’ve been making headlines a lot: child sex abuse.
Valley police have made five child sex abuse or assault arrests in the last two weeks and that’s not counting cases where the suspects were allegeldy hurting family members.
The crimes are similar. Police say Emmanuel Rosas talked an 8-year-old into following him into a laundry room at a Tempe apartment complex where he dropped his pants and started pleasuring himself.
Stephen Fought is accused of exposing himself to a girl and her mom outside a Phoenix library.
Another suspect allegedly tricked a little girl selling lemonade to come to his car where he flashed her. That suspect has not be caught.
Scottsdale psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Yasinski, is helping answer the question many people are asking, "what makes someone to do this?’"
He says these types of predators fall into two categories.
"It gives them a sense of power, so these people are generally insecure. And the sexual release for them does not happen with an adult so they tend to have deeper psychological problems."
Dr. Yasinski says two of the recent arrests are also clear demonstrations of power moves, but in these cases, power may be the reason the suspects took the jobs they have.
"Most often these people had a very disruptive childhood, very disorganized, chaotic," he said.
Police say Chris Fiscina masturbated in front of a 3-year-old on a special-needs bus in the Paradise Valley school district where his job was to help kids.
Nolan Knuckles is accused of sexually abusing a gymnastics student and convinced the boy it was a “relationship" for two years.
"So that's probably the worst of both scenarios when a predator gets into a relationship," he said.
Doctor Yasinski says we have a culture of laughing off flashers, but parents need to teach their children that it is a serious offense; he said a lot of the time offenders crimes can escalate to rape.
He also advises parent to talk to their children about appropriate boundaries when it comes to their interactions with people in a position of power like a teacher or a coach, and to take note of subtle changes like if that person brushes up against the child often, starts hugging them or touching them more than before.
The other trend Yasinski says he's seeing is how social media has allowed child predators and victims to interact often at younger ages.
You can hear his full explanation and more insight into the psyche of a sex offender in the video player above.
