We're probably all aware of the much-publicized "online predators" who go after children these days on the internet, preying on innocent kids by way of trickery and violence. But these crimes, while obviously sick and deplorable, are over-hyped. How did this pervasive over-hyping come to be, and why does it persist? On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with Dr. David Finkelhor, who is the Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, Co-Director of the Family Research Laboratory, and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire. He's been studying the problems of child victimization, child maltreatment, and family violence since the 1970s; he's known in academic circles for his conceptual and empirical work on the problem of child sexual abuse, as reflected in books like "Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse" and "Nursery Crimes." Dr. Finkelhor will be giving a free lecture in Tulsa later this week, on Thursday the 5th at 6pm, at the Schusterman Learning Center on the OU-Tulsa campus; he joins us to give a preview of sorts of what he'll be covering in his remarks. His address is entitled "Myths and Realities About Internet Crimes Against Children," and you can learn more about it by emailing OU-Tulsa staffer Becca Hyvonen at bhyvonen@ou.edu.
"Myths and Realities About Internet Crimes Against Children" -- A Lecture by Dr. David Finkelhor
