Summary Of Kerrie Cooper's Letter To Her 12-Year-Old Self

Kerrie Cooper wrote a letter to her 12-year-old self that relived events that had occurred to her. Her parents were protective, and even though she was 12, she was given a male babysitter who was almost ten years older than her (almost 22). The babysitter watched many other children in the neighborhood too. The man would manipulate Cooper into thinking that she should let him touch her sexually. Cooper gave in because she was misinformed. The letter was directly telling Cooper to forgive herself. In all reality, none of the incidents were Cooper’s fault. The babysitter fits the criteria of pedophilia disorder. The textbook states, pedophilia disorder is “involving strong sexual attraction towards children” (Durand and Barlow). The babysitter fitted the criterion for this disorder. The DMS-5 of pedophilia according to the textbook is having 6 months of recurrent sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors including activity with children 13 years of age or younger. Other criteria include. acting on the feelings or

Cooper also said she should have warned her nieces, which implied that the babysitter has also watched her relatives. This meets the first criteria because the babysitter most likely felt this way for all the babysitting sessions. The babysitter even admitted to Cooper “that the rest of the neighborhood girls were learning about sex from him . . .” (Cooper). Cooper said he molested her which was the babysitters acting on his urges, which means he met another criterion. The last criterion was met by the babysitter’s age and Cooper’s age. Cooper mentioned that the babysitter was almost 22 years old and that she was only 12 years old. This meant that the babysitter was at least 16 and five years older. Cooper was also under 13 which made her a target for the babysitter. Cooper played a part of her babysitter’s disorder when he chose to sexually approach