Unfair Advantage

About the Book

Unfair Advantage: Sexual Abuse by Psychotherapists, Priests, and Police is about trusted professionals in mental health, religious, and law enforcement fields who exploit and abuse children and young adults, and the people and institutions who enable these perpetrators by covering up their crimes.

This book is intended to be a resource for:

• Victims and survivors of professional exploitation and abuse;
  
• Students of psychology and social work;
  
• Police: newly-sworn officers, administrators, and internal affairs investigators;
  
• School Personnel;
  
• Parents
  
• The public

To expose sexual predators' modus operandi and tactics for avoiding apprehension for their crimes for as long as decades.

This book is comprised of several parts:

• Section One describes the dynamics involved in the crime of sexual abuse, characteristics of sexual predators, the predators' modus operandi, and actual case and situational examples.
  
• Section Two describes the impact and effects on the victims, the victims' survival strategies, and the perpetrators' defenses.
  
• Section Three describes behavioral indicators of the possibility that a child is being sexually abused, statutes of limitations and other legal hurdles, and websites for specific resources for assistance with intervention.

About the Author

Terri Austin, Ph.D., J.D., is a clinical criminologist in private practice, specializing in interpersonal violence cases and behavioral evidence analysis. Dr. Austin is the director of the California Central Coast Counties chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), assisting victims of abuse and their attorneys in San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties. She also teaches law, psychology, research methodology, and forensics at several California universities, and is the founder of a non-profit organization for at-risk and abused teenagers.

Dr. Austin received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Psychology from Saybrook Research Institute and Graduate School in San Francisco, California. Dr. Austin received her Juris Doctor degree from the Northwestern California University School of law in Sacramento. Dr. Austin has undergraduate degrees in Administration of Justice and Counseling Psychology. While completing her education, Dr. Austin worked in both mental health and law enforcement related fields, including serving as a reserve police officer while attending the police academy, and volunteering for a county coroner's office.

Dr. Austin can be contacted at: TerriAustin@cs.com or P.O. Box 496 Atascadero, CA 93423.