Sleepers : Question about the pedophile guards

Don't know how these guards came to be this way or how they decided to do what they did to the boys..

I mean for the purposes of the story line you assume there just happened to be 4 pedophiles who took jobs as guards at juvenile detention center, but what did they do or how did they come to the decision that they would essentially ambush these kids or rape them on a regular basis?

At the risk of asking a stupid question; did they have meetings or sensed in each other or how did they discover that they all had these urges to rape young boys?

I can't picture one of them saying to the other " hey, feel like taking a few of the kids downstairs and molesting them?"

I guess it happens with inmates in adult correction facilities, but just how they concocted this is a mystery to me.

In the book, it goes into more detail about each guards' lives. What they have in common is their motivation for taking the job. They were all looking to be in higher positions of law enforcement and juvenile detention guard looks good on a resume. But essentially, they hate their lives and don't much like working at Wilkinson. The reason they target Shakes, Michael, Tommy and John is because they were not tough guys like some of the other inmates. They didn't belong to any gang whose members were also inmates. One reason the guards didn't *beep* with Rizzo is because either he or his friends in Wilkinson were violent offenders. Messing with him or others like him may have resulted in violent reprisals. However, Nokes knew what Shakes and the others were in for. He knew they weren't violent kids.

"but what did they do or how did they come to the decision that they would essentially ambush these kids or rape them on a regular basis?"

I don't think there was much of a plan. In the book, the guards are typically drunk when they molest the boys. All it would've taken was one drunken night for Nokes to say to the other guards, "You know we could do anything we want to these kids and there's nothing they can do about it."

"did they have meetings or sensed in each other or how did they discover that they all had these urges to rape young boys?"

I think it's fair to say that Nokes was a pedophile before he even took the job. The others may or may not have been. Odds are, they were all disturbed individuals in some way. If all four were disturbed, odds are all four would be aggressive with the inmates. If Nokes noticed that the others were as aggressive as he was, he would have sought them out or they probably would've gravitated towards each other anyway.

"I like fixin' people gooood!"
- Papa Jupiter

Thanks for the clairification! I guess I should have a have turned to the book in the first place. Thanks again.

I think a lot of it might not have to do with them being pediphiles to start out with but how these people have an emense amount of power and control that lead them to do horrible things. Like another poster states, these jobs were not highly taught after and people that are already messed up in the dead might have been more likely to take this type of position.
Have you read about the Stanford prison/gaurd experiment? Basically, there was an experiment to see how people reacted psychologically in placed with power or with no power. Even though the people who played the guards knew these were their classmates, the study showed they treated the prisoners worse because the girds were in a position of power.

Here is the study. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

I do believe that Nokes, and the other three gay pedophile guards(Ferguson, Styler, and Addison)had chosen Shakes, Michael, John and Tommy because of them not having a violent reputation/past before their incarceration at Wilkinson's. But out of all of those four guards, the one I believe was the actual homosexual was Addison. If you can remember in the "flashback" scenes before he was killed by Black Cesar and his men, he looked a little too prissy compared to the other three guards. And just like Nokes deserved getting his dick shot off before he was killed by John and Tommy as adults, I think that the gaybashing that Addison received before he was shot was just as deserving too.

I don't know that him "looking prissy" had anything to do with his sexuality. His sexuality was clearly explained in the film. He was one of the rapists of the boys at Wilkinson, and one of the main characters explains later that he "still has a thing for little boys". King Benny then goes on about how in debt he was because he financed parties where he bought young male sex slaves to perform. That's far and wide the clear indicator of his sexuality (he was a pederast) more than how he might have looked.

Pedophilia is rarely if ever about sex or attraction. It's about power, and in this case maybe even more so since the guards got off on having all the power over those boys at least as much as they got off on any sexual acts they forced them to perform.

I agree. It is more about power and dominance.

People need to stop throwing in the word "gay" with pedophile. The one has nothing to do with the other. Whether a person is straight, gay or bisexual has no bearing if they choose to rape children. Has anyone ever heard of a male predator who targets little girls referred to as a "straight pedophile"? I doubt it. While it's true that some pedophiles target just one gender, there are are many others who will violate both boys and girls.

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I mean for the purposes of the story line you assume there just happened to be 4 pedophiles who took jobs as guards at juvenile detention center, but what did they do or how did they come to the decision that they would essentially ambush these kids or rape them on a regular basis?

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The very problem with this statement is that it ignores numerous real-world examples where these types of things happened. Did you ever read up on Charles Manson's life? The Magdalene Sisters abuse scandals?

For you, the questionable part is that you could fit 4 pedophiles in one small circle like this. But you fail to see that:

1) Sometimes, sexuality is irrelevant. Look at hazing scandals. Sometimes, people get off on the power of what they do to their victim.

2) Peer influence. If you assume that Nokes and Attison are tried and true pedophiles (based on what's indicated about their lives outside of Wilkinson), you can also assume that the other two are likely those who probably never would have done such a thing had it not been for Nokes' influence. Are they any less bad than Nokes or Attison? Not at all. Because it was evident that they still committed the atrocious acts. But you also need to look at the several other real-life occurrences of such a thing. Look at the Abu Ghraib scandal. That one dude in charge of the lower enlisted was the clear ringleader of the group. Without him, that stuff would likely not have happened, or at least, now how it did.

All you honestly need to create evil in the world is one influential person, surrounded by several weak-minded people. It's how gangs recruit as well.

Regardless, I don't understand why people still question how valid that is. It's happened repeatedly throughout history. It's not all about sexuality, but it's a lot about power and influence. The Stanford Prison Experiment is another example, while criticized and flawed, one that demonstrates how someone's personality can change through power, and how they can influence those around them.

Rape is about power. They felt superior and powerful to these boys. They were mean, nasty people who lived miserable lives. They took the job because if not for getting caught they were just like these boys, they wanted to feel superior.

It was without a doubt about power and dominance. The novel makes it even more clear. They enjoyed having power over the boys and forcing them to do their bidding; beating them down both emotionally and physically, and found their pain and suffering satisfactory. In reality, they were cowards who had to mistreat and abuse children to make themselves feel powerful. Put them against actual grown men and they would have turned into simpering wimps.

***Disturbing Book Spoiler***

There is a scene that takes place when Shakes and the other boys are isolation cells after the football game and have all been severely beaten. Nokes brings Shakes some oatmeal and pisses in it, but Shakes is so hungry that he eats it anyway and Nokes gets off on this.

I can see why this scene is not in the film, but I have no trouble picturing it, as sickening as it is.

I read the book thank you very much. I already knew that. I am a avid reader and well read.

It was a general response to the question by the OP. No need to get snippy.