“Ryan Houghton, 18, of Ahwatukee was arrested on suspicion of burglary and voyeurism, officers said. When police questioned him about a motive, Houghton told them, ‘I’m a pervert,’ investigators said. ‘The second I figured it out, I thought I was going to vomit,’ said the resident, who wanted her identity protected. Phoenix police said Houghton broke into the woman’s home through an unlocked back door between 9:30 p.m. Nov. 16 and 6 a.m. the next day, KPHO-TV in Phoenix reported. The man fled before the residents woke up, officers said. The woman said she discovered the photos on her roommate’s cell phone and called police. ‘It was sickening,’ she said. ‘I remember feeling very nauseous and very violated.’ Another roommate wasn’t home when it happened, but she later heard about the burglar with the bizarre fetish. ‘I was just shocked that someone would come into the house and do that,’ the woman said. The women said they found evidence Houghton had been surfing pornographic sites on their home computer as well. They said they discovered part of the teen’s username. ‘He wanted us to know,’ the woman said. ‘He wanted to get caught. We could totally tell. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left all that behind.’ Police said they followed the leads, conducted interviews and eventually caught up with Houghton, who was arrested without incident three days later.” — Local6 (US)

(Thanks to Peter for the link.)

When you see a picture of Mr. Houghton, you’re not surprised to learn that he happened to be skateboarding when the police collared him. He looks more like a skater than a perv. And initially the police arrested him on a suspected drug charge. When they approached him, they saw him try to ditch a pipe.

Not that authorities didn’t have ample evidence of Mr. Houghton’s crime. The young man left semen. He left pictures of himself on a victim’s cellphone. He left part of his email address in a web browser. Using that, detectives were able to find his MySpace page. (It’s out there somewhere, though in half an hour of searching PervScan was unable to locate it.) It’s pretty clear that he did want to get caught. Sometimes criminals want to be captured because they want to be stopped or punished. For example, pedophiles tend to share society’s contempt for their perversion. They may want to be punished precisely as much as society wants to punish them.

However, you don’t get the sense that this was true of Mr. Houghton. Did he want to be punished? Did he want to atone for his crime? Or did he really just want the opportunity to make this proclamation about his sexual depravity? “Why’d I do it? Hey world, I’m a pervert.” You can almost hear him say “so there!” or “take that!” afterward. One victim said “at least he’s telling the truth,” and yet you half wonder if it wasn’t the truth at all. If he’s really a perv, would he be so anxious to prove it to everybody? After all, what was so perverse about this incident? He jerked off to some porn that he viewed in somebody else’s house. When you think about it, the incident isn’t even a sex crime. It’s just breaking and entering.

If you take anything away from this story, it should be that perversity has acquired a new standing in society. It used to be that doctors, businessmen, and other white-collar types occupied the top slot in the social hierarchy. Nowadays it’s different. Perversion has acquired a bizarre repute. It’s cool to be kinky. Fetishes are like tattoos to be flaunted. And Mr. Houghton sounds like a young man whose ambition was to secure his standing in the upper crust of depravity.

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