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This episode contains descriptions of child sexual abuse. Please exercise caution while listening.

Hello and welcome to Real Crime Profile. This is Jim Clemente, retired FBI profiler, former New York City prosecutor and writer producer of Criminal Minds. And with me today is...

Laura Richards, Criminal Behavioral Analyst, former New Scotland Yard, founder of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service and Host of the Podcast Crime Analyst.

And I'm Lisa Zambay, I'm a casting director for Seabuses Criminal Minds. And I've actually cast dozens, if not hundreds of roles of victims of child sexual abuse. I've cast children in these roles as well as adults. And I've also cast roles of the offenders. And it's one thing to read a fictional script about this kind of crime. But it's a whole other experience to read about the real sustained evil abuse from the eyes of someone who really lived it. And that brings us to our guest today.

Stephen Mills, the author of Chosen, a memoir of stolen boyhood.

It's great to have you. Welcome to Real Crime Profile. Yeah, Chosen is now out in paperback, isn't it, on Amazon?

And everywhere else you can buy paperbacks. And it is actually a very incredibly well written. I mean, when I read it, I thought of Prince of Tides and it's written like a novel.

It takes us through an incredible psychological journey that you went through, Stephen. And it is, it is a story about life and overcoming and healing. And that is a wonderful thing.

Thank you for that, Jim.

Yeah, we should say though, it's an incredibly triggering book. So and I can be, yes. And I read, I actually I read it like in two sitting Stephen, I like blaze through it. It is such an amazing journey and read in the context that you give to your story.

Which we're going to get into. But I will say it's very triggering and very explicit and which our listeners are ready for. But we should definitely let them know that that's content. Yeah.

For sure. I always encourage survivors and families or survivors to take their time and go at their own pace with the book. There's a lot there. And it covers a lifetime, which honestly is why.

You know, I first tried writing this book in my 30s and sort of beat myself up about not being able to do it.

It came out of me in my 60s and I'm so glad that I waited because it really gave me a much deeper grasp and appreciation for the lifelong aftershocks of child sexual abuse.

And so that was, I'm really glad about that, about the arc of that.

Well, thank you for doing it, Steve. Thank you for going through all that. And you know, as Lisa said, she's cast a bunch of people lots and lots of people in those roles. But Laura and I have dealt in our professional careers with the victims of violent crime and sexual crimes.

And, and the fact is that we have as a human race, we have a terribly terribly prominent issue with sexual victimization of children.

Mostly it's people's refusal to address it directly, to talk about it, to hear about it, to do something about it.

And many times the problem comes from people being unwilling or unaware of how to actually address it.

And that is a prominent issue in your life. It was in my life. And I just have to say that a mutual friend of ours, Steve, and I did not know each other just over a year ago.

A mutual friend of ours said I should read his book and introduce me to Stephen. And as I was reading his book, I was just flipping out because every step of the way, I mean, virtually every single step of the way, I was like, oh my God, oh my God, this is what happened to me.

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