What in the World to Do with Sex Offenders?

Have followed how the law deals with sex offenders for years. As you might imagine, I've lots of thoughts on the matter.

Two recent articles in the NY Times speak to a growing movement to securely retain convicted sex offenders under civil law "for treatment" rather than release them after their prison terms are completed. So far, nineteen states are doing it. The Supreme Court has affirmed the legality of such actions by the states.

The first piece explains how the mostly privatized institutions neither treat nor securely hold 'clients,' er 'inmates,' er, actually nobody knows for sure how to characterize these individuals.

The second raises doubts about the practice.

It costs on average $100,000 / year for each sex offender so detained. Regular prison inmates cost the state $26,000 per annum. As with prisons, this brand of detention is largely given over to private contractors, a practice I find disturbing since prison-based corporations lobby to increase prison populations in order to satisfy shareholders. Bad.

One sex offender,

"...may have sealed his own fate when he testified in 1994 that he could not 'control the urge' to molest when he got 'stressed out.' He said his mother, Violet, had wanted a girl when he was born and had dressed him as one when he was growing up.

“'I sure don’t want to hurt anybody again,' he told the court, but then conceded that he could not ensure the safety of children in his presence. 'The only way to guarantee that is to die,' he said."

Surgical or pharmacological castration doesn't appear to work.

In a nutshell, my argument is this:

1. Sexual preference / identification cannot be changed
2. The sex drive is a powerful force, right up there with survival instinct
   
3. Pedophilia ruins victims' lives
4. Ruined lives are expensive
   

CONCLUSION: Sexual predators must be put to death or removed for life from society, or our ideas about pedophilia radically changed.

Is there a place far enough removed from polite society in which to house sexual predators where they may live productive, relatively normal lives without contact with regular folks? A repository like Australia once was for Great Britain's criminals? Probably not.

Is pedophilia-as-proclivity as natural and expected as homosexuality or heterosexuality? Perhaps. Studies must be made. Is society ever likely to accept it as such? I don't think so.

But those are our choices. Without choosing, up to a quarter of our population will continue to have their lives indelibly changed for the worse at the hands of sexual predators.

The best we have yet to offer is a prison-based system of civil commitment at a prohibitive cost. The system must be modified so that these people may contribute to society and their upkeep. Moreover, this new system must be not only humane, but attractive enough to encourage as-yet-unconvicted predators to voluntarily sequester themselves.

My survivor self blames society as much as I blame the people who hurt me, for without the associated cultural shame, I shouldn't have suffered nearly so much. Were predators not scared shitless of the ramifications of discovery, perhaps they wouldn't feel a need to threaten or kill their victims.

So, what may our culture do to work toward eliminating victim shame? That's a subject for another post.

[Pedophile, from Wikipedia]
[Treatment]
[Bravehearts.org.au - Offering Solutions]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression