Posted on 05/04/2005 5:32:17 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s
Most Sexual Offenders Can Be Treated
Richard Brimer
I am a mental health professional who has been practicing in this community for years. I have found my work of counseling children and adults with mental, emotional and relational problems to be very rewarding. I take pride in what I do and am eager to tell others about it.
However, when it comes to one specialty area of my practice, evaluating and treating sex offenders, I find myself hesitant to reveal and needing to explain what I do. This is especially true in light of the recent abductions, sexual assault and murders of Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde (the sexual assault of Sarah has yet to be confirmed) by sexual offenders.
The wave of public outrage, fear and grief as a result of these tragic and heinous crimes is a natural reaction. I have felt all those emotions myself.
When I found out about Jessica's torture and death, I was not sure I could face the child molesters I treat and maintain my professionalism. But I did face them and found that most of them felt the same way, and wanted to talk about it. They also wanted something to be done.
They wanted the public to know that not every sex offender is a John Couey or a David Onstott, and that therapy does help -- not only in terms of their rehabilitation but also to promote the safety of children in our community.
In fact, effective and successful therapy, combined with adequate supervision and monitoring by the Department of Corrections, is our community's front line of defense against sex offenders.
Many reading this will dismiss my claim that therapy with sex offenders can be effective or successful.
I read the headlines and watch the news too: "Child molesters can't be rehabilitated." "All child molesters will reoffend sooner or later."
That is true for some, but we in the field know through our own experience and research that most sexual offenders who enter treatment complete it successfully and never commit another sexual offense.
I realize that for those of you who live next door to an offender, this fact will probably not reassure you. Still, it is this kind of information that can help reduce inaccurate information and misconceptions about sex offenders which tends to fuel the fires of hate and fear.
In all the information you are picking up about sex offenders, I doubt you have heard that Polk County has been at the forefront in developing an approach to managing sex offenders in the community.
The "containment" approach involves a close, collaborative working relationship between treatment providers, probation officers, law-enforcement officers, polygraph examiners and, yes -- the sex offenders themselves. This approach works
not only in our community but
in communities across
the country.
Will it stop the John Coueys of the world? No! But does it reduce the chance that the offender next door will prey on your child? Absolutely!
More needs to be done to educate the community about sexual abuse, and how to help the victims and perpetrators of this national epidemic. Neighborhood associations, churches and other community organizations need to meet together and talk about this issue, inviting the key members of the "containment" approach as well as victim advocates to participate in the dialogue.
We as parents need to be talking to our children about sexual abuse and safety. We need to tell them about "stranger danger," but we need to tell them about the greater danger -- that children are far more likely to be molested by someone they know. We need to realize that more sex offenders will continue to live among us than go to prison, despite the new slate of tougher laws.
We need to understand that our children are far more at risk from the molester who hasn't been caught than from the one living in your neighborhood who is on the Internet, under supervision and in treatment. We need to be open to the fact that a sex offender -- who may be your father, mother, grandfather, brother or child, or your neighbor -can change when motivated to do so and given the right kind of help.
Richard Brimer, LSCW, of Lakeland is a psychotherapist. He is founder and director of the New Start Sexual Offender Treatment Program, based in Lakeland, and he is a member the Polk County Task Force on Sexual Abuse.
The Lakeland Ledger is owned by the NYT. We get a LOT of Paul Krugman and Ellen Goodman in the opinion section.
Also, IMO, in all of the discussions I see regarding "sex offenders" no clear explanations are usually given as to how a sex offender is legally defined. This is a significant point, and should be seriously considered when we decide what punishments sex offenders should be meted out.
Because of the high profile cases, most assume we are talking about child molestors. Not necessarily so. For example, here in Florida, an 18 year old man/boy that boinks his 15 or 16 year old girlfriend is permanently defined and labeled a sex offender and preditor. Laugh if you will, but there are more cases than you would assume in this vein. The lifetime repercussions are enormous.
So, what we have here is real pervs, child molesters and the like, not getting what they deserve and society needs to have done. On the other hand, we are taking a surprising number of people that should be dealt with and punished to a much lesser degree, and nuking them in overkill that becomes self defeating for us.
All of that said, I pretty much totally disagree with this guy's assesment that most of the pervs can be treated. Just ain't so.
Sure we can treat them... with 10,000 Amps!
100% cure rate!
230 Grains.
Well, they CAN be treated, by major surgery (including, but not limited to, amputating the legs which used to carry the scoundrel around, the hands which did evil, and so on).
Quack, quack!
Bah! The environmentalists would be enraged. Enraged, I tell you!
Now, shotguns can be useful... and cheap.
Seems 'mental health professionals' convinced Cardinal Law. Not too good a history of success, was it?
Yes, it's true. They can certainly be treated...... to a one way ticket, first class seat, all expense payed trip to Eternity. Please fasten seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
"Richard Brimer, LSCW, of Lakeland is a psychotherapist. He is founder and director of the New Start Sexual Offender Treatment Program, based in Lakeland, and he is a member the Polk County Task Force on Sexual Abuse."
1. Brimer has a conflict of interest on the matter, since it is how he makes his living. He can hardly say his work is worthless, eh?
2. It's FL....where even the psychotherapists are suspect.
What else can he say?
"My career is a fraud, and I should be on unemployment, or learn to run an engine lathe"?
"I'm a total quack who enables repeat offenders."?
What I would LOVE to hear him say is:
"I so believe in my profession that I am willing to run a halfway house for repeat offenders, and run it under the same roof as my wife and children, to whom they will be introduced, and nourished as if they were family members."
THEN I would believe other claims.
Treated? Surgery?
A bullet for the phony shrinks AND their charges.
Didn't work for the Catholic Church!
I am the ex-husband of a victim of one of your rehabilitable offenders.
I believe you - they can be treated so they do not offend again.
Here's the cure that I recommend:
Line them up - and we can apply their treatment right away.
Then again, some offenders are incorrigible.
He needs to let these cured sex offenders take "care" of his kids to test the theory.
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