Excellent website

I followed through on the above website you mentioned, and particularly on your article about society's role in ending sexual molestation. It has been a focal concern of mine since beginning of my internship in counseling.

I also agree with your statement about molesters having a Hx of abuse themselves, and there being a sort of altered consciousness. I had a discussion with my former supervisor over this topic, as he specialized in treating sexual offenders. His approach was primarily reality therapy, and he balked at my suggestion that an important part of that therapy should be insight oriented. My reasoning is that unless they have heightened awareness as to the source of their internal drive to molest children, they will continue to fall prey to those drives. Is that what you were referring to when you discussed the denial and shame that enables them to "act out?"

In one year of work in a public school system, I saw much of the evidence of sexual abuse in kids that had troublesome, but nebulous, behavioral and emotional problems. Their behaviors weren't such that you could simply explain to them why what they were doing was wrong (seductive behavior, inappropriate sexual activity) because the underlying drives were too powerful to be reasoned out. What these kids needed was a safe place to bring their feelings out in the open and develop insight into the mechanics of their emotions and behaviors. Unfortunately, like you said, societal denial is too great. The few times I suggested to a parent that their child's behavior may have stemmed from a known history of sexual abuse, the response was often, "it's been taken care of." Case closed.

My lingering question is, in the case of sexual offenders, how do you know that they have truly been healed, that they, and society know, in their heart, that they no longer have the drive to molest? I"ve seen firsthand where people become very good at saying what people need to hear, including seasoned professionals. These are people that are very skilled at gaining people's trust in the first place. All too often, these individuals, when caught, leave friends and neighbors stunned, as this was an individual "you'd never suspect" in the first place. In addition, sexual offenders tend to have the highest rate of recidivism of any category of criminal.

I'm not negating at all what you are saying, in fact I'm hopeful, too, that if we all come together we could erase this scourge from our society. Just some thoughts on an important topic.

Replies:

Re:Excellent website, by , 06/10/01 Re:Excellent website, by Monica, 06/10/01

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