'No cure' for paedophiles

2005-08-16 10:47

Cape Town - South Africa, which has among the highest incidence of child rape in the world, faces increased attacks because of a lack of adequate programmes targeting sexual offenders incarcerated in prison.

"Currently, my understanding is that offenders have to request treatment. It's not a given that they enter into programmes, unless a magistrate orders them to go into treatment," said Doctor Marcel Londt, who has 25 years experience in dealing with sexual offenders.

Londt was responding to the rape of a three-year-old girl by an Athlone man who is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

The man was recently released from Pollsmoor Prison as part of government's general pardon initiative, after serving a sentence for sodomising a nine-year-old boy.

The Medical Research Council said from April 2003 to March 2004, 17 597 rape cases of girls under the age of 18 were reported to the police.

'More token than real'

Doctor Paul Theron, a clinical forensic practitioner at Pollsmoor, told Sapa his experience with the rehabilitation of sexual offenders was that programmes were "more token than real".

Theron said advanced, one-to-one therapy by highly-trained individuals was needed for sexual offenders, something not readily available in prisons.

"We need depth-therapy and experts to apply this, because if you have some half-baked intervention you could end up making a more sophisticated criminal," he said.

Theron said courts also needed to play a bigger role by determining that sexual offenders required specific therapy after sentencing.

Londt said research showed the relationship between a victim and sexual offender had a direct link with the severity of the crime, and generally, the further the relationship the more violent the offence.

"Sexual predators, particularly child sexual perpetrators, can never be cured, can never be rehabilitated. The best we can do is manage them," said Londt.

However, it is in the management and rehabilitation of these sexual offenders that government seemed to be remiss.

Carol Bower, executive director of Rapcan (Resources aimed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect), said the Department of Correctional Services had made a commitment to promote the rehabilitation of sexual offenders but nothing had come of this.

She said rehabilitation should be a condition of release, because when rapists get sent to prison, they became more skilled at rape and more violent in what they did.

Londt said special attention should be given to the group of offenders who did not respond to treatment, refusing to change their lifestyles, and who continued to prey on communities.

"They nurture their deviancy like a drug addict, and can't wait to get their next hit."

Gideon Morris of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons said programmes were offered, but on a limited scale, citing a lack of professionals.

- SAPA