StopSO Release
Date: 8thDecember 2014
Psychological help for paedophiles reduces the numbers who go on to abuse children
"Recommendations that child sex offenders should be able to seek out help for their damaging behaviour are to be welcomed," says Juliet Grayson, Chair ofStopso, The Specialist Treatment Organisation for the Prevention Of Sexual Offending.
Grayson was commenting on the new strategy being implemented by the police forces and Ceop (the child exploitation and online protection command of the National Crime Agency),which advocates engaging mental health service providers to provide psychological help for child sexual offenders, to stop them abusing children. Grayson supports the view of Simon Bailey, chief constable of Norfolk police and the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo), lead on child protection and abuse investigations, who recently talked about this reversal of official thinking.
"The police forces and Ceop's ideas are a far better way to tackle the threat to society that child sexual abuse poses," Grayson said. "It is easy to say ‘you're a sex offender, you're a monster, we hate you', but that does not keep our kids safe. When offenders are demonised they won't or can't seek out the kind of therapeutic interventions that can help reduce the number that will abuse a child."
"This is very uncomfortable topic to talk about, but if we don't, more children will continue to be abused. The system is not working, so we have to do something different to protect our children and the damage to society as a whole that child sexual abuse causes. "
Grayson pointed out that official figures show there may be up to a ¼ of a million sex offenders in the UK. The police have a database of 50,000 people who regularly view indecent images of children, and 16 to 25 per cent of these are then likely to go on to commit contact offences with children. Whilst up to one in four children are sexually abused before the age of 16, up to 80 per cent of such abuse is perpetrated by members of the close or extended family. Research shows that many sex offenders have themselves been the victims of trauma. Grayson says,"We need to break that cycle of abuse."
"The research shows that if these people get help, the reoffending rate can be as low as 5 per cent.So with the right kind of psychological interventions up to 95 per cent of offenders will not go on to abuse children or, if they have already abused, they will not repeat," Grayson said. "The majority of offenders hate their behaviour and want to stop acting out. Therapy is effective for both serious and less serious deviance."
ENDS -
Editor's Notes
About StopSO
StopSO is the Specialist Treatment Organisation for the Prevention of Sexual Offending, a not-for-profit organisation. Sex offenders are the pariahs of our modern society. It is very hard for this client group to be able to access professional support and help. Practically no NHS services are available for this group. Most therapists do not want to work with these clients. We want to enable sex offenders, or those who are acting out sexually, to be able to access experienced willing and able therapists.We have set up a UK wide independent network of suitably qualified and experienced professionals who are willing and trained to work with this client group. These professionals will be adequately supervised, and include psychologists, psychotherapistsand counsellors
We provide:
• UK wide network of experienced therapists trained and willing to work with this client group
• Comprehensive assessment inc. risk, physical, relational, psychological, spiritual, & social aspects
• Individual therapy for the offender
• Individual therapy for the partner
• Couple work, for both to see the therapist together, including communication training
• Family therapy
• Group work including Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor Therapy (the Slippery Slope Group)
• Training for the therapists
• Supervision
• Online support network for therapists
• Effective research