Treatment of paedophiles in India, France, and Europe

Europe:
   In some parts of Eurpoe today, physical castration still exists and is practiced. European castration studies from 1940 - 1950 show that the rates of reoffending dropped to the single digits. Currently, Europe does not have a sexual offender registry in place.

Europe VS. Canada:
- Canada does not practise physical castration, but chemical castration unlike Europe
- Europe does not have a sex offender registry and Canada currently has one established

India:
   Currently in India sexual offenders are placed in regular prisons with other inmates. India is concidering adopting the seperate sentencing policy from the United Kingdom and other countries. India also does not have any established treatment programs in place for sexual offenders. An Indian judge stated "the justice system in India has zero tolerance for it [sexual crimes against children]".

India VS. Canada:
- India does not have seperate prison facilities specially for sexual offenders, Canada does
- Canada mandates that all sexual offenders attend treatment programs after being released from prison, and India does not currently have any treatment programs set up for released sexual offenders

France:
   Treatment for sexual offenders in France started in 2005 when psycho therapy was introduced as a treatment method. In 1998, France voted for the compulsory after release treatment of sexual offenders.

France VS. Canada:
- France has adopted most of the methods that Canada uses when dealing with sexual offenders

Treatment of Paedophiles in China compared to Canada

   In China, the age of consent is fourteen years of age, the age of marriage for females is 20, and for males 22. Earlier laws declared the age of marriage to be between 12 and 16. Depictions of sexual relations with children can be found in both modern and ancient Chinese literature. Children are seen as natural sexual beings and it is said that it is healthy for a child to experience erotic stimulation. Today in a hospital in China's biggest city, 30% of abortions are school-aged girls. 

   An online poll of sex offenders shows that many foreign travelers chose China as the number one destination to have un-consensual sex. Currently, China has no laws established against homosexual rape. Although many reports have been brought forward, law enforcement cannot act. 

   In China, employers have to pay out of pocket HK$160 to preform a background check on an employee. Because of this, many employers do not preform background checks. Many teachers and teaching aids working with children were found to be previously convicted for sexual offenses between 2006 and 2010. The Against Child Abuse organization urges the Chinese government to introduce mandatory background checks for all employers and employees working in child care. 

   Today in China, the numbers of reports of sexual abuse have risen as have the number of female sexual offenders. China now wants to reform laws to prevent sexual crimes from reoccurring, and has adopted the idea of separate sentencing; creating a new facility for sexually offending inmates. China is also beginning to establish mandatory treatment programs for sexual offenders.

CHINA'S SENTENCING FOR SEXUAL OFFENSES:

Rape: 3-10 years

Rape of women and minors viciously: 10 years - life

Rape causing death: 10 years - life

Sodomy against a minor under the age of 14: Max. 5 years

Sodomy against a minor under the age of 14 in public: Min. 5 years

Child Prostitution: Max. 5 years

Child Prostitution (serious offenders): life or death penalty

Child Porn (production, sale, or spreading): 3 years plus forced labor

China VS. Canada:

China and Canada are very different with how they treat pedophiles and sex offenders. China is beginning to adopt some of the laws that Canada has established for many years. 

Treatment of Paedophiles in the United Kingdom compared to Canada

   In the United Kingdom, sex offenders have been treated since 1992, and group psycho therapy was added in 1994. In 1995 the number of sexual offenders was 3,528 and after twelve years, that number has more than doubled. Sexually offending inmates are mostly white males with a percentage of 86.6 out of the total population of sexual offenders. The United Kingdom has adopted the idea of "seperate sentencing policy" for sexual offenders. This policy ensures that sexual offenders have separate cells from the other inmates, and in some areas sexual offenders may have a facility of their own.

   The Independant, a local newspaper in the UK reported that sex offenders in prison are being released before going on to completing treatment plans. The prison facilities fear that the high-risk sexual offenders are intimidating staff members. It was found that in prison records, one out of three sex offenders did not recieve a treatment plan when they required one. Evidence shows that in jail treatment followed by relapse follow up when living in a community reduces the risk of paedophiles reoffending. 

   In a United Kingdom prison facility, one hundred inmates volenteered to take a series of medications to chemically castrate them. The drug given to the inmates is called Prostap, and reduces testosterone levels to that of a pre-pubesent boy. The inmates wanted to do something to ensure that they had less of a chance to reoffend. 

   The maximum penalty in the United Kingdom under the Crown Court for child abuse is 10 years. Parole officers have prison records of jail terms for sexual offenders being less than one year, and some only community punnishment. The enforcement of treatment programs was not followed through with the prison. 

SENTENCES FOR SEXUAL CRIMES:

Rape: six years to life

Sexual assault of an adult: six to ten years

Sexual assault of a child: ten to twenty years

Exploitation: four to six years for a first time offender

Canada VS. The United Kingdom:

-Canada and the United Kingdom both have adopted the "seperate sentencing policy"
- The United Kingdom has experimented with chemical castration of sexually offending inmates, where Canada has not
- Canada and the UK have different sentencing policies

Treatment of paedophiles in the United States compared to Canada

   Currently in the United States of America there are 400,000 registered sex offenders and 800,000 to 100,000 of these offenders are missing and have not been registered. The problem of sexual abuse has arose with the Boy Scouts of America dating back to when the club was first established. They began keeping track of people they suspected to be child molesters in files called the perversion files. This was done to prevent any sexual offenders from entering the Scouts of America. Courts ordered the release of the files from 1965 to 1985 and could bring upon new cases of sexual offences. When the files were reviewed, the files from 1971 to 1991 showed repeated occurrences of scout leaders failing to report a sexual offence even with a confession.

   Before 1994, only five states in the United States of America required sexual offenders to register with local law enforcement. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Agaisnt Children and Sexually Violent Offenders Act was created and made registries nessisary for all 50 states. In 1996, seven year old Megan Kanka was killed by a released sex offender that lived on her street. A new law; Megan's Law, was introduced that requires all states to conduct community notification programs. However, although the justice system tries to prevent sexual offenders from not registering, many do not follow through with registering. Loopholes through state programs allow paedophiles to 'shop' for states that have less strict register laws and sexual offenders can live in somewhat anonimity. 

   In a single year, out of 4,300 inmates that were arrested for a sexual offence against a child 3.3% of them were rearrested within three years of their release for a sex crime against a child. The average sentence for these 4,300 offenders in the USA is approximatly seven years, with only three of them being served. Since many sexual offenders have prior sexual related offences and the risk of reoffending is typically high, many judges impose special sentencing for paedophiles. The sentencing is usually inprisonment followed by psychiatric treatment and/or counseling, some times a judge may also order a treatment program. A servey done by the State Correctional Facilities found that 13% of sexually offending inmates are ordered by the court to attend a treatment program. Some states mandate that sexual offenders wear ankle tracking devices as an order of the court upon release.

   American treatment programs are more private and are client funded organizations. Polygraph testing is regularly used in treatment programs, these American treatment programs are targeted at offence responsibility. The level of disclosure of the offence is usually high, most treament programs require full disclosure of the offence. U.S treatment programs are quite long and can be as long as, but not limited to eighteen months.

Canada VS. The United States of America:

- In the United states, it is optional to have treatment programs as a court order for sexual offenders. In Canadian law, sexual offenders are automatically required to attend treatment programs as a parole    condition.
- Canadian treatment programs can include medications
- Canadain treatment programs are paid for by the government, American treatment programs are client funded.
- treatment programs for sexual offenders in the United states are three times longer than Canadian treatment programs.

The Treatment of Paedophiles in Canada

     The Correctional Service of Canada started implementing more sex offender treatment programs throughout Canada since 1973. Since then Canada has been the kick start to knowledge and research about sex offender treatment. In Canada, sex offenders are required to attend treatment programs upon their release as a part of their parole conditions. However, the method of treatment varies on the specific type of sexual offender. Sexual offenders break off into two general categories; child molesters, and rapists. Then those general catagories break into sub catagories of non-incest offences and incest offenses. The different groups of sexual offenders have varying rates of reoffending, and different treatment methods. In this blog you will learn about the penalties, procedures, and treatments of pedophiles in Canada and throughout the world.

     Incest child molesters are statistically the least likely out of all sexual offenders to reoffend at a rate of 8.4%. The most effective type of treatment for incest child molesters is a minimally intrusive type of therapy. The Correctional Service of Canada produced a program for fathers at a low risk to reoffend called Violence Interdite Sur Autri or VISA program. The program consists of offenders working to overcome the fear and shame of their offense so that they can comprehend what they have done. They are taught to take full responsibility infront of both the people involved in the offense and their therapy group. The offender must come to terms with the damage that they have done to their victims, family, and themselves. The incest child molesters take steps to ammend and establish healthy relationships. In the program, sexual offenders are taught to recognize the factors and triggers for their behavior and create ways to reduce these influencing factors. The VISA Program is a fourteen week program that includes 28 psychological therapy group sessions, 13 sexual education workshops, and 10 individual interviews. Although with the assistance of treatment for incest child molesters, relapse is always a factor and treatment is not always effective. In 1996, 130 sexual offenders were involved in the VISA program and two have since been convicted of a sexual related crime. 58.7 % of these people admitted to additional sexual offenses that they had not been convicted for.

     Non-incest child molesters are the mosy likely to reoffend out of all sexual offenders. A study was done to show the different rates of reoffending and split the offenders into three groups; incest child molesters, heterosexual child molesters (non-incest), and homosexual child molesters (non-incest). The study revealed that incest child molesters were the least likely to reoffend, followed by heterosexual child molesters, and homosexual child molesters with the highest rate of reoffending. This tells us that pedophiles that victimize young boys are at a much higher risk of reoffending and must be treated and supervised for an extensive amount of time. 77% of offenders who were never married, previously offended, and victimized young boys outside of the family recividated. Although non-incest child molesters are at the highest rate of reoffending, treatment programs can be effective for these people if they are followed and maintained.

     The final category of sexual offenders are rapists, they are the second most likely to reoffend with a rate of 17.1%. Rapists tend to be younger than child molesters and carry similar characteristics to criminals like prior criminal records and anti-social behaviors. However, it is more difficult to rehabilitate a rapist successfully, but the treatment program is likely to decrease the rate of reoffenses.
Reoffending rapists are more likely to commit non-sexual offenses after treatment and breach their conditional release at a rate of  40.7%; unlike child molesters, at a rate of 25%. Treatment programs for convicted rapists focuses on changing devient sexual behaviors and incorporates Cognitive Skills Training. Treatment programs also focuses on cognitive/behavioral conditioning which includes shaming, covert sensitization, and mastubatory conditioning to reduce reoffending in rapists post-treatment.

     Although the various sections in the programs for the treatment of rehabilitating sexual offenders are important and substantial in the rehabilitation process, relapse prevention is an important factor in preventing reoffending. Relapse prevention plays a big part in preventing reoccurring offences. Prevention gives sexual offenders the tools to recognize situations where they may reoffend. It also teaches sexual offenders coping, escape and avoidance strategies.

Stay tuned for more posts about the treatment of pedophiles in canada and around the world.
Thank you for reading.
-Emily McFarlane