sexual abuse

Broken Harmony

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I was at a music festival in the West. I had dinner with a musician, who asked me what I was doing. I briefly described my work on sexual abuse in the Church.

She said that she had been abused by her music teacher, and in fact many musicians she knew had been abused by their teachers. She also knew people who had been abused at Horace Mann. After the revelations of abuse in the Church, many people were able to be more open about what had happened to them in other circumstances.

‘Vile’: Students have claimed music teacher Johannes Somary took them on solo trips and raped them. Despite complaints, he was never fired

A former student of an elite New York City prep school has revealed decades of sexual abuse at the institution, accusing a string of teachers of vile behaviour while suggesting others covered it up.

In New York Times Magazine, Amos Kamil, who graduated from Horace Mann in the Bronx in 1982, gives a harrowing insight into the hellish school years for scores of boys.

He details how a music teacher took a student on solo trips to Europe where he repeatedly raped him, and how an art teacher would demand the boys underwent ‘physicals’ in order to assault them.

An East Forsyth High School music teacher facing several counts of sexual abuse involving at least one male student resigned shortly before the Christmas break.

Winston Stephens Jr., 59, was already suspended and recommended for dismissal, though the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board had not finalized his case. He was charged last month with three counts of taking indecent liberties. The incidents are alleged to have occurred over the summer.

SEARSPORT, Maine – An SAD 56 elementary school music teacher was arrested Wednesday evening on felony charges of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact.

William A. Wiley, 39, of Bog Hill Road in Searsport was arrested at the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department following a two-day investigation. He was charged with one count of gross sexual assault and four counts of unlawful sexual contact. He is being held on $1,000 bail at the Waldo County Jail.

A former Arroyo Grande High School piano teacher has been arrested on child sex abuse charges in Bakersfield.

Luke Youngs has been placed on paid administrative leave at his new place of employment, Foothill High School in Kern County.

The Bakersfield Police Department arrested and booked Youngs into jail for molesting a girl under the age of 14. He’s being held on $150,000 bail.

The 34 year old teaches band at the high school.

Cable, who was known as ‘Barney’ to pupils, preyed on schoolboys while he was employed as a music teacher at Stowmarket Middle School.

In September 2003, at the age of 63, he was jailed for four years after being convicted of 10 offences of indecent assault and eight of gross indecency against five boys.

The abuse occurred during the 1970s and 1980s while Cable, formerly of Edgecombe Road, Stowmarket, was music director and conductor of the school’s concert band, which he founded in 1961.

The band was highly-regarded and had toured the United Kingdom, Spain, France Germany and America.

Cable groomed his victims by plying them with cash, cigarettes and alcohol.

My oldest son studied flute. His teacher, a neighbor and friend, came to our house to teach him. My wife was always present to see how things were going. She remembered that the teacher stood behind him and held him to show him how to hold the flute – this was necessary, and would be true of many instruments. But my wife also thought even then that this might be a source of temptation- with this teacher all was well, but in too many teachers were corrupt. Often music teachers are alone with students for hours and the necessary physical intimacy can be used as a grooming technique.

If any good come out of the terrible suffering that victims have endured, it may be in the future that victims will be willing to speak about abuse immediately and to end it, rather than submit in silence.

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Et tu, Horace Mann?

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The Horace Mann school in New York had abusers and the reaction of the administration to allegations closely parallel the reactions of Catholic bishops: refusal to listen, cover-ups, unexplained dismissals. Both abusers and victims committed suicide.

Amo Kalmil’s article in the New York Times Prep School Predators documents the dynamics of abuse. He examines his attitude to his alma mater:

I have similarly conflicted feelings about Horace Mann. It was in many ways an amazing place filled with inspiring teachers and smart, funny students, with a sense of enthusiasm and possibility. Despite all I’ve since learned about it, I still look back on my years there with affection and gratitude, as do so many former students, even some who shared their harrowing stories with me. But that gratitude is part of what makes these stories so painful. We were at such a vulnerable moment in our lives — just beginning to make the transition from childhood into early adulthood, struggling to come to terms with the responsibilities of sexuality and trying to decide what we were willing to stand up for. We needed strong and consistent role models. In many cases we got them. But in too many other cases, we got models of how to abuse authority, how to manipulate trust, how to keep silent, how to fix your eyes forward.

Much the same could be said about the Church: while doing much good, it allowed the exploitation of the vulnerable.

The press has been criticized for not writing about abuse in other institutions. But someone has to come forward, and the NYT printed a long story about one of the most prestigious schools in the city.

Horace Mann was probably not unique; abuse almost certainly went on in other prep schools.

The New York State Legislature has refused to extend the statute of limitations (now a childhood abuse victim has only until age 23 to report the abuse) and has refused to allow a window to sue for past abuse. The Catholic hierarchy has been the most public opponent of such a window. But I strongly suspect that very influential New Yorkers connected with the prep schools are also quietly lobbying against such a window.

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More on the Good People of Pennsylvania

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On the field and before the television  Penn State fans and team behaved themselves.

On Saturday, as the clock struck noon at Beaver Stadium, both the good and the bad sides of Penn State were on display. Inside the towering football cathedral—where more than 100,000 Nittany Lions worshippers gathered for the first game of the post-Paterno era—a row of shirtless guys with letters painted on their chests spelled out the words “For the Kids.” At midfield prior to kickoff, Penn State and Nebraska players converged for a moment of silence and prayer for the young boys former PSU defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is accused of raping and molesting over the course of a decade, perhaps much longer. Tears flowed from the crowd and the TV cameras transmitted what seemed like genuine sadness and compassion, even remorse, to the rest of the country.

But outside, away from the TV cameras:

Thirty-four-year-old John Matko, a 2000 Penn State graduate, stood in the middle of the closed-off street as thousands of PSU fans—many clad in some version of a “We Love Joe” T-shirt—milled around, many gawking at him. Matko held two hand-scrawled signs. One bore the Albert Einstein quote, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing.” The other demanded PSU “honor the abused kids by canceling this game and the season NOW.”

Students, alumni and others—and not just a handful of “rotten eggs” but literally several hundred people over the course of half an hour—spit on Matko, dumped beer on him, shoved middle fingers in his face, called him a “fucking pussy,” “faggot,” and a “piece of shit,” and yelled at him to “get the fuck out of here.” They slapped and punched his signs, occasionally knocking them to the ground. Each time, Matko slowly bent down and picked them up. One guy got inches from Matko’s face and barked “We Are!” as his buddies laughed. It was like a public flogging, and through it all Matko remained silent and just took it. “I knew I was gonna be outnumbered today, but I didn’t know quite how much,” Matko said. “I was part of this community and I know how narrow-minded everybody is around here, and they still don’t get it.”

And people who it s so hard for sexual abuse victims to come forward.

Paterno wasn’t the one who got screwed: it was the victims.

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If McQueary Had Been a Babushka

in Masculinity, sexual abuse 6 Comments Tags: ,

Part of the outrage over McQueary’s failure to stop the child rape he was witnessing is caused by the sense that he violated the canons of masculinity. A male’s strength is given to him to protect the weak. If he fails to do that, even if he did not technically violate a law, he has violated a code of honor to which most men subscribe.

If a 60-year-old cleaning woman had seen Sandusky raping a child, we would not have been angry at her if she had fled and called her husband asking him what to do. Many women would have acted more forthrightly than McQueary did (at least according to the version he told the grand jury). We would not expect an older woman physically to challenge a male associated with the football team, and we might be disappointed if she did immediately call the police, but we would not scorn her the way we scorn McQueary – a scorn that has begun to sting him and has caused him to rethink his story.

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McQueary’s Defense

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McQueary claims he in fact did not act like an utter wimp:

A grand jury report said McQueary witnessed seeing Sandusky, the team’s former defensive coordinator, sexually assaulting the boy in a shower on campus, then reported it only to his father and head coach Joe Paterno. According to the report, McQueary did not notify law enforcement or do anything to halt the attack.

Did McQueary tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to the grand jury? It looks like he either lied to the grand jury or he is lying to his teammates. He will have to explain the discrepancy on the witness stand. If he says he lied to the grand jury, he may face perjury charges.

UPDATE

In the email, McQueary said:

“I did stop it, not physically … but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room … I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police …. no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds … trust me.

“I am getting hammered for handling this the right way … or what I thought at the time was right … I had to make tough, impacting quick decisions.”

In the email, McQueary states that he also told Penn State University police about what he saw that night.

“The graduate assistant was never questioned by University police and no other entity conducted an investigation,” according to the presentment.

Public outrage followed McQueary’s implied inaction, and he was placed on paid administrative leave Friday after receiving threats. The school did not provide details on who threatened McQueary.

His email would explain his involvement in what he allegedly witnessed.

“I did the right thing … you guys know me … the truth is not out there fully … I didn’t just turn and run … I made sure it stopped … I had to make quick tough decisions,” McQueary wrote, according to NBC News.

So what really happened? And what did McQueary tell the grand jury?

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Grandiose Narcissists

in Narcissism, sexual abuse 1 Comment

The editor of America, Father James Martin, discusses the grandiosity of narcissists who are abusers. But his words also apply to their enablers:

In my experience, after the conviction or removal from office or ministry, those two qualities merge in the person with terrible consequences. And these consequences make it far more difficult for the institution to address such cases. The grandiose narcissist now focuses almost exclusively on his own suffering. His removal from office, or from ministry, he believes, is the worst thing that has happened to anyone, and he (or she) laments this fate loudly and frequently. Because of his narcissism he focuses almost entirely on his own troubles; because of his grandiosity he inflates them to ridiculous proportions. He suffers the most. This is the “Poor Me” Syndrome.

Even more dangerous: he draws others into his net, and the suffering of the real victims, those whose lives have been shattered, is overlooked-even by otherwise intelligent and well-meaning people. The focus of those within the institution is shifted onto the person they know, rather than the victims that they may not know. “Poor Father,” some parishioners may say, “how he suffers.” It is difficult for a diocese, a religious order, a school, or indeed members of any institution to resist the powerful pull of the grandiose narcissist. Indeed, people often seem unaware that they are being deluded into an overblown sympathy for the wrong “victim.”

Poor Joe Paterno.

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The Gentle Fans of Penn State

in sexual abuse 4 Comments

From The Washington Times

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — In the middle of Curtin Road, John Matko held one handwritten sign in his right hand and rested another against his jeans. Two inches of black tape obscured Penn State’s logo on the 34-year-old father’s hat, as he tried to ignore the jeers, slaps and beer hurled at him.

“Put abused kids first,” one of Matko’s signs read. “Don’t be fooled, they all knew. Tom Bradley, everyone must go.”

Penn State’s Beaver Stadium loomed 30 yards away, rumbling with the first roars of Saturday’s game with Nebraska. The sea of blue-clad supporters wearing gray fedoras and camouflage hunting jackets and “This is JoePa’s house” T-shirts parted around Matko.

“That is such bull–-!” one young woman screamed at him after glancing at the signs. “Who the f– do you think you are?”

Eyes hidden by blue aviator sunglasses, Matko didn’t respond.

A beer showered Matko. One man slapped his stomach. Another called him a “p–-.”

“I understand the culture,” said Matko, who graduated from Penn State in 2000 with a degree in nutrition. “I was part of it. It doesn’t surprise me what I’m getting from them.”

Matko drove three hours from his home in Pittsburgh on Saturday morning. He was tired of reading about what university officials didn’t do in the wake of Sandusky’s charges. The father of a 4-year-old boy, he couldn’t stop thinking about the 23 pages of horror in the grand jury’s indicA passer-by kicked it.

“You’re going to get your a— kicked, man,” a man bellowed.

“That’s bull–-, guy,” another said.

Abuse flew at Matko from young and old, students and alumni, men and women. No one intervened. No one spoke out against the abuse. Over the course of an hour, a lone man stopped, read the sign and said, “I agree.” Those two words were swallowed by the profanity and threats by dozens of others during the hour.

As I said, Ambrose Bierce had too optimistic a view of human nature.

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Conspiracy at Penn State?

in sexual abuse, Uncategorized 3 Comments

The university administration certainly conspired to cover up Sandusky’s abuse, but was he also pimping kids to rich pedophile donors?

Probably not, but there is a possibility it could be true.

There are rings and networks of pedophiles. How they network is a great mystery to the agents of the law, but they definitely network and have done so for decades, well before computers, much less the internet, came into being. How do they recognize one another? It is dangerous to reveal to an honest person that you are engaged in sexual activity with children. He might just go to the police – although pedophiles may have an accurate opinion about the general lack of courage in the human species.

Sandusky would be in the ideal position to feed victims to other pedophiles, all the while pretending he was helping the kids associated with his charity. As a psychopath, he would have no qualms about doing it. There are certainly other pedophiles out there. The Rev. Gordon McRae in New Hampshire was sending boys to other pederasts and the Rev. Paul Shanley passed his victims around to other priests in Boston – and mysterious envelopes taped to victims’ bodies contained, I assume, either cash or drugs. There were well-documented rings of abusers in the dioceses of Davenport, Iowa, and El Paso, Texas. The Casa Pia orphanages in Portugal provided victims for pedophiles among the elite.

But did Sandusky do this at Penn State or Second Mile? Did the pedophiles in turn make donations to Penn State or to Second Mile? If this happened, did the university or the charity administration have any inkling of it? The administration has clearly demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice children to maintain the reputation of the football program. How far did this willingness go?

The victims would be the best source of information; I trust that they have been interviewed and the police are following all leads; the governor seems to be wholly behind the investigation even if it leads to the highest places.

Although such a conspiracy would help to explain the events at Penn State, one should not assume in the absence of positive evidence that it exists.  It is simply a working hypothesis, because pedophiles tend to network and use charities as fronts. But Sandusky may well  be a lone criminal.

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Calls for Testicular Transplants for Penn State Football Administrators

in Masculinity, sexual abuse 1 Comment

We are supposed to be living in a heterosexualist culture which leads men to “patrol sexual boundaries” involving sexual contact between males. This was lacking at Penn State.

Alfred Doblin of The Record asks:

For starters, what the hell was wrong with Mike McQueary? A 28-year-old man allegedly sees a 10-year-old boy being sexually assaulted and walks away and calls his father? He should have called his father after he pulled Sandusky off the boy, after he made sure the boy was not in need of immediate medical attention, after he called the police, and, from my perspective, after he washed away the alleged sexual predator’s blood from his hands because he had thrown Sandusky violently across the locker room when he pulled him off the boy. Calling Daddy is not a priority for a grown man.

And there we have the heart of this sad, pathetic tale occurring in a sea of testosterone: a lack of men. Penn State’s football program, revered because it supposedly molds men, is nothing but a sham. Men do not watch children being sexually abused. Men do not wait or fail to report allegations of sexual abuse regardless of the consequences to their beloved institution.

It sounds strangely familiar if you switch out helmets and pads for white collars and black vestments. Many have likened what allegedly happened at Penn State to the sex abuse scandals of the Roman Catholic Church. The timeline of events is equally disturbing. The church scandals were at their height in the winter of 2002, the same time that Sandusky allegedly abused a 10-year-old boy in a locker room shower. That makes it even harder to imagine grown men failing to recognize the dangers of not bringing in police to investigate the possibility of a predator on the loose with unfettered access to sports facilities.

There is a good chance more alleged victims may come forward as this scandal continues. It will take more than a few high-placed firings to clean house. It also will take more than firings to right priorities at Penn State.

In an interview in USA Today, McQueary’s father said his son “did what he was supposed to do and all of this has been very hard on him.” Somehow, I don’t think this has been as hard on Mike McQueary as it must have been for the 10-year-old boy who allegedly was being sexually assaulted by Sandusky and left with him after McQueary walked away to call Daddy.

For all the bravado over a football dynasty, for all the sights of large, muscular frames pounding at each other on stadium turf, and for all the closed male ranks of failed leadership at Penn State, when it mattered most, there was a singular absence of men.

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Remedial Masculinity

in Masculinity, sexual abuse 6 Comments Tags: , ,

There’s my daddy. Let me ask him what I should do.

Mike McQueary, the 28-year-old aspiring coach at Penn State,  the  one who saw Sandusky butt-fucking a ten-year-old boy, left the scene of the crime and called his daddy. McQueary needs to take remedial masculinity courses.

DeeGee suggests this as a scenario that should be studied in such a class:

If you need a reminder of what to do if you walk into a shower area and find a grown man thrusting behind a boy bracing with his arms against a wall, you could do worse than the following.

You: Move away from the boy. I’m talking to you old man. Stand back. Do it now.

Man: Aw, come on, we’re just horsing around.

You: Shut up and move away from the boy. Kid? Kid, look at me. Turn around and look at me. Go get dressed. You’re going to the hospital.

Man: Hospital? For what?

You: SHUT YOUR FACE.

Man: Oh, you’re big stuff now. Is that it? You think you’ve got something on me? Me? Don’t make me laugh. You know who I am.

You: I don’t know you. The man I thought I knew isn’t here.

Man: Stop the innocent act. You don’t know me? Good one.

You: Kid, you need help over there? Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.

Man: What’s the hurry. He’s not late, he’s staying in my basement room.

You: Not tonight, pal, and not ever again. Not anyone.

Man: What’s that supposed to mean. You know what you signed on for, don’t you? If you want to move up the career ladder here, just walk out that door. You can do it. I’ll have a recommendation for you on my desk in the morning.

You: (picking up a trash can) Kid, wait over by the door. I’ll be right there.

Man: You don’t have to take him. I like him. You can have a different one.

You: (take the trash can into the shower for the sort of beating that crumbles the steel can and drops the man to the tile floor, then put the smashed can against his head and kick until your leg gets tired. Leave with the boy.)

Kid: Did you hurt Mr. Sandusky.

You: Did he hurt you?

Kid: Yes he did, again.

You: He won’t again. Do you like that?

Kid: Yes.

You: You’re not a throw away.

Kid: What?

You: Nothing.

Kid: I don’t feel so good.

You: Neither do I, kid, neither do I.

McQueary will be coaching Saturday – with a name that is custom made for mockery. I wonder if there will be a riot at the stadium.

Paterno and Sandusky are good Catholics and members of the Knights of Columbus (which honored him) and imitated the priests and bishops who taught them by example how to act.

Yes, I am bitter – I am bitter about the weak being sacrificed to the convenience of the powerful and the entertainment of the masses.

UPDATE

The Board of Trustees has more balls than the entire Penn State football staff. They have banned McQueary from the Saturday game – now if they would only fire him.

Penn State‘s Board of Trustees have asked the university’s head football coach to keep Mike McQueary, the assistant coach at the center of a child sex scandal, off the field during Saturday’s nationally-televised game against Nebraska, according to one of the trustees.

The board does not plan to fire McQueary or ask him to step down, according to the trustee, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

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The Sensitive Students of Penn State

in sexual abuse 2 Comments Tags: , ,

A sister of one of Sandusky’s victims is a student at Penn State. The Patriot-News reports

In a parallel universe, going to class might be a nice distraction, to get her mind off the chaos surrounding the arrest of the man accused of molesting her brother.

But not as a junior at Penn State, where students are making jokes about being “Sanduskied.”

“I can’t escape it,” said the junior, whose brother was allegedly molested in a shower by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky when he was 11.

“I’ve been going to minimal classes, because every class I go to I get sick to my stomach. People are making jokes about it. I understand they don’t know I’m involved and it was my brother, but it’s still really hard to swallow that.”

—

“I’ve just been really upset about it all because a lot of people aren’t focusing on the victims in this,” she said. “And instead they’re focusing on other things, like football. As much as you shouldn’t blame the football players … they should be focusing on their respect for the families and what they’ve been through.”

Instead, the outrage on campus has been directed mostly at national media, which descended during the weekend, set up camp and have stayed put as the scandal violently jolts in directions that, each day, seem more unbelievable than the last.

And here and here and here are the students expressing their opinions about the media. At least, unlike certain Catholic cardinals, the students are not blaming the Jews – at least not yet.

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Sandusky with Kids – and a Victim

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According to DeadSpin

the grand jury report identifies one of them as a victim of Sandusky

and

Sandusky’s victims all reported a wide array of sexual abuse allegations. Sandusky, who is married, met many of them through The Second Mile. Many spent the night at his home. He brought them to Philadelphia Eagles games, plus Penn State practices, tailgate parties, and home games. One of the victims traveled to the 1998 Outback Bowl and the 1999 Alamo Bowl as a member of Sandusky’s family’s party. That same victim often stayed with Sandusky at a State College-area hotel on the night before home games. He also frequently dined with the coaching staff and accompanied Sandusky to numerous charity outings. Sandusky had lavished this victim with a variety of gifts. According to the report, “Sandusky even guaranteed [this victim] he could be a walk-on player at Penn State. [The victim] was in a video about linebackers that featured Sandusky, and he appeared with him in a photo accompanying an article about Sandusky in Sports Illustrated.” Sandusky later tried to bribe this victim with cigarettes and marijuana after this victim began refusing his advances.

• Also: “[This victim] remembers Sandusky being emotionally upset after having a meeting with Joe Paterno in which Paterno told Sandusky he would not be the next head coach at Penn State and which preceded Sandusky’s retirement. Sandusky told the victim not to tell anyone about the meeting. That meeting occurred in May 19

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More Ethical than the Pope

in clergy sex abuse scandal, sexual abuse 6 Comments Tags: , ,

The Board of Trustees at Penn State University has fired both the president Spanier and the legendary coach Paterno for their failure to act legally and ethically in handling the allegations of child abuse against Sandusky.

Note the contrast to the Vatican, which has NEVER removed a bishop for similar failures.

The behavior of the coaches and administrators is eerily parallel to the behavior of the clergy, which  perhaps shows that general institutional dynamics are at work, rather than causes (such as celibacy) unique to the Catholic clergy.

When I was a federal investigator during security clearances, I noticed that the standards for janitors in sensitive installations were higher than the standards for Catholic priests. Even then, the type of behavior that was tolerated by the Church would have gotten a janitor fired immediately.

My wife also noticed how molesters like to taunt the public by half-revealing their activity. Bruce Ritter at Covenant House used to write fund-raising newsletters in which he described the bulges in the tight jeans of teenage male prostitutes. Sandusky gave his book the title Touched. He knew that administrators at Penn State were aware of his criminal activities and basically did nothing to stop him. Manipulating the administration was an additional pleasure.

A large number of students rioted at Penn State IN SUPPORT OF PATERNO. Congregations have applauded their molesting pastors. Administrators in church and state did not act to protect children in part because their publics were willing to tolerate child rape in order to keep something else: an entertaining priest, a winning coach.

About 2,000 people gathered at Old Main and moved to an area called Beaver Canyon, a street ringed by student apartments that were used in past riots to pelt police, Fox affiliate WTXF-TV reported.

The disorder escalated after the school’s board of trustees held an emergency meeting Wednesday night and later announced that they had dismissed Paterno, the longest-tenured coach in major-college football, and Graham Spanier, the school’s president for the past 16 years.

Both were ousted by a board of trustees fed up with the damage being done to the university’s reputation by a child sex-abuse scandal involving Paterno’s one-time heir apparent, Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky is accused of sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year period through a charity he founded for at-risk youth.

<!–[endif]–>

Ambrose Bierce had too high an opinion of humanity.

 

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Genes and Crime

in homosexuality, Responsibility, sexual abuse 4 Comments Tags: ,

Get Religion has gathered some interesting stories on research on possible physical and genetic causes for pedophilia, that is, for a desire to have sex with children.

This is a scientific question, and I am unqualified to make any pronouncement on it.

But if pedophilia is genetically determined, and therefore “natural,” those who argue that any genetically determined sexual desire (for example, homosexuality) is therefore natural are going to be in a difficult position.

But philosophers have long known, and Christianity concurs, that our desires are more or less disordered. Some people have an inordinate craving for recognition, food, money, sex, inordinate both in the strength of desire and inordinate in directing the desire to the wrong object. Some criminals commit their crimes so that they will become famous.

Desire is not self-validating. Many of the arguments about “following one’s conscience” sound suspiciously like “I really, really want to do this, so it can’t be wrong.”

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Canadian Crime and Punishment

in clergy sex abuse scandal, homosexuality, law enforcement, Psychology, repentance, sexual abuse 14 Comments Tags: , ,

The Bishops will no doubt take comfort in the Canadian belief that punishment is not the proper response to sexual abuse. The National Post reports:

As North America’s top experts on sex abuse gather in Toronto this week, a philosophical debate about how to treat some of society’s most reviled criminals is coming into stark focus.

The U.S. and Canadian specialists converging for their annual meeting say evidence is mounting that a “public health” approach centred on treatment, rather than lengthy incarceration, stands the best chance of curbing the sex offenders’ fearful urges and protecting the public.

Victims groups and the current federal government worried about what they consider lenient courts are pushing a more punitive approach, embodied by proposed new legislation that would force many sexual “predators” to spend at least five years in prison.

U.S. and Canadian delegates to the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse conference say Canada has been among the world leaders in championing an evidence-based, balanced treatment of the sexual-abuse problem, though they worry its progressive reputation among treatment professions is becoming “tarnished.”

Countless studies show that therapies including a Canadian-developed “circle of support” to ease offenders back into society will reduce repeat offences, said Dr. James Cantor, a Toronto psychologist who works with abusers. New MRI-imaging research he is pursuing even suggests pedophiles have unique brain abnormalities, pointing to the potential for diagnosing them and preventing abuse before it ever happens.

Not everyone is happy with the treatment model:

Some supporters of a law-and-order direction, though, say judges swayed by the testimony of such treatment professionals are handing out too many conditional or otherwise lenient sentences, and question the repeat-offending statistics that underpin the whole treatment model.

“The … system we have in Canada, often leaves [accused abusers] feeling that they’ve won, even if they were convicted,” said Roz Prober, whose group Beyond Borders raises awareness about child sexual exploitation. “Some way you have to get a message through to people that what they are doing is entirely wrong and hugely damaging.”

She said her group wholeheartedly supports treatment, coupled with stiff sentences, but complained that the data on repeat offences touted by Canadian professionals as proof their techniques work are often based on criminal-conviction statistics and underestimate the problem. Government “victimization” surveys suggest that much sexual abuse goes unreported or does not lead to charges and convictions, said the Winnipeg-based victim advocate.

The more correctional-oriented philosophy is getting a significant prod with the Protecting Children from Sexual Predators Act, a government bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for several existing offences, as well as creating two new crimes. Judges, for instance, would have to mete out a penalty of at least five years to those found guilty of incest, aggravated sexual assault or sexual assault with a weapon involving a child under 16.

Ironically, Dr. Cantor said, many of the American treatment specialists coming here for the association’s annual meeting would like to see the States move to the less-correctional stance that has been the Canadian tradition in the past.

“For probably the last 15 or 20 years, the system in Canada has been the envy of the rest of the civilized world,” said Dr. Robin Wilson, a prominent Toronto psychologist who relocated to Florida. “[Now] our friends in the U.S. are saying ‘What’s up with Canada? Why are you trying to fix a system that is not broken?’ ”

Lengthy, automatic prison terms for sex offenders only create hardened criminals who are beyond being fixed by treatment, making them more dangerous when they get out, he charged.

A few reflections:

First of all, let me be clear: I am NOT equating pedophilia with homosexuality. But the argument that homosexual behavior must be natural and acceptable because God or Nature has made some people with homosexual desires can also be applied to pedophiles, and indeed is how they justify their acts to themselves. If pedophiles have different brain structures than other people, how can we blame them for their actions?

The problem is that we have forgotten that desires are not self-justifying. Just because  someone really wants to have sex with: 1. the neighbor’s wife, 2. the handsome young man down the street 3. his  secretary 4. a child, does not mean that he can act on those desires. Reason, that cold blanket, has to intervene and judge whether the desire is in accord with the reality of the situation.

Secondly, identify people who might commit crimes is a dangerous practice. Will these potential criminals be forces to undergo treatment? One study I discovered showed that a large proportion of a group of randomly chosen young men showed a sexual response to pictures of children. But these men would presumably never act on their desires, because they are moral people.

And why would this be confined to sexual crimes? Crimes of violence cause much more harm to society, and it is easy to identify which young men are prone to violence.  Can they be treated, and can they be treated against their will, before they have committed a crime? And involuntary treatment is a form of punishment.

The purpose of punishment is not only to protect society, but to express society’s disapproval of certain acts and to enable the criminal to expiate his crime. Expiation has vanished from the vocabulary of theologians and criminologists, but ultimately it is the most profound rationale for punishment.

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