W2B-017 Drugs - Child abuse-2.txt
Fr Pat Buckley

What are we to do with Child Abusers?

MORE AND MORE cases of child sex abuse are emerging in Ireland. The Catholic Church is dizzy as it tries to come to terms with the various complaints against its priests.

Some victims have now issued writs in Belfast. Cardinal Daly and Father Brendan Symth's abbot, Kevin Smith, have been cited as defendants. The Catholic Church in America has spent millions on legal settlements. The Irish Church is probably facing similar bills. But of course child sexual and physical abuse is by no means confined to priests and Christian Brothers: most of it takes place in families.

Our primary sympathy must lie with the victims. Many of them have grown up physically, but they will always carry the scars of the abuse. Some of them will be condemned to living lives of great unhappiness as they mismanage relationships and find it impossible to trust. The victims deserve the very best counselling and more than adequate compensation.

But what are we to do with 'perpetrators'? Some suggest that they should be castrated, others in anger would want to beat them up. A few would even suggest the death penalty.

Child abuse is a very serious crime. Those who engage in it must expect to pay a very heavy price: society demands punishment and retribution. A severe prison sentence seems just, but we should never allow ourselves to forget that in civilised societies punishment should be linked to rehabilitation.

In the United States they place great emphasis on sex offenders engaging in rehabilitation programmes. These are sometimes offered as an option to prison and the successful completion of a programme can lead to an early release. Sometimes the programme will involve re-introducing the abuser into the life of the abused. This can be the case particularly if the abused was a cherished family member.

Very often it will emerge in therapy that the abusers themselves were victims of child abuse. It seems that some victims grow up to be perpetrators. This is especially sad, but it does show that child abuse happens sometimes as a result of human weakness and not badness. Of course this is no excuse, but it is an explanation.

We need our medical experts and our psychologists to do an awful lot more work on the causes of abuse. And if it were to emerge that there was some genetic or compulsive psychological element, we would have an even greater responsibility to approach child abuse from the perspective of illness and treatment.

Prison on its own is not the answer. Far too many abusers re-offend after being in prison. The Americans have proven that fewer re-offend after intensive therapy.

There is a huge lack of programmes for abusers in Ireland. That's a very great pity. One of the best ways to protect children in the future is to work with offenders so that they will not re-offend. Victims have their support groups and their rape crisis centres - I 'm glad that they have - but I wish groups for the abusers were common.

Perhaps we sometimes forget that the abusers are human beings too. Many of them must have terrible problems to make them do the things they do. Abusers are somebody's flesh and blood; they are somebody's son or daughter. They were once innocent babies and children. Something happened to them somewhere along the line to put them on such a disastrous road. Those of us who profess Christianity have to remember also that God loves us all equally - no matter how low we sink.

Child abuse is not a new phenomenon. It was always there, but it was hidden. It's now coming out into the open. That means that we all have to face up to it. Our first responsibility is to the victims, but we also have a serious responsibility to care for the abusers. If the abusers cooperate, we should give them all the help they need. If they are not willing to take help, then perhaps there is a case for locking them away for a very long time, if only to protect the vulnerable.
