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Challenging Our Thoughts
by Robert E. Freeman-Longo, MRC, LPC, CCJS
Throughout our lives we are, from time to time, confronted with
information that challenges our conventional way of thinking. For
example, our changing attitudes about "secondhand smoke"
has changed public policy regarding smoking in public areas. Public
education has also helped Americans understand that AIDS is not
a "homosexual disease," but one that can infect everyone
through a variety of sexual behaviors and through intravenous drug
use. Consider the following.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the federal agency responsible
for the prevention of health problems, has been working on violence
prevention for more than 12 years. The CDC's focus has been on changing
the way people think about preventing violence. On November, 6,1996,theAmerican
Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement calling sexual assault
a public health problem, labeling sexual assault a "silent
violent epidemic in the United States today." The World Health
Assembly (WHA) also considers violence, and the prevention of violence
as a public health priority. WHA has declared that violence is a
leading worldwide public health problem. The American Psychological
Association (APA) has also declared violence to be a serious societal
problem and recognizes the need for addressing the violence problem
from a different perspective. The APA states; "Societal attitudes
and practices regarding violence also have an influence on the risk
of family violence." These efforts by these esteemed organizations
are a wake-up call to America.
Legislators and the public repeatedly turn to the criminal justice
system to solve the violence in America. However, the series of
tougher laws padded each year to address violence, passed each year
to guide the criminal justice system, do not address the underlying
causes of violence or sexual abuse. The continued rise in sexual
abuse suggests that a criminal justice model is not preventing sexual
abuse of our children.
During the past two years, we have seen legislation regarding sexual
abusers that 1) mandates public notification of sexual offender
release, 2) mandated use of Depo-Provera ("chemical castration")
for child sexual abusers, and 3) indefinite commitment of "predatory"
sexual offenders. We cannot effectively apply these laws, based
on extreme cases that are not representative of the majority of
sexual abusers, to all sexual abusers. Recently, reports suggest
that these laws have resulted in a decrease of sexual abuse reporting
victims. These mandated, and in some cases unfunded, laws are examples
of "feel good" legislation and are not effective with
all sexual abusers. Occasionally, these laws may cause more harm
than good as they drive the sexual abuser further into secrecy.
In this light, we must also come to grips with the unfortunate reality
that sexual abuse commonly has its onset in childhood adolescents.
For example, 45% of child sexual abuse cases in Vermont are perpetrated
by children and teens. Early identification and intervention by
adults with these children would reduce, almost by half, the number
of children sexually abused in Vermont! That is prevention.
The AMA states, "Society as a whole must become better informed
about the problems and realities of sexual assault. Special attention
must be directed to correcting misconceptions and myths about rape
and sexual assault."
Now is the time for all of us to begin changing the way we think
about sexual abuse. From a prevention standpoint we can do several
things. First, the most important action we can take to prevent
the sexual abuse of our children is to educate ourselves and other
adults about this most serious social problem.
Because of the media's focus on high-profile sex crimes, and sex
murders, these sensationalized news stories give the American public
a biased, distorted, and unrealistic view of sexual abuse. In addition
they foster an angry public who wants to castrate, use public notification,
or imprison for life, sexual abusers regardless of what type, the
frequency of their crimes, or the risk they pose to the community.
Not all sexual abusers are alike, nor should they all be handled
in a similar fashion. Public surveys show that the media misinforms
most Americans about what is sexual abuse, and who is the sexual
abuser. The CDC and the AMA recognize the need to educate the public,
including adults and children, in these programs.
Second, we must focus on early intervention and prevention of sexual
abuse. For every individual we lock up in prison, there are at least
one or more children at risk for acting out sexually. The same amount
of money we spend to incarcerate one person for one year could also
fund state-of-the-art identification, intervention, and treatment
for at-risk youth.
Third, I believe that sexual abuse prevention requires a national
campaign to acknowledge sexual abuse as a public health problem.
If society expects people who are prone to act out sexually and
abuse others to get help for their problem and stop their behavior,
then society must offer the opportunity for sexual abusers, and
persons prone to sexually act out, to step forward and get help.
All of the other prevention campaigns mentioned above have provided
hope and the opportunity for treatment, even when there is not a
"cure" for the particular problem. To prevent sexual abuse
from becoming a more widespread epidemic, we must provide the potential
abuser, and active abusers, the same opportunities for hope and
recovery.
Few people disagree with the statistics that suggest that criminal
sexual abuse has reached epidemic proportions in our country, however,
there is much disagreement and debate about what are the most effective
ways to address this serious social problem and how we can best
prevent it in the future.
I encourage you to look at the past twenty or thirty years and decide
for yourself if our current methods and strategies of creating tougher
laws and punishing sexual abusers are resulting in a decrease in
criminal sexual abuse. I believe the answer to this question is
"no," and therefore, I believe we must rethink what directions
we need to take in the future.
What we must keep in mind is that punishment is not prevention.
I believe the criminal justice system must play a role in sexual
abuse prevention and treatment, and that we must hold criminal sexual
abusers accountable for their behavior. I do not believe that all
sexual abusers should be handled alone because not all sexual abusers
are the same. Some sexual abusers may need to be imprisoned for
life, however, others can be safely and effectively treated in the
community, once they have been assessed and determined to be a low
risk, and by using a restorative justice model.
We must educate ourselves about the issue of sexual abuse and sexual
violence, its origins, and measures we can take to get at the root
of the problem, if we are going to commit ourselves to preventing
it. Prevention is not punishing a behavior after it occurs. Prevention
is stopping the problem before it occurs.
Adapted from
Sexual Abuse In America: Epidemic of the
21st Century
by Robert E. Freeman-Longo & Geral T. Blanchard
1998 Safer Society Press; Brandon, Vermont USA
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