To think that "Rehabilitation" is a joke, because you can't change who someone is sexually attracted to!

[BeachBlondey]

Inspired by the Gary Glitter latest story.

Why as a society, can't we accept, that you cannot fundamentally change who someone is sexually attracted to?

For example - no amount of "rehabilitation" will stop paedophiles being attracted to children.

We know that conversion therapy does not work (barbaric!)

Furthermore, you can't read people mind's, and of course they will say that they feel rehabilitated, because they know that this is their key to being released.

Further still, what happens when you ban someone from indulging in their sexual fantasies for years on end? Surely, the amount of sexual frustration and desire will build and build and build.

If a rapist has not had sex with a woman for 10 years, when he is released from prison, isn't he far more likely to be sexually frustrated and thus more likely to attack quite quickly?

If a paedophile hasn't been around children for 10 years, surely the first time he is around children, his sexual urges will go in to overdrive, probably to far more dangerous levels than ever before, because he will have an appetite that has not been sated for decades.

I am a female heterosexual woman, and no amount of "rehabilitation" forced upon me, would make me stop wanting sex with men. Nor would it magically make me fancy women. But, if I was in prison for having sex with a man, of course, I would tell the parole board that I was cured. And I'm sure that having been celibate for 10 years, the first thing I would want to do upon release would be to have sex with a man.

I'm so sick of sex offenders being released, who very quickly go on to reoffend, resulting in some poor innocent person being attacked or killed. We are constantly risking the safety of the public, under the guise of people having been rehabilitated, despite us seeing evidence to the contrary all the time.

When released prisoners reoffend, I would like to see the members of that Parole board penalised, either with being fired from their jobs, or being given monetary fines.

I realise that a big issue is space in prison. We either build more prisons, or consider medical castration maybe? We cannot keep placing the public at risk.

What’s the alternative?

Medical castration is barbaric IMO.

Sorry - are you saying rapist is a sexual orientation?

I'm not sure it's helpful to categorize paedophilia as the same type or quality of thing as hetero/homo/bisexuality. Is there research suggesting paedophilia is a sexual orientation in the same way?

But separately, no, I too suspect rehabilitation is impossible, whether you're comparing it to conversion therapy or not.

i thought that the point was not to stop the attraction but rather to stop the person acting on it. Understanding that it is wrong and harmful and therefore having the ability to control the urge. Developing strategies to stop themselves perpetrating.

You should have put a trigger warning on this.

I think sentences are way too lenient for many of these crimes and that we definitely need more prison capacity.

Managing these high-risk individuals once they are released into the community must be nigh-on impossible.

It's a massive issue and I don't know what the solutions might be.

YANBU. A sexual offender will never be rehabilitated in my opinion and I also don’t think it’s worth the risk, even if some can be. The rights of innocent people should be placed above the rights of violent attackers.

Interested to hear what you think should be done instead op.

A lot of these offenders are such because they like power and control, over anyone, and it's easier to have that over children. Obviously some people are 'sexually attracted to children' which itself might be hard to change. But not all of them are literally attracted to children in that sense. They're attracted to power. And it is possible to rehabilitate issues around power and control (to an extent) so I think to say that it 'doesn't work' is to ignore a much wider issue at play than 'sexual attraction'.

It's easy enough to infer, from the fact it's about changing who someone is sexually attracted to, and "rehabilitation" which suggests something wrong that should be corrected.

Being autistic, no it wasn't obvious to me. But thanks for your input.

Rape isn't about sexual desire it's about power and control.

To my knowledge there are also many different 'types' of paedophile, some are more likely to be rehabilitated. For example many were abused themselves so some rehabilitation addresses that. I used to work next to someone who did research on it, it's quite complex!

I agree with @veganmayo Many of the offender's I've come across (through my work) - it's because of power, control and/or opportunity. Not because of some innate sexual attraction to children.

It’s really clear from the thread title what this is about

fundemental misunderstanding of the motive behind rape, sexual attraction doesn't really come into it - it is a power thing

Being autistic, it was obvious for me.

Like I've already said I'm autistic so don't necessarily draw the same conclusions as most. But thanks again for making me feel stupid.

I think you've misunderstood what is meant by rehabilitation? It's to reframe how someone deals with feelings they can't help having. Putting behaviours, habits in place and learning how to deal with thoughts. I'm sure it won't work for everyone (even assuming they want it to) and potentially those it doesn't work for need to be restricted in some way for the rest of their lives to protect the public.

And to your point that everyone has to act out their sexual fantasies eventually because humans couldn't possibly be expected to have some self control, well that's not true at all. Plenty of people abstain for years, or even their whole lives, for a huge variety of reasons.

What is wrong with people. Ever heard of a spectrum? Now you're just being unnecessary.

Yes, very much my opinion.

Okay, about the power and control urge - do people really think that can be rehabilitated out of someone? I don't. It's an urge like anything else.

Well, there clearly are individuals who are sexually attracted to children. I'm prepared to believe this is an innate thing, whether you want to call it an orientation or not.

So what should we do with those people if they cannot refrain from acting on those urges?

You can’t stop them having the attraction but surely they can be treated/educated so as not to act on it. They aren’t robots and are
human beings with agency in control of themselves and are choosing to act on the impulses they have. If this can’t be done then they should remain indefinitely in custody or be castrated, chemically or otherwise.

YANBU

There was one years ago, he admitted if he was released he would attack a child and rape them. It was an uncontrollable urge. Cary Jay Smith “I’ll do it again unless you cut off my penis and hands”.

Case closed. He’s one of many. Those that seek freedom will lie. Obviously.