Sex offenders can be turned says expert

Paedophiles are among the easiest criminals to rehabilitate, says a Canadian expert who helped set up Christchurch's Kia Marama unit at Rolleston Prison.

5-18-2008 Canada / New Zealand:

Dr Bill Marshall, a professor of psychology and psychiatry, was in Christchurch last week to visit the sex offenders' unit he helped establish in 1989, when it was the first of its type in the world.

The general perception of men who sexually offend against children is that they will continue on this path for life.

However, Marshall, 72, said the offenders were treatable and a long-term study of 524 subjects had shown recidivism rates among treated offenders were down to 3.2 per cent.

"Sex offenders as a group are at much less risk of reoffending than any other offender - well, them and murderers, who also have a low risk,'' he said.

"Sex offenders have much lower recidivism rates than burglars or thieves, but the harm they do is a damn sight higher.''

Marshall was proud of his part in Kia Marama (And there was light...), one of two units in New Zealand, which treats 60 prisoners at a time. It was set up after a study showed that 25% of imprisoned sex offenders in this country offended again.

Marshall said the treatment involved making the offenders aware of the damage they caused, but the main motivation was self-interest.

"We say to them, `You are going to go out of here and the cost to you is you're going to be back with a worse sentence, and an integrated prison is not a good place to be','' he said.

"I just suggest that treatment is in their best interest and if they engage properly then the chances of coming back are next to zero.

"We will teach you ways to function and it will lead to a happier, better and more fulfilled life. These are big motivators. It's actually just common sense.''

Marshall fell into working with sexual offenders by accident.

The Australian-born academic moved to Canada to do his PhD and, short of money, took a part-time job at a prison.

What little work he had to do was finished quickly so he started talking to a prisoner, who did menial tasks around the prison.

It turned out he was a sex offender and Marshall started counselling him. The prisoner told others and before long Marshall was counselling all the sex offenders.

But when the prison found out he was fired.

Marshall immediately went on the attack in the media, saying it was disgraceful that there were no treatment programmes, and his new career was in motion.

Thirty-eight years later, he is still working and is now regarded as a world authority.

"I stay in the field because it's rewarding,'' he said.

"I'm doing something to make society safer. It's also a challenging and exciting field to work in.''

Among those he has advised are clergy at the Vatican. He was called in five years ago after scandals among the priesthood in the United States.

The US has found that about 4% of priests were involved in abuse and a study of them showed that they had similar backgrounds to other offenders of being physically or sexually abused themselves.

"Their backgrounds are no different,'' Marshall said.

"Most say they went into the priesthood to try to overcome their problems. They went in thinking it would cure them.''

Marshall said it would be possible to weed out those who had signs of being possible offenders, but did not know whether his advice was taken.

"Priests who offend are very narcissistic. They go in because they want to be admired and be the centre of attention,'' he said.

"They could easily screen them out at the front end.''

He has no time for the argument of members of the American Man Boy Love Association who claim they are born with a preference for children, as others prefer men or women. "No-one is born a child molester,'' he said. "Preference for children is driven by a lot of things, not the least of which is a lack of confidence in adult relationships.

"These are learned behaviours and like any learned behaviour you can unlearn it.''

South Korea and Hong Kong are both setting up programmes based on Kia Marama. ..more.. by PHIL HAMILTON