SA- Are sex offenders two-faced?

9-30-2008 South Africa:

Almost half the number of people who seek help after committing sexual offences against children come from wealthy suburbs and are professional people.

These are two of the findings of a study of child sex offenders who took part in treatment programmes by Safeline and the Catts treatment programme in Kenilworth.

In all, 177 child sex offenders were used for the study.

One percent of the offenders came from abroad, and 55 percent came from previously disadvantaged areas.

Besides the startling statistic that 41 percent of offenders came from affluent areas, the study found 58 percent of offenders were married or cohabiting, and 36 percent had never been married.

An overwhelming majority of participants were male, while more than 85 percent of victims were female.

Most of the victims were stepchildren of the offenders, with the youngest being two years old.

The average age of offenders was 41, most had been convicted of indecent assault, and 12 percent had been found guilty of rape.

The study was conducted by Marcel Londt and Nicolette Vanessa Roman, who analysed offenders who participated in Safeline's community-based programme and the private programme run by Catts between 1992 and April. It assessed common assumptions about sex offenders.

Londt runs the Catts programme at the Kenilworth Clinic and has testified in court cases of high-profile sex offenders, including those featuring James McNeill and William Creasey.

McNeill was known as Father Christmas, and often posed for pictures with little children sitting on his lap.

Creasey was a teacher in Grassy Park.

He recently made headlines when it was found that he would be paroled in October and that he would be placed in the care of a friend who lived across the road from a day care centre in Plumstead.

After queries to the department of correctional services, his release was put on hold. ..News Source.. by Fatima Schroeder