Sex offenders are human beings who can be helped to change
Aug 11, 2005
SEXUAL abuse of children has of late become so rampant that it is on the verge of losing news value.
Wagwau Jamesa
SEXUAL abuse of children has of late become so rampant that it is on the verge of losing news value.
The society is increasingly becoming insensitive to the cry of the helpless child as men go on rampage with their God-given instrument. An instrument, which was initially designed for pleasure now maims and tortures at leisure. Why is sexual abuse of children so entrenched in our midst?
Just like Mike Lew mentions in his book, Victims No Longer, secrecy seems to be the glue that holds incest firmly in place.
Many victims of incest and sexual abuse fade in the background perhaps for fear of being identified and stigmatised. A 25-year-old lady recently broke the walls of silence and revealed how her father defiled her repeatedly for over five years. Her spine-chilling tale opened a new chapter that has seen her father, Livingstone Ssewanyana being sentenced to 37 years imprisonment. While child’s rights activists might harp victory tunes, the road ahead is far from smooth.
The damage caused by defilement is too grave to be swept under the carpet. Sexual abuse mutilates the child emotionally. For many victims of defilement, sex ceases to be a product of intimacy and becomes an act of shame and pain. Having carnal knowledge of a child rapes both her privacy and identity. This psychological mutilation causes a wound that might not heal for life.
Psychologists believe that psychological wounds are perhaps the most difficult ones to heal. Does the law ever gauge the damage caused to the victims against the punishment meted out to the offender? Maybe the law is waking up and clamping down on the sex offenders with an iron arm.
However, it is prudent for the law to be conscious of the other side of the coin. While the victim elicits immense sympathy from the society, the sex offender’s side of the story is seldom heard.
Psychologists also believe that sex offenders are sick and are equally in need of help. By bundling them behind bars, we stand a risk of prescribing wrong medication for a disease we know little about. Perhaps we need to adopt new strategies against defilement. Is a 37-year jail term rehabilitative or merely a deterrent?
Sex offenders are human beings and they can be helped to change. How about prisons arranging for sessions through which the offenders share their past life with a psychotherapist? I believe talking to the sex offenders might unveil many details that could help fight this menace.
Multiplying the jail term is not bad, but what duration of sentence would help root out defilement from our midst anyway?.
The writer is a counsellor
SEXUAL abuse of children has of late become so rampant that it is on the verge of losing news value.
The society is increasingly becoming insensitive to the cry of the helpless child as men go on rampage with their God-given instrument. An instrument, which was initially designed for pleasure now maims and tortures at leisure. Why is sexual abuse of children so entrenched in our midst?
Just like Mike Lew mentions in his book, Victims No Longer, secrecy seems to be the glue that holds incest firmly in place.
Many victims of incest and sexual abuse fade in the background perhaps for fear of being identified and stigmatised. A 25-year-old lady recently broke the walls of silence and revealed how her father defiled her repeatedly for over five years. Her spine-chilling tale opened a new chapter that has seen her father, Livingstone Ssewanyana being sentenced to 37 years imprisonment. While child’s rights activists might harp victory tunes, the road ahead is far from smooth.
The damage caused by defilement is too grave to be swept under the carpet. Sexual abuse mutilates the child emotionally. For many victims of defilement, sex ceases to be a product of intimacy and becomes an act of shame and pain. Having carnal knowledge of a child rapes both her privacy and identity. This psychological mutilation causes a wound that might not heal for life.
Psychologists believe that psychological wounds are perhaps the most difficult ones to heal. Does the law ever gauge the damage caused to the victims against the punishment meted out to the offender? Maybe the law is waking up and clamping down on the sex offenders with an iron arm.
However, it is prudent for the law to be conscious of the other side of the coin. While the victim elicits immense sympathy from the society, the sex offender’s side of the story is seldom heard.
Psychologists also believe that sex offenders are sick and are equally in need of help. By bundling them behind bars, we stand a risk of prescribing wrong medication for a disease we know little about. Perhaps we need to adopt new strategies against defilement. Is a 37-year jail term rehabilitative or merely a deterrent?
Sex offenders are human beings and they can be helped to change. How about prisons arranging for sessions through which the offenders share their past life with a psychotherapist? I believe talking to the sex offenders might unveil many details that could help fight this menace.
Multiplying the jail term is not bad, but what duration of sentence would help root out defilement from our midst anyway?.
The writer is a counsellor