Can sex offenders be rehabilitated?

[RandomAnthony]

Read this article in Slate...

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/13/child...

What do you think?

[Jane]

Interesting article. I think that as behaviour stems from brain functions/decisions that if we can isolate the neurological reasons behind crimes such as paedophilia then there is an argument that it could then be removed from a genetic code or perhaps prevented.
The danger with such eugenics is that then we could have a government also thinking that other sorts of traits were undesirable....leading to genetic or ethnic cleansing. That's a bit of a digression, sorry.
Anyway, I do agree that the reason behind the offending behaviour is absolutely crucial to preventing its reoccurrence where possible and I do agree with rehabilitation in prisons.

[~Geektastic~]

I don't think you can rehabilitate someone that has something so deeply, fundamentally wrong with them. The price of failed treatment or negligence is too high when an offender is released back into the world, even with monitoring. Some crimes cannot be forgiven.

[Sarah]

Just as a slight aside, there are people who show up as registered sex offenders whose crime was not pedophilia. I've read stories about guys of 19 years old convicted of having sex with their 16 year old girlfriends and never being able to get a job or a house afterward.
That is NOT in any way meant to be a pass for anyone, but I just wanted to make that point. It's impossible to discern from a list.

[~Geektastic~]

Sarah Pi wrote: "Just as a slight aside, there are people who show up as registered sex offenders whose crime was not pedophilia. I've read stories about guys of 19 years old convicted of having sex with their 16 y..."

That's true. "Sex offender" is an all-inclusive term for a variety of crimes. If you're looking at the whole range of crimes that fall under that term, then yes, some sex offenders can probably be rehabilitated. But I don't think child molesters or rapists really can be.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

It's a good article. It's always useful to know that an issue is way more nuanced than we're accustomed to believing.

One of the things I take from that article is that some sex offenders can't be rehabilitated at all; some can truly benefit from treatment, the way alcoholics can benefit from going to AA meetings, but the urge to sexually offend is never going to be truly erased from them. The treatment would have to be pretty much constant and forever.

[Lila]

I don't think they can be rehabilitated. Get rid of them and maybe the cycle will stop.Why do we risk other childrens lives?