Sex Offenders: What can be done?
It’s been a long time since I’ve had the time to write what’s been on my mind, but I can’t wait any longer: What can be done about the growing number of sex offenders?
My practice is growing. We are adding groups in both of our offices. While that is a good thing for my business, that’s a really bad thing for society.
Some Background About my Experience with Sex Offenders
In addition to running a therapy practice that works with individuals who have committed sex crimes, I have other gigs.
One of them is as an instructor for a school that teaches law enforcement officers to conduct polygraph examinations. I spend 20 hours with them teaching them about psychology. Last month, I spent my first day with this cohort.
One of the 18 attendees was an officer from North Carolina who is the ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) officer for his department. He shared with me the weekly email that he gets from NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).
This is one of the places that people report sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation materials, etc. They keep excellent statistics and ICAC officers get the data each week. I am a data geek and therefore asked if he could forward me the information.
My jaw dropped. Speechless.
I quickly moved into feeling overwhelmed and a bit of despair.
With nearly 20 years in the industry, I know it is bad out there. I know it is REALLY BAD.
But, I didn’t know it was this bad.
Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.
Here’s a Snapshot
The NCMEC report that he forwarded me provided the following numbers:
In one week, NCMEC’s Cybertip line received 503,139 reports JUST from Electronic Service Providers (Kik, Snapchat, etc.)
That is over half a million reports in one week.
The public made nearly an additional 2500 reports in that week. Of those more than half million reports made just to the CyberTipline that week, over 480,000 of them were for CSAM.
To date, this year only, there have been over 12 million CSAM reports to the CyberTipline.
But there is no way for law enforcement to police these numbers.
They simply do not have the manpower to investigate every one of these tips. They not only have to investigate tips sent to their jurisdictions, they also have all other crimes to deal with outside of the CyberTipline.
There is also, unfortunately, no way to get all of the CSAM off of the web. It just can’t be done.
Again, it’s a workforce and technology thing.
I shared this with one of my colleagues at work and got a message that night that it is stuck in his head, too.
What Do We Do?
When I ask that question, I am asking it outside of the law enforcement/legal system.
I am tired of there not being really any primary prevention for CSAM use. Or any other type of sexual offending.
I am also not at all an expert in prevention outside of my work. My work is secondary or tertiary prevention depending on your point of view.
The thing that comes to mind is Education.
Parents need more education about pornography and what’s happening online.
Furthermore, children need more education and pornography literacy information.
And what do we do for the people who are engaging in offending or who are attracted to children and not offending and want to keep it that way?
We need to normalize therapy.
If you have never heard of Project Dunkelfeld in Germany, check it out. It’s one of the best examples of primary prevention of sex offenders I can point to.
Learn more about Primary Prevention and its benefits in these articles:
Next Steps in Dealing with Sex Offenders
Right now, I have no answers.
Thinking about what I can do about prevention is going to be renting a lot of space in my head for a while.
I implore all of you to think about what you can do as well.
Yes, we need to continue to report abuse when it happens.
But, wouldn’t the world be better if we could figure out how to stop sex offenders from offending in the first place?
Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses? Then you should stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!
Are you a Licensed Professional Counselor seeking engaging, unique Continuing Education courses? Dr. Weeks offers accredited courses on her practice website on the effects of Pornography Abstinence and other unique topics!
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
