Sexual Abuse: How I Think We Should Deal With It

Children who are victims of abuse from their own parents would be helped more if the parent is given professional help. The help of the parent(perpetrator) however comes at a price. They include

Zero tolerance to repeating the offence Enrolling and completion of therapy certified by an therapist Complete and unrelactant personal revelation of one self on request from the authorities.

Many sex offender desire help but instead they are judged harshly with no one willing to give them any listening ear.

Punishment

For me punishment for offenders should depend on what caused the parent in this case to abuse to abuse his or her child.

As we saw earlier most sex abusers are usually victims themselves. If this is what drove him to do whatever he did then punishing him especially through jail time would end up being of no consequence. Victims of sex abuse are usually desensitized to pain both his or hers and that of their victim. Punishing them as opposed to giving them theraputic help would only surmount to continuing the chain, in that the abused children could end up being abusers themselves.

In the case of Josef Fritzl most probably his was as result of his tough upbringing, lack of a father figure and hence his desire to feel the need to impose his authority on weaker victims. Note, I am absolutely not trying to justify his actions whatsoever; it was inhumane of him and completely wrong. But just for the chance that it was not self triggered he deserves to be heard.

The other scenario is if the abuse is self triggered. There are situations that trigger actions such as abusing one’s own children. Watching of pornography, participating in sex chats with people who share similar ideas could do nothing but “encourage” such ideas. The abuser parent’s past should be well investigated and if it is found that it was conducive enough for good growth, then the only solution is to punish the offender. Serving prison time has it advantage That include

Give the abuser time to reflect on his wrong doing, acquire remorse and conform

Segregating him from the rest of the community is useful for the rest as danger is

removed from their midst

The abuser could meet people like him in jail and they could get to talk to each

other and get to the roots of their vice. Talking with each other shows the

perpetrator that he is not alone and this could encourage him to change.

Conclusion

My view on all this is that before dealing with parent abusers we should first take time to see what caused him to be like that. After finding this out appropriate action should be taken. i.e. If not his(the abuser’s)fault then we have to give him or her his fair chance and enroll him in therapy

If he or she brought it upon themselves then jail time, to me is required, but again while in jail he or she should be given therapy

Ultimately, however root we take, we cannot deny the importance of therapy in cases of sex abuse.