Taiwan has given increasing attention to sex crime in recent years. When concentrating on the treatment and evaluation of adult sexual offenders, however, it shouldn't be too difficult to find that sexual deviation isn't something that occurs only during adulthood.
Let's use the murder of a female elementary school teacher in Taipei as an example. One of the suspects was only 15 years old at the time of the crime. Several years later, he was involved in another sexual assault case. The suspect confessed to police that he liked watching pornographic movies as a child, and sexual arousal made him unable to resist committing the crimes. I infer from this that sexual fantasies played an important part in the process that led to his committing the crime, and it is also these sexual fantasies that have led him to sexually assault more than one person.
It is normal for teenagers to have sexual fantasies. The difference is that a majority of teenagers have a sense of reality because there are many realistic and moral concerns functioning as barriers in the process leading to actually acting out these fantasies. However, physiological and personality factors, as well as sexualization of the thought process, lead a minority of teenagers to cross over these barriers and sexually assault other people.
Several decades of practical experience in the West show that the problems in the treatment of adult sexual offenders arise from their personalities, sexually deviant attitudes and thought fixation. If we want to treat decades of deviant behavior and thought with only one or two years of correction and treatment, the results will be limited.
There is, however, research showing that recidivism among offenders accepting correction and treatment is still lower than among those not accepting such assistance. The recidivism also increases as time passes after the completion of correction and treatment, which therefore must be seen as a matter of lifetime maintenance, and not as something that will cure the patient overnight.
The greatest difference between teenage and adult sexual offenders lies in the development factor, since the teenager is still in a state of constant change, both physically and psychologically. The teenager's criminal behavior patterns, personality and psychological characteristics have still not been fixed, and the contents of his fantasies are not as violent and perverted as those of an adult offender.
If it is possible to intervene at this time, appropriately treating his personality traits, behavioral patterns and the nature of his fantasies, the costs will be far lower than the expenditures necessary for correction and treatment of adult offenders. From a crime prevention perspective, this would also lower the number of future victims.
During my studies in the US, I did an internship in a treatment facility for juvenile sexual offenders where I participated in their correction and treatment work. A program with five days of intense group and individual therapy and a cognitive educational program each week was designed to address the teenagers' sexual problems and development issues in the hope of minimizing recidivism.
The importance of follow-up correction and treatment procedures in teenage sexual crime cases has as of yet not been widely recognized in Taiwan. If we look at this issue from the perspective of assisting teenagers in their physical and psychological development and maintaining social safety, this is a very worrying phenomenon indeed.
Chu Hui-ying is a counselor at the Kaohsiung Juvenile Court.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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