Do you think pedophiles are dealt with in the correct way?

"To catch a predator" is, I feel, fundamentally dishonest. Police do similar things to catch other offenders, such as putting unmarked cars in car parks to catch car thieves red-handed when they attempt to steal them, but I'm still not happy about it.

If such a technique should be used at all, it should be to identify individuals who might benefit from some kind of intervention or therapy. They haven't actually committed an offence yet, and is not incitement to committing one also an offence? It certainly is here in the UK.

I happen to know about SOTP, the Sex Offender Treatment Programme, used by HM Prison Service in prisons to provide cognitive behavioural therapy. It has the highest "success rate" of any of the programmes they use (there are a number of other psychological programmes that British prisons use) perhaps because it's longer and deals with a specific kind of offence, but it's not noticeably higher than the others. The problem is that CBT doesn't work unless the "patient" actually recognises they have a problem and wants to be helped. A large proportion of prisoners don't want to be helped or don't have the willpower to keep to any good intentions they might have mentioned on the course. They just don't see that they have done anything wrong, and don't want to see it.

Another thing we have is the sex offender register. What this does is enable the police to keep tabs on known sex offenders, and anyone on the register can be visited by the police at any time to check that all is well. So they know there is always someone looking over their shoulder, if at a distance, and that could help in long-term reform. (Now as the average prisoner is a repeat offender with the same kind of mental problem in relation to their own offending, why should this not be extended? I can guess why - it's the public revulsion against paedophilia that makes politicians inclined to slap more restrictions and regimes on sex offenders than any other kind.)

Fortunately in the UK the sex offender register is totally private to the police. It would do no good whatsoever to make it public. Anyone on it might just as well kill themselves as their life is ruined forever.

You can find a lot of information about victims of childhood sexual abuse. There are web sites and books and support groups to help victims. And there's been a lot of research.

It's almost impossible to get information about pedophiles. About the only information you can find is that it's a bad thing.

I know that some pedophiles have gotten therapy. I don't know what the results have been.

I agree with you that we need to do more for a cure. But right now a cure isn't possible. We don't know what it is that creates a pedophile. At one time it was thought that all pedophiles where molested as children. But it turns out that's not true. There are many pedophiles who where never abused as children.

There are no easy answers.

So we should set them up for an intervention? You know that will do no good. Try looking up psychology and learn one of the most basic things about the human brain. You can't get help until you are willing to admit you have a problem and WANT help. They don't want help because they refuse to admit they have a problem. It's like an alcoholic. WE know drinking that far in excess is wrong, but they don't admit that they drink that much or justify they are doing something that is legal in the first place to say they are ok. Oh and don't say you have a problem - it's not your fault. That just justifies their behavior to them as well as to quite a few others.

I think if they are imprisoned for a very long time then they are being dealt with the correct way. I say this because I believe pedophiles will be pedophiles no matter if they receive therapy or not. That's what they are- they're pedophiles. I believe they will be pedophiles for life. The best way to deal with them is simply to lock them up for as long as you can. Get them off the streets so they can't do this to any more helpless young victims.

Hi, to my knowledge, there is no effective treatment for Pedophilic Disorder. I believe in therapy for all types of things. I think it'd be great if instead of incarcerating drug abusers, they get rehabilitated instead. I also believe juveniles should have access to counseling before incarceration.

Pedophiles aren't the same. There's no mental health treatment effective enough to stop it.

Just like Antisocial Personality Disorder (think psychopaths), there is no effective treatment, and they continue to harm people until (and even WHILE) they're in prison.

Exposing their activities is a good way for them to realize that they need help. It would be up to them to go and get it. Their desires may not be their fault, but their actions- talking to children in a sexual manner, sending them pornographic pictures, and setting up meetings with children, ARE a result their choice to act on their desires.