Punishment or therapy? The ethics of sexual offending treatment

Tony Ward
Journal of Sexual Aggression 
Vol. 16, Iss. 3, 2010
DOI:10.1080/13552600.2010.483822

Abstract

The claim that sex offender treatment is a form of punishment and as such cannot be covered by traditional ethical codes is a controversial one. It challenges the ethical basis of current practice and compels clinicians to rethink the work they do with sex offenders. In this paper I comment on Bill Glaser's defence of that idea in a challenging and timely paper and David Prescott and Jill Leveson's rejection of his claims. First, I consider briefly the nature of both punishment and treatment and outline Glaser's argument and Prescott and Levenson's rejoinder. I then investigate what a comprehensive argument for either position should look like and finish with a few comments on each paper.

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The Core Argument

The ethical problem concerning treatment and punishment is straightforward and can be outlined in terms of two broad possibilities, with some suboptions. First, do actions associated with punishment and treatment coexist within a sex offender treatment programme? And should they? Secondly, if not, is this because (a) they are functionally separate with punishment occurring outside the therapeutic orbit or (b) because only (or primarily) punishment is actually apparent within the therapy context? Prescott and Levenson argue for (a) and Glaser opts for (b). My own preference is for the rather messier option of coexistence, namely the first possibility.

The entire article is here.

Gruesome case videos became too much for top psychiatrist

Chris Cobb, Postmedia News | Originally published 11/11/13

Dr. John Bradford’s mental breakdown hit without warning less than half an hour after he watched Canadian Air Force colonel Russell Williams sexually assaulting two young women whom he would later kill.

During his long and distinguished career as a doctor and teacher, the internationally renowned forensic psychiatrist had become skilled at emotionally detaching himself from all manner of horrendous images.

He was relatively comfortable sitting across a table from the likes of notorious sex killers Paul Bernardo, Robert (Willie) Pickton and Williams.

And like all professionals in his line of work, Dr. Bradford was trained to focus on the killer, not the crime. His job is to get inside a killer’s mind, not to pass judgment on the severity or brutality of the killer’s actions.

The entire article is here.

Thanks to Gary Schoener for this article.

Unlicensed psychologist also faces offender registration charge

By Nathan Woodside
The State Journal-Register
Originally published October 22, 2012


A man recently disciplined by the state of Illinois for unlicensed practice of clinical psychology is a former priest who also faces a criminal charge of failure to register as a sex offender.

Francis A. Benham, 74, was released from a Maryland jail in early 2006 after being convicted of sex crimes against children while serving as a priest there in the 1970s.

The entire story is here.

Thanks to Ken Pope for this story.