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April 22, 2005
Stopping the abuse before sexual offenders become adults
St. Petersburg - While there are many legal moves on the national and state level to impose stiffer penalties on sexual offenders, some say that's not handling the problem where it begins.
Dr. Jeri Quirk, psychotherapist:
"What's being proposed are stop-gate measures, but they're not intervening in the cycle of sexual assault. They're not intervening in the systematic problem. They will stop a few people but they will not help the problem as a whole."
Dr. Jeri Quirk is a psychotherapist at Family Services Inc, a place where juvenile sexual offenders can get treatment. She's also worked with adults.
"Every one of those men told me if they had learned what they learned from me in prison when they were adolescents, they deeply believe they would have had a different life."
According to national statistics, 50% of sexual offenders were victims when they were children. Dr. Quirk says help is a multi-prong effort: education, counseling, treatment, in-depth counseling for the entire family.
"Ninety-eight percent of children we have treated in an offender group, have not reoffended.That is significant, it's not just them, it's the hundreds of victims they would have had...I have a six month waiting list to get kids into treatment. They should have been in treatment six months ago."
Dr. Quirk says it's something a topic that many adults don't want to face, and if their child is having issues, parents should feel comfortable talking to a professional about it, whether their child is the victim--or the offender.
Posted by Nealus at April 22, 2005 04:14 PM
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