Paedophiles 'need treatment, not prison'
Staff and agencies
Friday June 1, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
"Viewing" paedophiles should be treated in the community rather than be sent to jail, the head of the national police child protection unit said today.
Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said too many people were being convicted of child sex offences to be dealt with in the criminal justice system.
He proposed that lower risk offenders, such as those convicted of downloading abusive images of children, should receive a police caution and then be managed in the community.
"We shouldn't be sending everyone that ever commits an offence - particularly of the viewing kind - to prison," Mr Gamble told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Mr Gamble said he was not suggesting that paedophiles who committed violent offences, such as raping a child, should escape jail. But someone caught looking at child pornography who had not directly abused a child could be dealt with in a different way.
"[If] someone is at the beginning of the spiral of abuse, where there is evidence to indicate during the investigation that this person may well benefit from a police caution and be managed, then of course that needs to be done," Mr Gamble said.
The CEOP was set up last year to tackle child sex abuse in the UK, and the information flow on paedophilia since its launch has increased enormously.
Michele Elliott, director of children's charity Kidscape, said not jailing paedophiles because there was not enough room in the prison system for them was "crazy".
She said the proposal risked sending out the message to paedophiles that their crimes were not serious.
"I agree with him that these people need treatment, however to treat them in the community sends a message that what they have done is not very serious," Ms Elliott said.
"I believe that if you download child pornography, you are just as guilty as the people who are taking the photographs. You create a market because you want to view child pornography, therefore a child is abused for your pleasure. As far as I am concerned, that means prison."
Comment: Is Jim taking a gamble?
5 comments:
Recommended treatment: Take one live 9mm round to the head, before meals, until symptoms subside.
Please tell me, what is a paedophile (in relation to this article) and is it true that Pornography of any kind can be downloaded inadvertently from file sharing sites? I had not thought there was any element of discussion, until I read something by Carol Sarler; now I am not so sure...
Jane Jill: the images referred to in this discourse cannot be downloaded inadvertently.
They are graded 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in ascending order of seriousness of the abuse of those pictured in them. Access generally involves a payment, by credit card, or membership in a ring which shares images and some at least of whom make those images with abused children.
This is not a victimless crime by any means.
The debate I suppose is really on whether the serious if somethingly abstract connection between looking at an image or republishing it and forwarding without actively creating the damned things is getting an appropriate sentence.
A typical sentence for level 4 or 5 images, perhaps with some other worrying behaviour e.g. suspected grooming e.g. by chatroom conversations which goes no further than that, is 2 to 3 years.
People are raping and even murdering and getting significantly less time.
Mr Gamble believes that many of the perpetrators are not a danger to society, just sad wankers, and should not be blocking prison places.
80% prisoners some substance issues, more than 50% mental health issues. Far too many "harmless" people are in jail for too long, whereas others are getting incredibly short sentences when they clearly are a danger to society.
Thanks indeed Chris Paul - I feel very angry sometimes about the way familial abuse (of the tormenting and physical type) is so often overlooked,and you see sentences of 1 year suspended for horrific injuries, inflicted by someone 'caring' for the child; it is totally distorted . Yet the power the media has is just shocking, if you consider the individuals who make up a good percentage of the press. I respect very few of them, either in their values, judgement or even intelligence.
Another treatment that should be administerd before a 9mm bullet is a redhot poker inserted via the anus,give the sick vile bastards a dose of their own.
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