Going beyond penalising serial sexual predators to make our community safer

The proposal to make an “exploitative penetrative sexual relationship” a new offence may do much to alert perpetrators to the risks they face and may help victims and others to come forward to hold perpetrators accountable.

But can we make our community even safer?

Some perpetrators may have a sexual behaviour addiction, for which they can seek professional treatment and recovery.

The World Health Organization has included compulsive sexual behaviour as a mental disorder in the recently published International Classification of Diseases, Edition 11.

The disorder includes a persistent pattern — over six months or more — of being powerless over controlling intense, repetitive sexual preoccupations, impulses and urges, which result in repetitive sexual behaviour. This then makes a person's life, and the life of their loved ones, unmanageable.

Their behaviour can also become a risk to the community.

As with other addictions, the disorder results in the person neglecting health and personal care and other interests, activities and responsibilities.

Typically, the person has made numerous unsuccessful efforts to significantly reduce the behaviour and continues with it despite severely adverse consequences. They may even be deriving little or no satisfaction from it.

As with all addictions, simply imposing penal sentences and corporal punishment may not keep the community completely safe, since recidivist offending driven by addictions can be very high.

For instance, Law Minister K Shanmugam said last month that the five-year recidivism rates for drug offenders in long-term imprisonment remain very high at 60 per cent. The new rules at Drug Rehabilitation Centres recently announced by the Government are intended to address this issue by broadening the drug rehabilitation and recovery regime.

Clinicians qualified in sex addiction treatment use validated and reliable questionnaires and detailed clinical histories to assess clients, in order to determine whether they have a sexual behaviour disorder. These clinical tools have high sensitivity in detecting the disorder.

There are also clear therapeutic protocols to assist a client into and through recovery, substantially reducing the risk of reoffending behaviour.

If we are to do all in our power to protect those vulnerable to sexual predators, mandating treatment for compulsive sexual behaviour disorder is likely to help.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Andrew da Roza is chairman of We Care Community Services, a charity assisting addicts and their families.