ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 24, 1996 TAG: 9611250043
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BALTIMORE
SOURCE: ANGIE CANNON KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
The dozen men sitting around the conference table are a fiercely detested group. They speak nervously about perverted subjects. Pulling down their pants and flashing little girls. Cruising for little boys to molest. Thinking about raping women.
``I'm always going to be a pedophile,'' says a man in blue jeans, a flannel shirt and gold hoops in both ears. ``My attraction is to boys. Every decision I made was based on molesting kids. The jobs I took. Where I lived.''
This is the weekly group-therapy session at a private clinic for sex offenders, one of many places around the country trying to deal with one of the greatest challenges in criminal justice today.
The notion of treatment for such people seems unpopular, particularly at a time when states are passing tough laws on sex offenders. The cases that spring to mind are those of Richard Allen Davis, convicted in the murder of Polly Klaas in California, or Howard Steven Ault, who police say confessed to killing two young sisters this month near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
But experts say that only a small fraction of sex offenders are hard-core, violent predators. Most of them are guilty of lesser crimes, and most of them stay out of jail, or get out of jail.
``The reality is, sooner or later, most of these people will be on the streets,'' said Fred Berlin, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and director of the private clinic in Baltimore. ``We need to help them become safer.''
Still, even the therapists are unsure whether what they are doing works.
Right now, there are as many known sex offenders out of prison as there are in: 100,000 are under community supervision either on probation or parole, while 100,000 are behind bars, according to Lawrence A. Greenfeld, deputy director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. And there are untold numbers who have not been caught.
The experts say sex offenders come from all walks of life - doctors, lawyers, blue-collar workers, policemen, media types - and live in all kinds of neighborhoods.
The men at the Baltimore clinic are on probation or parole, and are thus required to attend, or came on their own. They say their intent is to understand themselves better and to change their behavior. They spoke on the grounds their names not be used.
One man in jeans and a green khaki jacket has been coming to the group because he exposed himself to women in their 30s from his front windows.
``When you first come here, you are in a whirlwind,'' he said of the group sessions. ``You don't know how to control what is happening to you. What you need to do is change your life in a positive way I went from a situation where I was lying to my wife and hurting people. But now, I have assumed responsibility.''
A newcomer - a middle-aged man in loafers, khakis and a blue oxford shirt - talks about exposing himself to girls, ages 16 to 20 - which he says he has been doing for some 20 years.
``You get sweaty palms,'' he said. ``I was looking for excitement. I don't know if it was from shocking them or the prospect of shocking them. The police coming to my door didn't matter. My wife knowing didn't matter. That kind of logic goes out the window.''
Twenty years ago, there were 22 identified treatment programs for sex offenders nationwide. Today, there are more than 2,000 such programs, and the number is growing steadily, said Rob Freeman-Longo, director of the Safer Society Press, a Brandon, Vt., organization that advocates sex-offender treatment programs.
Some experts believe the growth in treatment comes from more programs for lower-risk offenders, not a big shifting of hard-core offenders from institutions to community programs. And many states have sentencing alternatives, in which offenders can avoid long prison terms by opting for community-based programs, experts say.
``It is the closest thing to a get-out-of-jail-free card,'' said Andrew Vachss, a New York lawyer who represents children. ``You are more likely to go to prison for shoplifting than for incest.''
At the same time, states are trying to tackle the problem of sex offenders with legislation. California recently passed a ``chemical castration'' law requiring twice-convicted child molesters to be injected with a drug that reduces sex drive. Other states, such as Washington and Florida, have considered it.
Every state now requires sex offenders to register with police after their release from prison. And states now must notify communities when sex offenders move into the neighborhood, thanks to the federal version of ``Megan's Law,'' passed this year. President Clinton recently created a national registry so convicted offenders can be tracked from state to state.
A growing number of states have passed ``sexual predator'' laws, permitting child molesters and rapists to be held after their prison terms under civil court procedures similar to those to commit the insane. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in December after the Kansas Supreme Court declared its state law to be unconstitutional.
``Everyone is looking for answers,'' said Tim Smith, who works in private practice treating sex offenders in Washington. ``But no one has one. We are always seeking the one solution that will take care of it all.''
Does treatment work?
``Treatment doesn't work in all cases, but treatment does and can work in many cases,'' says Freeman-Longo, the founder of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. ``We are refining treatment and getting better at doing risk analysis. But the public and the media are going in a different direction - a punishment and negative mode - because people think it doesn't work.''
Experts agree that some people simply will not respond to treatment. Even for those who might, treatment is complex. Outpatient programs can last three to five years; treatment in mental hospitals or prisons can last about three years, experts say.
The goal, either in group therapy and one-to-one counseling, is to get offenders to change their thinking and behavior and to identify with their victims. This is called ``empathy therapy.''
``When you are on medication, you are focused,'' said one exhibitionist at the Baltimore session, who is taking medication to reduce his sex drive. ``You start to think about other things. You are not always thinking about wanting to act out.''
The offenders push one another to see their own faults.
One man, who was at the therapy session for ``improper touching of women,'' remembered that, when he first attended, he insisted there was nothing wrong with him. The others persuaded him to recognize he did have a problem.
A pedophile asked him: ``If times changed and we hit women over the head and did what we wanted to her, is that OK?''
``No, knowing what I know now,'' the improper toucher said emphatically. ``I was playing the macho thing before, and couldn't see that.''
Such an attitude is common with sex offenders, experts say.
``They really disconnect from the victims' feelings,'' said Charlene Steen, a former criminal defense attorney who became a social worker treating sex offenders in Napa, Calif. ``They convince themselves that what they did wasn't bad.''
Another man at the Baltimore session said: ``A lot of us were not conscious of the fact that we were offending anyone. A lot of us rationalized it by saying, `They really liked it or they really enjoyed it.' The only way I thought it wasn't right was because it was against the law. Even when girls would scream and run away, I justified it by saying they liked it.''
``When you are acting out, you are concentrating only on yourself,'' said an older exhibitionist. ``The other person is an object. It's all me, me, me.''
No one knows how successful empathy training is, but some at the group session said that their self-centered view was changing as a result of therapy.
``Now I feel I have enough tools not to just walk out of here and do it again,'' said the pedophile in blue jeans.
Janice Marques, chief of program development and evaluation for the California Department of Mental Health, is cautious. She said some offenders in a long-term treatment study she oversaw had a better grasp of their victims' feelings when they left the program. But she said there aren't good ways to measure that.
``If you are sitting in a program and you have to show empathy before you can get out, you can fake it,'' she said. ``Some people don't have a clue. They don't cry when Old Yeller gets shot.''
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KRT. 1. After her daughter was kidnapped and murdered,by CNBMaureen Kanka worked to get a law on notification of sexual
offenders. It's known as "Megan's Law." She's holding a picture of
Megan. 2. KRT/1993. FBI investigators look for evidence at the spot
where Polly Klaas' body was found. The 12-year-old California girl
was abducted and murdered by pedophile Richard Allen Davis, who
received a death sentence for the crime. color. KEYWORDS: 2DA