The ‘name and shame’ debate has started up again in my home state following a report into child protection in the state that suggested naming convicted paedophiles will somehow protect children from sexual abuse.
I wish it were that easy. I have written at length about the misconceptions about paedophile behaviour and protecting children from being sexually abused. In my state, for example, experts believe that no more than 3 per cent of child sex abusers are ever brought to justice and of these not all are paedophiles; some are just men (rarely women) who have sex with children because they want to.
To be clear about this: paedophilia is a recognised psychiatric deviance which manifests in distinct – and importantly recognisable – behaviours that give us opportunities to intervene into such behaviours before a child is harmed. It’s true, sadly, that one of the characteristics of paedophile behaviour is an uncanny ability to deceive and hide from public view, and that remains a challenge if we are thinking in terms of preventing abuse. However that doesn’t mean that we should not stop trying to get people to understand paedophilia, to look for signs that will allow early intervention, and deal with the problem from a prevention standpoint rather than just mopping up after the damage has occurred and a child has been abused.
For make no mistake, naming and shaming is primarily just that: drawing attention to something that has already happened and the criminal who was involved, in the hope that somehow that will mean that children are safe in the future.
Far from it. The problem with naming and shaming, and the focus on paedophiles that accompanies it, is that it takes the attention away from the 97 per cent of child sex abusers who are not caught and convicted, and it makes people believe that there are no threats to their children from men who are not convicted paedophiles. The truth is that most child sex abusers are not paedophiles, are not strangers and are not convicted criminals. They are fathers, uncles, brothers, grandfathers, family friends – men who have easy and regular access to children. Add to that list family priests, schoolteachers, club leaders – the easy access issue is the key here — and you can see that we have to begin to take seriously the fact that child sex abusers are ‘normal’ men out there in the community who do not display specific behaviours and so pass under the radar.
I don’t want to suggest that all men are bad or that we have to look at all men as a threat. What I am saying is that we need to help people to understand the balance between paedophile abuse and non-paedophile sexual abuse; help them to see that naming and shaming the paedophile who moves into a house around the corner should not distract us from the potential that a child may be at risk or indeed already be in a situation of abuse from someone we would never even consider to be a threat. Parents especially need to be vigilant and look for signs that might suggest the child is in distress: bedwetting, lack of appetite or conversely over-eating, self-harm in any form, reluctance to go to school/church/club or to be left alone with a male friend or family member (of any age – abusers are not all old). Above all, parents (and teachers and others in a position of protective responsibility towards the child) should listen to children and believe them when they say they are uncomfortable with a certain uncle, or unwilling to spend time with a particular family friend.
Understanding and vigilance are the keys to protecting our children – along with love and respect, always vital to human relationships. I am not convinced that ‘naming and shaming’ benefits anyone except the tabloid press who like to whip up a frenzied witch-hunt when a convicted paedophile is released into the community, and the radio shock-jocks whose sense of public service begins and ends with the notoriety that throwing around phrases like ‘child sex’ can bring.
Protecting our children is not a ‘cause’ on the back of which newspapers should be sold or radio ratings won. It is serious business – everybody’s business – and we need to take it seriously.
If you want to learn more about child sexual abuse, have a look in the Publications section of the website. My book Sold for Sex can be purchased through Amazon.com and book stores.