For Immediate Release
15 May 2009

Child sex abuse perspectives assist in treating offenders

Learning about child sex abuse from a victim’s perspective has provided beneficial insight for Corrections psychologists treating men in prison who have offended sexually against children.

Mette Hansen-Reid and David Jones of the Te Piriti Special Treatment Unit at Auckland Prison have been attending a symposium this week hosted by the SAFE Network in consultation with Rape Prevention Education, the Counselling Service Centre and the Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP Foundation.

The symposium has brought together individuals and organisations working with child sex abuse. Psychologist Mette Hansen-Reid says that talking with other professionals about the publicly taboo subject has provided her with valuable perspectives that will help her provide effective treatment to offenders.

“Often individuals and organisations who work with victims of child sex abuse, and providers of treatment to offenders convicted of these crimes, are prevented from talking about their work because of the very nature of it. Because Corrections are involved in treating the perpetrators of these crimes, we are limited in our interaction with those who work with the victims – hearing their perspective is critical in assisting men to cease their offending.”

“The sector is also very small, so getting everyone together is also constructive for swapping ideas, difficulties, and sharing solutions,” she says.

Mette is a Psychologist at Te Piriti, a 60 bed unit that provides world leading treatment to eligible offenders. The Kia Marama unit, at Rolleston Prison in Christchurch also treats child sex offenders. Offenders in the units typically spend nine months undergoing treatment.

Staff encourage prisoners to engage in a ‘community of change’ while living in the unit, and the intensive group treatment programme motivates offenders to want to change by addressing their risks and the effects of their individual offending. The units’ aim is to increase the safety of children by providing offenders with lifelong skills that will assist them to manage their risk factors.

Research indicates that prisoners who participate in the Te Piriti treatment programme are significantly less likely to reoffend against children. Only 5.47 per cent of the prisoners who had completed the Te Piriti programme had re-offended, compared with significantly higher rates of recidivism for untreated groups”.

The aim of the symposium is to bring together the community of people working with child sex abuse, and to inform and strengthen best practice through gathering and sharing knowledge. The topics presented have included working with survivors, the justice sector, criminal; indigenous and restorative justice approaches to the offending and offender treatment approaches and prevention.

Note to journalists: Please see http://corrections.govt.nz/about-us/fact-sheets/managing-offenders/te-piriti-special-treatment-unit.html for further information about the Te Piriti Unit at Auckland Prison.

ENDS

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