BBC Documentary: Can Sex Offenders Change?
A new documentary will be airing August 20th on BBC.
Follow Becky Southworth as she steps into the unsettling world of sex offender rehabilitation. Meeting the sex offenders living in our communities, Becky tries to understand what drove them to commit these horrific crimes, whilst seeing what treatment is available to stop them committing any more.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
No serious, informed person is asking “can sex offenders change?”. Only truly clueless people would. It’s just a question that’s over.
It’s well known and understood that even before the magic, glorious Sex Offense Registries (Hit List) existed, that the vast majority of people who were caught committing a sex crime and were then morally, properly, and fairly punished, did not commit another sex crime. There aren’t any serious, informed people who are unaware of that. The Hit List hasn’t changed that.
Further, f*ck “rehabilitation”. Very few people need that. All that I care about is if a person commits a crime, that he/she does not commit another crime. Most people are very “rehabilitated” by appropriate punishment and are motivated enough to want to avoid that. Does every single person that commits any crime need to be “rehabilitated”? Of course not. We just need for people to not commit crimes.
The Hit Lists are war. Sic semper tyrannis.
Just the way this is presented suggests to me Becky has not done her homework for this documentary. Like most uninformed spokespersons on this subject, Becky has not defined her sample group but seems to assume all sex offenders are rapists and violent perpetrators. The laws, registry, and people include non-violent offenders as sex offenders like those who take selfies, public urination, including in the woods and at construction sites, consensual sex between teenagers (parking), public nudity as at beaches, midnight at hotel pools, those that look at illegal pictures. What makes one person’s consentual sex or nudity or selfie legal and another’s illegal and where is that legal line between states and country jurisdictions? I would be more worried by how Becky can study this subject with its lack of definition, without first resolving the family difficulties with her father and understanding his treatment. My fear would be that her views are bias and would only reinforce other’s wrongful prejudices. Academics have proven that sex offenders, as a group, have the second lowest recidivism rates in America, despite the fact that the media and politicians won’t accept the facts. The low recidivism proves sex offenders are rehabilitatable. Social scientists are quick to describe the successes they have had with defining boundaries, teaching treatment, and reinforcing alternative behavior. Studies show that sex offenses are not committed by persons previously arrested and treated, but my strangers, friends, family, and neighbors not identified for treatment. All of these are not included by Becky in her methodology for study. Her views are feeding the wrongful image held by the public, prosecutors, the courts, media, and politicians for managing persons in this offense category.
In Becky’s defense, many of the offenses you listed are not considered sex offenses in her country. This is not a documentary about the US sex offense system, I don’t think.
I won’t reserve judgment. This part is already slanted. Victim decides if RCs can be cured has a Lauren Book slant to it.
” Becky Southworth’s father was convicted of sex offences against children and received 10 years in prison. He has since been released, but while in prison he undertook a sex offender rehabilitation programme. She doesn’t know if it worked, and doesn’t speak to him now, but Becky wants to know if rehabilitating perpetrators of these crimes is even possible. In this film Becky steps into the unsettling world of sex offender rehabilitation; meeting offenders living in our communities, trying to understand what drove them to commit these horrific crimes and seeing what treatment is available to stop them committing any more.”
Incidentally, “Senator Book” filed that SLAPP Suit on me because the she was hoping the BBC paid me to go protest her.
Who are they even talking about when they say “can sex offenders change”????? Are they doing the usual mentally unstable child molester fear mongering or are they also saying that kids who exchanged nude pics with each other in high school are part of some group of “criminals” that “can’t change”??
Perhaps we should bombard the BBC’s email box with this question and give them some schooling on what can get a person listed as a “sex offender”.
Or maybe wait and watch the documentary before doing so?
Sorry FAC, don’t need to and have no interest in watching something that clearly asks if someone who committed a sex offense can be rehabilitated. Like seriously, you know all the things that can get someone on the registry, and child molestation is only 1 of the many. This is typical fear mongering documentary style.
If a documentary asks, “can sex offenders change,” and the answer turns out to be “yes,” what will we think of the documentary then?
And if the answer is “no,” what will British viewers think of the BBC for having wasted their time confirming their assumptions?
We believe (and hope) that the title is used to solicit interest in the documentary. We shared the documentary because it is something that is relevant to our population. For a minute we thought about removing the post since there was so much backlash, but the reality is we don’t know what angle the story will take and some might be curious to see.
Here we go again! These sort of useless reporting simply illustrate one problem of the term “sex offender” and how it ranges from rape to pissing in an alley – ALL THROWN TOGETHER as if they are the same – they clearly are not.
Anyone with common sense can see that these two crimes have nothing in common what-so-ever and until this stupidity is changed this will remain a joke and a very unnecessary one at that.
Clearly this is nothing more than stereotyping and fearmongering and does nothing – except provide low hanging fruit for law enforcement and the illusion that political leaders are being “tough on crime”.
Shame on all of them – if they cared about children that would be one thing but clearly many many of our leaders – Bill Clinton for example, hide their own illegal perverted activities by supporting these do-nothing laws which rely on lies and fake studies.
ALL legitimate studies using actual data show that registries do nothing. That “stranger danger” is an over blown myth and that the vast majority of these so-called child sex crimes are done by a relative or someone the child/family already know and not a stranger at all – certainly no one on a useless list such as the “sex offender registry”!
Curious to see what type of hack job media propoganda this will be..Would be fantastic and refreshing to see some truth but I am not expecting anything bordering legitimacy from lamestream media..They make to much money off pandering fear and paranoia..Truth and feel good storys dont click bait and pay as well as monsters in the closet.
all – let’s reserve judgment until we see the production.
The use of the phrase “these horrific crimes “ causes me to believe your cautionary warnings against judgement might be best directed to those who wrote the promo.
Not all offenses that qualify one for the registry are “horrific.”
I was going to make the same comments. Of course only a few sex offenses are horrific. It is the use of such terms that causes a false sense of security in our society. It obvious that education is still much needed.
I thought it was a really interesting documentary. I saw the focus upon trying to get the offenders to acknowledge the impact of their behaviour upon the victim’s and then make sure they changed to ensure they didn’t reoffend.
Bare in mind here that the offenders she spoke with had only either watched indecent images or in another case exposed themselves.
The head of the agency that treated the offenders carefully explained their thinking and the rationale for the program they run. Very interesting.
Hi Domenic. How were you able to watch it? When I tried it said available only if inside the UK. Did you record it by any chance? I am very interested in seeing it.