‘Community Care’ For Paedophiles

Child sex offenders should be encouraged to seek treatment rather than be threatened with jail, the police’s child protection chief says. Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said it was a practical way of dealing with the scale of the problem.

He believes that treating some paedophiles in the community is a sensible way of reducing harm. The CEOP was launched in April 2006 to tackle child sex abuse in the UK. Mr Gamble said the information flow on paedophilia had increased since the CEOP was established a year ago.

In order to deal with the scale of the problem, some offenders should receive a police caution and then be managed within the community – not by resorting to jail terms, he said. “We shouldn’t be sending everyone that ever commits an offence – particularly of the viewing kind – to prison. There are people who have been dealt with by police caution who can be dealt with successfully in a way that allows them to maintain their lives and their families.”

But Michele Elliot, director of Kidscape, said people who view child pornography should not escape jail. “They are just as guilty as the person taking the photos. If they did not view the child would not be abused, therefore I think these people deserve prison,” she said.

Research by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) found that 16% of women and 7% of men claimed to have been sexually abused involving physical contact before the age of 12. That suggests that one in nine pre-teenage children has suffered abuse.

The research helped to launch the charity’s “full-stop” campaign to counter child abuse.