Introduction

How can convicted sexual predators be made less dangerous to children? Public and professional concern about that question has been heightened by the highly publicised convictions of ‘celebrity’ offenders such as Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall, who appeared repetitively to abuse over decades; by the ever-increasing numbers of convicted sex offenders in the UK; by a series of national and international child sexual abuse scandals in institutions, including the Catholic Church; and by the huge, ever-growing international industry in abusive images of children, aided by a range of modern and ever-developing technologies.

The Bourke and Hernandez (2009) study of internet offenders viewing child abuse images (see Chapters One and Two), which found that 85% of the men in their sex offender treatment programme eventually revealed hands-on abuse with an average of 13 victims per offender, raised further serious questions about possible risks posed by online sex offenders to children in the offline world.

There is an urgent need for dialogue between feminist and other approaches towards sex offender work. In this chapter I discuss those male sex offenders who have been both perpetrators and victims. I believe that revising our thinking towards work with male survivor offenders will reduce future risks to children. These changes will challenge our assumptions, but need not betray our principles. I go on to discuss ways in which feminist approaches can truly inform general sex offender work: that will also, I believe, reduce future risks to children.

Feminist traditions and sex offenders

I write from a feminist tradition. We have not viewed work to change known sex offenders against children as a priority for reducing child sexual abuse (CSA). Feminists have spoken with, and for, women and children as survivors, first and foremost. Gendered power relations in society have been seen as the key to permitting and encouraging sexual violence to persist largely unchecked and undetected. They are also seen to sustain womanblame, through social and legal structures. Radical political and social change have thus been viewed as the drivers which will improve the safety of women and children.

Also, given that only a small percentage of male offenders against children is identified, we have considered primary prevention work far more effective than work with known perpetrators.