‘No one can vouch for rapists even after therapy’
Child rapes are often premeditated. Often, the rapist gets aroused by planning the crime and stalking the victim. On occasion, it can be an impulsive act
is often an element of child rape.
BRUTAL GRATIFICATION
The often brutal killing of a victim after rape works at two levels.
The more obvious reason is that it lowers the risk of the rapist being identified and arrested. At a deeper level, the final act of violence against the sexually mauled and helpless victim turns into a sexual climax.
The rapist is in a mental state in which he cannot and often doesn’t want to stop. It is the brutality that is gratifying.
Child rapists, like many other deviants, learn to mask their sexual urges, which often make it impossible to identify them in a social setting.
Though there are no characteristics that typify a child rapist, they often tend to lack a sense of empathy or remorse and have a cruel streak in them; yet, it is almost impossible to predict with certainty whether people with these traits will end up raping children.
It is not possible, or for that matter ethical, to typecast or profile everyone with sociopathic traits as potential child rapists because more often than not, they are not rapists. Though child rapists feel no guilt, they hide their thoughts, fantasies and behaviour from those around them because they realise that it is socially unacceptable and can get them into trouble with the law. There is no set profile of a child rapist — he can be a loner or a very sociable person.
TREATING DEVIANT MINDS
Treating child rapists clinically is extremely challenging. They may not accept treatment, and if they do so, then may resist any attempt to help them change . They lack guilt and don’t see their behaviour as problematic.
They don’t feel the need to change because they are egosyntonic; in their own minds, they can justify their acts of self gratification with a complete absence of empathy towards a child’s pain.
Child abusers who are forced to visit a mental health expert, by a legal directive or family, often do not cooperate with the treatment. They do not open up to counselling and are not receptive to what is said to them.
The small percentage of abusers that are willing to seek medical help are treated through psychotherapy, which includes long-term counselling and, in some cases, drug therapy.
Medicines are prescribed for issues such as poor impulse control and thought impairment.
Even after therapy, it cannot be assumed that they will not repeat the offence. Recidivism (a trait that leads a person to repeat a crime for which he been treated or punished) can be high, especially in the absence of clues to the rapists’ insight development (perception of right and wrong in terms of thought and action) and ability to recognise and take responsibility for the pain and trauma they inflict.
Some perpetrators respond to therapy but as a mental health expert, I do not think it is easy to take a decision to let paedophiles back into society without surveillance. Believing they are cured would be too big a risk. No one can take full responsibility for their behaviour even after completion of their therapy.
FAST-TRACKING JUSTICE
India has powerful laws, but they need to be implemented more effectively so that fear of death penalty or imprisonment becomes a deterrent to child rape. Quick sentencing and a high conviction rate will at least deter planned rapes.
Society, too, has a role to play. There needs to be zero tolerance towards aggression of all kinds, be it physical or sexual or both. It may not help in completely wiping out crime, but fear of the consequence may rein in many potential perpetrators of child rape.
At the individual level, parents and families have to explain to their children what good touch and bad touch are and encourage them to seek help whenever they are uncomfortable with an adult’s behaviour.
We need to introspect. When we look around, there is verbal and physical aggression in various forms at all levels, including societal, legal and moral. When we become bystanders to a crime and do not react to it, the message we are sending out is that it is all right.
It creates the perception that the justice system is unresponsive, that the society we live in cannot stand up for what’s right, that outrage is seldom accompanied by action. We need zero tolerance towards crime and aggression to provide a safe environment for children, not just for their physical safety, but also for their mental well-being.
THE MORE PAIN THEIR VICTIM EXPERIENCES, THE MORE SATISFIED THEY ARE, WHICH ALSO EXPLAINS WHY PHYSICAL TORTURE IS OFTEN AN ELEMENT OF CHILD RAPE
The author is the director of the department of mental health and behavioural sciences, Fortis Healthcare