Criminal Justice Approaches to Paedophilic Sex Offenders.

Criminal Justice Approaches to Paedophilic Sex Offenders

Kleinhans, M. (2002): An Article Review

The article 'Criminal Justice Approaches to Paedophilic Sex Offenders' by Martha Kleinhans (2002) is one of a particularly topical nature at present. Not only does Kleinhans attempt to wrestle with an inherently taboo subject matter, she does so with fastidious ability, drawing conclusions, evaluation and criticism throughout the piece. The article, written in 2002, came just after a great deal of media interest in the trial of Roy Whiting, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Sarah Payne, and thus contains both reference to recent headline news as well as evaluation concerning current legislation and parliamentary acts. Due to this occurrence and topical agenda, articles of this nature and subject matter have flooded the market with reference to all manner of areas concerning paedophilic sex offenders. It would therefore seem probable that this article may have nothing specific to offer in the way of insights into this field. However, this does not prove to be the case, as Kleinhans raises some valuable sociological discourses and covers ground that would not be expected to be standard of this subject matter.

Within the opening few lines of the article, Kleinhans states that the main agenda within the piece is addressed to the over reactions of the public towards paedophillic sex offenders, and the impulsiveness of legislation systems to bring about justice and retribution. This initial statement enables Kleinhans to diversify her argument into several different areas within the topic of criminal justice studies, but also to use it as a platform with which other statements can be made in reference. From this, the article firstly attempts to identify the distinctions that have been imposed between childhood and adulthood. This is inherently a difficult task, and as Kleinhans states, it firstly ‘requires exploring two underlying assumptions about the child: first, the innocence of the child and, second, the asexuality of the child’ (2002 p 234). Yet, the disadvantage of assumption is that it is not necessarily based on truths, and is therefore liable to subjective interpretation and thus can be misleading. Kleinhans accepts this view, and goes on to investigate the extent to which the innocence and asexuality of the child transpire. These two topics are dealt with individually, and Kleinhans concludes that the innocence of the child is not necessarily the case. Although society wishes to perceive the child and childhood as innocent, the pervasiveness of juvenile offenders is enough to allow this area to become deceptive. Thus leading to an ambiguity between childhood and innocence. However, although this may be the case, this ambiguity is not enough to detract from the ‘moral separation of children from adults’ (Kleinhans 2002, p234). Yet, this view is not necessarily echoed in contemporary legislation. As criminal justice systems categorise offenders in terms of age, with the separation of adult, juvenile and young offenders, it has become increasingly clear that the child is not necessarily innately innocent and the separation between childhood and adulthood, in terms of real world consequences, is becoming ever more entwined.

Kleinhans then moves to deal with the second issue concerning child, namely the perceived asexuality that comes with childhood. Kleinhans argues that this is again a social separator of childhood from adulthood, with sexuality conceivably being a defining factor of the end of the childhood stage. As with innocence, asexuality of childhood is likely to misleading, it is unlikely that children remain total naive to sexuality, despite the best attempts of others. This argument is then furthered with the discussion that the emphasis placed on the repression of childhood sexuality is infact constructing sexual beings that need to be regulated. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

After considering the various issues concerning the child, the article moves on to examine the aspects of punishment inflicted on the paedophilic sex offender. Kleinhans discussion centres around the distinction between corporal and carceral punishment. She argues that modern criminal justice approaches have moved away from corporal punishment systems to more carceral-based systems, but also argues the benefits of a more dualist or holistic approach. This then emphasises the punishment on both the body and the soul, a case of addressing both sides of person in order to rectify the whole. After this initial identification of contemporary justice systems, Kleinhans then considers the logistics surrounding incarceration for paedophilic sex offenders. This takes the form of the ‘virtual’ and ‘civilised’ prison. Kleinhans uses these terms to identify the differing facets of imprisonment while not actually incarcerated within the prison, thus transversing the methods used while in prison to the offender upon release. The virtual prison describes the way in which after release, methods have been applied to the offender in order to keep them under surveillance. Methods of electronic tagging and registry systems have all been used in this way, this creates a virtual prison, in which, although not actually incarcerated, the offender is still subjected to the monitoring and surveillance which were afforded while in prison. The civilised prison refers to the civilised nature in which punishment is administered. The nature of imprisonment provides a way of governing punishment away from the public in a civilised manor. Yet, with public attention being paramount when concerned with paedophilia, this civilised manor is almost eradicated as the punishment of the offender becomes an ever more increasingly public spectacle.

Kleinhans concludes her argument with a discussion of the offender and the community, in which she comments on the exclusionary tactics employed by the community in order to rid themselves of an offender in their location. This idea echoes the notion of the virtual prison, in which offenders are excluded from society to such a degree that it is almost impossible for them to begin the road away from deviance, and are thus once again in isolation.

In order to evaluate the article to a greater degree, it is necessary to look at the work within a wider context. This refers to evaluating the piece within the dimensions of deviance within a sociological perspective, and thus, this area should be looked at in greater detail. The definition of deviance is slightly problematic as there is no set definition or description for this term. However, deviance can be explained as a relative phenomena, in which it can only be related to a standard, which is no means fixed or absolute. Due to this, deviance is socially constructed, and what is seen as deviant in one culture may be considered the norm for another.

Perhaps one of the most dominant perspectives within the field of deviance is that of functionalism. This takes the view that deviance occurs due to the nature of society, rather than an individual trait. Merton (1938) argued that deviant behaviour could be explained as a function of the properties of social systems rather than physiological or psychological discrepancies. This description of deviant behaviour fits in with Kleinhans’ view that the community in which the offender is relocated to provide the right conditions for deviant behaviour to reoccur, thus society is constructing the dimensions in which deviance can facilitate. During 2001, a great deal of media coverage became apparent after the murder of Sarah Payne, from this, a great wave of communal reaction occurred resulting in legislation being passed. ‘Sarah’s law’ called for tighter controls on known paedophilic sex offenders and gave way to a great host of clauses concerning this area. This vast public reaction had several consequences, not only did it bring this paedophilic sex offender into the public eye, but some of the methods and restrictions employed by the law had negative effects. Drury (2002) claimed that the anti-paedophile mobs were pushing these offenders ‘underground’ and out of a sphere in which they could be controlled. Pank (2001) also suggested that this might be the case, and also added that registration systems may result in some unforeseen circumstances, in particular, making it more accessible for other offenders to contact each other. This view again sits with the idea of socially constructed crime, as society is producing the guidelines for which deviance can take hold.

One further view of deviance is that held by the internationalist approach. Becker (1963) states that ‘social groups create deviance by the making of rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders’ (1963 p9). This view can be applied to paedophilic sex offenders, as the public labelling of these offenders as paedophiles defines this individual and places upon some certain character evaluation. Becker also wields the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that the label applied to the offender becomes the over-riding statute and thus controlling, therefore the label administered to the offender becomes one of a truthful nature as it is accepted by the person. Kleinhans article also shares this view, as Becker argues that the public treatment of a deviently labelled individual denies them an ordinary existence, they are then almost required to develop unlawful practices. This is also echoed in the registry programme employed in certain countries in order to monitor paedophilic sex offenders. This public labelling imposes the character evaluation of a paedophile onto the offender; an example of this is produced by Itzen (2001), where it is argued that paedophilia and child sex abuse have become inextricably linked within the public eye, even though this link may not be true of the majority. Therefore, this labelling process produces those who are thus excluded from society, resulting in the adoption of criminal or deviant routines.

It lastly comes to the evaluation of the article. Within the abstract and introduction to the piece, Kleinhans identifies her aims for the article as a whole. She states that the work itself is addressed to the ‘(over) reactions of the public’ (2002 p233), and that the underlying concepts that seem central to the discussion of paedophilic sex offenders are produced in order to evaluate the contemporary punishment and legal systems for these crimes. Thus, as the title of the article suggests, Kleinhans main argument pivots around the discussion of punishment systems for paedophilia and thus attempts to ‘shed new light on the discourse and practice’ (2001 p233) of these systems. The article does indeed reflect upon these punishment issues to a great degree, and this argument provides the bulk of material within the piece. It could therefore be said that the article does achieve the initial aims put forward by Kleinhans. She looks at and examines the peripheral aspects to which paedophilia is concerned, such as the moral separation of the child from the adult in both innocence and naivety as well as sexual beings, thus introducing the inconsistencies in our morals and behaviour towards this area of human nature. After dealing with these underlying concepts, she moves on to discuss the punishment systems in place for paedophilic sex offenders and looks beyond the characteristic view of the prison, and applies these inferences to the outside world. By doing so, the article looks at a greater scope of punishment than just the basic corporal or carceral systems, and looks at how the community also employs punishment tactics to offenders.

The research used within the article is generally up to date, and employs current legislation to further arguments made. It also seem to be well referenced with every point or argument presented being backed up with empirical studies.

However, with the topic being of such current debate, the article, in general, does not produce any new findings on this. Yet, it does prove to be of aid in the clarification of this subject. Thus the article can be criticised in not fully achieving its initial aims, but Kleinhans does provide a compelling argument with sound debate and so the piece is not without its merits.

The article itself appears well written and documented, and incorporates a vast scope of features concerning many areas of this subject matter. The work appears objective without being over clinical and employs various approaches and theories of a sociological nature to further the comments made. Kleinhans takes a different view on an intrinsically tender subject, and looks in detail and the punishment systems upon the offender as well as the effect the community has on the deviance. In her own conclusion, she expresses a wish to shed some light on the punishment of sex offenders, and I believe the article has done that. By looking at the system outside of the prison walls, the article does provide a description of this matter that is not generally attenuated to. Although not providing any groundbreaking new views or theories, the article’s different take on this subject matter aids in the clarification of the this topic.

Word count: 1596

Bibliography

Becker, H. S. (1963), Outsiders, The Free Press: New York
Cowburn, M. Dominelli, L. (2001) ‘Masking Hegemonic Masculinity, Reconstructing the

paedophile as a dangerous stranger’, British Journal of Social Work, 31

Drury, J. (2002) ‘When the mob’s are looking for witches to burn, nobody’s safe; talking about the

reactionary crowd’, Discourse and Society, Vol 13. 1

Itzen, C. (2001) ‘Incest, Paedophilia, Pornography and Prostitution, Making familial males more

visible as the abusers’, Child Abuse Review, Vol 10

Kleinhans, M. (2002) ‘Criminal Justice Approaches to Paedophilic Sex Offenders’, Legal and

Social Studies, Vol 11. 2

Merton, R. K. (1938) ‘Social Structure and Anomie’, American Sociological Review. 3
Pank, P. (2001) Sarah’s Law Explained, [online] London: The Guardian. Available from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,6512,618289,00.html