anythings.org

The problem is complicated, the solution is simple (according to one judge): just say you’re sorry.

Eight boys in Australia filmed their sexual assault of a 17 year old girl and “distributed it as a DVD throughout the community”. You’d think that a filmed record of the event and their confessions along with guilty pleas would secure these boys some time in a juvenile detention facility… but it didn’t:

All except one of the boys had convictions recorded against them. The judge placed six of the boys on youth supervision orders for between 12 and 18 months and two of the boys were placed on probation for 12 months.

He said that if it was not for their guilty pleas and willingness to participate in rehabilitation they would have been at “significant risk” of serving time in youth detention.

Each of the boys had previously pleaded guilty to procuring sexual penetration by intimidation, making child pornography and assault.

[…] He said the program would involve the boys and their families engaging in individually tailored treatment over about nine months.

Of course they were willing to participate in rehabilitation! It was either that or they were going to end up in jail or juvenile detention. Instead of being punished using the legal system, the judge granted them nine months of “tailored” therapy. Now, while I may be a strong advocate for alternative punishments, this is not a punishment: it’s therapy. I was a Psychology major in college (I have a Bachelor’s degree in the subject), so I am well versed on the different forms of therapy and behavior modification. Probably the most important thing to understand about any type of therapy is that it does not work for everyone.

While certain psychological aspects do come into play here - namely, group think - the bottom line is these boys need to be held responsible for their actions. All the therapy in the world won’t do that for them unless they are willing. Sure, they pleaded guilty and were eager to participate in rehab, but that doesn’t mean they sincerely felt they did something wrong and needed to be punished.

In the nine months those boys spend in therapy, I’m willing to bet their victim will be doing the same thing. And at the end of that nine months, I’m willing to bet none of them - including the attackers - will be completely healed, cured, or free of remorse and pain. Nothing will have changed at the end of those nine months, except that poor girl will probably still be in therapy and have large medical bills as a result. How is this fair?

This is a misuse of the legal system, plain and simple.