pink:
Thank you for your most comprehensive answer. However, I've heard it all before.
It amounts, in a nutshell, to no more than well meaning people having cosy chats with offenders who ultimately are released back into the community. And who is there then to stop them re-offending?
And, while every man and his dog is seeing to the "needs" of the paedophile, how much is done for victims in comparison?
Precious little.
It's a two tier system weighed heavily in favour of the wrongdoer. Many thousands of pounds is lavished on offenders, thousands of hours are spent by people chatting to them, "assessing" them, chatting to colleagues about them, having little meetings to "decide the best way forward", all at taxpayers' expense. And how many of those same "experts" ever spend time with victims?
Forgive my cynicism, but how can "Relapse Prevention", i.e. 12 more sessions of chatting to the offender, stop him from re-offending? The short answer is: it can't. It can offer no guarantees that this deviant will not go on to commit further atrocities on release, can it? It's a flawed system.
Despite my views, I have never condoned these "vigilante" attacks on known paedophiles, although I can fully understand the feelings of victims' families. But we wouldn't have any such "vigilantes" if we had failproof measures in place, which we sadly haven't.