Public Opinion is Clear: Urgent Legislation Required to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation! Read the story

How to prevent re-offending?

Posted on Apr 9, 2013

"In March 2012, a 76-year-old Swedish man was convicted in Sweden for sexually abusing three young girls in the Philippines where he was working as an English teacher for poor children. He had received a previous conviction for child sex crimes perpetrated in the 1990s and had been sentenced to court ordered treatment, but was freed after nine years." This recent case raises important questions about how to reduce the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism, particularly in preventing re-offending. ECPAT's latest Journal examines the effectiveness of several offender management strategies at international, regional and national level. It has been found that enhanced detection, arrest and conviction of travelling child sex offenders contribute to discouraging perpetrators from repeating their crimes, both overseas and domestically. Investigative tools developed by regional and international law enforcement bodies such as Interpol and Europol have also proved to be effective and should be used more often. Similarly new reporting mechanisms should also be set up to increase disclosure of child sex offences committed abroad. With regard to post apprehension strategies, some countries have opted for the registration of sex offenders on specific registers, whilst a number of countries have introduced an international travel notification requirement for registered sex offenders. Analysis shows that considering some convicted child sex offenders might choose to travel to other countries to gain access to children through employment, the use of International Child Protection Certificates (ICPC) can be useful. Regardless of the type of offender management strategies used, it is also essential to ensure effective implementation through training of concerned actors, especially police. Furthermore, resources and measures need to be concentrated on monitoring those at high-risk to reoffend, such as paedophiles rather than occasional abusers. You can read the full article here (see page. 20)