Information arising from the discovery of alleged paedophilia in Galway raises a number of issues about what we know about the nature of such organised sexual abuse of boys and responses to sex offenders more generally.
It is characteristic of the times we live in to lump all sex offenders together under the label "paedophile". From the "paedophile priest" to the "ordinary" paedophile who allegedly moves to the Republic to avoid the UK register of sex offenders, the figure of the stalking paedophile has become the new demon of our times.
While it is easy to understand the fear for children and sense of social anxiety that fuels such images, ultimately they are not helpful. Not only do they help to incite the kind of unacceptable vigilante behaviour we saw recently in Mayo, when a known "paedophile" was burned out of his home, it impoverishes our understanding of the nature of the problem and responses to it.
Contrary to the public perception of "the paedophile" as the stranger who hangs around toilets or playgrounds, in some 70 per cent of cases children are sexually abused by men to whom they are related, and many of those abused outside the family know their abusers.
Only some of these men are paedophiles in the sense of having an actual sexual orientation towards children, who are usually pre-pubescent. These are the men who are most likely to develop "rings" and a trade in abusing children and the use of pornographic material.
They will go to any lengths to justify the right, as they perceive it, to have sex with children and even - as in some Scandinavian countries - fight publicly for it, arguing that children enjoy sex and have an equal right to it.
Those who are "fixated" paedophiles are so stuck in their perversion that they do not respond to treatment. "Regressed" paedophiles, on the other hand, whose abuse may arise from disturbed psycho-sexual development - such as from having been abused as children - may be susceptible to treatment.
The profile of such offenders is quite different from the authoritarian incestuous father who abuses his children in the context of the family. Recent public disclosures of the horrific violence perpetrated by the Sligo farmer, Joseph McColgan, for instance, show that these are heterosexual married men whose abuse of power within the family can lead them to act out profound sexual perversions and other forms of violence on children.
Until further information is available, it is difficult to say whether the Galway case can be classified as involving "paedophiles". It might, for instance, include actively heterosexual men who also gain sexual pleasure from abusing teenage boys.
What all cases, irrespective of the type of offender, have in common is victims. Given that the Galway case allegedly involved boys - who are reportedly "very distressed at what happened to them and anxious to deal with their experiences as effectively as possible" - it is crucial that a clear focus is maintained on their needs as survivors.
While not all abused boys grow up to be offenders, without adequate treatment there is a greatly increased possibility that they will.
A high incidence of childhood sexual victimisation has been found among sex offenders. Boys can have particular problems disclosing abuse and accepting the victim role and treatment because of the corrosive impact of an ideology of masculinity that says males should be invulnerable and able to defend themselves.
Treatment needs to engage both with boys' victimisation and their sense of spoiled gender identity. In a homophobic culture, a fear of "becoming gay" can lead men to develop a hyper-masculinity which leads to sex crimes such as rape to prove they are men. It is a cruel paradox that this can lead men to revisit on boys, as well as girls, the very crimes they are seeking to compensate for.
In his book, The Male Survivor, Mendel shows that a critical distinction between victimised men who go on to perpetrate abuse and those who do not is the ability of the latter to integrate their experience of victimisation and access their feelings of pain, loss, and vulnerability. Sex offenders, by contrast, may emerge from their childhood victimisation primarily experiencing anger, which is expressed via sexually-abusive acts.
The crucial variable shown up in all studies is the provision of treatment in adolescence to overcome the trauma of the abuse.
There is no doubt we need much tighter administrative responses to this problem and measures such as a register of sex offenders can contribute something.
The real priorities, however, lie in reforming the system so that more cases can get to court, systematic assessment and mandated intervention programmes for offenders - both within prison and without - and, most of all, that the urgently-needed resources are provided so that treatment services for victims can be offered to promote the kind of healing that can equip them to form healthy intimate relations.
Harry Ferguson is a senior lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Studies in University College, Cork. His most recent book is Protecting Irish Children: Investigation, Protection and Welfare (IPA, 1996)
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