Prevention and intervention, rather than punishment and internment, were key words at the first meeting of the National Organisation of Treatment of Abusers in Malahide last week.
NOTA is a network for professionals working with sexual abusers. It aims to address issues involved in sexual abuse and violence and to provide a forum for the sharing of treatment and prevention techniques. The Irish branch is the first division of the charity outside Britain.
The conference featured workshops on setting up an effective treatment service for adult sex offender, and investigating child sexual abuse claims.
Speakers also emphasised the importance of educating the public that providing offenders with treatment reduces the risk of a return to abuse.
Dr Olive Travers, a senior clinical psychologist at the North Western Health Board said the first step "is to educate the community that treatment is about protecting children, not about letting abusers off the hook".
The Government had been active on the issue, Mr Des O'Mahony, head of the clinical psychology service at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, said. "A potentially powerful way of reducing the level of risk of many imprisoned sex offenders is through a comprehensive relapse prevention strategy," he added.
A sex offenders Bill being drafted would provide more post-release supervision for sex offenders, he said, which would required convicted child sex offenders to notify any prospective employer of their conviction if the job involved unsupervised access to children.
Dr Travers works with adult sex offenders in an inter-agency community treatment team in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, supported by the NWHB and the Department of Justice. "Only those who are considered low-risk are in our programme. Violent offenders and those who have abused more than one person are not considered."
She also works with victims of sexual abuse. "Abused children do not want to see their dad go to jail. They want to make sure he doesn't abuse them again," Ms Travers said. "I think a move away from the punishment mode and towards a treatment mode of dealing with offenders would actually encourage more victims to come forward."
Childcare workers, psychologists, doctors, social workers, probation officers, and gardai and prison officers were at the conference.
Ms Travers said she was concerned because no members of the legal profession attended, though they had been invited. "Members of the judiciary are open to public opinion and the negative attitudes towards sex offenders that are prevalent," she said.