Source: Radio New Zealand
Pixabay/shafin_protic
An advocacy organisation says it receives calls from people covertly asking for help to avoid offending – but despite evidence that programmes work, resources to help are thin.
When The Detail ran a podcast episode about how Customs tries to stop child sexual exploitation material at our borders, our listeners wanted to know what happens to the perpetrators.
In today’s episode, The Detail talks to two experts about the next steps, after the material is found, and what needs to change in New Zealand’s approach to handling the crisis.
Tim Houston is manager of the digital child exploitation team at the Department of Internal Affairs. He says that when he and his team are searching through evidence of child sexual exploitation, they aren’t just looking to support the prosecution of an offender – they’re also looking for material featuring unknown victims.
“It’s not safe to assume that offenders are only looking at material – we go into all of our investigations with the front-of-mind thought that there is also a chance that they are physically offending against a child,” he says.
Houston says people charged with possessing child sexual abuse material face up to a decade behind bars, while those found guilty of creating or distributing the material face up to fourteen years.
There’s no minimum sentence for either charge and many feel the terms of imprisonment don’t reflect the severity of the crime, or the lasting harm they cause.
Eleanor Parkes is the national director for ECPAT NZ, an organisation that works to end child sexual exploitation. She says that while she agrees sentences should reflect the severity of the crime, we need a broader approach to fixing the problem – not just prison time.
“If we’re going to look at what the evidence says around this problem we really need to rewind and we need to be looking much earlier than just at convictions,” she says.
Parkes can understand why people feel that sentencing is too light.
“The harm that these crimes cause is profound, and it is lasting, but we also have to be honest about what keeps children safe, we can’t just be looking to sentencing to make ourselves feel better or feel we’re keeping the community safe.”
In today’s episode, The Detail speaks to Parkes about what needs to change in the way we approach perpetrators of child exploitation, as well as to Tim Houston, who explains what happens once his team has been alerted to an offence.
“As an example, we conduct a search warrant, we seize a phone as part of that search warrant, that phone goes back to our forensic lab where it is analysed using specialised digital forensic tools,” he says.
When asked whether offenders have a chance of full rehabilitation, Houston says it’s a sliding scale.
“We have encountered people where when they’ve been interviewed it evokes that kind of ‘hairs on the back of the neck stand up’ and we’ve also encountered people that have been incredibly remorseful, [they] genuinely want to understand the reasons why they’ve offended and genuinely get help.
“We need to approach every investigation with an open mind about who we’re dealing with.”
But Parkes says a lack of resources means accessing help is difficult, especially for people who haven’t offended (or haven’t been caught offending) as support programs are often filled by court-mandated participants.
She says ECPAT is frequently contacted by people concerned about the direction their sexual preferences are headed.
“They call and they say they’ve ‘accidentally’ stumbled across some content online … and that they’re just wanting to report it and in fact they’re trying to establish to what extent what they’re experiencing is normal or really abnormal, they want to know how much trouble they might get in if they try and seek help for it, they might be trying to figure out where they can safely seek help for it,” she says.
Parks says the programs are effective and people who seek help before they’ve offended have a much higher rehabilitation rate, and there should be more investment into preventing offending in the first place.
“That means creating accessible specialist services where people who are at risk of offending can safely seek help before further harm occurs.
“It means properly funding treatment programs in prisons and in the community that are proven to reduce reoffending, and ensuring that when people are released that they are supported and monitored to integrate safely.”
Where to get help
[www.stop.org.nz Stop]: South Island – Email info@stop.org.nz or call 03 353 0257
[www.wellstop.org.nz WellStop]: Lower North Island – Email info@wellstop.org.nz or call 04 566 4745
[www.safenetwork.org.nz Safe Network]: Northern North Island – Email info@safenetwork.org.nz or call 09 377 9898
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
