The continuing love affair between Jim Gamble of CEOP and Dr Gerry McCann

Olympicana_Reloaded wrote:

preciousramotswe wrote:Remember old son, Google is your friend

Sexual Offences, Law and Moral - can Behaviour and Attitudes be changed by Legal and Moral Efforts?

Knut Hermstad
Centre on Violence, Traumatic Stress and Suicide Prevention, Mid-Norway
University Hospital of Trondheim

Introduction

Many people have read the books or seen the movies of Precious Ramotswe, a female private detective from Botswana in southern Africa. The stories are written by Alexander McCall Smith, Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh1. In the world of Precious Ramotswe, the black-and-white justice system is replaced by a heart-and-soul justice system so that the reader may sometimes be confused who the good people are and who the bad people are. While an American movie would have told the story of hunting, arresting and sentencing people, McCall Smith tells the story of how criminal acts affect the people involved, Precious Ramotswe's mission is to make people talk to each other regardless of their position as victim, offender, judge, police officer or whoever they might be.

Precious Ramotswe might be seen as a representative for the criminological movement Restorative Justice2. In a time dominated by punitive strategies Restorative Justice is a new and refreshing way of thinking about how criminal acts could be dealt with. In the field of sex offending, we have been working along the two tracks of treatment and punishment for many years.3 But as I am going to show, there is little evidence for the assumption that punitive strategies have been very successful as far as it goes about reducing the number of sex offences. On this background is the question: Could Restorative Justice be the new and refreshing alternative we are looking for; so that the two themes in the future work will be restoration and treatment instead of punishment and treatment?

Notes

1 Among the most popular books in this series are The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (McCall Smith, 1998) and Morality for Beautiful Girls (McCall Smith, 2001).

2 A definition given in Wikipedia points that the method in "Restorative Justice" is to help offender and victim to meet after an offence having taken place so that they can have a dialogue about what has happened. Through the dialogue the victim may tell how hurt she is, and the offender can tell how sorry he is (http://en.wikipedia.org, 2011). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa is one very famous example of Restorative Justice.

http://www.sexual-offender-treatment.org/97.html

Nice idea, where the 'offender' has some potential to feel for others, and feel a sense of guilt, perhaps there is room for better understanding through sharing and learning about each other's situations.
But what if the offender actually gets enjoyment out of knowing he hurt a victim, and what if the victim feels even more transgressed because the offender cannot understand the concept that 'hurting' another is wrong.
Restorative justice on the face of it looks a little naive in its desire to believe that there is some good, at least, in all people.
The problem with a psychopath, sociopath is they do not 'see it' from the 'normal' point of view, but from a point of view that is 'different' from the norm.
It seems that restorative justice expects, and relies upon, the 'concepts of the norm' to be equally present and acceptable in the psychopath's mind just because they are acceptable to the norm.
I've not expressed myself very well. It is late at night but I suppose I'm trying to say, that in some cases, there might be no hope of a common meeting ground.

bobbin wrote:

Olympicana_Reloaded wrote:

preciousramotswe wrote:Remember old son, Google is your friend

Sexual Offences, Law and Moral - can Behaviour and Attitudes be changed by Legal and Moral Efforts?

Knut Hermstad
Centre on Violence, Traumatic Stress and Suicide Prevention, Mid-Norway
University Hospital of Trondheim

Introduction

Many people have read the books or seen the movies of Precious Ramotswe, a female private detective from Botswana in southern Africa. The stories are written by Alexander McCall Smith, Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh1. In the world of Precious Ramotswe, the black-and-white justice system is replaced by a heart-and-soul justice system so that the reader may sometimes be confused who the good people are and who the bad people are. While an American movie would have told the story of hunting, arresting and sentencing people, McCall Smith tells the story of how criminal acts affect the people involved, Precious Ramotswe's mission is to make people talk to each other regardless of their position as victim, offender, judge, police officer or whoever they might be.

Precious Ramotswe might be seen as a representative for the criminological movement Restorative Justice2. In a time dominated by punitive strategies Restorative Justice is a new and refreshing way of thinking about how criminal acts could be dealt with. In the field of sex offending, we have been working along the two tracks of treatment and punishment for many years.3 But as I am going to show, there is little evidence for the assumption that punitive strategies have been very successful as far as it goes about reducing the number of sex offences. On this background is the question: Could Restorative Justice be the new and refreshing alternative we are looking for; so that the two themes in the future work will be restoration and treatment instead of punishment and treatment?

Notes

1 Among the most popular books in this series are The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (McCall Smith, 1998) and Morality for Beautiful Girls (McCall Smith, 2001).

2 A definition given in Wikipedia points that the method in "Restorative Justice" is to help offender and victim to meet after an offence having taken place so that they can have a dialogue about what has happened. Through the dialogue the victim may tell how hurt she is, and the offender can tell how sorry he is (http://en.wikipedia.org, 2011). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa is one very famous example of Restorative Justice.

http://www.sexual-offender-treatment.org/97.html

Nice idea, where the 'offender' has some potential to feel for others, and feel a sense of guilt, perhaps there is room for better understanding through sharing and learning about each other's situations.
But what if the offender actually gets enjoyment out of knowing he hurt a victim, and what if the victim feels even more transgressed because the offender cannot understand the concept that  'hurting' another is wrong.
Restorative justice on the face of it looks a little naive in its desire to believe that there is some good, at least, in all people.
The problem with a psychopath, sociopath is they do not 'see it' from the 'normal' point of view, but from a point of view that is 'different' from the norm.
It seems that restorative justice expects, and relies upon, the 'concepts of the norm' to be equally present and acceptable in the psychopath's mind just because they are acceptable to the norm.
I've not expressed myself very well. It is late at night but I suppose I'm trying to say, that in some cases, there might be no hope of a  common meeting ground.

Judge spares sex abuser from jail in line with daughter’s wishes

A 61-year-old man who subjected his young daughter to years of sexual abuse has avoided a prison sentence after she indicated she did not wish to see him jailed.

Earlier this month, Limerick businessman and former guesthouse owner Oliver Haskett was remanded in custody and warned he would be going to jail after harrowing evidence of the abuse suffered by his young daughter was outlined at Limerick Circuit Court.

Mr Haskett, with an address at Westbury, Co Clare, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault of his daughter Sheila Ryan between January 1988 and December 31st, 1990, and a further 20 counts of sexual assault between September 1991 and December 1995.

The offences occurred at the former family homes in Foynes, Kilcornan and Adare in Co Limerick.

Ms Ryan, who waived her right to anonymity, told gardaí the abuse started when she was five years old. She also recalled how she was beaten and chastised by her father for mispronouncing words.

She said some of the abuse took place in the downstairs bedroom of a bed and breakfast which her parents operated in Adare Co Limerick.

Before sentence was imposed today, Judge Carroll Moran was told Ms Ryan did not want her father to get a custodial sentence.

Counsel for the State, Michael Collins, said the now 36-year-old was shocked when she saw her father going into custody following his last court appearance, and said she had written a letter indicating she did not want her father going to jail.

Judge Carroll Moran said Mr Haskett, a father of four, was guilty of a breach of trust and the fact he had abused his own child was a further breach of this trust.

Judge Moran said the natural paternal instinct was to protect, not to abuse, and that Mr Haskett’s actions had resulted in the premature sexualisation of his daughter Sheila.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Ryan revealed how she had come close to suicide and how she struggled with depression, eating disorders and alcohol abuse as a result of her dysfunctional childhood.

Imposing a four-year suspended jail term, Judge Moran said he had taken into account Ms Ryan’s wishes that she did not want to see her father going to jail.

Addressing Mr Haskett directly, Judge Moran said: “I want to commend your daughter for her Christian charity and forgiveness.”

Judge Moran ordered that Mr Haskett’s name be placed on the Register of Sex Offenders for five years.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/judge-spares-sex-abuser-from-jail-in-line-with-daughter-s-wishes-1.1572128

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/local-news/limerick-businessman-who-abused-daughter-avoids-jail-1-5621667

I thought it was strange and quite shocking listening to Gamble early yesterday on one of the TV news programmes (I can't remember whether it was BBC or Sky) saying in an interview that the McCanns have "pushed, pushed, pushed" for the case to be re-opened (which is very far from the truth) and he was so pleased that it has now happened.

Well, I'm not the sharpist tool in the box but even I know that the McCanns could have asked for the case to be re-opened at any time (as GA said, "they only needed to put a stamp on a letter"), they also let the case be shelved in the first place, and Kate McCann stated in an interview that whether the case remained opened or closed "it didn't really matter".

As Jim Gamble had a high profile job at CEOP at one time, it really is very worrying that someone of his stature can have such an influence yet have such little understanding or knowledge of what the McCanns do or say in this case.