Paedophiles and Pitchforks
Nothing sparks a moral panic like a paedophile. But the witchhunt for Dennis Ferguson, a 61-yr-old former Queensland resident who has served fourteen years in Federal prison for child sex offences, is bringing out the Molotov cocktails. Revealing a child sex offender is an instant recipe for a mob mentality. Bring forth thy pitchforks!
So that my words won’t be twisted, let me spell it out. Sexual abuse is a terrible crime. To perpetrate such crimes against children is a hideous act. Those who commit such crimes deserve punishment. They require treatment. This much is clear. But when they have served their time, completed their treatment, and move back into the world, they also deserve a chance.
Dennis Ferguson is living, within the conditions of his release, more than 400m from the nearest school. He lives in public housing, with a lease for tenancy, above the law and therefore within the bounds of protection from the state. He is almost completely blind, liked by his neighbours, and steadfastly refusing to move.
He has grown tired, no doubt, of being hounded by the moral mob. Forced out of several communities in Queensland, once his convictions were leaked, Ferguson has at last stopped running from what he was. If he had not realised it already, this week should have made clear that he will never escape his label. Committing his first act of child sex abuse was a renunciation – renouncing all other forms of identity, all other rights to respect and safety. Now Dennis Ferguson’s name will always be preceded by ‘convicted paedophile’. In prison, he would have been an instant target. Paedophilia is the unspeakable offence, which even other criminals will vilify you for.
The paedophile is the favourite target of the media panic. Ferguson is just one of many living “secretly among us”, apparently, as the Herald hysterically opined today. This obsession with ‘stranger danger’ distracts from the bigger problem – 90% of sex offences against children occur in the home, by someone known to the child.
Ferguson’s presence in this ‘community of families’ is an indication, to some, of the failings of our prison system and housing system. Comments all over blogs today have called for paedophiles to be given life sentences and never integrated back into the community. Where, after all, should they live? Not in my backyard.
The crusade against ‘Paedophile Ferguson’ (which is how nearly every headline has begun) is not the first of its kind.
I would argue that this case indicates the failings of our prison system. We are spending money the wrong ways, on incarceration, not reform. On isolation, not integration. It is one of the reasons Australia has one of the highest rates of reoffending. 57% of people in Australian jails have already served a term for a separate crime. 60% of convicted criminals will reoffend. 33.4% of incarcerated persons in 2002 had returned to jail within two years of their first release.
Prison is apparently neither a deterrent nor an effective tool for reconditioning. The Australian government needs to think seriously about effective ways to integrate criminals – yes, even paedophiles – back into communities, into normative ways of life that will minimise the risk of a re-offence. Even criminals should at some point be able to leave their convictions behind, and move on with their lives, living above the law.
Jennifer Blake
