Inside a youth sex offender treatment center

Tony was 12 when he sexually assaulted the 10-year-old sister of his best friend. Now 20, he's about to be released following eight years of treatment. Sixteen-year-old George had never been in trouble before he was caught sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl last year. He'll remain locked up until at least 2009, and like Tony he'll likely be required to register as a sex offender for life. [...]

"A man who has a deviant sexual arousal to children, he would rather have sex with a child. Adolescents don't generally have deviant sexual arousal. ... They've been abused, they feel insecure, immature, unwanted," explained Marti Fredericks, who runs seven juvenile sex offender treatment facilities serving about 400 children in California. "We're not dealing with the same problem. Are they less dangerous? Yes. They have shame. They don't understand why they did it. They want help." [...]

"I'll find a community to embrace me," he said confidently during a recent therapy session. "I committed my sex offense when I was 12. If people don't accept me for who I am or what I did, I can handle that. This isn't something I want to do again," he said. "I don't want to molest another kid."

source: Article 'Inside a youth sex offender treatment center' by Kim Curtis; www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2007/06/08/ap-state-ca/d8pkreog0.txt; The Lompoc Record; 8 June 2007