‘I don't want to be the mother of a paedophile’: the perspectives of mothers whose adolescent sons with learning disabilities sexually offend

Abstract

The subject of sexual abuse is a major focus of professional and public concern. Sexual abuse of (and by) people with learning disabilities evokes even greater disquieting emotions, and makes severe demands on the social services, and the criminal justice system. The aims of the project were: 1) to determine whether group psychotherapy produced effective outcomes for adolescent boys with learning disabilities who exhibit sexually abusive behaviour, 2) to explore the perspectives of parents and other caregivers, and 3) to document the nature and extent of service support to families. This paper focuses solely on the mothers' perspectives. This was a three-year project with six boys (under 16) receiving group psychotherapy, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Clinical measures were used to track changes throughout the course of psychotherapy. Semi-structured interviews (taped and transcribed) were held (separately) with the boys, their parents, paid care-givers and the therapists. The mothers tried hard to make sense of, and come to terms with, what was happening to their sons and to themselves, they struggled to reconcile their own confused and often conflicting emotions, and to maintain their own sense of identity. They felt almost totally unsupported by the services, both in the past and present, and could see little hope for the future. There is an urgent need for development of effective and sympathetic services for the parents of boys with learning disabilities who have been abused, and who are now showing abusive behaviour.

Life after release from prison: The experience of ex‐offenders with intellectual disabilities

“…they warned the men about the loss of family if they were to re-offend). These vigilant roles supported Hubert et al's (2007) findings, as interviews exploring mothers' perspectives have also described their sense of expectation to manage their sons, ensuring vigilance was always in place.…”

Home visits: a reflection on family contact in a specialist forensic intellectual disability service

“…However, 19% of patients had no contact with their family in the first place due to a variety of reasons-some had no living family and others had been ostracised from their families due to their criminal offences, particularly those who had sexually offended against children. Difficulty in coming to terms with a relative's offence has been highlighted by previous research (Hubert et al, 2007;Bonell et al, 2011). Haar-Pomp (2015) also highlighted that among a group of 36 male personality disordered forensic psychiatric patients, family members were the most likely victims of the patients' offences.…”