I was going to tell you. I might as well. I did go to a day program in 1987. As I said, I have SPD. And the doctor thought I could benefit from it. Mainly I had problems being in public. But while I was there, there was this other patient. He was born in the 1950's. And he told us he was "borderline retarded" with "latent schizophrenia". Anyways, he was obviously was a sex offender. He was grabbing women in public and making obscene phone calls. He grabbed his sister on the coach once. I won't go into detail (he insisted that he did though, once). But as he told us, he made sure not to use the word vagina. Because he (converted to) Mormonism, and they didn't use those words, he told us. He was in jail the night before once, again for grabbing women. He told us when the jailer brought his tray of food, he refused it because it had coffee on it. As I said, he told us this, as he told us he was in jail, for grabbing women. (He thought the fact he was finally jailed for that was funny for some reason.) When the nurse in GT asked him if he still masturbated, he sheepishly assured us all he didn't (he knew he did...). Also, his parents wouldn't let him watch movies with swears, he told us once. He was in his 30's and living at home with his parents, still. I found it hard to believe he had just borderline mental deficiency. The staff eventually told us his problems were actually mostly emotional. IAE, he obviously couldn't think things thru. That sounds like a problem with forethought. Anyways, my point is, the way we treat sex offenders. All of them, and the ones with emotional and intellectual problems in particular, has to be realistic. The total prohibitionist approach doesn't work. Tell your intellectually disabled son to stop thinking all impure thoughts? You first, he should say. IOW, that's not a realistic goal. I know in the US sex offenders are not allowed to possess pornography. Pornography has nothing to do with sex offenses. No, it doesn't objectify women. And it actually makes you less likely to commit a sex offense. (They also used to say in the US sex offenders couldn't possess any material that could excite them. Like nuns gone wild, for example. That is ridiculous. And the courts were right to strike that down.) And if your mentally deficient or autistic son is masturbating, don't tell him to stop. Tell him you don't want to know what he does in private. Because that teaches him boundaries. That guy above probably just needed to learn that, boundaries. Instead of being told the movie "White Nights" is bad because Gregory Hines lets a swear slip in one scene (the parents of that guy above—I'm serious). Thoughts?
