A unique program in Ontario pairs victims of sexual abuse with former offenders in an effort to understand the motivations behind child sex abuse and prevent future harm. One survivor's journey to healing involves confronting her past trauma through conversations with a convicted sex offender.
Experts in the field of child sex abuse prevention argue we need to bring pedophilia out of the shadows if we want to end abuse. Cat Bodden, who was sexually abused by a family member as a child, never imagined she would work with convicted sex offenders. But that's what she's done for the better part of a decade, in an effort to understand the mind of a pedophile. 'I had questions I wanted to ask offenders. I had questions that I needed to understand why this happened.
That was where I was in my healing journey 10 years ago,' she told CBC Radio's. Stan was a participant in a program at Community Justice Initiatives (CJI), a restorative justice organization in Kitchener, Ont., aimed at supporting convicted sex offenders so that once they get out of prison, they don't re-offend. CBC agreed to use a pseudonym for Stan for three reasons: the pain that naming him could have on his victims; the possibility his family could be targeted; and the potential Stan himself could be harmed if his name were made public. Cat Bodden, speaks with Stan, in foreground, at Community Justice Initiatives, a restorative justice organization in Kitchener, Ont., in 2024. Jenn Beaudin, then the co-ordinator of the program, is seen to the right. The program pairs victims of sexual abuse with former offenders in the interest of mutual healing and prevention of future abuse. Bodden, 63, says she began volunteering at CJI in 2013 because she felt that talking to offenders might offer answers — and healing — that she couldn't find elsewhere. Her own offender is dead. Stan's reason for being at CJI was simply to stop himself from doing it again. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to seven sex-related charges involving five minors, and was sentenced to 29 months in priso
Child Sex Abuse Pedophilia Restorative Justice Victim-Offender Dialogue Prevention
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