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On a related note, many released sex offenders have been hounded out of towns and cities, since they must identify themselves to local law enforcement. Concerned citizens then force said ex-con out of the area by various means. Should these people be locked up forever, or can they be cured? If the latter, will parents believe it to be true?

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Robert Ressler, founder of the F.B.I.'s profiling system, VICAP(Vicious Criminals Apprehension Program) database, and the man who coined the term "serial killer," believes child molesters cannot be rehabilitated, and that their sexuality is as much a core part of them as anything could be. I agree. By this he doesn't mean a 17 year old who sleeps with a 15 year old, or even a 30 year old who sleeps with a 15 year old, but the type who go after real, pre-sexual children. Fixation on this type of unlikely partner is not just a wayward impulse, but a sign of, of course, a seriously deranged sexuality and one that took a long time to become that way. You could no more undo their sexuality by rehabilitation than you could undo the entire personality or pull out the spinal cord. It's an organic part of the whole.

Many careers have been built on asserting that one has the cure for something or someone, and has applied it successfully. Psychologists let dangerous criminals out of institutionalization all the time, not only because there aren't enough places to put them in our crowded and underfunded hospitals and in our prisons, but also because their own paychecks and reputations can be tied to their supposed success with their patients. And also because, like anyone, they are subject to wishful thinking, simple error, and being conned. There will always be people who claim anyone with any problem can be cured, because the idea of a cure is not a strictly medical one. but is entangled with philosophy and even politics and religion. Whether child molesters should be locked up forever or not, they probably never will be.