No treatment program will produce perfect results. In the case of treatment for child molesters in particular, it is inevitable that there will be some recidivism, even in the context of very impressive success rates. The Johns Hopkins Clinic, for example, reports a less than 3% criminal recidivism rate for treatment-compliant pedophiles.
Persons not receiving treatment, of course, have a much higher recidivism rate.
In media accounts of the Johns Hopkins Clinic, and other treatment programs in general, the treatment failures tend to be blown out of proportion, and the successes ignored. Biased media reporting leads to distorted public opinion as well. In the face of such a hostile climate, it is very difficult for treatment programs to gain the support they need to continue operating. Indeed, since the publication of this article, the Sexual Disorders Clinic no longer exists at Johns Hopkins, although the staff, including Dr. Berlin, are still actively involved in the treatment of paraphilias. The media, presumably, is trying to be helpful by being "tough on crime," but the effect is often to make treatment less accessible, and thus put more children in danger.
The bulk of the paper demonstrates the bias of media reports by showing how the reports are different from the clinical facts.
The conclusion is that biased media reporting does a disservice to the patients and the public. To counter this, psychiatric professionals (to whom the article is directed) may want to take a more active advocacy role in the area of the paraphilias.
Peace,
Somebody Somewhere