Responsibilization and De-responsibilization in the Treatment of Sex Offenders in Belgium

This paper discusses the responsibilization/de-responsibilization in practice in the French-speaking part of Belgium of the treatment/guidance of sex offenders. It is based on data from clinical practitioners who specialize in working with sex offenders. The thesis of clinicians’ disempowerment will be reflected in the accountability of offenders, demonstrating a reversal of the burden of responsibility on the part of the offender-patient while the clinical approach assumes it is always shared between the “treating” and “treated.” The origins of this responsibility reversal will be examined through a critical clinical criteriological approach to its assumptions and its social consequences.