PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
COUNTRY REPORT - HONG KONG (SAR)
By Lam Kwok Leung*
I. CURRENT SITUATION OF SEXUAL OFFENCES IN HONG KONG
There is inevitably sexual crime, either violent or non-violent in nature, happening around the world
everyday. Hong Kong is no exception. In 2005, there were 99 rapes and 1,136 indecent assault cases,
signalling an increase of 7.6% and 9.9% respectively against the 2004 reports. Statistics from the Police
below reflects the fluctuation of sexual crime cases within the past six years in Hong Kong. Fortunately, theinformation does not represent an upsurge in sex crime in general.

Table 1: Crime Statistics from Hong Kong Police (cases reported)
Year

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

Rape

104

95

95

70

92

99

Indecent Assault

1124

1007

991

1018

1034

1136

Other Sexual Offences

938

753

773

900

1082

1042

But in brief, we are still facing a sex crime situation in Hong Kong with one sex violence case, either rapeor indecent assault, taking place roughly every seven hours.
Some researches suggest that most of the sexual offenders were only arrested after several attempts ofsex abuse. In other words, the number of reported cases could be far less than the actual number of victims
involved in sex abuse. A survey by the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department (SWD) in 2003 on theirclients having committed sex offences generated an interesting profile. Almost 80% of sexual offences werecommitted by offenders aged below 40 and the age at which they first committed a sex offence was also
mostly under 40.

Table 2: Age of Sex Offenders

Age of Offenders

Percentage

18-25

36%

26-30

16%

31-35

9%

36-40

18%

41-45

6%

46-50

6%

51-60

9%

* Head, Sha Tsui Detention Centre, HKSAR.

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Table 3: Age when First Committing a Sex Offence
Age First Committing Sex Offence

Percentage

10-15

16%

16-20

36%

21-25

12%

26-30

12%

31-35

12%

36-40

6%

41-60

6%

On the other hand, the survey reinforced the research suggestion that sex offenders normally have reoffending records, and some of them started committing sex crime in their early boyhood. It is astonishing tonote that more than half of the offenders within the sampling pool have committed a countless number of sex
offences with scores of victims. Despite the fact that the survey could not by itself authenticate the full
picture of the sex crime situation in Hong Kong owing to limitation of the size of the survey, our attention
has already been drawn to the general profile of sex offenders and the harmful impairment caused to thehuge number of victims involved in sex crime. The following tables obtained from the same survey arestrongly indicative of the mentioned situation.

Table 4: Number of Sex Offences Committed
No. of Offences

Percentage

1-5

15%

6-10

9%

11-50

24%

51 & above

52%

Table 5: Number of Victims
No. of Victims

Percentage

1-5

30%

6-10

6%

11-50

12%

51 & above

52%

We all understand that sexual abuse or even simply an unwelcome sexual advance will bring about
emotional distress and depression to the victims, either in terms of social life, interpersonal functioning,
work performance or other aspects of daily living. A sexual offence is not merely traumatic to victims at thetime when it happens. Victims also have to suffer from a wide range of physical and psychologicalconsequences. Being members of the criminal justice system, we have to appreciate and share the public’s
concern for offences involving sexual abuse, particularly when they are persistently happening. Apart frompreventive measures, such as enhancing public awareness of the situation, there should be measures

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adopted that perpetrators of such offences be brought to justice, and if convicted, sentenced in such a way toreflect the gravity and seriousness of sexual abuse.

II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF PUNISHMENT
At present, there are a number of laws in Hong Kong which provide protection to victims against sexual
abuse. The major one is the Crimes Ordinance, Cap 200, Laws of Hong Kong. Throughout the years, theCrimes Ordinance has been reviewed and amended to lift the maximum imprisonment term appropriate to
the gravity of the relevant offences. Just to mention a few examples - the maximum penalty for incest with agirl between the age of 13 and 16 was increased from seven years to 20 years; indecent assault towards achild under 16 was increased from five years to 10 years; the requirement of corroboration in respect ofsexual offences was abolished to ensure that evidence given by victims in sexual offences is accorded thesame treatment as evidence given by complainants in other kind of cases. The price to be paid forcommitting serious sex crime is in no way insignificant. Conviction for some sex offences such as rape,buggery, and sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 can result in a maximum term of imprisonment for life.
Extracts of the common sections of the Hong Kong Crimes Ordinance below are illustrative.

Table 6: Extracts of Crimes Ordinance (Cap 200), Laws of HK
Section 118 (1): Rape
A man who rapes a woman shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on
indictment to imprisonment for life.
Section 118 A(1): Non-consensual Buggery
A person who commits buggery with another person who at the time of the buggery does notconsent to it shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment toimprisonment for life.
Section 118D Buggery with Girl under 21
A man who commits buggery with a girl under the age of 21 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be
liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for life.
Section 122 (1): Indecent Assault
Subject to subsection (3), a person who indecently assaults another person shall be guilty of an
offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for 10 years.
Section 123: Intercourse with Girl under 13
A man who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13 shall be guilty of an
offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for life.
Section 124 (1): Intercourse with Girl under 16
Subject to subsection (2), a man who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for 5
years.

Other than incarceration, Post-release Supervision of Prisoners Ordinance, Cap. 475, inter alia. requiresthat offenders convicted of certain categories of sexual offence and sentenced to two years or more shall be

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subject to statutory post-release supervision for six months to two years at the discretion of the PostRelease Supervision Board. These sexual offences are:-

IncestRape
Buggery
Gross indecency by a man with another man
Bestiality
Indecent assault
Unlawful intercourse
Indecent conduct towards a child under 16

The supervision terms, other than those generic law-abiding requirements, may include psychologicaltreatment and follow-ups.

III. TREATMENT OF INCARCERATED SEX OFFENDERS
In managing sex offenders incarcerated in a prison setting, there is not much in particular we can do interms of custodial care. Other inmates alike, we are duty bound not to label them but to render appropriate
assistance to facilitate their path to rehabilitation. But as a rule of thumb, sex offenders will be singly locatedin cellular accommodation to prevent them from nuisance of any sort caused by other inmates.
As sex offenders in a correctional setting are a group of people with an identified risk of recidivism,
reducing their re-offending risk is a way to reduce the overall sex crime in Hong Kong. As far as a treatment
programme is concerned, psychological therapy has definitely played a more important role in recent years
in the prevention of re-offending of sex crime. In the last decade, psychologists have contributed greatly indeveloping the psychological services for incarcerated sex offenders in Hong Kong with a view to reducing
recidivism.
The establishment of the Working Group on Assessment and Treatment of Sex Offenders in 1991 was amilestone of the Hong Kong Correctional Services in initiating a service team to focus on sex offender
treatment. In 1998, the formation of the Sex Offender Evaluation and Treatment Unit (ETU) materialized
the first residential treatment centre for sex offenders in South East Asia. The Unit provides thoroughpsychological assessment and renders a wide range of specialized treatment programmes conducive to
reducing recidivism of sex offenders.
We all understand that sex offending is intertwined with biological, psychological and sociological factors.
Every sex offender has a distinctive deviant behaviour to release sexual urges. A more focused methodology
to assess sex offenders and to provide them with appropriate treatment will be more constructive than longterm penal custody which is purely punitive in nature.

IV. DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES FOR SEX OFFENDERS
Tracing back to the 90s, individual therapy is the only major intervention method to treat sex offenders.
In other words, sex offenders will be treated individually by clinical psychologists on a needs basis. During
the treatment process, it is not uncommon to find sex offenders denying their offending behaviour andrefusing psychological therapy. Low motivation for treatment thereby greatly hindered the treatment
process in the past. The transfer of inmates and change of the service personnel are also a hindrance to thetherapeutic process.
Seeing the need to improve the situation, a special working group of clinical psychologists was formed in1991 to study the means to improve the assessment and treatment of sex offenders incarcerated in the penal
environment. A number of changes towards related rehabilitative service were made as a result of the upliftof service between 1991 and 1998. In the course of development, the clinical psychologists have tested
different modalities of psychological treatments for sex offenders. For instance, starting from 1993, a selfhelp treatment programme with manuals and audio-visual aids was utilized to supplement individual therapy.
On the other hand, group therapy had been tried out and found to be more effective than the individual
treatment adopted in the past.

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Summing up the above and making reference to overseas experience, it was determined that a separate
therapeutic unit to accommodate sex offenders for assessment and treatment would be conducive to aquality service delivery. Based on this premise, the Sex Offender Evaluation and Treatment Unit (ETU) was
set up in one of the correctional institutions exclusively for offenders with re-offending risk.

V. SEX OFFENDERS EVALUATION AND TREATMENT UNIT
The Sex Offender Evaluation and Treatment Unit (ETU) is a residential treatment centre for sex
offenders and is one of the service pioneers in South East Asia. It aims at providing comprehensive andsystematic psychological evaluation and treatment services for sex offenders in a therapeutic environment,with a view to enhancing their motivation for treatment. There are three programmes offered in the Unit,
namely, the Sex Offender Orientation Programme, the Self-help Programme, and the Core Treatment
Programme.
Newly sentenced sex offenders will first go through a 14 day Sex Offender Orientation Programme.
During this period, individual interviews will be arranged to enhance motivation for treatment. Groupdiscussion among existing and new Unit participants will be conducted to facilitate positive influences and toincrease their confidence about the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Participants will be assigned to complete
three self-help packages. At the same time, systematic risk assessment of possible recidivism will be carriedout. It is expected that after completion of the orientation programme, the profile and treatment plan specificto each participant could be drawn up. Simply speaking, low-risk offenders will be sent back to parent
institutions to receive individual treatment as necessary; moderate-risk offenders will participate in the SelfHelp Programme; and high-risk offenders will join the Core Treatment Programme.
The Self-Help Programme is a highly individualized programme, which may start and end on any day.
Depending on the progress of individuals, the programme lasts from 2 to 26 weeks. The programme is run
by means of self-help manuals, audio-visual materials and interactive exercise to help the participants. There
are over 30 manuals covering a variety of topics. Offenders will be required to work on questions andanswers, reading assignments and feedback, case studies, empathy training and so forth. A clinicalpsychologist serves as a personal tutor to monitor participant’s progress, to prescribe new self-learning
exercises, and to provide psychological intervention.
The 52 week Core Treatment Programme, however, is to deal with offenders with a high-risk of reoffending. The programme consists of comprehensive and intensive group therapy to be conducted on a
weekly basis. Apart from the focused therapy modules, group discussion, assignment of therapeutic exercise
and role-play is conducted throughout the treatment process. Similar to the Self-Help Programme, thoseparticipants having completed the programme are re-assessed with a standard psychological assessment
package to identify their change, re-offending risk and future treatment needs. The following programme
contents are the core issues included in the treatment of sex offenders:
Sex knowledge
Dealing with a deviant sexual attitude
Dealing with a deviant sexual interest
Relationship skills
Mood management
Victim awareness and empathy training
Offence cycle and relapse prevention
Building support and community reintegration
It is meaningful to quote some dialogues of the sex offenders to represent their inner world and thechanges occurred after going through psychological treatment. The following are two insightful examples:“I did not use any violence and the victim never struggled; how could it be rape?”“Sex without consent is rape. The victim did not struggle because of fear rather than consent to have sex.”“Since the victim is not a virgin, raping her would not bring her any harm.”“Being forced to have sex is a humiliation for women. Its traumatic impact can be life-long.”
Other than receiving positive responses from the sex offenders, these programmes must also be

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evaluated on a scientific basis in order to assess their overall effectiveness. Between the period of
September 1998 and February 2005, there were altogether over three hundreds sexual offenders admitted to
the Unit. Among them, almost half of them had participated in either the Self-Help Programme or Core
Treatment Programme. We studied this group of offenders having gone through the ETU programmes andfound that the percentage maintaining an abstinence from sex offending after discharge is relatively high. On
the other hand, the percentage of denial of low-risk sex offences having gone through the Sex Offender
Orientation Programme is lower by around one-third than those without programme treatment in the past.
In other words, sex offenders, after psychological intervention, tended to admit their fault in committing sex
crime as well as causing harm to the victims.
The above information is a strong testimony that psychotherapeutic treatment can help sex offenders
understand their own problems and prevent them from re-offending. Efficacy of psychological services in thetherapy of sex offenders is manifest.

VI. CONCLUSION
In the West, treatments with a similar theoretical framework and programme structures are able tosignificantly cut down sexual recidivism. In Hong Kong, the preliminary data in hand support a similar
proposition that our treatment programmes are effective to rectify criminal thinking and enhance relapse
prevention. Despite that, there remains a strong necessity for systematic treatment evaluation, programme
development, improvement of evidence based assessment tools of re-offending risks and rehabilitativeneeds to further enhance the treatment efficacy for sex offenders.
Apart from professional therapy, equally important is interdisciplinary collaboration as well as a joint
effort by the community in rehabilitating sex offenders. The chance of relapse into further sex offences could
not be totally ruled out after an offender’s completing psychological treatment. After discharge, they have to
face situations that may trigger off their urges of re-offending. Continuous development of rehabilitative
services for sex offenders in the community, including religious bodies and non-government organizations
and enhancement of cooperation among professionals are very important.
Last but not least, is the community at large aware of the causes of sexual deviance? Is it possible thatpublic awareness and education can be reinforced to help better understand sexual offenders? It is not until
the day when public concerns are adequately solicited could a policy decision be aptly orientated to thecorrection and rehabilitation of the group of perpetrators of sexual offences. It is undisputed that sexual
abuse and violence are highly detrimental to the victims, but what deserves deeper consideration is ourattitude towards these perpetrators. Should the community treat them as offenders, deviants, or patients?

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REFERENCES
Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics 2005.
Hong Kong Social Welfare Department, 2004. Sex is Innocent.
Judy S. H. Hui, Sarina S. F. Lam, Vivian W. M. Mak & Charles W. H. Pau. 2000. The Metamorphosis of
Psychological Services for Incarcerated Sex Offenders in Hong Kong.

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