For anyone who has a television, it has been difficult to avoid the tragedy of what happened this year to a young woman in Aruba.

There are probably many opinions about what actually did happen and who is to blame for any of it. Part of the mix involves getting sick of the way the media handle it all, making much more of it, expanding on every little detail, playing people off against one another for the dramatic effect and invading the lives of everyone just to be able to get and to tell a story.

I could cynically discard the whole thing if I had not met and worked with people who had been assaulted here in Bermuda.

I wonder what the thinking is in a man who would do such a thing. In my practice I have purposefully rejected the easy judgmentalism that labels people one way or the other, because it easily dispenses with them in some fashion. People get missed when we leap to conclusions about one another. It's my business to keep all my curiosity intact so that I can see situations like the people who come to me for help see them.

In that way, I've been able to work with juvenile sex offenders in North Carolina. I've been able to work with murderers and drug-addicted sociopaths. I've been able to work with people who hold no faith in God even though my faith in God infiltrates every aspect of my being.

But could I work with a man who was actively assaulting young women, and could I help him without, in some way, believing I was assisting him prey on others? What if he were to say: "Doc, I need to find better ways to get them into the car, because the other night one of them almost got away?"

Could I work with someone, be a psychotherapist for someone, who was leading a despicable life? If I were still in the ministry, could I be someone's pastor who was leading a double life by going to church and acting all spiritual on Sunday but beating his wife and children, stealing from his employees, and lying to everyone the other six days of the week? I could, on both counts, and have, but those people knew it and were trying to deal with it as opposed to trying to get away with it. I could even work with a person like that if he were only aware of part of the problem (as is often the case).

However, I do not believe society can afford to take the position of a psychotherapist or a pastor. I know, for instance, that there are young men in Bermuda who are perpetrating violent sexual crime against young women here. I deal with the results of their behaviour. I see how it destroys. I see the loss of revenue on the part of those who employ victims. I see the time, energy, and attention it demands on the part of the Police. No. Society needs to catch these men and put them out of commission by exacting a painful and memorable punishment ? something so bad as to serve as a wake up call and deterrent and something that takes these people off the streets. Along with that, society needs to demand that such men get treatment; make no mistake ? they are sexual predators and have learned a way of being that needs to be corrected. It's not something that goes away because they are found out and slapped on the hand.

Just as the tourist business may suffer in Aruba because people form the opinion that it's not a safe place to visit, those living here in Bermuda might do well to consider the long-term impact of tolerating violent sexual crime in this place. It's a thought.