2025-05-19 11:16 United Daily News / Reporter Yuan Zhihao / Tainan Live Report
A man surnamed Chen, who has committed eight armed sexual assaults on girls since 1979, has received compulsory treatment. After being released from prison in 2021, he was subjected to community treatment by the Tainan City Health Bureau. However, he committed forced sexual intercourse again in August last year. The Health Bureau decided in September last year that Chen needed to undergo another year of compulsory treatment. Chen claimed that it was unnecessary. The Tainan High Court determined that Chen was at risk of reoffending and ruled to allow compulsory treatment.
Jui-Lung Chang , a professor at the Department of Criminology at National Chung Cheng University, believes that the Health Bureau should have assessed that Chen was at high risk of reoffending earlier and sent him to compulsory treatment and isolated him from the community, but it waited until people were killed before remedying the situation, which should be reviewed. Wang Po-Chi, associate professor of the Department of Crime Prevention at Ming Chuan University, said that through this case, county and city governments across the country should take stock of sexual assault offenders who have been released to prevent similar high-risk recidivists from escaping the net.
The verdict pointed out that the man surnamed Chen was sentenced to 19 years in prison for crimes such as sexual assault, and was ordered to enter a suitable place for treatment before serving his sentence; he had received compulsory treatment from February 10, 2006 to February 9, 2009, and continued to serve his sentence. He was released from prison on October 24, 2021.
After Chen was released from prison, he was placed under community treatment by the Tainan City Health Bureau, where he was given counseling and supervision by professional personnel to help him repent and reintegrate into social life. However, in August last year, Chen committed another case of forced sexual intercourse. In September last year, the Health Bureau held a meeting of the Sexual Assault Victim Assessment Team and decided that Chen needed to be subjected to compulsory treatment for another year.
According to the community treatment effectiveness evaluation report, Chen is sometimes told by his brothers and sisters not to make mistakes again. He is not trusted and has become alienated from his family. His neighbors are also wary and prejudiced against him. Chen is in poor health and has difficulty applying for jobs due to his physical fitness and transportation limitations. In addition, he has a drinking habit and remains at high risk of violence and the possibility of reoffending.
The Health Bureau’s assessment team meeting also pointed out that Chen was suspected of committing multiple sexual assaults, becoming a hidden concern for the community and posing a high risk to the safety of women and children. The assessment concluded that there was a risk of recidivism.
The Tainan High Court stated that while serving his sentence, Chen was assessed as having a score of 8 on the Ministry of Justice’s Static-99 scale on October 3, 2018, which puts him at high risk of recidivism. His 5-year recidivism rate was 39% and his 10-year recidivism rate was 45%. After receiving physical and mental treatment and counseling education during his sentence, it was assessed before his release that his risk of recidivism had not been significantly reduced, and it was deemed necessary for him to receive physical and mental treatment and counseling education.
After Chen was released from prison, a psychologist appointed by the Health Bureau went to Chen’s residence or the district office conference room to carry out the treatment. The basic individual course began on November 5, 2021, and the advanced individual course began on March 25, 2022. As of August 2024, the total treatment period was 27 months. As a result, in August last year, Chen committed the crime of aggravated forced sexual intercourse again.
The High Court determined that Chen is currently unemployed and has a drinking habit, posing a risk of reoffending. He has been under continuous supervision and treatment for 27 months, but has not yet been assessed as no longer necessary. This shows that despite long-term, uninterrupted physical and mental treatment and counseling education, he has not been able to achieve improvement.
The High Court considered that considering Chen’s suspected alcohol addiction, lack of a strong interpersonal support system, and inability to make a living independently, it was difficult to expect him to have the internal determination or external motivation to make a change. The prosecutor’s request for one year of compulsory treatment was justified and should be approved.
Jui-Lung Chang pointed out that based on the fact that the man surnamed Chen in this case had concerns about drinking, had difficulty establishing friendly relationships with relatives, friends and neighbors, and was unable to make a living independently, the Tainan City Health Bureau should have reported to the District Prosecutor’s Office in its previous routine assessment that Chen’s risk of reoffending was very high, allowing the court to approve compulsory treatment after sentencing; if Chen had been isolated from the community earlier, people would not have been victimized again.
Jui-Lung Chang also criticized the current protection and supervision system as being strange. Most of the prisoners who can be released on parole are well-behaved and have turned over a new leaf. These people are monitored by technological equipment. However, prisoners who have committed serious crimes and cannot be released on parole have no guardians to track and supervise them after they are released from prison after serving their sentences, which leads to them committing crimes again and again.
Jui-Lung Chang gave an example, in half of the states in the United States, sexual assault perpetrators must be subject to lifelong protective control, which means they have to wear electronic anklets forever and use satellite positioning to locate their whereabouts; in Taiwan, where there is no surveillance, sexual assault perpetrators may not be found no matter where they go.
Jui-Lung Chang believes that in the case of the man surnamed Chen, he should have been evaluated earlier and forced to be hospitalized instead of being allowed to wander around the community. The evaluation report sent to the court this time pointed out that he still has a high risk of violence and the possibility of reoffending, which is like “hindsight”. The Tainan City Health Bureau should conduct a comprehensive review and evaluation of similar sexual assault perpetrators in its jurisdiction to prevent more people from being killed.
Wang Po-Chi said that he had to question whether similar post-sentence community treatment work had been implemented. How often? Is there any real assessment? If the so-called treatment is to arrange a public health nurse to ask Chen “how are you doing recently, are there any problems” every time she meets him, and Chen replies “nothing, no”, and then leaves, then it is likely that no problem is discovered at all, let alone solved.
Wang explained that the so-called “problem” was whether the man surnamed Chen was a prisoner or a patient? If Chen is a patient with no sense of illness, punishment will actually have no effect on him. At this time, it is up to the medical system to identify and evaluate him to find out the problem so that it can be completely cured. Of course, Chen may also be perfunctory and show his good side to the treatment staff in order to pass the evaluation.
Wang Po-Chi pointed out that Chen’s crime was serious, very similar to Chen Jinxing, the main suspect in the Bai Xiaoyan kidnapping case who committed 15 rapes while on the run; his methods were brutal and outrageous, and he also raped both big and small people. Many women who have been assaulted are traumatized physically and mentally, and are afraid of secondary damage to their reputation and the consequences of coming forward, so they dare not report the crime or file a lawsuit. This case is very likely to be a similar situation.
Wang Po-Chi called on people to use the development of the case of the man surnamed Chen to investigate whether the sexual assault offenders who were released from prison had any physical or mental illnesses. Can the relevant departments do more to prevent people from being killed again? Have the county and city government health bureaus and medical systems in various places implemented appraisal and evaluation? These are all issues that must be faced and resolved.