Editor's Note: This article is part of a special report on sexual assault in Cape Breton, N.S.
SYDNEY, N.S. - Terrence Rochon has experience working with men who’ve been perpetrators of sexual assaults on other men.
For the past seven years, Rochon has been working in the field of male rehabilitation — first at a federal half-way house, currently as project coordinator of CornerStone Cape Breton.
CornerStone is an organization that focuses on rehabilitation; helping male perpetrators of violence (domestic and sexual) change their behaviours and stop committing these offences.
Mostly, Rochon said, their clients are perpetrators of domestic violence and when it comes to sexual assault, he mostly hears stories of victimization. But he's also had clients who have sexually assaulted males and sexually assaulted females, but one things is clear — there are no generalizations when it comes to who the perpetrators are.
“They are literally all walks of life,” he said, noting they can come from lower socio-economic backgrounds or be well-off professionals, "people who, on the outside, seem to have it all together and people would have looked at them and said, 'they have it easy.'”
Whether the man is a perpetrator of domestic or sexual offences, Rochon said there’s a commonality — trauma.
“While people are coming to us as the perpetrator of intimate partner violence, we quickly realize (the men) often have some sort of trauma themselves,” explained the certified clinical traumatologist.
“We get men who come to us, knowing they had to come (because of an agency referral like family court), terrified to ask for help. They think doing so makes them weak, less of a man in some way. Most of our work is letting them know it’s OK to ask for help.”
Rochon said stereotypes like gay men only sexually assault males and “once a wife beater, always a wife beater” aren’t true. Each case is different and rehabilitation is possible. The majority of clients who go through programming at CornerStone (focused primarily on relationships) is in the hundreds every year and Rochon said most don't return. In 2018, they had 253 referrals and Rochon said they don’t seem to be slowing.
“We really don’t think people wake up morning and say, 'Today is the day I’m going to hurt the people I love,'” he said.
“We have to focus on rehabilitation … Get them to a space where they can be healthy, for their partners and for themselves.”
CornerStone Cape Breton
- What: Non-profit helping male perpetrators of domestic, sexual violence
- Referrals: Agency, Self-referrals
- Focus on: Relationship programing, rehabilitation
- Belief is: Meet men where they are at, not where they are expected to be.
- Phone: 902-567-0979
- Email: [email protected]
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