Can Sex Offenders be Rehabilitated?

A few days ago a Charlotte, NC man was charged with three counts of rape of a child under 13 and five counts of indecent liberties with a child. I am already feeling sick when I read this:
In 1997, Webber was convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child – charges stemming from a 1991 incident in Gaston County. He received a suspended sentence and probation for the crime, N.C. Department of Corrections records show. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/218944.html

How many times have you read about some guy getting arrested for raping a child only to learn that he has a history of committing sex crimes? How many times are we going to slap their wrists and let these guys continue preying on innocent children?

So, there is some research out there that suggests that sex abusers can stop doing it under the right conditions. This is from stopitnow.org:
With specialized treatment, a person with a history of having sexually offended who accepts full accountability for his or her crime can learn to control his or her abusive behavior. Without treatment, the sexual recidivism rate for sex offenders is 17 percent. With treatment sexual recidivism among sex offenders drops to 12 percent (Hanson, R. K., Gordon, A., Harris, J.R., Marques, J.K., Murphy, W., Quinsey, V.L., Seto, M.C. (2002) First Report of the Collaborative Outcome Data Project on the Effectiveness of Psychological Treatment for Sex Offenders. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 14(2), 169-197).

I'm not all that impressed by a 5% drop in recidivism. Still, until the criminal justice system begins treating child sexual abuse seriously enough, I am all for treatment for convicted offenders. The thing is, the justice system was created with two main goals: punishment and retribution. Only later, as jails became overcrowded and recidivism rates were tracked, was rehabilitation added as a goal. Rehabilitation is an important goal for sex offenders, given that many of them serve no jail time or will be released again into the public.

But people who prey on children should also be punished severely for their actions. The criminal justice system is the catalyst for offenders to "accept full accountability." We must not respond to sex crimes against children with a "slap on the wrist" followed by no real punishment and no rehabilitation. Local prosecutors must treat these crimes with utter seriousness, and we as citizens must protest each time we learn of a repeat offender who has gone free to torture more people.