HYDERABAD: According to Dr Klaus M Beier, up to one per cent of all men may be exclusively attracted to children sexually. Given that the United Nations World Population Prospects says that India’s population as of July 2016 was 1,32,68,01,576 and assuming that half of that were men (India’s sex ratio is actually 933), at least 6,63,400 Indians fall under that category. Beier, a physician and sexologist who runs the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) in Germany, is extrapolating from his own research in his home country. Project Dunkelfeld (the dark field) is a project aimed at preventing sexual abuse of children by diagnosing and offering therapy and guidance to self-motivated persons who are sexually attracted to children.
The term for such persons, of course, is paedophiles. However, Beier and other scientists like him in Canada and Europe believe that paedophilia is a sexual orientation that cannot be changed. And when a person has such an orientation the way society can prevent them from acting on their sexual fantasies is through acknowledgement, therapy and treatment.
What Beier -- who is on his fifth trip to India to meet with therapists and potential clients -- points out is that while a person may have no choice in being a paedophile, he is responsible for his behaviour. Not all paedophiles abuse children, and not all those who abuse children are exclusively attracted to them.
Project Dunkelfeld was started in 2005 in Berlin with support from the Volkswagen Foundation. The German Federal Ministry for Justice has supported it since 2008 and the programme has expanded to multiple locations in the country. In 2014, it was expanded to treat juveniles with sexual interest in children.
At the core of Dr Beier’s approach is the belief that paedophilia is a stable, unchanging condition and that persons with such a preference can be trained to not act on their fantasies; doing so protects children from being abused.
The project accepts people who seek its counsel freely and offers confidential treatment.
In the Western world, there has been an attempt to revisit what paedophilia is. While the diagnostic manual of psychiatrists, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders – 5, differentiates between paedophilia and paedophilic disorder (when someone acts on the sexual urges or the urges cause significant distress and interpersonal difficulties, the International Classification of Diseases 10 sees it as a sexual preference disorder.
There are significant voices who believe that it ought not to be in the DSM at all but rather viewed as an unchanging part of someone’s makeup.
The “treatments” therefore have ranged from some which use a 12-step programme as in Alcoholics Anonymous to chemical therapies that kill sexual desire altogether.
However, most of these approaches may come into play only after an offender has been caught. PPD attempts to treat potential offenders *before* they offend.
The therapies are based on the specific motivations of the offender (see box), his fantasies and the tools to use to avoid acting on those fantasies. Medication is also prescribed, though sometimes clients feel that to opt for medication represents a failure on their part.
PPD started with a massive mass communication campaign offering confidential support. Till September 2016, it has received 2403 applications, done 991 assessments and treated 500 persons in Berlin. Half had already committed child sexual abuse and three-fourths admitted to child pornography offences, according to PPD’s material.
After it initiated and coordinated a nationwide network in 11 locations, it received (from 2011 to September 2016) 7075 applications, assessed 2298 persons and offered treatment to 1264. According to Beier, the approach has helped to prevent sexual abuse by those treated as well as reduce the frequency of child pornography offences.
Lessons for India
The shift in approach from post-abuse action -- in India the discourse has favoured stronger laws and stricter punishment -- to preventive efforts is required. At present preventive efforts are limited to raising awareness among parents and children as to identifying and complaining about child sexual abuse. To approach the potential offender and provide support and therapy to prevent abuse altogether would require a radical shift.
The biggest difficulty, as experts point out, is in viewing such efforts as sympathy for potential offenders. Beier reiterates that paedophiles are among the most marginalised and stigmatised. “It is a diagnosis not a crime,” he says, adding that sexual orientation manifests at puberty and remains stable and that it would be unfair to condemn a person for that.
However, enabling PPD’s work is the fact that Germany doesn’t have a mandatory reporting law. This ensures that persons who opt for the programme despite having committed offences can be assured confidentiality. However, in India the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012, makes reporting of even viewing of child abuse images mandatory.
Beier believes if that if the therapist-client relationship could be exempted from that requirement, a preventive approach could be adopted. This is more so in the case of juveniles who, in his experience, are more open about their desires and respond better to therapies.
India, however, needs to begin by gathering more data on the prevalence of paedophilia, in his view. It needs to open up to looking at the offender and prevention of crime.
Motivations key for treatment
According to Beier, the motivations of an offender are important to understand. Individuals who commit sexual offences against children fall under two broad categories, he says: about 40 per cent of offenders are exclusively sexually attracted to children, while for 60 per cent the sexual abuse of a child is a surrogate for a sexual relationship with adult partners. Individuals in the second category may abuse children if (1) they are sexually inexperienced juveniles, (2) persons who are intellectually challenged, (3) persons with antisocial personality disorders, who have low empathy, and (4) persons who come from traumatic family circumstances, that may include sexual, emotional, physical abuse of children.
Tailoring treatment to these motivations is key, says Beier who frequently appears as an expert witness in court. For this reason, while several Western countries make therapy a mandatory part of the rehab process of a convicted sexual offender, Beier finds the efficacy of such programmes wanting.
PPD: How it works
The programme assesses and diagnoses a person’s sexual orientation once they join. Then, if diagnosed as paedophiles, they offer specific training based on their fantasy and cognitive behaviour tools with which to avoid acting on them. It starts by teaching how to empathise with the other person and how to deal with “seductive” situations.
About 30-40 per cent of the participants are in charge of children and are motivated to join the programme by their partner. Integration of the partner into the programme is key. About 130 juveniles have been brought to the programme in three years, most by either a parent or foster parent after they sexually acted out.
Interestingly, 20 women have come for the programme but only one was diagnosed as a paedophile. Beier believes that the other women had an anxiety and fear that they could be paedophiles, an “OCD” as he put it.
After the one-year programme, there are reviews for the first, third and fifth year and there is an aftercare support group. Lots of clients do go on to have meaningful relationships, even if not sexual and are allowed to masturbate.
Beier sees the options of virtual or animated porn as a replacement for child sexual abuse material as dangerous because it could mislead the person into believing the child could be a willing participant.
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article quoted Dr Klaus M Beier as saying 1 per cent of all people may be exclusively sexually attracted to children. The figure is actually 1 per cent of all males. Further, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (a diagnostic manual for psychiatrists) differentiates between paedophilia and paedophilic disorder (which is when someone acts on the sexual urges, or the urges cause significant distress or interpersonal difficulty.) The ICD 10 (WHO's International Classification of Diseases 10th revision) sees it as a sexual orientation disorder. The errors are regretted.