Elsevier

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 33, Issue 8, August 2009, Pages 545-549
Child Abuse & Neglect

Brief communication
Encouraging self-identified pedophiles and hebephiles to seek professional help: First results of the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.04.002Get rights and content

Introduction

There is international concern about the problem of child sexual exploitation in general and child sexual abuse (CSA) in particular: approximately 1 in 12 minors between the ages of 12 and 17 were found to be sexually abused within one year (Finkelhor, Omrod, Turner, & Hamby, 2005). With 10 national probability samples from Europe and USA, the average rate of recalled CSA was approximately 20% for women and 10% for men (Finkelhor, 1994).

For various reasons only few offenses are accounted for by official statistics, referred to as Hellfeld in German (literally “light field”), whereas a significant number of cases are never reported to the authorities and, thus, remain undetected in the Dunkelfeld (literally “dark field”). Consequently, relapse prevention efforts should in particular address offenders, who belong to the Dunkelfeld-category in the Dunkelfeld and are motivated to change their sexual behavior. In addition, “primary and secondary prevention” approaches should address potential victims as well as men, who are at risk to commit CSA or other forms of child sexual exploitation such as child pornography use (Potential offenders).

With respect to prevention approaches and regarding Dunkelfeld and potential offenders, men with pedophilia (denotes the erotic preference for prepubescent children) and/or hebephilia (denotes the erotic preference for pubescent children) are of particular interest: First, sexual preference in general seems to manifest itself during adolescence and remain unchanged through the lifespan (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, Beier et al., 2005). Thus, pedophiles and hebephiles could be expected to have a lifetime risk to offend. Secondly, pedophiles have been found at higher risk to reoffend. Follow-up research conducted with previously expert appraised child molesters demonstrated that after an average follow-up period of 25 years 50–80% of the pedophilic child molesters had reoffended compared to 10–30% among non-pedophilic child molesters (e.g., sexually unexperienced adolescents, mentally retarded perpetrators, or offenders with antisocial personality disorder) (Beier, 1998). Thirdly, as pedophiles have been found to display high levels of comorbidity (Raymond et al., 1999, Stinson et al., 2005), it is reasonable to assume that they experience distress due to the problems associated with their sexual preference and, therefore, that they are more likely to be inclined to seek treatment. This latter assumption, of course, challenges the common notion that these men rarely seek help as self-referred patients concerned about their sexual desire.

Against this background, the present paper aims to describe a prevention approach, which attempts to recruit self-identified pedophilic and hebephilic men to participate in a research and treatment project. Thereby the article will focus on the assumption that self-referred Dunkelfeld offenders and potential offenders seek help in coming to terms with their sexuality and are likely to react upon a media campaign. Finally, first results of the media campaign will be presented, describing the target group with respect to socio-demographics, sexual preference, and help-seeking behavior.

Section snippets

Methods

Two main assumptions guided the methodology of the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD), which was approved by health professionals and jurists belonging to the appropriate Institutional Review Board (body of university clinic): (1) a media campaign may successfully reach self-identified pedophiles and hebephiles in the community, and (2) these individuals are interested in participating in further diagnostics.

Results

All of the data presented here are self-reported and were collected between June 2005 and August 2008. Subsequent to the 1st press conference the media coverage included more than 80 contributions in TV, on radio, and in the Internet as well as more than 200 in regional, national, and international print media.

Discussion

The present paper reports first results of a prevention approach, which aims at recruiting self-identified pedophiles and hebephiles in the community.

As expected during the first 3 years of the project a notable proportion of men admit to being attracted to minors and could be successfully reached via a media campaign (N = 808). In contrast, “Stop It Now!” UK and Ireland received within a comparable period approximately twice as many calls from self-identified CSA, child pornography or potential

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The Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung) and the German Government. Furthermore, it is officially supported pro bono by the victim protection organization “Hänsel + Gretel” Foundation and the International Communication Group Scholz&Friends.

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