Addressing adult sexual attraction to children

This book has been written with the explicit aim of helping all of us in society – children and young people; those with sexual attraction to children and those living with, loving or working with them; and those who simply

wish to understand this urgent problem in more depth – to have more information and, having the information, to make better decisions. When I conducted the research on which this book is based, I had four research questions to consider, of which the final question was ‘What are the implications of the research findings for improving the level of child protection?’ Having set out how the research was conducted and what some of the main findings from the research are, this concluding chapter pulls together the key themes from the research project and presents a new way of thinking about paedophiles and about sexual harm. The implications from this project are relevant to childprotection statutory agencies and charities, to professionals concerned with child protection and children’s well-being in a variety of settings, and to adults sexually attracted to children and to all those around them. Some of the material on which these conclusions are based is not presented in this book, but in a companion volume which sets out in much greater detail the cultural milieu within which adult sexual attraction to children is conceptualised and addressed (see Goode, forthcoming). My research on paedophilia and adult sexual attraction to children has led

me to the following three main conclusions. First, paedophiles exist. This is a scary thought and something many

people find difficult to accept. (This refusal to acknowledge reality was shown, for example, in the reactions discussed in the previous chapter, on responses to Tommy and Ian, which made it much harder to ensure that children were effectively protected.) I have been quite astonished, over the last several years, to realise just exactly how difficult it is for people from all walks of life, including professionals and academics, to accept this basic fact that paedophiles do exist and that we know them and often are very fond of them, they live in our communities and are members of our family, our friends, our work colleagues. They are in our churches and other religious settings, they are in positions of authority and trust. Quite often, they may be involved in looking after our children. They may even be involved in child-protection issues. Adults sexually attracted to children probably form something like 2 per cent of the adult male population and no doubt form a relatively high percentage of those adults who choose to work in settings with children and young people. They may well not be exclusively sexually attracted to children; they may form relationships with women, join families, form new families, and parent children. Without getting hysterical about these facts, we need to soberly assess them. How should we respond to this? My second main conclusion is that policy, media and charity approaches

which demonise paedophiles make the situation worse. It may be a good strategy for getting votes, selling newspapers and raising funds to send out messages about ‘stranger danger’ and portray paedophiles as evil monsters lurking round every corner, but it is not a good strategy for protecting children effectively, which surely should be our most immediate priority. Legislative and bureaucratic responses also are of limited value. The kinds of checks which have recently become law in the UK, which use a database of

criminal records to see if an employee or volunteer has a conviction or an allegation relating to child abuse, may indeed assist in keeping some sex offenders out of some posts and I would not argue to rescind such legislation, but on a global level they are unworkable in the impoverished and often chaotic circumstances where the greatest protection is required. Even in highly bureaucratised countries such as the UK, they may be counterproductive in that they promote a false sense of security and a naïve assumption that all known sex offenders will be registered. I reiterate that the purpose of this book is to draw attention to the reality that everyone reading this book is likely to know someone sexually attracted to children. They are also likely to know someone who is sexually abusing children. Those may or may not be the same people. Both practitioners and policy-makers need to pursue methods of child protection which are sensitive, which do not make assumptions, and which focus primarily on what people do without being blinded by who they are. Rather than current approaches, we need to learn and apply the lessons

from other public health situations. As with HIV, what matters for health protection is not who may or may not have the virus but what actions are performed. Those who are safest are those who assume that anyone may carry HIV and who therefore always follow precautions. In the same way, it matters less, as a general rule, who may or may not be a ‘paedophile’ provided every organisation always follows careful and rigorous child-protection procedures as a matter of absolute routine. My third main conclusion is that current criminal-justice interventions do

not work. If they did, we would not still have rates of child sexual abuse running at epidemic proportions (Itzin 2006). Criminal justice interventions are a blunt tool. If the only option available is to ‘grass’ on a perpetrator (who may also be a family member or friend) then many people prefer simply to ignore the abuse and thereby also avoid the shame and embarrassment of the public process of a trial. This means that children are not protected. It also means that, if the only response is punitive, adults who are concerned about their own or a loved one’s sexual attraction to children cannot get help and support. They are isolated and often the only source of advice and information they may be able to access is the online paedophile community. In such circumstances, it becomes more likely that the law will be broken and a child will be harmed – or, more typically and tragically, many children over many years. Preventive help needs to be made available. The lack of help for adults sexually attracted to children is further exacerbated

by the lack of knowledge about this area. There is a reluctance to support research to learn more about the experiences of paedophiles or the incidence of sexual attraction to children in the general adult population. Until policymakers and others find the courage to endorse and commission research in this area, and disseminate relevant findings, child protection agencies are operating with one hand tied behind their backs.