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Paedophiles should be given therapy and not just locked up, scientists say

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Paedophiles should be given therapy and not just locked up as it can reduce their desire to seek out child abuse material, scientists have said.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden went on the dark web and tracked down 160 paedophiles who were viewing child sex abuse images online.

Under the cover of anonymity the individuals who frequent such websites were enrolled into a study and half were given cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with the others getting a placebo. None of the individuals were women.

Over eight weeks of therapy, the participants were asked to report how much child sexual abuse material they viewed every week.

Paedophiles in the group who got the therapy — which was done online via dark web forums with no personal information shared — were looking at child sex abuse imagery for seven hours a week, while the control group were about five hours.

This dropped to around an hour for both cohorts but the team say the decline was larger and more significant in the CBT group. More people dropped out of the study in the therapy group, indicating some individuals found giving up the material too challenging.

Roughly half of the participants in both groups reported not having viewed child abuse material at all during the preceding week by the end of the study.

‘The results give us hope’

The difference between the therapy and non-therapy group was “small yet significant”, the authors write in their paper published in the journal Internet Interventions.

Study author Johanna Lätth, a PhD student, said: “The results give us hope that there’s a way to treat these individuals.

“We believe it could be a valuable complement to other interventions that aim to prevent the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.”

The scientists said they reported anything they could to the authorities but that the people in the study were “beyond the police” with concealed IP addresses, emails and names.

However, the team wants future work to involve face-to-face appointments with paedophiles and also people who have paedophilic urges but who have not acted on it but want help.

“This is one tool that can be used, maybe in combination or as an alternative to pharmacological treatments,” said study author Dr Christoffer Rahm.

“I want to say that we mustn’t be naive. All these people don’t want therapy but many are open to seeking an alternative to their lifestyle and to get help.

“And when they have this motivation, it is important that we as a society meet that with good and reliable interventions where they can feel safe to get therapy.”

‘Child abuse is a multifaceted problem’

Healthcare, not just incarceration, has a key role to play in treating people who view child sex abuse material, the academics believe.

Dr Rahm added: “We find support for healthcare to have a role, especially on the prevention side, to reach out to people before they commit an offence.

“We want to be very clear that child sexual abuse and exploitation is a multifaceted problem.

“We must address it on several levels with different strategies, including law enforcement and increased responsibility of owners of different online forums for children.

“The perpetrator himself, of course, should be taken to court if he has committed any crimes. That is very important for the rectification of the victim.

“But at the same time, healthcare has a role to play in diagnosing and suggesting treatments.”

The Ministry of Justice has seven current rehabilitation programmes for sex offenders in place in the prison and probation network which is kept under ongoing review.

One programme which gave CBT to sex offenders was stopped in 2017 after it was found to increase the risk of reoffending.