Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Jul 7, 2020
Date Accepted: Dec 16, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Troubled Desire – An Internet-based Self-management Tool for Individuals with Pedophilic and Hebephilic Sexual Interest
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite the high prevalence of child sexual abuse and the increasing amount of available child sexual abuse material, there is a global shortage of preventive interventions focusing on individuals at risk of sexual offending.
Objective:
Troubled Desire aims to address this shortage by offering self-assessment and self-management training modules for individuals who feel sexually attracted to prepubescent and early pubescent children (ie, pedophilic and hebephilic sexual interest) in seven different language versions.
Methods:
The present study analyzed characteristics of users within the first 30 months (25.10.2017-25.04.2020).
Results:
The self-assessment was completed by 4161 users from all over the world. The majority (78.9%, n=3281) reported pedophilic and/or hebephilic sexual interest. Of those with pedophilic and/or hebephilic sexual interest, 72.8% (n=2390) have used child sexual abuse material and 41.5% (n=1363) indicated they had sexually abused a child or children. The vast majority of offenses were committed within the “Dunkelfeld” (ie, not known to legal authorities).
Conclusions:
These results illustrate the need for expansion and establishment of global preventive interventions for pedophilic and hebephilic individuals.
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