Üsküdar University Institute of Addiction and Forensic Sciences organized a training on 'Child sexual abuse and psycho-social approaches'. The guest of the training was Dr. Bülent Tansel, Project Officer for Preventive Activities at INTERPOL General Secretariat, Sub-Directorate for Combating Crimes Against Children.
Child sexual abuse has reached terrifying dimensions and is alarming
In the online program, Tansel defined sexual abuse as follows: “Child sexual abuse is the involvement of children and adolescents who have not reached emotional and cognitive maturity in acts they do not fully understand, knowingly approve of, and which violate social taboos and family rules. Many terms are used in the literature regarding child sexual abuse. These are often confused with each other. Solidarity groups formed by abusers, magazines of the North American Man/Boy Love Association, various publications, online sexual abuse; the sharing of obscene photos and images, and online child sexual abuse have reached terrifying dimensions due to technological developments and are alarming.” he said.
Tansel, classifying sexual abusers, stated: “The primary goal of sexual abusers is to engage in sexual activity and facilitate such behaviors. There is a master in this field named Finkelhor. Finkelhor states that two dimensions are important when classifying a sexual abuser. One of them is the motivation dimension (power), and the other is the subjectivity of sexual preference. When we look at the motivation dimension, we see that it also has three components. The first is emotional congruence, the second is sexual arousal, and the third is the frustration dimension. In emotional congruence, the abuser sees children as emotionally close to them. In sexual arousal, children are potential sources for sexual gratification. In frustration, abusers cannot experience emotional intimacy and sexual pleasure with adults due to reasons stemming from themselves.” he said.
The concept of pedophilia is a clinical diagnosis…
Referring to child sexual abusers, Tansel stated: “According to their behavioral patterns and sexual motivations towards children, they are divided into two types: situational child abusers and preferential child sexual abusers. According to the American Psychiatric Association, a situational sexual abuser is someone who is normally attracted to adults but, for some reason, turns to a child for sexual gratification. The concept of pedophilia is a clinical diagnosis. A preferential sexual abuser is not a clinical definition. It is a definition created for the classification, investigation, and penal sanctions of the crime. Pedophilia is divided into three groups: pedophilic type, hebephilic type, and pedohebephilic type.” he said.
As long as the child keeps the secret, the abuser rewards them…
Speaking about the behaviors of pedophiles, Tansel stated: “They try to test the child's capacity to keep secrets and predict whether they will confide in their family. As long as the child keeps the secret, they reward them. They try to gain the child's trust by granting freedoms that their parents wouldn't allow. Physical contact is gradual. It progresses step by step. Enjoyment in many w