Paedophilia: an obfuscated reality

How the society should deal with it

Outrage against paedophilia is not new. In the hierarchical society of classical Greece, sexual relations between an adult man and a boy were seen as contributing to the boy’s education. However, many didn’t like it even then.

Between the years of 1830 and 1890, two-thirds of all documented sexual offences in London had children as victims. Social stigma upon its discussion vanished for the first time in 1885 when sexual abuse of children was made a topic of public discussion by British newspaper “Pall Mall gazette”.

New moral panic was raised around the globe in 1970s to 1990s when revelations of existence of child pornography i.e., child sex abuse imagery, as well as paedophilic chat groups on internet ashamed the world. The international community joined hands and drafted laws to stop this horrendous act.

United Nation Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC) is an international treaty that legally binds nations to protect children’s rights. Pakistan along with 195 nations ratified this convention on 12 November, 1990, but no proper legislation has been implemented to curb this evil so far.

Article 34 of the Convention deals with sexual exploitation and states that “Government should protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.”

Article 36 of the Convention deals with other forms of exploitation and states that “Children should be protected from any activity that takes advantages of them or could harm their welfare.” Article 2 of ‘optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography’ prohibits sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

To uproot this cruelty UK rewrote its criminal code in the ‘Sexual Offence Act 2003’. This Act includes definitions and penalties for child sexual abuse. Even our neighbouring country India had passed an act in 2012 called ‘Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act, 2012” related to child sexual abuse.

Local laws which deal with this issue are not applied in letter and spirit. They are highlighted in Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Section 367 A of PPC states that for kidnapping or abducting in order to subject a person to unnatural lust, the punishment is death or rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 25 years and shall also be liable to fine. Section 377 of PPC states that whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment not less than 2 years but not more than 10 years and shall be liable to fine. An act named “Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004” is weak on the regulation of sexual abuse and deals only with the ‘risk’ of seduction, sodomy, prostitution and other immoral conditions, and the offence is punishable by imprisonment of three years only.

According to Anti-Terrorism Act child-molestation is a terrorist act but the scope and extent of the offence is undefined.

One and a half year ago in February Marvi Memon, Laila Khan, Members of National Assembly tabled a bill to criminalise child pornography but this issue failed to grasp the attention. Again on 25^th of April, 2015, the same bill was tabled. This time not by any private person but by our Law Minister Pervaiz Rasheed and to the dismay of many, the issue again was not considered as important. There is no legislation in Pakistan against child pornography specifically, so it’s not a crime. This makes our lawmakers culprit of the said offence. How can courts take action against the said perpetrators as their inhumane action is not a crime in the eyes of law?

Child abuse in Pakistan takes place in various locations such as in houses, schools, mosques. According to an Islamabad based NGO, 2303, 3861, 3002, 2508 incidents of child abuse took place in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 respectively. In Pakistan children less than 18 years of age are falling prey to child sexual abuse at the ratio of 8 children per day. Age group (11-15) years are most vulnerable, next (6-10) years, and then (1-5) years.

We are familiar with the term extortion which means the crime of obtaining money or illegal exaction by use of one’s office or authority. Extortion is also related to sex-related crimes which is sextortion. Sextortion is a serious crime that occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them images of sexual nature, or we can say it’s blackmailing for sexual favours. The culprits of the recent incident of Kasur were charged under extortion as well.

Psychological effects on children who fall prey to the sexual abuse in childhood vary a lot. According to medical studies, survivors of childhood abuse might experience uncharacteristic feelings of stress, fear, depression, anxiety, disorder, suicidal behaviour, powerlessness, shame, betrayal and distrustfulness to the adults.

Paedophilia can be attributed to both biological and environmental factors. There are certain structural abnormalities in the brains of paedophiles. Abnormalities occur when the brain is developing and can be on-set through certain experience such as sexual abuse as a child. Researches on the brains of paedophiles revealed that paedophiles exhibit decreased volume of grey brain matter in the central straitum, as a result certain areas of the brain which play an important role in addictive behaviour are affected. So, the paedophiles tend to act inappropriately and exhibit poor judgment because they lack the ability to control their impulses. Psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are required to uproot this disorder as well.

Beside protests and condemnations against this act, the most important thing is to eradicate this evil from the society. Can sexual education contribute to eradicate it? According to WHO sex education should be imparted to the children who are 12 years and above, so that individuals are well informed about sex, sexual practices, child sexual abuse and sexually transmitted diseases ete. Advantages of sex education are that sex education dispels myths related to sex and broadens their horizons; children can easily understand bodily changes at the age of puberty. Sex education will curb sexual abuse as children will be better able to distinguish between predatory sexual practices.

Along with sex education social acceptability of the victim is also required. According to an NGO report from 2007-2011, 10,700 cases of child sexual abuse were reported excluding the unreported cases. Most children and families do not report cases of abuse and exploitation because of stigma, fear and lack of trust in the authorities but this silence will amount to the acceptance of this grave crime.

It’s the need of the hour to come out of this societal pressure. Prevention begins at home. Parents and guardians should make their children aware of what is sexual abuse, molestation etc. Being a victim of child sexual abuse should not be a matter of social stigma.