Schuler Miriam, Gieseler Hannes, Schweder Katharina W, von Heyden Maximilian, Beier Klaus M
Department of Health and Human Sciences, Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
JMIR Ment Health. 2021 Feb 19;8(2):e22277. doi: 10.2196/22277.
Despite the high prevalence of child sexual offenses and the increasing amounts of available child sexual abuse material, there is a global shortage of preventive interventions focusing on individuals at risk of sexual offending. The web-based app Troubled Desire aims to address this shortage by offering self-assessments and self-management training modules in different languages to individuals with sexual interests in prepubescent and early pubescent children (ie, those with pedophilic and hebephiliac sexual interest, respectively).
The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the users of the Troubled Desire app.
The fully completed self-assessment data gathered within the first 30 months of this study from October 25, 2017 to April 25, 2020 were investigated. The main outcome measures were (1) sociodemographic information and (2) sexual interests and sexual behaviors of the users of Troubled Desire.
The self-assessment was completed by 4161 users. User accesses were mainly from Germany (2277/4161, 54.7%) and the United States (474/4161, 11.4%). Approximately 78.9% (3281/4161) of the users reported sexual interest in children; these users were significantly more likely to report distress and trouble owing to their sexual interest. Further, child sexual offenses and consumption of child sexual abuse material were significantly more common among users with sexual interest in children than among users with no sexual interest in children. Additionally, the majority of the offenses were not known to legal authorities.
The Troubled Desire app is useful in reaching out to individuals with sexual interest in prepubescent and early pubescent children. However, future research is warranted to understand the prospective relevance of the Troubled Desire app in the prevention of child sexual offending.
尽管儿童性犯罪的发生率很高，且可得的儿童性虐待材料数量不断增加，但全球范围内针对有性犯罪风险个体的预防性干预措施却很短缺。基于网络的应用程序“困扰欲望”旨在通过以不同语言为对青春期前和青春期早期儿童有性兴趣的个体（即分别有恋童癖和 hebephiliac 性兴趣的个体）提供自我评估和自我管理培训模块来解决这一短缺问题。
本研究的目的是描述“困扰欲望”应用程序用户的特征。
对本研究前 30 个月（从 2017 年 10 月 25 日至 2020 年 4 月 25 日）收集的完整自我评估数据进行了调查。主要结局指标为：（1）社会人口统计学信息；（2）“困扰欲望”应用程序用户的性兴趣和性行为。
4161 名用户完成了自我评估。用户访问主要来自德国（2277/4161，54.7%）和美国（474/4161，11.4%）。约 78.9%（3281/4161）的用户报告对儿童有性兴趣；这些用户因性兴趣而报告痛苦和困扰的可能性显著更高。此外, 有儿童性兴趣的用户中，儿童性犯罪和消费儿童性虐待材料的情况明显比没有儿童性兴趣的用户更为常见。此外，大多数犯罪行为未被法律当局知晓。
“困扰欲望”应用程序有助于接触到对青春期前和青春期早期儿童有性兴趣的个体。然而，有必要进行未来研究以了解“困扰欲望”应用程序在预防儿童性犯罪方面的潜在相关性。
