Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
Institute for Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, 12165 Berlin, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 30;19(15):9356. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159356.
The public stigma associated with pedophilia, the sexual attraction to prepubescent children, is tremendous. Previous research indicates that undifferentiated media coverage plays an essential role in perpetuating the public stigma by falsely equating pedophilia and child sexual abuse (CSA) and thus may stop persons suffering from a pedophilic disorder from seeking professional help. Until now, a comprehensive examination of positive as well as negative media effects on affected individuals is missing. Therefore, the present study explores if and how media coverage impacts the lives of help-seeking persons with pedophilia by conducting four qualitative focus group discussions with a clinical sample (N = 20) from the German Prevention Network "Kein Täter werden". Present results demonstrate that media coverage of pedophilia was perceived as mostly undifferentiated, even though participants observed an increase in fact-based reporting over the years. Moreover, it seems that media coverage has strong emotional and behavioral consequences for patients (e.g., negative reporting reduced self-esteem). In sum, our results highlight that differentiated media coverage could play a key role in supporting help-seeking persons with pedophilic disorder, while the impact of undifferentiated media coverage appears to be mostly negative. Therefore, our results point to the need to reframe pedophilia using differentiated media coverage to help affected persons receive treatment efficiently and thereby prevent CSA.
公众对恋童癖（对青春期前儿童的性吸引）的污名化是巨大的。先前的研究表明，不加区分的媒体报道通过错误地将恋童癖和儿童性虐待等同起来，在延续公众污名方面起着至关重要的作用，从而可能阻止患有恋童癖障碍的人寻求专业帮助。到目前为止，还缺乏对积极和消极媒体对受影响个体的综合影响的全面检查。因此，本研究通过对德国预防网络“Kein Täter werden”的临床样本（N = 20）进行了四项定性焦点小组讨论，探讨了媒体报道是否以及如何影响寻求帮助的恋童癖患者的生活。目前的结果表明，尽管参与者观察到多年来基于事实的报道有所增加，但对恋童癖的媒体报道大多是不加区分的。此外，媒体报道似乎对患者的情绪和行为产生了强烈的影响（例如，负面报道降低了自尊心）。总之，我们的研究结果强调，有区别的媒体报道可以在支持寻求帮助的恋童癖患者方面发挥关键作用，而不加区分的媒体报道的影响似乎大多是负面的。因此，我们的研究结果表明，需要使用有区别的媒体报道重新定义恋童癖，以帮助受影响的人有效地接受治疗，从而预防儿童性虐待。
