Children’s Rights and Sexual Violence: The Position of the Catholic Church Part II: Causes, Prevention, Corrective Measures

Abstract

The paper discusses the position of the Catholic Church towards the problem of sexual violence in comparison to the liberal position, with regard to the difference in identifying the reasons of sexual abuse. The direct reasons include mental, social and sexual pathology of adults (originating in their childhood). The presented empirical data does not suggest a causal relation between the frustration of sexual needs and the tendency to pedophilia. The article is critical to seeing the family as a place of sexual oppression of children. The indirect causes of sexual abuse of children include: parents’ and carers’ homosexuality, introducing LGTBQ (lesbian, gay, transgendered, bisexual, queer) issues into „preparation to family life” school textbooks, pornography in the media, especially on the Internet, sexualisation of children’s toys, the network of tourist services organized for persons with deviated sexual needs (including pedophiles), attempts to normalize prostitution, protection of the right of persons of various sexual orientations to work at schools and educational centers, commercial sexual abuse of children (sex-business with children), propagating mentality that allows an instrumental treatment of the child or treating the child as an object through legalizing abortion, accepting the right to artificial insemination, trade of foetus material. Special attention is paid to those causes and prophylactic activities that are of an indirect character, which is less graspable, through the structures of evil in the society that humiliate the human dignity and have indirect impact on the spreading of pedophilia. The paper points out that many prevention programs are of a superficial character in that they only aim at teaching children the skills of self-assertion towards adults and making children more sensitive to the symptoms of sexual abuse, while prevention should take into account a deeper dimension of pedophilia, especially when dealing with groups where children are prone to being emotionally, materially and physically neglected in the family. Also, media education for children and young adults is a necessity, especially in the context of side effects of attracting public attention to the phenomenon of sexual violence in the media, such as: questioning the trust in their parents, modeling pathological behaviors in persons who are prone to imitate deviated patterns of behavior, disseminating deviation. The various centers of crisis intervention for the victims of sexual abuse provide very effective assistance, as long as the diagnosis and the therapy process itself does not expose the child to another trauma. The major factor in successful prevention and corrective activities in the case of sexual abuse remains education in the family that supports the child’s proper sexual development to mature, integral experience of his or her sexuality.