Crime scene children's room - why men become (online) perpetrators E-Book

Benjamin Haas

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 233

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Why do men become perpetrators of online child abuse? The author sheds light on this question using five unbelievable cases of actual events. Benjamin Haas reveals a wide range of motives, outlines excerpts from the biographies of the men and provides insights into the minds of the perpetrators. Perpetrator work is victim work. If we understand what drives men to commit these acts, this can help them to avoid becoming offenders, which also prevents children from becoming victims. Worth reading and informative for interested parties, experts and those affected.

Leseprobe

Important note

This book deals with cases of serious sexual abuse of minors. It also describes images and actions. These can be very stressful for some people and can subsequently re-evoke traumatic experiences. In these cases, it is advisable to talk about it with a second person. The topic of "suicide" is also mentioned, which can also lead to traumatic situations for some readers.

All five cases actually happened. In order to protect the persons involved (perpetrators and victims, as well as their families, friends, employers, neighbors, etc.), the names and ages have been changed. In addition, street names and specific names from the accused's environment have been renamed. No conclusions can therefore be drawn about individual persons or cases on the basis of the changed details in the individual chapters.

For reasons of criminal tactics, individual investigative steps are deliberately not mentioned or are presented in a modified form. This is solely for the purpose of further prosecution of future offenses.

The cases described focus mainly on the investigative work as well as the final interrogations and reports to the public prosecutor's offices. The source of the information comes from perpetrators, investigators and others involved. All events not known to me are not mentioned in the chapters.

For the sake of simplicity and to avoid repetition, the term "offender" also refers to the "accused", as provided for in the law.

In order to faithfully reproduce the content of the interrogation, questions from the officers begin with "F" and answers from the accused with "A". All cases are presented from the investigators' point of view.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have contributed to making this book a reality. It would not have been possible without your support and inspiration.

Many thanks to my family, especially my wife, who has always encouraged me to pursue my goal and her patience and love as I have worked on this project.

Special thanks are also due to my friends, whose feedback and ideas contributed significantly to the development of this book.

I would also like to thank all my interviewees, especially Tim R., who actively supported me during my work on this topic. It takes a lot of courage and bravery to talk openly about this difficult topic.

Finally, I would like to thank my readers. Your support and your interest in my thoughts and stories mean so much to me. This book is for you.

Many thanks to everyone who has played their part in making this book a reality. You are the real heroes behind these pages.

With gratitude,

Benjamin HAAS

Foreword

In 2020, I had contact with people from the state criminal investigation departments for the first time. In the course of this, I met Tim R., who told me openly about his career. In 2017, he was still an inexperienced patrol officer with hardly any experience in practical criminal work. In the early stages of his police career, he basically dealt with the investigation of low-threshold criminal cases, such as thefts or assaults, within the framework of criminal law. According to his statements, other offenses are mainly left to experienced or specially trained officers. He therefore considered it a personal honor when a colleague with many years of experience from the criminal investigation department of the local police station asked him for assistance with a case. Specifically, she asked him if he could help her draw up a "child pornography" file. This was the first time Tim R. had heard the word in connection with criminal work: "child porn". This very general term stands for "child pornography" or as it is titled as the heading of paragraph 184b of the German Criminal Code "Distribution, possession and acquisition of child pornographic content" or in paragraph 207a of the Austrian Criminal Code "Pictorial sex-related child abuse material and pictorial sex-related depictions of minors".

He immersed himself in this subject relatively quickly and was amazed at the people, especially men, who commit such acts. This is not about "on-site abuse" of minors, but about so-called "online child abuse". A term that is being discussed more and more in the media these days. Tim R. knew that I had also been dealing with this topic for a long time and gave me an insight into the criminal work of the police.

The perpetrators are exclusively men, regardless of marital status, education or professional position. They include single unemployed men who live with their parents or fathers who are managing directors of a company. Men who, by possessing and passing on abusive images of children on a daily basis, ensure that the actual serious sexual abuse is promoted by other perpetrators. As with drug-related crime, supply determines demand. Thus, perpetrator work is also victim work. The literature itself is predominantly concerned with the victims as well as the general definition of what pedophilia actually means. The focus on the motives of the perpetrators finds little reflection in the current discussion. Furthermore, offers of help for those affected (including perpetrators and their relatives as well as victims) are only addressed to a limited extent.

The ever-increasing number of publicized cases of men committing "online child abuse" is a dilemma that the male world is now facing. Men have a clear problem when it comes to this issue and there are clearly still too few solutions.

There are many reasons for this problem. The chapters and cases described in the book are examples of the many facets of "online abusers". Most men know about their behavior and the illegal acts associated with it, but are unwilling or unable to do anything about it. Often the families or friends of the men concerned know nothing about the acts. However, there are also cases in which people know about the offense but do nothing about it because they fear negative consequences for their private lives.

However, both in prominent cases and during my research, the same questions are always asked by uninvolved parties or family members: "How could this happen?", "Why didn't anyone notice?", "How can you do something like this?" and further: "What is pedophilia?" and especially: "Is a child porn watcher also a pedophile and how can they be cured?" Unfortunately, there is no real concrete answer to any of these questions. It's all a bit "complicated".

The following chapters describe five different cases in which people in various roles played a leading role. These victims gave me an unfiltered and exclusive insight into the world of male online child abusers. Despite their different characteristics, all of these cases have some things in common. Every reader can even filter out what these are for themselves at the end. It is precisely on these similarities that this book and the consequences behind it are based. I deliberately do not prejudge the specialists in the field of psychology, but at the end of each chapter a personal summary of the various characters is described. These résumés are based on conversations with experienced criminal investigators, public prosecutors and judges.

This book is intended as a contribution to work with offenders, which is not sufficiently reflected in the current situation. It is also intended to shed light on the many terms that many people know, but whose meaning they are not very familiar with.

Explanation of terms

Online child abuse

Many people are familiar with the term "child pornography". However, the problem is that it trivializes the crime involved.

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (= BKA) describes "child or youth pornography" as a photorealistic depiction of the sexual abuse of a person under the age of 14 (child). If the victim is between 14 and 18 years old, the BKA speaks of photorealistic depictions of a person in this age group (adolescents), i.e. youth pornography. It also states that the production of such images is based on real, often serious, sexual abuse. Due to the worldwide distribution and availability, the victims are permanently victimized.

In Germany in particular, a discussion has arisen in recent years following the abuse cases in Lüdge, Bergisch-Gladbach and Münster to stop using the word "child pornography". After all, the term is inappropriate and trivializes violence against children. Pornography in itself is primarily videos and photos that show sex. The recordings are usually made voluntarily and the production and sale are generally legal. This is not the case with child pornography. It is not primarily about sex, but about physical and psychological violence against children, none of whom take part voluntarily. All of the processes involved are illegal without exception.

The German government refers to child pornography as images of abuse. The definition "images of sexual abuse or images and films depicting sexual violence against children" is clearer.

In Austria, the term "online child abuse" has been used for several years. This term initially distinguishes the two countries in terms of the terminology used. The situation is different when it comes to similar types of abuse, such as "cybergrooming" (= targeting minors on the internet with the aim of initiating sexual contact), abusive "sexting" (= voluntarily sending and receiving self-produced, or erotic images via computer or smartphone between relationship or sexual partners - young people colloquially refer to this as "nudes" - the abuse consists of forwarding the images to third parties without consent) and "sextortion" (= a special form of sexting in which the person concerned is pressured into producing revealing images or videos and then blackmailed with them). "Cybergrooming", "sexting" and "sextortion" are defined in the same way in both Germany and Austria, unlike "online child abuse". In principle, it must be said that these terms must be clearly distinguished from "online child abuse". They can only be combined to a limited extent. However, mixed forms can also occur in which images and videos that are products of such offenses are distributed among consumers. For example, it is not uncommon for videos of a "sextortion" attack to appear on legal porn sites on the internet, which are then saved and subsequently forwarded by many people.

In this book, the word "online child abuse" is mainly used, which is the term used in Austrian investigations.

The term consists of two important and relevant words: "online" and "child abuse".

The word "online" generally stands for itself. The crime scene always takes place on the Internet. Accessible on PCs, laptops or smartphones. You do not necessarily have to access the so-called "darknet" to access the abusive images. What exactly is meant by "darknet" can be found in the subsection "Darknet excursus".

In contrast to the "Darknet", there is also the "Clear Net". Everyone is familiar with this, as all Internet users surf the World Wide Web via the Clear Net. It is also possible to access abusive images of children and young people on this official internet. However, it is not quite that simple. Entering the terms "child pornography" or "childporn" into Google and waiting for the results is not enough. The major search engines such as Google or Yahoo in particular try not to list content with illegal files in their results. This often raises the question for investigators as to where the accused then obtain these files. The answer to this can sometimes be found during questioning, but almost always during the subsequent analysis of the seized data carriers. So it's not always the classic Google search queries, but increasingly often chats in legal messaging programs such as Telegram, Signal or WhatsApp. These and many other programs are currently playing a major role in the distribution of illegal files. However, it is not just images and videos that are being diligently shared, but also specific suggestions on how to circumvent security in search engines with relevant search terms or codes. For protection and to prevent further crimes, these codes are not mentioned in this book.

The same applies to the transmission of links to websites containing images of abuse. This happens in the online world, which is legal for us.

Illegal material is also diligently shared in various sub-groups on anonymous imageboard sites such as "4chan" or the "reddit" contribution site. For the most part, the site operators make every effort to delete the content and block the group concerned, but the large number of files does not allow complete monitoring. However, no reports are made to certified reporting offices, let alone to the authorities.

Interestingly, many files with illegal content are located on Clear Net on servers that also contain legal files. The operators of the servers are usually not even aware of the illegal activities.

The report format "STRF_F" (format of the NDR for the radio media service) was able to research this fact at the end of December 2021. The YouTube video, which lasts just under half an hour, describes exactly how criminals deal with pornographic images of minors and also describes ways in which the owners of the servers (also known as hosts) can delete the content.

In addition to these variants, there are also various clouds and dropboxes. In some evaluations, criminal investigators were able to determine that links from these online storages were exchanged between chat partners in regular chats. Some providers went on to officially report the suspicious files, whereupon the perpetrators could be quickly identified. There is no exact number of abusive images available online, but experts estimate this to be several billion files. Again, I would like to emphasize the importance of each individual in the fight against online abuse. The greater the demand, the higher the number of children who are severely sexually abused for these images.

The term "child abuse" is fundamentally broader. In the area relevant to me, it is always about the sexual abuse of minors. However, a distinction must first be made as to what the perpetrator is doing. If minors (persons up to the age of 14) are seriously sexually abused, Austria, for example, applies § 206 StGB. The maximum penalty here is 10 years imprisonment. In particularly serious cases, the court can even impose a life sentence (e.g. if the victim dies as a result of the serious sexual abuse).

Online child abuse in the narrower sense is covered by Section 207a StGB in Austria.

Shortly before this book was finalized, a very prominent criminal case in Austria prompted the legislature to tighten the penalties under the relevant paragraph.

§ Section 207a StGB - Pictorial sexual child abuse material and pictorial sexual depictions of minors

(1) Anyone who uses an image or representation pursuant to para. 4

1. manufactures or

2. offers, procures, hands over, presents or otherwise makes available to another person shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to three years.

(1a) Any person who commits the offense under subsection 1 in relation to many images or representations under subsection 4 shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years.

(2) Any person who produces, imports, transports or exports an image or representation pursuant to subsection 4 for the purpose of distribution or commits an act pursuant to subsection 1 on a commercial basis shall be liable to a custodial sentence of one to five years. Any person who commits the act as a member of a criminal organization or in such a way that it results in particularly serious harm to the minor shall be liable to a custodial sentence of one to ten years; likewise, any person who produces an image or depiction pursuant to subsection 4 using serious violence or who endangers the life of the minor depicted intentionally or through gross negligence (section 6 subsection 3) during production shall be liable to a custodial sentence of one to ten years.

(2a) Any person who commits the offense under subsection 2, first sentence, in relation to many images or representations under subsection 4 shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years.

(3) Any person who obtains or possesses an image or representation of a minor under the age of majority pursuant to subsection 4 (3) and (4) shall be liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding two years. Any person who obtains or possesses an image or representation of a minor pursuant to subsection 4 shall be liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding three years.

(3a) Pursuant to para. 3, anyone who knowingly accesses an image or representation pursuant to para. 4 on the Internet shall also be punished.

(3b) Anyone who commits the offense under subsection 3 or subsection 3a in relation to many images or depictions of a minor under subsection 4 shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to three years, but with imprisonment from six months to five years if this also or exclusively involves many images or depictions of a minor under subsection 4.

(4) Pictorial child sexual abuse material and pictorial sexual depictions of minors are one or more of the following

1. realistic depictions of a sexual act on a person under the age of consent or a person under the age of consent on themselves, on another person or with an animal,

2. realistic images of an event involving a person under the age of consent, the viewing of which, according to the circumstances, gives the impression that it involves a sexual act on the person under the age of consent or the person under the age of consent on themselves, on another person or with an animal,

3. realistic illustrations

a) a sexual act within the meaning of no. 1 or an event within the meaning of no. 2, but with minors of legal age, or

b) the genitals or the pubic region of minors, insofar as these are luridly distorted images, reduced to themselves and detached from other expressions of life, which serve the sexual arousal of the viewer;

4. pictorial representations, the viewing of which - due to the alteration of an illustration or without the use of such an illustration - gives the impression under the circumstances that it is an illustration pursuant to items 1 to 3.

Paragraphs 5 and 6 of the legal text contain the grounds for exclusion from punishment.

I have deliberately reproduced this legal text in its entirety to make everyone aware of the complicated and convoluted wording.

In general, it must be noted from an Austrian perspective that, despite the cumbersome wording of the legal text, an increase in the threatened penalty could be enforced. The investigators were very positive in this regard, although the effects will only become apparent in the course of 2024.

In Germany, § 184b StGB covers the distribution, acquisition and possession of child pornographic content, similar to § 207a StGB in Austria. It should be noted that the production and distribution is punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment and the mere acquisition and possession by up to 5 years' imprisonment.

In Germany, particular attention must be paid to so-called "posing". In Austria, simply put, only those images that show a sexual act with a child or if the image is focused on the child's pubic area are considered criminal under Section 207a StGB. If the child is only undressed to pose or dressed in sexy lingerie AND no sexual act is recognizable, it remains unpunished in Austria. In Germany, on the other hand, these images and videos are also punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment.

It is therefore clear how unequal the legal framework conditions are in both countries.

Excursus "Darknet"

The Darknet offers perpetrators the anonymous opportunity to exchange information and subsequently point out content with images of abuse. Due to their anonymity, many forums are completely open to Darknet users and can therefore be used without further ado. But how does such communication take place on the Darknet? I will give you a brief summary of what I have discovered in my daily investigative work.

The 35-year-old defendant Oliver P. accessed the illegal photo and video material via a Darknet-enabled Internet browser (on the Clearnet, this is comparable to Internet Explorer). It must be said that P. is a normal Internet user with average knowledge of how to use the Internet. During his interrogation, P. stated the following:"To access the Darknet, you need an appropriate browser. You can't get into it with normal Internet Explorer. I did some research with the help of Google and then came across a suitable browser. I downloaded it and then got in. After a few clicks, I entered various word combinations. I read all that in a chat. Then I went to a forum. It was mainly men talking about how to deal with children. Specifically, I mean how you can abuse a child and film it at the same time without being found out. There are a lot of undercover investigators on the forums. I wrote to another forum user. He sent me a link and said that I would find what I was looking for on this page. Funnily enough, the link didn't lead to the Darknet, but to a page on the Deep Net (= Clear Net). It ended normally with .com. I was naturally skeptical because I thought it was a trap. But I have to say that I couldn't resist. This forum user went on to tell me that I would find lots of photos and videos on this site showing him sexually abusing his 6-year-old daughter. So I clicked on this link and came across a kind of database. It contained almost 10,000 photos and videos. Mainly of the alleged forum user and his alleged daughter. I downloaded all the files and saved them to my hard disk. I did that almost every day on the Darknet."

Oliver P.'s case is similar to many other darknet investigations into online child abuse. After Google made it difficult to simply search for images of abuse, the Darknet provides access to various prohibited files and thus circumvents the restrictions of the officially known search engines.

NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

As soon as cases of online child abuse are made public in the media, the extent and brutality of the files are usually reported and, in prominent cases, the respective person and their motives. In the case of a famous actor, it became known that his former partner had found the illegal material and later reported it to the police. This is just one way in which the authorities find out about such breaches of the law. A more efficient option in the online world is the organization NCMEC (National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children). This is a private non-profit organization from the USA, which was founded in 1984 by the Congress of the United States of America. NCMEC itself operates the "CyberTipline" to process reports of child sexual exploitation (including "child pornography", online enticements and contact offenses). These reports are forwarded to law enforcement agencies worldwide. In addition, NCMEC provides information about the reporting party, geolocation information and cross-references for identification such as email addresses, usernames or IP addresses in the respective CyberTipline reports to the authorities.

In general, anyone can submit a report or suspicious perception on the Internet to the CyberTipline. For certain electronic service providers who become aware of the presence of "child pornography" on their systems, reporting is required by law, such as in the US. It should be noted that the providers of these services are not required to actively search for or attempt to detect "child pornography".

There were just over 30,000,000 CyberTipline reports worldwide in 2021, an increase of 35% on 2020. These reports included 85,000,000 files, including almost 45,000,000 videos.

The leader in terms of reports is Facebook with 22,000,000 reports, followed by Instagram and WhatsApp (all belonging to Meta). In 2021, 7,850 reports related to Austria were reported to CyberTipline. This does not mean that there are just as many suspects. There are often several CyberTipline reports on one person. This depends on how many files have been uploaded to how many platforms by this person.

According to official figures, 10,000 cases of online child abuse were reported to the police in Austria in 2022. 780 suspects were identified. In comparison, a figure from Germany from 2021 can be used. There, 79,701 cases were reported.

NCMEC is therefore another important building block in the global investigation of criminal offenses, especially in the fight against online child abuse.

Official figures

There are a number of figures circulating in the press that have supposedly been scientifically collected and also appear to be meaningful. In general, however, only one statement can actually be made on the basis of surveys and reported offenses. Paedophilia and, by extension, online child abuse is a predominantly male phenomenon. Female perpetrators of sexual (online) child abuse are rarely found in the statistics and are therefore underrepresented. Where women are given accused status in investigations, this is usually in connection with a possible contribution or complicity. Colloquially, one can also say "complicity", which means that they knew about the sexual abuse of the child but did nothing about it. It is rare, but it does happen that mothers blame their own children for the fact that the abuse was committed against them. When asked why they feel this way, they are often told that it is because they are jealous. In the case of online child abuse, however, the partners are usually surprised and had no idea.

However, it is officially known that an average of 1-4% of the men surveyed stated that they have a pedophilic tendency, although the real figure, with an estimated number of unreported cases, is somewhere between 2-3%. According to the "Kein Täter werden" project, 3-6% of men surveyed in Germany and 3-9% internationally have sexual fantasies relating to children before puberty.

According to Austrian crime statistics, 1,921 reports of online child abuse were submitted in 2021. This was an all-time high compared to previous years. The question here is whether these high figures are related to greater awareness among victims/witnesses and the new digital investigation methods or whether this also means that there are de facto more perpetrators. There are no serious statistics on this. As an author, I was shocked by a sad assessment given to me by a teacher from a primary school class: "There isat least one child in every school class who is or has been sexually abused."This sentence has burned itself into my brain and therefore makes raising awareness all the more important.

Pedophilia

Paedophilia itself is classified in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ("ICD" for short) by the World Health Organization (WHO). Specifically, pedophilia is described in the personality and behavioral disorders, in the subcategory "disorder of sexual preference". This definition can be found in more detail under ICD-10 F65.4.

The tendency is described as a sexual preference for children, boys or girls or children of both sexes, who are usually in pre-puberty or in the early stages of puberty.

Paedophilia is precisely classified in the group of paraphilias. These are frequent, intense, sexually stimulating fantasies or behaviors that involve inanimate objects, children, non-consenting adults or one's own torment or humiliation of oneself or partners.

Paraphilic disorders are therefore unusual sexual desires or inclinations which, among other things, cause suffering or problems and subsequently impair the way of life of the person concerned or which can cause or inflict harm on other people.

There is no general description of who is considered a pedophile and when. In Western societies, however, the general rule is that pedophilic disorders are diagnosed in people who are at least 16 years old and at least 5 years older than the child who serves as the object of their fantasies or behavior. However, this is only one of many ways to categorize the tendency accordingly. However, experts in the field of sexual psychology warn against setting an age limit. For example, even a fully pubescent 13-year-old boy can show paedophilic tendencies if he feels sexual desire for 4-year-old girls or boys.

The link between pedophilia and online child abuse