Sexual abuse of children is a serious problem in Namibia and mass media is awash with stories of incidences of this scourge.
Recent cases of the rape and murder of two young girls in Okahandja are such examples. These incidences sparked a staggering wave of dismay with many Namibians asking:
“What kind of a person is capable of committing such a heartless act on a child?” Driven by my inherent curiosity to understand the dark side of human behaviour, my doctorate studies zoomed into the profile of Namibian adult child sex offenders.
The study examined 183 adult males incarcerated in correctional facilities across the country for child sexual abuse.
The results of the study revealed that a typical child sex offender in Namibia is characteristically a single, with an average age of 30 years, with primary education level and no history of criminal conviction.
Although most of the offenders were employed, they had low-income jobs such as farm labourers and casual construction workers. Child sex offenders predominately attacked female victims they were not biologically related to but were acquainted with.
Generally, the examination of the criminal behaviour of the offender displayed prior to, during and post assault, as well as strategies applied to select or gain access to the victim, sheds light on the motivation behind the child sexual abuse.
Analysis of Namibian child sex offenders’ behaviour showed that they predominately engaged in vaginal and anal penetration on female and male children. They also demonstrated little evidence of grooming and obtained access to the children through promises of giving them money or something nice.
These types of behaviour signal criminality rather than sexual attraction towards children. This type of offender belongs to a category referred to as criminally motivated child sex offenders.
Unlike paedophilic motivated child sex offenders, criminal motivated child sexual offenders are not necessarily attracted to children’s physical or psychological characteristics.
Their abusive behaviour towards children is mainly due to their inability to adequately deal with challenges of everyday life such as economic pressure and difficulties maintaining adult relationships.
Such challenges may trigger feelings of hopelessness and despair resulting in the offender experiencing a temporary departure from attraction to adults.
However, the mere presence of inability to adequately manage life challenges is not always adequate to stimulate criminal coping. For the sexual assault to occur, other critical conditions must be present particularly anti-social cognitions and opportunity. It is theorized that anti-social cognitions facilitate sexual abuse behaviour when the opportunities arise.
Consequently, sexual abuse of children may be symbolic displacement of aggression and violence facilitated by the existence of anti-social cognitions.
During the course of the study, the researcher came across a case which the perpetration of sexual abuse on a child escalated to murder. In another case, the sexual violence occurred after the murder of the child.
Both cases were excluded from the study, as these types of child sex offenders presented unique criminal profiles from whose who do not murder their victims.
Child sexual offenders who murder their victims are likely to have maladaptive personality traits such as anti-social, borderline personality, psychopathy which may be co-existing with other disorders including paraphilias.
Child sex offenders with the co-occurrence of atypical sexual preferences and psychopath though quite rare, is the most lethal type of child sex offenders.
It is important to recognise that child sex offenders are a diverse group, and there is a need to understand their criminal profiles. The gathering of such information has significant implications on the investigation, assessment and development of effective rehabilitation programmes for offenders, as well as guiding the developing of preventative and self-protective programmes for children.
Much like in other cases involving deviance, the development of strategic and sustainable approaches on sexual crimes against children, requires collaborative effort from different key players such as policy makers, law enforcement agencies, academics and researchers.
Conducting high quality research is pivotal to the establishment of evidence-based approaches and policies aimed at addressing this social plague.
*Ndeyapo Emma Nafuka holds a PhD in Psychology with specialisation in Forensic Psychology. She is the head of the Directorate Rehabilitation in the Namibian Correctional Services. This article is written in her personal capacity.