Saturday, December 10, 2016

Germany’s secret paedophilia experiment

Drug addicts and prostitutes: Dr Helmut Kentler,  a sex researcher, believed he
was giving Berlin’s troubled teens a social anchor while giving paedophiles a
chance to become caring foster parents.
Under the ‘Kentler Experiment’ of the 1970s, Berlin welfare authorities handed over homeless teenagers to known paedophiles

A mother and her young son board a train and sit opposite a fortysomething man. When they get up to disembark the man’s smile towards the blond boy takes on a troubled edge. “Do you love children a little more than you like?” asks the advertisement on TV screens on Berlin’s U-Bahn trains. The final message – “Don’t become a perpetrator” – is also the name of a groundbreaking paedophile research and therapy programme.

The campaign began in Berlin 11 years ago and now operates in 10 cities across Germany. About 7,000 people have made contact, and about 1,000 paedophiles – people who are sexually attracted to children – have received therapy.

“Paedophilia is not curable, but it can be treated,” says Dr Klaus Beier, who leads the prevention network at the Charité, Berlin’s university clinic.

The World Health Organisation classifies paedophilia as a sexual-preference disorder. Charité therapists explain to participants that their sexual attraction to children is a medical condition until the urge is acted upon, when it becomes a crime.

Patients learn methods of self-control and about the consequences of acting on their sexual desires. Treatment can take place anonymously, and medical assistance, such as “chemical castration”, to control sex drive, is offered on a voluntary basis.  (more...)


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