"Stopping communication on the darknet is even more difficult": why pedophiles share their "experience" on the network with impunity

Installing an anonymizing browser, finding the pedophile community forum - it took us less than ten minutes.

"Let's avoid the word"

(hereinafter spelling and punctuation are preserved.

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The legalization of sex with children is one of the main topics of the pedophile site.

Most of the publications are somehow related to this.

The forum has a separate library with books on relationships with minors.

Many are translated from other languages ​​by the site users themselves.

Their general meaning is that the authors doubt that pedophiles commit crimes against children.

The site also contains practical advice for molesters.

The section "Support" contains materials with a guide for beginners.

Pedophiles urge to "accept yourself", "find like-minded people", "stick together."

There are also recommendations on network security, protection of information on the computer.

There are also tips for married people who have found out that their husband or wife has “pedosexual” tendencies: for example, to diversify sexual relations with appropriate role-playing games ...

Paradoxically, but officially in Russia the propaganda of pedophilia is not prohibited.

Pedophiles have every right to discuss their inclinations on the Internet.

And while the conversations do not relate to specific cases of molestation, no liability is provided for the members of such a group.

The law prohibiting the propaganda of pedophilia was considered by the State Duma two years ago, but the document did not advance beyond the first reading, Anna Kuznetsova, the child rights commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation, reminded RT.

According to her, in September last year, a repeated appeal was sent to the State Duma, "to which a positive response was received."

As far as possible, social activists are fighting against pedophile forums on the darknet, but so far, by their own admission, they are losing the war.

“Previously, groups of pedophiles existed on ordinary open social networks.

Law enforcement officers did not even look for them especially.

We ourselves collected links to such forums, handed them over to the police and sought closure.

Then the groups were opened again, they again had to be closed for a long time.

Now most of the pedophiles have moved to the darknet, where it is even more difficult to stop their communication, "said Anna Levchenko, director of the monitoring center for identifying dangerous and prohibited by law content and leader of the" Turn the pedophile "movement, to RT.

Meanwhile, pedophile forums are actually breeding new criminals, the activist believes.

“Imagine a sick person who wants to have sex with a child, but keeps himself in control because he is afraid of being caught.

Fear of exposure can hold back your attraction all your life.

But if such a hidden pedophile enters the forum, reads descriptions of various tricks, gets acquainted with someone else's experience, then he can step over his fears and proceed to action, ”says Levchenko.

A researcher at the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who asked not to be named, agrees that the free communication of pedophiles on the Internet and the growth of sexual crimes against children may be associated.

“Previously, many pedophiles were simply afraid to satisfy their desires.

If you start molesting a child on the street, they will see you, catch you and beat you.

Now everything has become much easier - you can slowly rub into trust through social networks, gain credibility, pass off sex as an innocent game.

Parents, especially if they do not devote much time to upbringing, do not notice that the child is gradually being seduced, ”an employee of the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told RT.

Portrait of the average pedophile

There is little research on pedophiles and their victims - probably because of the taboo topic, and also because of the difficulties with access to the materials of criminal cases, since the victims are minors.

Olga Stepanova conducted a relatively recent research while working on her Ph.D. thesis, which was defended at the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

The lawyer studied the personal files of those convicted of pedophilia and serving sentences in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

Here is how Stepanova describes the average pedophile: “This is more often a man aged 23 to 45 years (89%) with a secondary education, engaged in unskilled labor, unmarried, characterized by early sexual initiation, the presence of mental abnormalities and impaired psychosexual development and consisting of registration in a neuropsychiatric or narcological dispensary. "

75% of those convicted of pedophilia had early homosexual experience.

51% of criminals have never been married, 20% are divorced, and 29% have children of their own and are married.

In 65% of cases, pedophiles were drunk during the crime.

Pedophilia is a mental illness, in the International Classifier it is assigned the number F65.4: "Sexual attraction to children (boys, girls, or both), usually prepubertal or early puberty."

“The reasons why an adult starts looking at children are not fully understood.

According to one theory, childhood trauma may be the culprit - a pedophile himself could become a victim of sexual abuse at a young age.

According to another theory, it is necessary to look for pathologies of the parts of the brain.

It is believed that you can become a pedophile due to brain degradation caused by drug use or inhalation of toxic chemicals.

My medical and judicial practice shows that the overwhelming majority of pedophiles understand that it is immoral to molest children.

Another thing is that they cannot cope with their cravings, "sexologist and psychotherapist Lev Scheglov explained to RT.

“Pedophilia can also be a consequence of sexual promiscuity.

A person has already tried everything in life, ordinary sex does not excite - and then an adult begins to look towards children, ”says Nikolai Kibrik, head of the department of sexology and therapy of sexual dysfunctions at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry.

Victim portrait

Researcher Olga Stepanova writes that in 60% of cases, the child is familiar with the molester, in 21% of cases - not familiar, and in 19% of crimes, one of the relatives turns out to be a pedophile.

That is, in most episodes, the child is seduced by someone from his circle of communication: stepfather, parental friend, educator.

Such crimes are difficult to solve.

Adults are not always ready (and willing) to trust children.

“We must take into account the psychology of people.

For example, let's take a lonely poor woman with a child.

She meets a man, falls in love with him - finally, the mother has a complete family.

Then the child tells this woman that his stepfather began to harass him / her.

Mom is faced with a choice: either take the child's word, destroy the desired relationship, go the long way of interrogations and courts, or you can pretend that nothing really happened.

It's just that the child had a fantasy, he did not understand how kind his stepfather was to him.

The second way turns out to be preferable for many, especially if a lot of time is already being devoted to raising a child, ”an RT interlocutor at the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs gives an example.

At the same time, according to Anna Levchenko from the movement "Hand over the pedophile", each victim of the molester at least once tried to inform his relatives about what was happening.

“There are more egregious cases.

It happens that a pedophile gives a child money for sex.

The amount can be equal to half of the parents' monthly salary or even the whole salary.

And even if the family knows about the corruption of the child, adults can keep silent so as not to lose this money, ”continues a researcher at the All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Lawyer Olga Stepanova cites a real story that took place in St. Petersburg: “For a long time, the girls came to the guilty's homes themselves many times and performed all the“ whims ”of the criminals for reward or encouragement.

No physical violence or any threats were used against them.

That is, in fact, there was child prostitution.

In the course of a psychological examination, these victims revealed that their moral and ethical standards were not formed, they were susceptible to influence from the reference group (most of the girls were involved in such situations by their friends).

Heavy article

The Russian judicial system is ruthless to people accused of pedophilia.

This is evidenced by statistics.

Tenths of a percent of acquittals under articles on sexual abuse of children (judging by judicial statistics, in 2019, 1266 people were convicted under the relevant article, eight were acquitted).

For all the outward severity, from time to time the decisions of the courts raise big questions among the public.

A person can be sent to prison for years on the basis of controversial evidence.

At the same time, the court releases people whose guilt, at first glance, seems obvious.

Recently, a resonance was caused by the decision of the court of the city of Bugulma in Tatarstan, which acquitted a local resident accused under Art.

132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violent acts of a sexual nature against a person under 14 years of age").

According to the prosecution, a local resident, 27-year-old Sergei Kukushkin, deliberately touched the genitals of his 18-month-old daughter and injured her.

The defendant's lawyer claims that everything happened by accident: the man allegedly touched the child's genitals when changing the diaper.

• © Photo from personal archive

“During the investigation, a forensic medical examination was carried out.

According to the expert's assessment and the initial testimony of the accused and the child's mother, it was established that the defendant acted with direct intent.

These injuries cannot be caused by accident.

In this case, the child's health was slightly damaged in any case.

However, this is not evaluated in the verdict, ”senior assistant to the Tatarstan Prosecutor Ruslan Galiev told reporters.

The Supreme Court of Tatarstan, after a complaint from the prosecutor's office, overturned the verdict and returned the case to the Bugulma court.

"The verdict was overturned due to violations of procedural legislation," the press service of the Tatarstan prosecutor's office explained to RT.

Most of the details of the case are closed, as a minor was injured.

The guilt or innocence of the father can only be judged by circumstantial evidence.

“As a public defender, this is not the first time that I have been dealt with pedophile cases,” lawyer Salavat Raupov told RT.

- But for the first time in my practice, the court acquitted the accused.

The girl's father underwent a forensic psychiatric examination, which unequivocally showed that the man is not a pedophile. "

The court in Tatarstan showed a rare humanity towards the accused.

Contrasted with this is the story of Roman Radyvanyuk, a resident of Serpukhov near Moscow, about which RT spoke in detail.

The court sent the young man to a colony for 12 years.

The accusation was largely based on the words of Roman's neighbor, who did not hide her hostility towards him.

The injured girl (the daughter of Radyvanyuk's cohabitant) at the first interrogation, as follows from the protocol, said that her uncle “was picking his pussy with his hands.”

At the same time, there is no video recording of the conversation, and all the testimonies fit into one narrative paragraph written by the investigator (this was confirmed at court hearings, the materials are at the disposal of RT).

At the second interrogation, conducted strictly within the framework of the Criminal Procedure Code, the girl stated that no one had offended her, and “Aunt Nina”, the same neighbor, forced her to incriminate Roman.

Radyvanyuk was tested on a polygraph twice, in both cases the expert concluded that the subject was telling the truth with a high degree of probability.

The forensic examination did not find in the young man "deviations in sexual development, disorders of sexual preference, including pedophilia."

But all this was not enough for the court for an acquittal.

Roman has spent more than four years in total in a pre-trial detention center and in a strict regime colony.

Lawyer Mikhail Ter-Tarkisov, in a conversation with RT, agreed that the accusation of pedophilia could be used to settle personal accounts, this is confirmed by cases from his practice.

“In 2012, a jury acquitted music teacher Anatoly Ryabov.

Many famous cultural figures stood up for the teacher then.

I found out that Ryabov's persecution was initiated by his immediate supervisor - the head of the music school.

The boss was afraid that a talented teacher would get his place.

Now I am defending an aged businessman whose relatives accused him of pedophilia.

I have full confidence that they want to take away an apartment and a business from my client in this way, ”Mikhail Ter-Tarkisov told RT.

There are also reverse stories - when criminals, using their connections and official position, can avoid punishment.

For example, in the city of Kurganinsk, Krasnodar Territory, six young people raped a 14-year-old schoolgirl for several days.

The parents wrote a statement to the police, but for another six months the law enforcement officers did not take any action, and the rapists terrorized the girl and her family, threatening with reprisals if they did not take the statement.

The perpetrators were arrested only after social activists drew the attention of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, to the situation, reminds Anna Levchenko of the “Hand over the pedophile” movement.

Plant and heal

In 2019, a survey was held on the State Duma's page on the VKontakte social network whether it was necessary to return the death penalty for murderers of children and pedophiles.

Almost 75% of the voters answered positively.

The poll has no legal force, but it clearly demonstrated the mood of society, at least part of it.

According to various sources, from 50 to 98% of those convicted of child molestation after being released from prison commit repeated crimes.

“There are ways to reduce attraction to children,” explains psychiatrist Nikolai Kibrik.

- The first stage: taking medications that reduce sexual desire in principle.

Second stage: psychotherapeutic assistance.

The third stage: consolidation of the achieved effect.

The fact is that a sick pedophile needs to take medications and go to the doctor for most of his life. "

“I propose to expand the list of mandatory restrictions in force for freed pedophiles,” children's ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova told RT.

- For example, you can prevent them from using the Internet.

This is especially important if communications have become an instrument of crime against a minor.

I see a benefit from an electronic bracelet system that shows the movements of pedophiles.

In addition, I propose to cancel the opportunity for pedophiles to get out of prison on parole.

It is also important to prohibit pedophiles from becoming a legal entity providing services to children (private kindergartens and studios), as well as being part of the founders of these organizations. "