SPIEGEL: Ms. Dudeck, a 16-year-old boy is on trial in Paderborn because he allegedly sexually abused several children. The boy himself was the victim of a perpetrator in the Lügde case, who lost his life for years. Is he an isolated case?
Dudeck: Unfortunately not. Of course you can not make a blanket statement, not all people who are victims of sexual abuse become perpetrators. But I did a Europe-wide study with long-term prisoners from 2007 to 2009 with criminologists. This group of people showed that people who have been sexually abused even as a child have a fourfold increased risk of becoming sex offenders themselves. This is especially true if the abuse has taken place within the family and for years. Such experiences are not the only cause, but victims often become perpetrators.
SPIEGEL: Why?
Dudeck: A child who has experienced such bad things for years, gets to know relationship and physical closeness only in conjunction with sexual abuse. As a result, healthy self-esteem can not develop. Therefore, they only know this possibility, if they want to be near - as adults - later. Somebody who was once abused by a stranger is something else. Such people are less inclined to become perpetrators themselves.
SPIEGEL: Is it typical that the deeds are committed at a relatively young age?
Dudeck: No, but it does happen. We then talk about juvenile sex offenders and they do not always have a good prognosis regarding social reintegration.
SPIEGEL: Do the perpetrators understand that their behavior is wrong?
Dudeck: If someone has grown up in an environment where adults abuse children, then it may be that it seems normal to him. He may not be aware of the extent of the grief and pain of his victim. Because he may not even know what a good life can look like. That's no excuse, but an explanation.
SPIEGEL: For what reasons do abuse victims abusively abuse children again?
Dudeck: Some of these offenders are reduced in intelligence. This means that because of their level of intellectual development they are unable to mature sexually with an adult woman. Other offenders, in turn, have antisocial personality traits.
SPIEGEL: What do you mean by that?
Dudeck: Antisocial people are very self-centered, do not pay attention to social norms. Your actions seem heartless. They do not experience guilt. An antisocial man in need of sex does not ask a young woman if she is 14 or 17. Such social boundaries do not interest him .
SPIEGEL: Does that mean automatically that these people are pedophile?
Dudeck: No, there are many perpetrators who do not. Pedophilia is not a common phenomenon. The majority of cases of child abuse are not motivated by a person's sex, but antisocial or by mental retardation. The sex researchers Eberhard Schorsch (1971) and Klaus M. Beier (1995) have tried to develop typologies. On the other hand, not all people with paedosexual predisposition are perpetrators.
SPIEGEL: Are the perpetrators trying to free themselves from their own victimhood with the abuse?
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Dudeck: It is a reversal of the victim into the perpetrator role to come from powerlessness in the power position. This usually happens unconsciously. He does not decide that he wants to be powerful.
SPIEGEL: Is this comparable to a person who was beaten as a child and does the same as a grown-up if his child does not obey?
Dudeck: That's exactly the same pattern. People learn from their parents and pass on the behavior. They think that's normal. I always experience such cases in practice.
SPIEGEL: Which cases are these?
Dudeck: If, for example, someone is born in the red light district and commercial sexuality, extortion and drug trafficking belong to his life as a child. Then antisocial behavior is quite normal for him. He does not learn how to apply for a job, how to meet a woman, and so on. Many of these men later have the yearning fantasy, that is the desire for a socially integrated life. They want to live and get to know the social norms. The problem is that they often can not do it beyond the age of 21 despite therapy. Their patterns of behavior have become too old.
SPIEGEL: Is only sexual abuse in childhood a reason why someone becomes sex offenders themselves, or can other traumas from the past be decisive?
Dudeck: Central is the combination of self-experienced sexual abuse and low self-esteem. But it may be that further experiences have a strengthening effect. When people were sexually abused for years, they were mostly emotionally neglected and physically abused. Because in an average family, one notices whether someone is good or bad and respects each other. As a rule, dealing is so trusting that the children tell their parents when something bad happens to them and they are believed. Abuse victims often do not grow up in such families. Often they have not learned what they are allowed to do and what not. But of course there are the sex offenders, whose behavior can not be explained. Around 30 percent of the people who die of children do not have a traumatic family history and we have to deal with that as well.
SPIEGEL: Is there a difference between female and male victims?
Dudeck: Women are usually no offenders. They often harm themselves, become suicidal and emotionally unstable. Most of the time, there are two paths of development: either they no longer live at all or they have quite a few short and impulsive relationships.
SPIEGEL: How can victims of abuse be helped to avoid being themselves perpetrators?
Dudeck: You always have to perceive them as victims, even if one or the other has already become the culprit. Those affected should be offered psychotherapy. You have to learn what is allowed and what is not. And you have to bring them back their own feelings. People learn when they have a bad time to switch off their feelings. So they try to endure their suffering. Therefore, they also can not understand how terrible it is to be a victim.