Fear of child sex abuse: Consequences for childcare personnel in Denmark

Abstract

Case reports indicate that fear of child sex abuse (CSA) – in the media and among laypeople called “paedophilia” – is emerging in Denmark. In this study, the hypothesis that the fear of CSA has consequences for childcare personnel, in general, and for male personnel especially is investigated. In spring 2010, we made a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of staff in childcare institutions and a randomly selected non-matched control group of citizens outside childcare institutions, aged between 18 and 70 years. All groups were asked about their thoughts about the risk of being accused of “paedophilia”, about their suspicions against others and whether they had changed their behaviour towards children. The childcare staff were also asked whether they had considered leaving their profession. The results show a current tendency of shift to a suspicious perception of men and to an increasingly distant attitude towards children among both the childcare professionals and the control group. This suggests that the fear of CSA in Danish society has consequences for the professional care of children.

Keywords:

• paedophilia
• fear of paedophilia
• child sex abuse
• childcare
• behavioural changes
• childcare professional

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the Danish Council for Independent Research, Humanities, The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education and from the University Hospital of Aarhus.

Notes

1. There is an important difference between paedophilia and the act of CSA. Paedophilia is not a crime, but a condition that is defined as a sexual interest in prepubescent children, and only about half of child sex offenders fulfil the diagnostic criteria for paedophilia (Seto, 2009).

2. SFO: “Skole (school)–Fritids (leisure time)–Ordning (arrangement)” in Danish.

3. FOA: “Fag og Arbejde” in Danish.

4. The second largest city in Denmark.

5. Courses are also organized to teach the staff how to “read signals” from abused children and to detect paedophilic behaviour among colleagues.

6. A participant describes in a comment how children who are “too old” to use nappies are exposed to the other children because of open doors and thus run the risk of being teased and stigmatized.