The University Master's in Legal, Forensic and Criminological Psychopathology, run by the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at UIC Barcelona, has organised the 6th Forensic Psychopathology Conference on Consumption of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Prevention and Multidisciplinary Intervention. The conference was held on 15 December at UIC Barcelona. The conference, organised by the academic coordinator of the master’s degree, Aina M. Gassó, and the director of the master’s degree, Esperanza L. Gómez-Durán, brought together Spanish Security Forces and experts in criminal law, psychology and criminology with the goal of providing a space for dialogue and learning to prevent sexual violence against children and adolescents associated with child sexual abuse material.

The consumption of child sexual exploitation material has increased since the pandemic, as explained by the forensic psychologist, criminologist and researcher in the STOP-CSAM project at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of UIC Barcelona, Thuy Nguyen Vo, who commented that although the material “is mainly produced in countries in the East, Southeast Asia, Central America and South America, 70-80% of the material is hosted in Europe”.

The specialist highlighted that, in 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States received about 31 million complaints or notifications related to child sexual abuse material. Meanwhile, a total of 375,230 such complaints were received in Europe according to the Internet Watch Foundation, which demonstrates the magnitude of this “global problem that practically lacks preventive resources”.

The conference was attended by other experts on the issue of the consumption of child sexual abuse material, who analysed detainees' recidivism rates, their profile and currently available prevention projects. The head of Management Services of the Penitentiary Observation Centre, under the General Directorate of Criminal Enforcement and Social Reintegration at the Ministry of the Interior, Clara Soler, explained that although there is no single profile of consumers of CSAM, they tend to have “an average age of 40, be single, childless, with secondary or university education, without drug dependence problems or a history of childhood abuse”, unlike sexual aggressors, most of whom “are separated or married, have children and have little interest in minors”. “Of those arrested for consuming images of minors, 33% say they saw them by accident, 24.2% say it was due to curiosity, while 27.2% deny it.”

Virginia Soldino, professor at the Department of Criminal Law and researcher at the University Institute of Research in Criminology and Criminal Sciences at the University of Valencia, highlighted that the recidivism rate among people arrested for crimes related to CSAM does not exceed 9%. In addition, she points out that, according to official figures, less than 4% of this group ends up committing a sexual offence with contact. Soldino explained that these results come from a study based on 347 cases of adult men arrested for this type of crime between 2009 and 2013 in Spain, who were followed up for six years.

The session ended with contributions from representatives from three different arms of the Spanish police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, (Catalan Police Force) the Policía Nacional and the Guardia Civil. They provided details of their experiences in child protection units and on a day-to-day basis in their jobs investigating cases related to sexual violence against children and adolescents.

Likewise, representatives from specific units of Spanish law enforcement shared details with attendees of existing coordination mechanisms at a national and international level, both within public authorities and in collaboration with private entities. Similarly, they shared success stories of detecting cases and resources on self-care for professionals who have to deal with images that have a high emotional impact on a daily basis.

After the conference, the organisers and speakers held a closed-door working session to encourage synergies and coordinate efforts to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as to incorporate the contributions of the experts invited to this UIC Barcelona research activity.

UIC Barcelona collaborates with the European STOP-CSAM programme

The STOP-CSAM programme, funded by the European Commission, helps prevent sexual violence against children and adolescents on an international scale by focusing on potential aggressors to prevent new victims. The project offers people who consume CSAM an interactive chat service with highly qualified therapists. The chat service is anonymous, free and confidential.

Given the alarming increase in the distribution of images showing the sexual abuse of minors, known as child sexual abuse material, the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité University Hospital Berlin), has worked in collaboration with UIC Barcelona and other specialist institutions in the Czech Republic, Portugal and Germany to promote the STOP-CSAM project in order to address the problem of child sexual abuse from a preventive perspective.