At least 20,000 Dutch men sexually abuse children abroad every year: study

At least 20,000 Dutch men per year are guilty of child sexual abuse abroad, according to researchers’ estimates on behalf of the Scientific Research and Data Center (WODC). The researchers from the Vrije Universiteit and the research center NSCR based their findings on an online survey of over 9,000 men. They anonymously indicated that they had sex with minors.

Of the men surveyed, 2.3 percent admitted ot having unpaid sex with a child under the age of 16 or paid sex with a child under the age of 18 when they themselves were older than 21. With a caveat, the researchers estimate that, on a large scale, this amounts to 131,000 to 171,000 perpetrators.

Two out of three perpetrators indicated that the child sex abuse had occurred in the past five years. This is how the researchers arrived at 20,000 perpetrators per year. If online sex abuse via webcams is also included, the percentage of perpetrators increases to 3.4 percent of men.

That men admitted to criminal behavior does not surprise criminologist Arjan Blokland. “As criminologists, we often ask people about things they know are not allowed, but they do anyway,” he said. “We guarantee anonymity, which helps. Although the question always remains: do people answer honestly?”

Because child sex abuse is considered reprehensible, this may be an underestimation, Professor Blokland and his colleagues think.

An external agency conducted the survey. Blokland would not say which agency. “I don’t think that is so important, we are not here to advertise,” he said. According to him, the survey was conducted according to the usual rules.