Our mission is to reduce sexual violence by the approach of primary prevention. Two projects have been integrated in PPPSV: one project is to prevent sexual violence against women, and one project is dedicated to prevent child sexual abuse.
To prevent sexual violence against women, we have developed a mobile-based application called ‘NO’ which uses the deterrence effect.
The deterrence effect means that due to increased social control the potential offender will not act out because he might face consequences afterwards. This increase of social control could be achieved when more and more people download ‘NO’ app on their phones. Ultimately, this will motivate potential offenders to refrain from acting out. In order to prevent sexual violence, we need to build a community which states: “Together, we say ‘NO’ to sexual violence”!
Secondly, to prevent child sexual abuse, we offer treatment to people at a higher risk to sexually offend against children, namely people who are sexually interested in pre- and/or early-pubescent children. The sexual attraction towards children who have not yet reached puberty is called pedophilia, whereas a sexual interest pre- and/or early-pubescent children is called hebephilia.
Previous research has shown that approximately half of the people who have sexually abused children have this specific sexual interest. Furthermore, out of the people who sexually abused children, those individuals with sexual interest in children were more likely to reoffend compared to the people who did not have specific sexual interest in children. However, it is important to state that pedophila and child sexual abuse are not the same. Pedophilia is a sexual preference, whereas child sexual abuse is an illegal and adverse act which is not acceptable. Though people cannot choose their sexual preference, they are responsible for their behavior. The project aims to help people with a sexual interest in children to deal with their urges, so that they refrain from sexually acting out against children.