Both the peripheral phenomena of detumescence, and also the phenomena of contrectation, may be thus r.e.t.a.r.ded; and the former especially may permanently fail to appear. We see girls who appear remarkably virtuous, because, while other girls are rejoicing at having found an admirer, they pa.s.s coldly along, in the streets and elsewhere, their eyes directed forwards, and rigidly avoid exchanging glances with any male person. Although this delayed s.e.xual development does not arouse in us the same unsympathetic feelings in the case of young women as it does in the case of young men, it is none the less necessary to recognise the phenomenon in the female s.e.x as well, and this not on medical grounds merely, but also on educational, ethical, and social grounds. In fine, in such cases, we have to do with something very different from cases in which from a true sense of shame or on moral grounds a girl maintains her mental and bodily chast.i.ty; different, also, from the cases in which we have to do with women whose bodily development is normal, but who in other respects resemble rather the type of those in whom the reproductive glands have been removed.
I may take this opportunity of insisting upon the fact that the unduly r.e.t.a.r.ded awakening of the s.e.xual life, or the complete failure of the s.e.xual impulse to appear, is not especially to be desired, and entails dangers and disadvantages just as does a premature development of s.e.xuality. I may recall, in this connexion, certain earlier experiences.
At one time it was a.s.sumed that there was a mental disorder known as pyromania; the pyromaniac was one with an irresistible impulse to light incendiary fires. To-day, we no longer admit the existence of any such disease, and the impulse to light incendiary fires, when such a morbid impulse manifests itself, is regarded as a symptom of imbecility, of cerebral degeneration, &c. But we may take this opportunity of reminding the reader that Henke,[113] an earlier investigator, regarded pyromania as due chiefly to arrest or disturbance of the physical and psychical phenomena of p.u.b.erty. Esquirol himself appears to have shared this opinion; and although modern psychiatry takes quite a different view of pyromania, we have none the less to insist that unduly r.e.t.a.r.ded development may, just as much as premature development, give rise to undesirable consequences.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CHILD AS AN OBJECT OF s.e.xUAL PRACTICES
We have now to consider a matter which bears but indirectly on the s.e.xual life of the child, and yet may be of the greatest importance in relation to that life; we have to consider cases in which the child is the object of s.e.xual practices by others. I have previously referred to instances in which one child loves another. But the child may also be an object of s.e.xual desire to adults; for in certain men and women, s.e.xual inclination is directed towards children. By von Krafft-Ebing this state is termed _paedophilia erotica_.
Not all the cases in which s.e.xual acts are performed on children belong to the province of paedophilia. It is well known that in certain countries--Germany is one of them--a superst.i.tion prevails among certain strata of the population to the effect that venereal diseases may be cured by means of s.e.xual intercourse with children. Where this is the motive of the s.e.xual act, the case does not belong to the cla.s.s of paedophilia; and many other s.e.xual acts in which children play a part must also be excepted from this cla.s.s. It sometimes happens that debauchees, after having practised all kinds of venereal excesses, finally take to misusing children; nursemaids, again, and other servants, will carry out all sorts of s.e.xual acts on the children entrusted to their care, sometimes merely in order to quiet the children, sometimes "for fun." Von Krafft-Ebing refers to a special group of young men who do not feel sufficient confidence in their s.e.xual potency to attempt intercourse with grown women, also to masturbators affected with psychical impotence; such persons are apt to seek an equivalent for coitus in improper contacts with little girls.
One very large group of cases belongs to the sphere of psychiatry. In quite a number of congenital and acquired states of mental defect or disorder, s.e.xual acts performed on children appear as symptoms of moral and intellectual degeneration. In this connexion may be mentioned, congenital imbecility, progressive paralysis (paralytic dementia), senile dementia, chronic alcoholism, cerebral syphilis, and post-epileptic dementia; with or without these conditions, epileptic disturbances of consciousness may lead to s.e.xual offences against children.
None of these cases have anything to do with poedophilia erotica. And there are yet other cases which it is desirable to distinguish from this cla.s.s, especially those cases in which a marked hyperaesthesia was the determining cause of the s.e.xual act. In such a case, it is to the person thus affected almost a matter of indifference with whom the s.e.xual act is performed. Anything warm and alive will do, and inasmuch as a child is often most readily available, a child often serves as victim, whilst in other cases an animal is utilised.
Fritz Leppmann,[114] to whom we are indebted for a full and excellent study of cases of this kind, distinguishes the influences which are subjective to the offender from those which operate from without. Among the latter he refers especially to the _Schlafbursch_ or night-lodger;[115] it may be a young man in his prime, sleeping in the same room or even in the same bed with little girls; also to unemployment, which very readily gives occasion for s.e.xual excesses; to the practice of allowing little girls to run about without proper supervision; to premature s.e.xual development in children, which renders these latter especially liable to be the subjects of s.e.xual misconduct; to child-prost.i.tution, often at the instigation of the parents; to the lack of proper s.e.xual reserve; to obscenity, dances, and popular festivals, whereby the s.e.xual impulse may be stimulated; to unhappy marriage; and, above all, to the effects of alcohol. Occupation and position have also to be considered, for, in the case of many males, an authoritative position (that of schoolmaster, priest, doctor, employer, stepfather, tutor) gives extraordinary facilities for committing s.e.xual offences against children.
Although children of all ages, and even infants in arms, may be the victims of s.e.xual misconduct, in the majority of such cases we have to do with children who are no longer quite young; and this is true, more especially, of most cases of paedophilia erotica. This latter pa.s.sion may be directed against children of the same s.e.x as the offender, but more commonly it is directed towards children of the opposite s.e.x. Not infrequently, however, the impulse in such persons lacks sharp differentiation, the paedophile showing inclination, now for immature boys, now again for immature girls. Occasionally, paedophilia is the only form in which s.e.xual inclination exhibits itself in the persons concerned; but in other cases the paedophilic impulse alternates with normal s.e.xual feelings, or with some other perverse s.e.xual manifestation. A h.o.m.os.e.xual man, for instance, may one day be s.e.xually attracted by children, the next by adult males. Less widely known, although, as I think, far commoner than is usually believed, are the cases in which women are s.e.xually attracted by immature boys. Some of those cases of which mention has previously been made, in which nursemaids and other female servants seduce boys to the practice of masturbation, belong to this category; but this does not exhaust cases of such a nature. It is not necessary, when we see a woman caressing a boy, to a.s.sume at once and in every case that a s.e.xual motive is at work; but unprejudiced observation will show that many of these cases are s.e.xually determined. An interesting case of this nature has been published by Magnan.[116] It was that of a lady twenty-nine years of age, with strongly marked hereditary taint, and suffering from very various mental abnormalities, with five nephews, the eldest of whom was thirteen years of age. At first, this eldest nephew was the object of her desires. "The sight of him caused in her intense s.e.xual excitement; she experienced voluptuous sensations, which she was quite unable to repress, sighed, rolled her eyes, and became flushed; sometimes she had spasmus v.a.g.i.n.ae, with local secretion." When this boy grew older, the next brother took his place in her desires; and in succession these were transferred to the other three. At the time when Magnan saw the patient, her s.e.xual inclinations were directed towards the youngest nephew, a boy three years of age.
In many cases, the s.e.xual inclination towards children is primary, existing from the first appearance of the s.e.xual impulse; or it may appear simultaneously with other inclinations without there having been, as far as can be learned, marked previous s.e.xual excesses. There can be no doubt whatever that in such cases we have to a large extent to do with morbid personalities. No small part in these cases is played by a purely psychological factor, namely, the innocence of the child. We know that also in the case of the normal s.e.xual inclination of the male, innocence on the part of the female exerts a notable stimulus, in which connexion the question whether we have to do here with a result of conventional opinions or with an inborn mental disposition, must naturally be left open.[117] But it is a fact that just as the knowledge of a woman"s immoral past, or obscene remarks or gestures on her part, will in many men suffice to inhibit s.e.xual desire; so, on the other hand, for many men, innocence in the woman heightens the stimulus. In many cases of desire for immature girls, the physical stimulus of the narrow v.a.g.i.n.a may also contribute to increase libido; but the part this plays is probably not considerable. Apart from the fact that in many cases in which men have s.e.xual inclination towards such girls, _immissio membri_ does not take place at all, this consideration would in no way explain those not very uncommon cases in which adult women experience s.e.xual inclination for immature boys.
In connexion with this last point, it is of interest to recall the fact that in former days dwarfs, as well as fools, were kept at many courts.
In view of the tender relationship which obtained between many ladies of position and such dwarfs, it has sometimes been inferred that the inclination was a s.e.xual one, the small size and the undeveloped condition of the dwarf exercising a peculiar stimulus.
The depraver of children satisfies his desires in very various ways. It will readily be understood that the progressive paralytic (paralytic dement) will act in one way, and the true paedophile in another. I shall not, however, discuss these details here, but shall merely endeavour to give some general ideas on the subject. Often, and especially at first, the depraver of children merely seeks opportunities for seeing children; then he wants to touch the children with his hands, and often to handle their genital organs; and while attempting this, or while doing it, he has e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. In other cases he presses the child more and more closely into contact with himself, and especially against his own genital organs. Finally, we may have more complete s.e.xual acts; and, especially when the child is a girl, there may be attempts at intercourse, and even defloration; where the child is a boy, pseudo-coitus may take place. The depraver of children gains his opportunities by appeals to the child"s peculiar weaknesses. He will, for instance, tempt the child by the offer of sweets, and in this way will obviously often gain his ends. Many such persons hang about in the neighbourhood of a school or a children"s playground, simply with this end in view. Some years ago the police of a certain large town were informed that "child-lovers" haunted a particular place. It appears that here the children were in the habit of swinging on a chain suspended between two pillars, and that the watchers waited to catch a glimpse of the children"s genital organs, or merely of their bare legs, when their petticoats flew up occasionally in the act of swinging. Many paedophiles become s.e.xually excited at the mere sight of children sympathetic to them. In other cases, by no means rare, men experience s.e.xual excitement whenever they see a little girl with short petticoats; these men will follow such little girls all over the place, without, as a rule, speaking to them or interfering with them in any way, being withheld from doing so either by the fear of punishment or by moral restraint. To many the mere sight of the child appears to afford sufficient s.e.xual gratification; and to others the simple contact of their hands with the child suffices, and nothing more is attempted. But, in other cases, handling the child"s genital organs plays the chief part, frequently because the offender can himself obtain s.e.xual gratification only through inducing s.e.xual excitement in the child and watching this excitement. Sometimes, however, the offender has no interest in the child"s genital organs; far from being excited s.e.xually by regarding or handling these organs, he may even find them repulsive; but in such cases the sight of general nakedness often induces s.e.xual excitement.
This is often a.s.sociated with s.a.d.i.s.tic feelings, and this alike in men and in women. In other cases, a woman will make attempts at coitus with a little boy, having first induced erection of his p.e.n.i.s by manipulating the organ, by tickling it, or in some other way. Finally, there are cases in which all kinds of other actions are performed. To the more complex perversions I shall return. Here I shall only point out that children may sometimes be utilised for the wildest orgies. A case was formerly published by Tardieu, in which servant-maids in conjunction with their lovers carried out with the children under their care all sorts of perverse acts: cunnilinctus, masturbation, the introduction of various objects into the v.a.g.i.n.a and the a.n.u.s. Finally, it may be pointed out that in the lack of an object, the paedophile will naturally satisfy himself with the aid of imaginative ideas, masturbating the while, or he may be content with purely psychical onanism. We must not forget that the imagination usually suggests stimuli far stronger than those furnished by objective experience, and this applies in a most marked degree to paedophilia. Many paedophiles also satisfy themselves with the aid of erotic and obscene literature, containing descriptions of the acts in which they are interested, or with pictures of such acts. Among obscene pictures and photographs, not a few depict s.e.xual acts performed with children; and there is no doubt that these are sometimes pictures taken from the life, children having actually been photographed in such obscene att.i.tudes. The Latin countries appear to be the princ.i.p.al source of such pictures and photographs.
It will readily be understood that the performance upon children of s.e.xual acts is a very serious matter for the children themselves, especially as affecting their s.e.xual morality. It is true that in many instances paedophilia does not entail any consequences for the child, which completely fails to understand that it has been made use of for perverse purposes. The offender may know how to mask his actions, so that even a third person who is looking on may detect nothing more than tender caresses, and may remain altogether unaware of the existence of any s.e.xual excitement. But in other cases the consequences for the children may be extremely grave. Not only is the child in this way prematurely introduced to s.e.xual practices, but its moral corruption may result. The danger to the child is greater in view of the fact that the child depraver often fails to realise that he is trespa.s.sing against the child"s rights. I remember a gentleman who had been punished with imprisonment on account of improper relations with a boy, and who continued to a.s.sure me that he had done nothing wrong in touching the boy"s p.e.n.i.s. In other cases, well-educated young men and women have no idea that unchaste conduct with children is an offence which may entail severe punishment, even in cases in which the child"s genital organs are not touched.
It should not need demonstration that such s.e.xual malpractices on children may have serious consequences for these latter. A girl may suffer most severely, alike morally and socially, even though defloration has not been effected. It is quite conceivable that in such a way a girl may be brought to prost.i.tution. Certain investigators have studied the question at what age defloration had been effected in women leading a life of prost.i.tution, and have ascertained that in many cases this had taken place in childhood. Martineau[118] reports cases in which defloration had been effected at the age of nine or ten years.
Experience teaches that boys also, especially when they have been seduced by s.e.xual inverts, are very apt to adopt a life of prost.i.tution.
It must also be remembered that girls may occasionally become pregnant and give birth to a child even before they have themselves pa.s.sed the years of childhood--another source of social danger. In addition, we have to reckon with dangers to physical health; among these we have the direct consequences of premature misuse of the genital organs, and, above all, the danger of venereal infection. In a great many cases, s.e.xual offences against children are brought to light only when, on examining the child, gonorrhoeal or syphilitic infection is disclosed.
Many authorities hold that the superst.i.tious hope of curing venereal disease by s.e.xual intercourse with an innocent child, is a comparatively frequent source of such infection in children. Freud, to whose views I have referred several times before, believes that s.e.xual attempts on children may give rise in the latter to severe neuroses--an idea which forms an important part of the etiological system put forward by this author.
We must regard it as a peculiar danger of s.e.xual relations on the part of a child with an adult, that s.e.xual perversion may be induced. I may refer to what I said about this matter on pp. 60-62. The chief danger does not arise from the fact that the child is occasionally utilised for a h.o.m.os.e.xual act, but from the circ.u.mstance that in the period of the undifferentiated s.e.xual impulse, the child"s s.e.xual interest, and especially its contrectation impulse, is directed towards one of its own s.e.x, and that thereby a permanent perversion may be induced. Edward Carpenter,[119] indeed, considers that in such h.o.m.os.e.xual relationships the younger partner makes the advances. "The younger boy looks on the other as a hero, loves to be with him, thrills with pleasure at his words of praise or kindness." In his general views on this question, Carpenter takes a somewhat peculiar position. Unfortunately, he overlooks the fact that the elder is not to be exonerated because the younger made the first advances--at any rate, in cases in which the elder is in a position to understand the true nature of such relationships. Everyday experience shows that in many cases the elder person is of such an age that there can be no doubt upon this point. And apart from this, it is not usual to find that it is the younger person who makes the s.e.xual advances. In most of the cases which have come under my own notice it was unquestionably the elder who began to lead the younger astray. The matter is not as harmless as Carpenter makes out. The same considerations apply to s.e.xual intercourse with immature girls. Beyond doubt, there are many girls who meet s.e.xual advances halfway, owing to the premature development of their own s.e.xual impulse; and some such girls go more than halfway. A common practice of paedophiles is to begin by arousing s.e.xual excitement in the child, either by manual stimulation, or else by showing the child erotic pictures, or by reading to it from an erotic book. We must also admit that in certain cases the child meets s.e.xual advances halfway, not so much under the stimulus of its own s.e.xual impulse, but for other reasons; for example, the child may be following the instructions of its parents, who regard their child as a marketable commodity, either because they have been well paid by the paedophile, or because they wish to use the child as an instrument in a blackmailing scheme. The point last mentioned is one of great importance--the fact that intercourse on the part of a grown person with a child under fourteen years of age is sometimes deliberately instigated by the child"s parents or guardians, with the sole object of securing thereby a permanent income from blackmail. In other cases, the instigation may not come from the parents or guardians, or not directly from these, but from professional procuresses, who have undertaken to satisfy the desires of s.e.xual perverts. I may refer in this connexion to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ revelations of the London of nearly a generation ago.
False accusations on the part of children, especially on the part of little girls, who allege themselves to have been the subjects of s.e.xual a.s.saults, have been mentioned in an earlier part of this work, but the matter is one of such outstanding importance, that its further consideration will not come amiss. An experienced Berlin lawyer has recently emphasised this danger.[120] He shows that it is a regular practice to utilise the existence of certain punishments as a means of getting undesired persons out of the way, by bringing false accusations against them. Immediately after the Franco-German War, these accusations dealt with offences against the laws providing for the safety of the Empire and of the individual States of the German Confederation. At a later date, persons seeking revenge made frequent use of accusations of _lese majeste_. Still more recently, it is the section in the German legal code dealing with s.e.xual offences against children, which is chiefly utilised for such purposes, "The good-natured householder who, because it is his birthday, presents a few sweets to children a.s.sembled in the courtyard of his house, is suspected of an offence against s.e.xual morals;" when he finds it necessary to give warning to his untrustworthy hall-porter, this latter revenges himself by lodging a false accusation of this kind. It is a melancholy fact that an experienced barrister should find it necessary to make the following comprehensive declaration: "As a rule it is of no use for the accused person to call expert witnesses, who give the court long lectures upon the significance of children"s evidence, and upon the import of evidence in general. _In our own experience one accused of such offences rarely escapes conviction._ He is hardly ever spared the terrible ordeal of examination and cross-examination. On all hands we hear the loud complaints of such persons, declaring that they have been wrongfully condemned." My own experience in the law courts leads me to accept these statements without reserve, and _I regard as one of the gravest scandals of our present penal system the ease with which a girl who makes a pretty curtsy to the court, and who appears to be shamefaced when giving her evidence, is believed by the judge or magistrate._ The dangers involved in this are obvious to many, especially to those who have much to do with children.
An actor personally known to me, constantly received advances both from married women and from young girls, was pestered with letters from such persons, and to his great distress was several times followed in the streets by half-mature and immature girls. One day, in the street, he was walking with a friend, when two girls of about thirteen or fourteen years of age began to follow him. Turning round, he shouted to the girls that they had better run off home, or their father would give them a good spanking. To his astonished companion he explained that only by such drastic methods was he able, as he thought, to protect himself from false accusations.
It is very generally a.s.sumed that s.e.xual offences against children are increasing in number. As regards the increase in Germany, the following figures are given by Mittelmaier.[121] For s.e.xual offences against children, the convictions in the year 1897 numbered 3085; and in the year 1904, 4378. But of hardly any offences specified in the code can we say with more certainty than we can of s.e.xual offences against children, that the convictions bear no necessary relationship to the number of offences actually committed. My own experience in the law courts leads me to see in the figures nothing more than an increase in the number of _convictions_ for such offences--convictions which may have involved the innocent as well as the guilty. However this may be, historical studies prove that s.e.xual offences against children are no new thing. Long ago, Martial, in the sixth and eighth epigrams of his ninth book, complained of the procurement of children, referring to boys rather than to girls.
Otto Stoll[122] reports cases from uncivilised countries; and to his account of the defloration of children he appends the following words: "From all such details, we draw the ethnologically remarkable inference, that those human beings who have attained the highest level of civilisation, relapse frequently in the matter of the s.e.xual life to the rudest instincts of savagery; and that in this respect neither does one civilised country much excel another, nor is "civilised man" in a position to cast many reproaches in the teeth of the savage." Finally, I may refer to the experience of a Parisian Police Commissary,[123] who in the middle of the nineteenth century described prost.i.tution in Paris, and devoted a special chapter to the subject of child-prost.i.tution.
Beyond question, the committing of s.e.xual offences against children is no peculiar privilege of the civilised world or of modern times; although it remains possible that there has of late been some increase in the number of such offences.
It is obviously right that children should receive special protection from the law. The higher limit of the age of protection varies from ten to eighteen years. Ten years is the age-limit in certain States of the American Union; seventeen is the age-limit in Finland.[124] According to Mittelmaier, two considerations should guide us in regard to the protection of children: bodily immaturity, and moral weakness. The existence of the former leads the normal and healthy man to regard s.e.xual approaches to children as unnatural and detestable. But, apart from the question of immaturity, we have to recognise that in children the moral sphere also deserves consideration; that notwithstanding the possible recent development of physical maturity, the child as such requires protection, in order to prevent the occurrence of such moral corruption as will render it incapable, when grown-up, of obeying the moral law. No thoughtful person can refuse to admit the child"s right to protection.
But here a peculiar point needs attention, concerning, namely, the treatment in the law courts of such offences against children. I consider that by legal intervention in these cases the child"s morals are sometimes more gravely endangered than by the original offence. If a man has momentarily laid his hand on the knee of a girl of ten, the child can hardly be said to have been injured, and will certainly have received much less injury than would result, if the case be brought into court, from cross-questioning of the child, not merely by its own relatives, but also by the police, the magistrate and his colleagues (in the court of first instance), by the public prosecutor and the counsel for the defence (in the higher court), and perhaps in addition by expert witnesses. When such a child is asked, whether the offender did not put his hand higher than the knee, whether he did or did not actually touch the genital organs, grave dangers may arise from such questioning.
There is a further danger, in that some times, in such a case, the child is present in court throughout the entire proceedings. Some years ago, in Hamburg, I was called as an expert witness in a case of this kind. In this instance, the presiding judge, and also the public prosecutor and the defending counsel, exhibited the greatest possible delicacy, when one child was under examination, in sending the others, as far as possible, out of court. But I have also been present at trials in which no such precautions were taken, but in which every child was allowed to hear all the uncleanness in the evidence of the other children, and perhaps also in that of adults. Knowledge of the world, and, above all, tact, will best save the judge from treating children wrongly in this matter. The way in which a trial is conducted, which is often an extremely mechanical one, will not always enable the judge to avail himself of the means requisite for the protection of children from contamination in the course of such a prosecution. When we take a comprehensive view of the harm that may be done to children by s.e.xual offences committed against them and by the consequent legal proceedings, we shall find, in my opinion, that from the legal proceedings arises a notable proportion of the injury.
The examination of the mental condition of the child-depraver is a matter of the utmost importance. In cases in which we find that the offender is suffering from some p.r.o.nounced mental disorder, such as progressive paralysis (paralytic dementia), senile dementia, or an epileptic disturbance of consciousness, there can be no doubt as to the existence of irresponsibility; but it must never be forgotten that in the early course of such diseases, these s.e.xual perversions often make their appearance at a time when no other definite signs of the brain disease have as yet appeared, and that for this reason the conviction of innocent persons--old men, for instance--on account of s.e.xual offences against children, often occurs. Kirn,[125] who in the Freiburg prison had under observation six old men at ages from sixty-eight to eighty-one, all convicted for s.e.xual offences against little girls, states that in all of these there were intellectual defects, and in several of them p.r.o.nounced symptoms of senile dementia. The psychiatric expert must examine all such cases with the utmost care. We may also express a wish that judges were not inclined to regard themselves as experts in this field, of which, as a rule, they have no expert knowledge whatever.
Cases in which there is no definite mental disorder belong to a different category. Fritz Leppmann, to whom we are indebted for the most comprehensive studies in this field of inquiry, comes to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a truly congenital s.e.xual inclination towards children. Such inclinations often appear, indeed, in congenitally tainted or weak-minded individuals; but he considers that we have no right to speak of the perverse impulse as being itself congenital. Even if we admit this, and refuse to recognise the existence of a congenital perverse impulse towards children, still we have to admit that certain opportunities and conditions may not only lead to the committing of s.e.xual offences against children, but may also induce paedophile tendencies. And the fact cannot be contested that this danger arises more especially in those who are much a.s.sociated with children; especially, that is to say, in schoolmasters and tutors, on the one hand, and in schoolmistresses and governesses, on the other, Now, in every case that comes under our notice, two points must be taken into consideration. In the first place, if a remarkably large number of teachers come before the law courts charged with s.e.xual offences against children, we have to remember that a certain proportion of these cases must arise from the false accusations to which those persons precisely are exposed who are much a.s.sociated with children. The second point, on account of which limits are imposed on the extent of the last-mentioned etiological factor, is that certain persons adopt the profession of schoolmaster or mistress, or tutor or governess, either because they are aware of the fact that their s.e.xual impulse is directed towards children, or else, and this is commoner, because, while they are but obscurely conscious of it, they are influenced thereby in the choice of a profession, without having any definite intention to make use of the children under their care in the gratification of their s.e.xual desires.
It is an indefinite impulse towards children which is here operative, and sometimes determines the choice of occupation. I have seen cases in which there seemed to be a sort of mania for giving education and instruction, but in which on closer examination it appeared that the interest in the children was a s.e.xual one. Two cases which have been reported to me show that in the case of women also opportunity very easily awakens the s.e.xual impulse; in these cases the giving of baths to the children under their care, first definitely gave rise in two governesses to such perverse inclinations, and in one of them subsequently led to serious s.e.xual malpractices with the children.
As regards the psychiatric treatment of true paedophilia, as a rule in such cases there is no possibility of pleading extenuating circ.u.mstances, as provided for by Section 51 of the Imperial Criminal Code. By this section, the offence escapes punishment if the offender was at the time in a state of unconsciousness, or was suffering from a morbid disturbance of mental activity, by which free voluntary choice was rendered impossible. In general, such persons must be held to be legally responsible. It may indeed, in individual cases, be possible to plead extenuating circ.u.mstances, or, when it is legally permissible, to plead the existence of partial responsibility--this latter more especially in cases in which symptoms of mental degeneration exist. But by itself a qualitatively abnormal s.e.xual impulse gives the offender just as little right to plead irresponsibility, as a qualitatively abnormal s.e.xual impulse gives the right to invade the sphere of interests of another. The fact that paedophile tendencies occur in those who are in other respects admirable persons does not countervail the need that children should be protected. It would be an error to a.s.sume that only morally defective persons are thus affected. I may mention in pa.s.sing that Dostoiewski is said to have exhibited such paedophile tendencies--at any rate for a time. From the circle of my own acquaintanceship, I have learned that such a tendency may exist in those who are in other respects morally and intellectually sound.
In the s.e.xual inclination of adults towards children, we find a source of serious danger; but the risks are greatly enhanced by the fact that the paedophile tendency is often complicated by other s.e.xual perversions.
Exhibitionism in the male is exhibited not only towards adult females, but also towards children, commonly towards girls, but in exceptional instances towards boys. It appears that in these cases the stimulus of innocence plays the chief part. In many cases, the exhibitionist is satisfied with exposing his genital organs; and only in comparatively rare cases, which by many are not included in the category of exhibitionism, do we find that the exhibitionist also m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.es, sometimes in the presence of the child, sometimes after going elsewhere, The fetichistic tendencies of adults are also in many instances directed towards children. Well-known cases are those of the hair fetichists who not infrequently cut plaits of hair from the heads of schoolgirls; but other hair fetichists are satisfied with cutting from the head smaller fragments of hair.
s.e.xual inclinations towards children are especially apt to be a.s.sociated with s.a.d.i.s.tic acts. In a comparatively large proportion of cases, children are the victims of l.u.s.t-murder, if this term be used in its strictly limited signification, and not to include all possible s.e.xual acts complicated with murder, but simply to signify cases in which the very act of murder provides a s.e.xual stimulus, or when the corpse is utilised for a l.u.s.tful act; that is to say, we must exclude from l.u.s.t-murder proper, all the cases in which, for other reasons than a s.a.d.i.s.tic impulse, the s.e.xual act is complicated with murder, as when the female witness of a previous s.e.xual crime must be got out of the way.
Children, too, are often the victims of other s.e.xual acts, such as rape, which in a few instances only can be included in the category of sadism.
In some cases force is employed only because the victim resists the act of violation, and here there is no question of sadism; but the rape is s.a.d.i.s.tic when the use of force is _per se_ a s.e.xual stimulus. Moreover, children are often endangered by "stabbers."
In the year 1899, there was much anxiety in the city of Cologne on account of such a stabber. Those injured were all schoolgirls, and ultimately no children were sent alone to school, but they were always accompanied by a servant or a relative. In 1901, there was a similar series of cases in Moscow, a number of half-grown girls being stabbed by a man with a dagger. In the year 1896, a stabber appeared in Berlin. He enticed schoolgirls into the vestibule of a house, under the pretence that he wanted to brush some mud from their clothing; then, drawing a knife, he would inflict on the child a long and deep incised wound. In the summer of 1901, the inhabitants of northern Berlin were terrorised by a man who stabbed one girl fatally, and wounded two others severely.
A remarkable point about this case was that the stabber made three separate a.s.saults in a single afternoon, at very brief intervals. Unless the offender is discovered, it is naturally impossible to ascertain whether he has acted under the influence of some ordinary mental disorder (such as mania or post-epileptic insanity), or if he is a s.e.xual pervert. The act alone will not enable us to answer this question.
Boys also are liable to such attacks, as we learn from what happened in Breslau in the year 1889. A student of philosophy in that town enticed to his dwelling an eight-year-old boy whom he met in a public lavatory, and wounded the boy"s p.e.n.i.s with a sharp-pointed knife. It appeared that the offender had done the same thing before to other boys. Ultimately, having been examined by a committee of experts, he was on their recommendation adjudged to be insane. In the year 1869, Berlin was disturbed by the doings of a certain X. This man had made use of two boys for s.e.xual purposes, and had inflicted on them horrible injuries: in one, he cut off the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, and inflicted other severe wounds, so that the boy died; in the other, he introduced a walking-stick through the a.n.u.s, and pushed it roughly onwards until it had perforated the lung.
Far commoner than the acts of such stabbers are the cases in which the striking of children is to the s.a.d.i.s.t a source of s.e.x-stimulation.
Erotic literature is full of the description of such perversions. Thus, in a well-known p.o.r.nographic eroticon, we find pictures of a girl who has to subserve the perverse l.u.s.ts of a wealthy boyar (Russian territorial magnate), the latter mishandling the child most horribly with cane and knout. In the English erotic literature, it is remarkable how often and how fully the flagellation of children is described.
Almost typical are the English educational works in which, with little variation, we find descriptions of the flogging of little girls in order to excite the perverse l.u.s.ts of the schoolmistresses. Not very long ago, in a certain English newspaper, a special column was devoted to accounts of the chastis.e.m.e.nt of children, and especially of girls. Anyone who reads this column with care could not fail to recognise that for the most part these chastis.e.m.e.nts were the expression of perverse s.e.xual sensibilities. The available material shows, indeed, that in England this s.e.xually perverse whipping of children is no mere matter of imaginative literary expression, but that such perversities are a matter of actual experience. Such things are, however, by no means confined to England, as is shown by a large number of recorded observations.
In Paris, not long ago, the following case was noted. A woman entered into relations with the parents of girls of eleven and twelve years of age, in order to hire the children as the subjects of chastis.e.m.e.nt for perverse s.e.xual purposes. The parents, who must have known for what their children were wanted, received payment. Apparently the woman did not do this for the satisfaction of any perversion of her own, but for her perverse husband or for other perverts, who watched the whippings through spy-holes. In Germany, some years ago, there was an important trial, in which I was called as an expert witness, of a man who had flogged his pupils (with one exception, they had all been boys) solely to obtain perverse s.e.xual gratification.
Many of these cases obtain publicity through the columns of the daily press, although occasionally, in part from sensationalism, and in part from sheer ignorance, a case may be allotted to the category of sadism, which really has nothing to do with this perversion, or whose s.a.d.i.s.tic character is doubtful. This applies, for example, to the well-known Dippold case. Here, the sons of a wealthy Berlin family were mishandled by a private tutor to such an extent that one of the children died.
Neither by the legal proceedings in this case, nor by any subsidiary evidence, was it established, in my opinion, that s.e.xual motives existed for the maltreatment; and only when such motives exist have we any right to speak of sadism. As a rule, such cases are elucidated only when the mental life of the offender is very carefully a.n.a.lysed. Therefore, in a great many cases, while there may be grounds for suspecting the existence of sadism, adequate proof of this is not forthcoming. Some cases bearing on this matter will now be briefly recorded.
A furniture polisher, twenty-five years of age, induced two young fellows to enter his dwelling, and there, under the threat that if they resisted they would be severely punished by their parents, he made them submit to a thrashing with a cane. A similar case was reported in Paris some years ago. A man thirty-seven years of age, supposed to have formerly been a private tutor, took boarders into his house for love, and not because he made his living by doing so. He also had under his care an orphan boy, and it appeared that this child was grossly ill-treated. When the authorities entered the house, they found the boy entirely unclothed, but wrapped in rags; he was fastened to the crossbars of the window, and quite exposed to the cold winter air. To prevent the child from crying out, a gag had been placed in his mouth.
Of dubious nature, also, was a case which occurred at Berlin in the year 1906, in which a girl twelve years of age was enticed away by another girl, and taken to a man who, at the suggestion of the second girl, drew two teeth from the first. In the case reported from Salzwedel some years ago, it is possible that the offender was insane; but he may have been s.a.d.i.s.tically inclined. An eleven-year-old fifth-form boy was enticed away by a young man of twenty, who took the lad to a hotel, gagged him, beat him unmercifully with a walking cane, threatening him with a revolver to prevent his calling for help. The boy suffered also two severe contused wounds of the head. The offender himself put cold compresses on these. When the police who were in search of the boy broke into the room, the young man shot himself.
In the year 1891, the following case occurred in Berlin. A young man, not yet eighteen years old, had in three cases undressed boys, and performed improper acts on them. Then he misused and bound the boys. The youth, who had previously been convicted of theft, was on this occasion sentenced to ten years" imprisonment for an offence against (s.e.xual) morality. At Liegnitz, a few years ago, a pupil-teacher was sent to prison for three months, because he had lured little boys to a remote field, and there had mishandled them by beating them with a walking-stick. The court held that these acts had been performed under the influence of the s.e.xual impulse, resulting from a s.a.d.i.s.tic tendency.
About two years ago, a teacher of the pianoforte committed suicide in Berlin, because he had been accused of ill-treating children, apparently owing to a s.a.d.i.s.tic tendency. The children were nine or ten years old; he had undressed them and then flogged them. The matter had, it seemed, been kept secret for a long time, until the parents of some of the children discovered traces of the ill-treatment, and this led to the charge being brought. A case which attracted considerable attention occurred in Berlin in the year 1896. A man, supposed to be a Russian prince, entered a well-known saddler"s shop in the Potsdamerstra.s.se, asked to be shown some dogwhips, and, on the pretext of wishing to try their quality, persuaded some boys employed in the establishment to allow him to try the whips on their persons. The boys were handsomely paid for this, and the practice went on until the head of the firm intervened and forbade it. Whilst some regarded the matter as a joke, others expressed the suspicion that it was a case in which the rein had been given to s.a.d.i.s.tic tendencies. A similar case was that of the author, X., which occurred in Hamburg a few years ago. X. was acquainted with a woman named Y., who lived in Berlin. The latter"s son, eleven years of age, was sent to reside with X. for educational purposes; and without proper cause, but under the pretext of educational necessities, this lad was severely mishandled by X. The boy was frequently taken from his bed, stripped naked, and then struck with a switch. The boy"s mother stated that her boy had been put under the care of X. because the lad needed severe discipline, being untruthful and dishonest. Further charges were made against X. of various indecent acts against the boy.
Teachers and others, who were acquainted with this boy, deposed that he was well behaved and not untruthful, and that he had in no way merited such punishments as had been inflicted on him. A very remarkable case was reported six years ago, from one of the minor German princ.i.p.alities.
Here, children who had been sentenced to imprisonment were pardoned by the Prince, on condition that they submitted to a whipping; and the remarkable feature in the case was that not only did the Prince make a point of seeing the whipping, but himself in part administered it. In some of the reports of this case it was added that the children were stripped naked.
It is a not infrequent reproach against Catholic priests, monks, nuns, &c., that they make use of the children entrusted to their care for perverse, s.a.d.i.s.tic acts. I may recall the Graubund scandal of September 1906, in which girls and women were whipped by an acolyte until the blood ran; also an affair which occurred in Christiania about fourteen years ago, where, at a home kept by an unmarried woman, for children from the age of two years until their confirmation, a horrible and elaborate system of punishments was in use, whippings and other tortures being the order of the day. In many biographies and other works giving descriptions of life in the cloister, we find additional details: for instance, in the memoirs of the Countess Kaunitz, mother of the well-known statesman Kaunitz, we find an account of the severe whippings which were administered to her during her childhood spent in a nunnery.
All kinds of subterfuges are employed by the s.e.xual pervert to make the punishment appear harmless and legitimate. Schoolmasters find this comparatively easy, inasmuch as they are able to allege misconduct such as would ordinarily be visited with a verbal reprimand, if not completely overlooked, as the reason for a whipping. Obviously, some of the excuses will be remarkable. In one case the flagellant a.s.serted that he wished to write a work on education, and had therefore to ascertain how many strokes a child could endure. In a case which came under my own notice the offender stated that he wished to make the children courageous.
The expert who studies the advertis.e.m.e.nts in the newspapers will observe that they often subserve such perverse tendencies. "Educational"
advertis.e.m.e.nts may be cla.s.sified in three groups. Those of the first group are perfectly harmless (in appearance). To this cla.s.s belong advertis.e.m.e.nts in which a teacher offers instruction to children. Since this is the ordinary form of serious advertis.e.m.e.nt, it attracts no special attention; there is nothing suspicious about it, and it is merely intended to lead to correspondence with those who have boys or girls to place as pupils. The advertiser hopes that in the course of instruction he will find opportunity for inflicting chastis.e.m.e.nt without giving rise to any suspicion. The second group has a definitely suspicious air, some catch-word being employed to manifest to initiates the existence of a perverse tendency; but there is nothing more than this to excite suspicion. Among such catch-words, are the words "energetic", "severe", "English instruction." In some cases an energetic governess desires children to instruct; in others it is some one else who desires an energetic instructress. It may be that the actual advertiser is on the lookout for the energetic instructress; here we have to do with masochism. But in other instances, the advertiser wants the energetic instructress for children, and the wording of the advertis.e.m.e.nt sometimes indicates that the advertiser"s aim is to experience s.e.xual excitement in watching the instructress chastise the children. Since these advertis.e.m.e.nts are intelligible only to initiates, they naturally receive answers from persons who have failed to understand their purport; but the s.a.d.i.s.t (male or female) and the m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t (male or female) is aware that the use of the word "energetic"
refers to this s.e.xual perversion. Of course, however, an advertis.e.m.e.nt in which an energetic tutor or governess is asked for, may he perfectly innocent. If an advertis.e.m.e.nt inserted in all good faith has really been open to a double meaning, the advertiser will sometimes be greatly astonished by the receipt of all sorts of perverse offers. A married woman of my acquaintance advertised for energetic supplementary instruction for her son, a rather naughty boy of ten; and received, in addition to many serious answers several answers from perverts, who stated that they would be delighted to be able to handle a boy in the sense she mentioned. In many cases, notwithstanding the use of the words "energetic" or "severe," we recognise from the general wording of the advertis.e.m.e.nt that it is seriously intended, and not issued with a perverse aim; but at other times we derive an opposite impression. When an "energetic instructress" advocates her "Anglo-American methods of education," hardly any room for doubt remains; and such advertis.e.m.e.nts as this belong to our third group.
I will now give some of the advertis.e.m.e.nts which I have been collecting for years, some belonging to the second, and some to the third group, in ill.u.s.tration of what has just been said. Certain of the advertis.e.m.e.nts which I have cla.s.sed in the second group, were probably not issued with a perverse intent; this being partly shown by the context, although without this context they would have been suspicious.