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Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?
One man thinks so, and he’s been manufacturing them for clients for more than ten years.
Roc Morin
Jan 11, 2016
“Being a pedophile is like living with a mask on,” Shin Takagi told me, before lighting another cigarette in the midst of a Tokyo cafe. Takagi’s mask was off today. He spoke freely and people were noticing. In a sea of black business suits, Takagi sported a red Hawaiian-print shirt—daring them to look.
People like Takagi who struggle with pedophilic impulses but have never acted on them have been the subject of much media attention. With a paucity of reliable scientific data about their circumstances and no known medical or psychiatric cure, many of these individuals rely strictly on self-control to avoid acting on their urges. Takagi believes there is another option.
Struggling to reconcile his attraction to children with a conviction that they should be protected, Takagi founded Trottla, a company that produces life-like child sex dolls. For more than a decade, Trottla has shipped anatomically-correct imitations of girls as young as five to clients around the world.
“We should accept that there is no way to change someone’s fetishes,” Takagi insisted. “I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It’s not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire.”
Several treatments for pedophilia exist, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and chemical castration, and other interventions intended to suppress urges. A meta-analysis conducted by the Mayo Clinic recently concluded that the treatments “do not change the pedophile’s basic sexual orientation toward children.” In addition, among people who have actually molested children, the study cites recidivism rates ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent. Takagi believes other methods of harm-reduction are warranted, and suggests his products could help.
So far, there is no research to indicate whether or not Takagi’s dolls would be successful, and Peter Fagan from the John Hopkins School of Medicine is skeptical that there ever will be. Citing cognitive-behavioral theory, the paraphilia researcher believes that contact with Trottla’s products would likely have a “reinforcing effect” on pedophilic ideation and “in many instances, cause it to be acted upon with greater urgency.” The research Fagan cites to support that conclusion is based on offenders, so it is unclear whether the effects would be different for non-offenders.
“I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically.”
Michael Seto from the University of Toronto speculated on the possible existence of two distinct populations of pedophiles. Drawing an analogy to methadone treatment for opioid addicts, the psychiatrist hypothesized that “for some pedophiles, access to artificial child pornography or to child sex dolls could be a safer outlet for their sexual urges, reducing the likelihood that they would seek out child pornography or sex with real children. For others, having these substitutes might only aggravate their sense of frustration.”
“We don’t know, because the research hasn’t been done,” he concluded. “But, it would be a very important study to conduct.”
Klaus Beier, the initiating scientist of the pedophile-prevention network Don’t Offend, has been investigating what differentiates pedophiles who act on their impulses from those who do not. “We can detect pedophilia by examining the activation patterns associated with sexual arousal through neuroimaging,” the sexologist noted. “The far more interesting question is—is the person able to control this behavior?”
In an fMRI study currently under review and financed by the German Ministry for Education and Research, Dr. Beier and his colleagues say they have found stronger connectivity in brain regions related to impulse control in pedophiles who have not offended compared with those who have. “Just because a person is pedophilically inclined,” Beier concluded, “doesn’t mean he is a danger.”
“Thanks to your dolls, I can keep from committing a crime.”
Even without supporting research, Takagi is convinced that his products save children. “I often receive letters from buyers,” he said. “The letters say, ‘Thanks to your dolls, I can keep from committing a crime.’ I hear statements like that from doctors, prep school teachers—even celebrities.”
While our meeting that day was brief, Takagi invited me to visit his mountain workshop the following afternoon. I met him, along with my translator Natsuko at the Hachioji train station, an hour north of Tokyo.
Takagi described most of his clients as “men living alone.” “The system of marriage is no longer working,” he said. “While most people buy dolls for sexual reasons, that soon changes for many of them. They start to brush the doll’s hair or change her clothing. Female clients buy the dolls to remind them of their past, or to reimagine an unfortunate childhood. Many of them begin to think of the dolls as their daughters. That’s why I never allow myself to be photographed. I want to prevent them from seeing me as the father of the dolls.”
The Trottla factory stands at the end of a remote gravel road, shrouded by trees. The building’s only neighbors are monkeys, birds, and wild boar. “We had to be out in the wilderness,” Takagi explained. “The machinery is loud and the materials flammable.”
Inside the dim interior, the stench of solvents was overpowering. Takagi admitted that the propriety solution he uses to replicate skin is a known carcinogen with toxic effects on the brain, liver, and kidneys.
“It is a very challenging environment,” he said. “That’s why all my employees are former military. They are only allowed to work with the poisonous material two days a week and must always wear a mask and gloves. I often wonder what will kill me first—cigarettes or this.”
Takagi hit a switch. The overhead flourescents flickered on, and suddenly we were not alone. At the far end of the room, hanging naked from metal stands were the dolls. “When I look at them in the middle of night, sometimes even I am frightened,” he admitted.
“Does she have a name?” I asked gesturing towards the nearest doll—a model he later described as a 10-to-12-year-old.
“There is no name,” he said, “just a code name—LP1.”
“What emotions do you see in her face?” I asked.
“This one looks like she’s sad,” he said. “One must make a variety of expressions to fulfill a variety of client needs.”
In Japan, where many have animist Shinto beliefs, the dolls have a complicated status. “In Shinto,” Takagi said, “everything has a soul. Even if you don't want the dolls anymore, you can’t abandon them. There is a special ceremony that is performed for them at a shrine. It’s like a ceremony for a dead person. Since dolls have a human form, they must be treated as such.”
He described a recent case in which a client who needed to get rid of a doll called, requesting his help. “He wanted me to dispose of it,” Takagi remembered. “But, he didn't say ‘dispose.’ The phrase he used was ‘send back home.’”
At the end of our interview, as I was photographing a set of fiberglass molds, I noticed Takagi and my translator speaking in a corner.
“What were you talking about?” I asked her later.
“My husband died in a motorcycle crash several years ago,” she said. “I was asking Mr. Takagi how much it would cost to make a replica of him.”
We all walked out together, the same way we came in—passing a pile of discarded fiberglass skeletons waiting to be removed. These were the remains of some of the dolls that had been sent ‘back home.’ “They’re toxic,” Takagi explained. “So, we need a special company to come and pick them up. They have to be crushed with hammers. Everything with form must be broken eventually.”
On the drive back to the station, I asked Takagi if his work had changed the way he defined the real and the artificial.
“It is a common belief in Japan that dolls are mirrors,” he said. “The dolls show their owner’s true self.”
A company is now selling life-like child sex dolls for use by paedophiles
A Japanese company is manufacturing a life-like child sex doll to be marketed specifically to paedophiles. The designer claims: ‘I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It’s not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire’
Shin Takagi established his company over a decade ago, and his been marketing the dolls ever since. He claims that they have a role to play in preventing paedophiles from reoffending when they are released from prison, and in preventing such crimes from taking place. Takagi sat down with reporters at The Atlantic to put forward his case. He told them:
Being a pedophile is like living with a mask on,
We should accept that there is no way to change someone’s fetishes,
I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It’s not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire.
Takagi describes himself as someone who struggled to reconcile his own attraction to children, and that this personal experience moved him to set up Trottla, which manufactures life-like representations of girls and boys as young as five-years-old, for clients around the globe.
As repugnant as non-paedophiles will likely find the idea, a police study in 2015 concluded that there may be around as many as 250,000 peadophiles in the UK alone, and around 2 million children are trafficked in the global sex trade each year. A problem so real, and so damaging, demands we ask the question: Would this unpalatable accommodation make children more safe from sexual predators?
It appears there is not yet sufficient scientific data to answer the question.
Peter Fagan, a paraphilia from the John Hopkins School of Medicine, draws on cognitive-behavioral theory to predict that using the dolls would have a “reinforcing effect” on peadophile intentions, and “in many instances, cause (them) to be acted upon with greater urgency.”
Meanwhile, Michael Keto at the University of Toronto posited that there may be two strands of peadophile, and that “for some pedophiles, access to artificial child pornography or to child sex dolls could be a safer outlet for their sexual urges, reducing the likelihood that they would seek out child pornography or sex with real children. For others, having these substitutes might only aggravate their sense of frustration.” He concluded:
“We don’t know, because the research hasn’t been done,”
“But, it would be a very important study to conduct.”
Perhaps the fundamental problem with this approach is that it assumes that paedophilia exists as a condition. The word paedophilia originates from the Greek words paidos, meaning child, and philia, meaning love. The term is derived from a pseudo-scientific justification for the behaviour of those who would molest, abuse, rape and even kill children to satiate personal desires. In applying the term, we absolve people who commit these abuses of responsibility for their crimes in a way we would not with those who commit such crimes against adults.
The first scientist to use the concept was the German sexologist and physician Richard Krafft-Ebing. In his monograph Psychopatia Sexualis, published in 1886, he defined paedophilia as a psychosexual perversion, open to cure. Around 1906, his British counterpart Havelock Ellis presented paedophilia as an extreme version of normal masculine sexuality.
In 1974, a group of child sex abusers launched the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). This group was legal at the time, and sought to promote the rights of ‘paedophiles’. The group harnessed the science of Kraft-Ebing and Ellis and espoused the view that children had the right to indulge in their sexual feelings with adults, and argued the age of consent should be lowered to four years old, or abolished altogether.
This was not some fringe group, hidden away. They had thousands of members, many from senior positions in the media, the security services, politics and other establishment positions.
This ideology still permeates society today. As Andrew Gilligan reported in The Telegraph in July 2014:
“Paedophilic interest is natural and normal for human males,” said the presentation. “At least a sizeable minority of normal males would like to have sex with children … Normal males are aroused by children.”
Some yellowing tract from the Seventies or early Eighties, era of abusive celebrities and the infamous PIE, the Paedophile Information Exchange? No. Anonymous commenters on some underground website? No again.
The statement that paedophilia is “natural and normal” was made not three decades ago but last July. It was made not in private but as one of the central claims of an academic presentation delivered, at the invitation of the organisers, to many of the key experts in the field at a conference held by the University of Cambridge.
But when we take a look at the actions of those affiliated with PIE in the UK, we don’t see helpless men consumed by their love for children. We see powerful men with a predilection for the sadistic sexualisation and abuse of children.
The plight of one particular boy illustrates the nature of abuse meted out at the Elm Guest House, the alleged centre of the Westminster Child Sex Abuse scandal. This has nothing to do with love.
Peter Hatton-Bornshin, pictured shortly before he became a victim of child abuse.
Peter Hatton-Bornshin, pictured shortly before he became a victim of child abuse.
Peter Hatton-Bornshin (pictured above) and his brother David were put into care after their mother committed suicide in the 1970’s. They were 12 and 13. One day, they were told by senior workers at Grafton Close Children’s Home that they were going ‘a treat’. Their treat was a visit to Elm Guest House.
Peter, his brother and other boys were made to dress up as fairies, encouraged to become drunk, and invited to play a game of hide and seek. The boys were told to hide, and when caught by the adult men, would be sexually abused by their captor. Some of the men who raped, tortured and sexually abused Peter and David have been named as Liberal MP Cyril Smith, Catholic Priest Father Tony McSweeney (who officiated at the wedding of Frank Bruno), and Deputy Manager of Grafton Close Children’s Home John Stingemore (who also supplied the boys).
Peter never got over the abuse he received at the hands of these men. He later complained about his treatment and received compensation from Richmond Council, while the story remained suppressed. He fell into poor mental health, and was treated at Broadmoor. In 1994, just days after his 28th birthday, he killed himself with a fatal drug overdose. His suicide note included the words “I will get those bastards.”
What is clear is that this sadism relies on a very real victim, and no amount of dolls is likely to bring this problem to a head.
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/01/14/a-co ... adophiles/
Victims of German pedophile sect in Chile seek justice
AFP By Giovanna Fleitas
January 27, 2016 5:19 AM
Villa Baviera (Chile) (AFP) - It is 18 years since Winfried Hempel finally escaped from an abusive sect run by a pedophile ex-Nazi officer in Chile. He still has nightmares.
Now he is a lawyer and is heading a lawsuit against the German and Chilean states for what he and other youngsters suffered in Colonia Dignidad, a commune founded by German immigrants in the 1960s.
Meanwhile the victims are dismayed that the remote colony is now making money from tourism.
Hempel says both countries allowed the abuse to happen at the ironically named "Dignity Camp" founded by Paul Schaefer, a German later convicted as a pedophile.
Schaefer collaborated with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, whose secret police used the colony as a place to torture opponents.
Hempel calls it "one of the worst sects that have existed in the history of humanity," a hive of "stupid, fanatical Christianity."
Now he is bringing a joint lawsuit on behalf of 120 former residents of the colony who blame the Chilean state for allowing it to operate for years, during which time they say numerous victims were abused and enslaved
In one case he is seeking $1.0 million from the Chilean state in compensation for each victim.
He is bringing a parallel case against Germany which he accuses of negligently failing to help its nationals who were abused in the colony.
- 'Smell of suffering' -
Colonia Dignidad was founded by Schaefer and a group of fellow German immigrants in 1961.
It lies among hills and fields some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
Now the remote site -- which still looks more like a German village than one in central Chile -- has been opened up to tourists, renamed Villa Baviera, or "Bavarian Village."
That has angered victims, who want it to be preserved as a memorial to abuse victims.
"I can smell the suffering of people in the place," Hempel, 38, told AFP.
He personally remembers Schaefer, who dressed in black and imposed strict rules and punishments.
Schaefer founded the village supposedly as an idyllic charitable farming community.
But later investigations revealed that residents were indoctrinated, abused and kept as slaves for three decades.
From birth, children were raised with almost no contact with their parents, which made them easy prey for Schaefer, Hempel said.
Hempel himself did not know his own surname nor the identity of his mother and father until he was 10.
"There was a God called Schaefer," said Hempel, describing the indoctrination practiced in the colony.
"We were born as if in a laboratory. There was absolutely no chance of becoming aware of who you were."
In 1997, seven years after the end of the Pinochet regime and the return of democracy, Schaefer faced a series of lawsuits.
He fled and was arrested in Argentina in 2005.
Schaefer was convicted in Chile for sexual abuse of children, arms possession and human rights violations.
He died in a Chilean jail in 2010 while serving a 20-year sentence.
It was only after Schaefer fled that Hempel, then 20, escaped the colony.
February sees the release of "Colonia," a film about the dictatorship and the colony, starring Emma Watson and Daniel Bruhl.
- 'Divine justice' -
Some 160 mostly elderly people still live in Villa Baviera, proud of their Bavarian heritage.
They keep bees and chickens that produce thousands of eggs.
The German flag flies at the center of the complex, where there is a hotel and a restaurant for visitors.
Locals avoid condemning Schaefer. One inhabitant who spoke to AFP said that god must be his judge.
"He did good things too," said the man, who described himself as a "second-generation colonist."
"There is earthly justice, which has been done. And in the end there is divine justice."
But the victims feel hurt to see the colony moving on as though nothing had happened.
Gabriel Rodriguez, who lives in a nearby village, was held in Colonia Dignidad for a week as a prisoner of the Pinochet regime.
"Promoting tourism in a place whose memory is one of death, torture, slavery and mutilation seems to me an aberration," he said.
"It is an insult to the memory of those who suffered and died there."
Villa Baviera - formerly known as Colonia Dignidad - was founded by aul Schaefer, a German later convicted as a pedophile (AFP Photo/LUIS HIDALGO)
Families of people who disappeared during General Pinochet's regime demonstrate against Colonia Dignidad in 1997 (AFP Photo/CRIS BOURONCLE)
A Chile newspaper from 1997 reports the possibility that people who disappeared during the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet were forced labourers at Colonia Dignidad (AFP Photo/Cris Bouroncle)
A street inside Colonia Dignidada (AFP Photo/)
"There is one other issue that new Members need to be aware of, because it is going to haunt this Parliament. Yesterday on Sky television, Esther outlined it bravely. I have been in touch with her today. She has gone to the police with the name of an MP who she and others allege abused her as a child, but I am expecting other people with other names to come forward from other parts of the country in the near future. Others have already gone to the police. The scandal of historical child abuse in this country will be one of the defining issues of the next five years. It is going to corrode everything during this Parliament because it is so huge and involves so many people. Just in my area, I have had people come to me. One man was kept as a slave, forced to work in a foundry, aged 11 to 16, and that is nice compared to what happened to the rest of his family. I have 26 victims of child abuse just in my constituency who have been to see me—and who am I for them to come to? That is how big this scandal across the country is.
The last Government were right to set up the Goddard inquiry. I have tabled an early-day motion—for those who do not know, an early-day motion is usually a bit of nonsense we sign so we can send letters to people telling them how good we are—calling on the Government to lift the restrictions of the Official Secrets Act, because a lot of people, including former members of special branch, want to speak out to answer the basic question I pose to anyone who wants to know: why was Cyril Smith allowed to get away with prolific child abuse for so many years? But it was not just Smith. There were far more, and what was revealed in Staffordshire yesterday was just one other aspect.
My constituency is no worse than anywhere else in the country. This is nationwide and touches every aspect of society. The number of people, on top of the 26, who have been to see me who do not want the police involved, never want to go public and never actually want to say anything is phenomenal. That is how they have dealt with that childhood trauma—and it is their right to do so. A man flew back from Canada, having not visited my constituency in 30 years because of what happened to him, to spend 20 minutes in the library of my surgery, just to tell me about it, knowing nothing could be done, before flying back again. That is the impact of historical child abuse, and this Parliament is going to have to deal with it."
'Mr Mann described the Dickens dossier as “intriguing to say the least”.He said that a former deputy director of MI6, George Kennedy Young, was involved in a right-wing Conservative group which gathered details on alleged paedophiles within the Commons.
Young, also known as ‘GK’ who died in 1990, was not named as a paedophile but Mr Mann described him as a “manipulator” who had been involved in “dubious” political activities, including a campaign to set up a private army.
“We need to know why the file disappeared,” Mr Mann said.'
Manufacturers are recalling plush truck toys sold at Monster Jam motor sport events after the disturbing discovery that they feature a symbol linked to pedophilia.
“I’m absolutely sick. I bought this for my 2-year-old little girl. This toy was made for little girls. I wanted answers,” Nicole O’Kelly told NBC affiliate WFLA after she purchased the hot pink toy at a monster truck rally in Syracuse, New York, earlier this month.
The toy features an emblem of a heart connected to a smaller heart inside of it. According to an FBI bulletin published by WikiLeaks, it's the symbol for a sexual relationship between an adult and a minor girl. The FBI did not immediately confirm the bulletin's authenticity to The Huffington Post on Monday.
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