YNET This item shows that the most disgusting examples of abuse can be perceived by the perpetrator as being wanted by the victim.
The
Jerusalem District Court
gave a nearly unprecedented punishment to a father who raped his
stepdaughter hundreds of times over a period of seven years, beginning
when she was six. The man was sentenced to 28 years in prison after he
was convicted of hundreds of counts of rape, sodomy, indecent assault,
sex crimes
and additional sex charges. [...]
During the trial, the father
expressed remorse and said he saw the deeds as a “romance” which the two
share.
I assume this is being posted in part as a response to the Lakewood rabbonim who asserted that they believed that Yosef Kolko, although culpable, was not a "rodef" because he had been "seduced" by the victim.
ReplyDeleteRav Eidensohn, as a trained psychologist (which I am not) and highly knowledgeable in this area, perhaps you can confirm for your readers what I have read, that sexual abusers, sometimes abusers of quite young children, frequently claim their victims "seduced" them, "asked for it," and the like, and may even believe it. But at least in the case of a pre-pubescent minor, the abuser is projecting onto the child his own feelings -- including, perhaps, his longing for his own innocence lost in a similar way, and mistaking childish needs for adult ones. A person capable of this kind of self-deception (and lack of moral self-control) to satisfy his own needs will be capable of the same behavior with another child, and should indeed be considered dangerous.