One of the key stories of the Olympics and its buildup has been the participation of Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde. Branded a 'child rapist' in the majority of news and social media articles, it is easy to assume that he forced himself upon an unwilling child. That is not the case.

In many countries - including the UK where the incident occurred - oral, vaginal, or anal sex with a person under a certain age is automatically treated as 'rape', regardless of the circumstances. Under the UK's archaic law, only a person with a penis can be charged with such a crime, and there is no distinction between a violent act and one in which the younger person willingly participated. That is, a brutal rape of a child and non-violent statutory rape are treated exactly the same way.

An article in a local newspaper provides us with detailed information about the relationship between the volleyball player and the girl. Unlike most reports, which imply that the older teenager plied the girl with alcohol to render her unable to resist, we learn that the two young people tried to find a hotel room but were denied, then went to a park to have oral sex per the girl's request. The next morning, after sobering up, the girl suggested going to her empty house to have vaginal sex. When the girl started to find the sex painful, the man stopped and recommended she go to a clinic to get a contraceptive pill. It was this visit, and not a complaint from the girl, that led to the involvement of authorities. The two continued to communicate online after Van de Velde returned to the Netherlands, and the girl's emotional troubles began with the guilt of seeing her partner arrested and imprisoned, not because of the sexual activity itself.

Sex between a 19 year old and a 12 year old is seen by most people as highly unethical. Whether or not voluntary Adult-Minor Sexual Contact is inherently harmful, is debated by some members of the MAP community, and we do not make it our job to take sides in that debate. However, we are concerned about the conflation of violent and non-violent AMSC, because the two actions are clearly not the same even if both are deemed to be morally wrong.

Unfortunately, reporting on this case has generally been extreme and misleading. Supposedly 'credible' newspaper The Guardian posted an atrocious article making no mention of the reality that the contact was non-violent statutory rape, focusing on hyperbolic quotes from campaigners who supported extrajudicial punishment, and quoting the judge selectively while leaving out all of the information that mitigated the man's actions. It is a shame that when it comes to issues like this, The Guardian is no better than low-quality tabloids like The Sun.

It is not helpful to conflate violent offenses against minors with statutory offenses, even if we accept the belief that a minor's consent is not the same as an adult's. For one, it is harmful to victims who are led to believe they were raped and their partner was a monster. It also undermines and dilutes the impact of genuinely violent offenses on the individual, diverting resources away from what is a fundamentally different type of crime.

Another young person's voice is silenced

One thing that is conspicuously absent from the coverage of this story, is the voice of the other young person involved, the (now adult) minor girl Steven van de Velde made his now-famous trip to Milton Keynes to have sex with. Does she approve of the media using her story to malign him, years after he served his sentence? What effect is this having on her, all these years later?

This follows the all-too familiar pattern of media and "child protection" agencies erasing the voices of young people in the midst of efforts to "protect their best interests". It also appears to confirm the fundamentally opportunistic and philistinic tendency of such name-and-shame campaigns, and their basic hypocrisy.

Indeed, the girl's continued communication with Van de Velde, stopping only when the young man's lawyers cautioned against it, supports the controversial idea^[1] that some harm from non-violent AMSC sometimes comes from the legal process and social messaging, rather than the relationship itself. This is backed up by the statement that the girl felt intense guilt about what happened to the young man, leading to emotional troubles. In cases like these, sending the message to the child or youth that they have been raped, is the worst thing possible for their mental health.

There is also widespread evidence^[2] of investigating authorities abusing their power and using highly questionable methods against suspected victims in their custody. Many have outright admitted to coaching "uncooperative victims" into believing they have been abused, giving the lie to the idea they are trying to protect "children" from victimization. This is misappropriation and silencing of young people's voices.

Campaigners weigh in

Quotes from campaigners, while not surprising given their job descriptions, are also very concerning. According to the article from The Guardian, linked above:

Andrea Simon, executive director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition said Van de Velde’s inclusion in the Games sent a “worrying message” to men who commit rape “that there will unlikely be any consequences, and therefore no deterrent".

The consequences for the commission of any crime should come from the courts, not from a self-appointed court of public opinion, a whole decade later. It would be understandable if Andrea Simon were advocating harsher punishment for rape, greater protections for women, and better support networks for victims. However, arguing that there are 'no consequences' without extrajudicial punishment is a highly disturbing take. The fact that the crime was statutory rape does not excuse suspending all notions of modern justice.

In conclusion

When it comes to cases involving MAPs or AMSC, concepts like 'serving your time', rehabilitation, and personal growth appear to have gone out of the window. Extrajudicial punishment and scapegoating are instead the norm.

Most educated, liberal people will support even a violent ex-convict's attempt at redemption, but with respect to sexual offending, it seems all empathy is suspended. This even applies to those who are prosecuted for viewing nude images of minors, including AI-generated images. This is not how social justice is supposed to work.

Steven van de Velde has worked hard to rebuild his life, and is now married to an older woman with whom he has a son. Some people will ask "well what about his victim and her life?", and so they should. If the media cared even the slightest about the girl in question, they would not have raked this case up as they did. Dragging the matter through the international press is the worst thing anyone could have done for the girl, victimizing her just as the court case itself apparently did. A poorly judged fling between two young people, that could have been managed with probation and minimal reporting, has instead been abused for the nefarious ends of populist moral theatrics.

The Dutch Olympic Committee should be applauded for its progressive approach to rehabilitation. Meanwhile, the international media and so-called victims' charities should be condemned for reckless profiteering at great personal expense.

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Mu is an organization that opposes the stigma on Minor-Attracted People, supports their equal access to mental health support, and seeks reforms to laws that target MAPs without sufficiently protecting children and young people.

Please feel free to discuss this article on our forum thread.

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References

1. ^▲ Numerous examples exist in the literature, e.g. Talmon, A., Ditzer, J., Talmon, A., & Tsur, N. (2023). Maltreatment in Daycare Settings: A Review of Empirical Studies in the Field. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. "[F]indings imply that children’s responses to maltreatment may vary as a function of their parents’ reactions." Dafna Tener et al. (2014). “It All Depends on the Guy and the Girl”: A Qualitative Study of Youth Experiences with Statutory Victimization Relationships. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. "[T]ypically, the interviewed youth described the relationship as reciprocal, even some time after it had ended. The professional intervention often resulted in feelings of helplessness for the youth. The results suggest creative and flexible protocols are needed for handling these cases that recognize adolescents’ developing autonomy."

2. ^▲ Stanley, L. (1987). The Hysteria Over Child Pornography and Paedophilia. Paidika. "Frustrated by Amy's will not to testify, child protection workers placed Amy in solitary confinement in a juvenile prison. For 9 days, she was confined to a four-by-eight foot room with only a bed and lamp, and for a few days, a television set. When the judge in the case saw that Amy's resolve not to testify could not be broken, the case was dismissed. [...] A more recent case in Massachusetts involves two youths, ages 14 and 15, who were confined in various locked facilities for at least a five month period--part of the time in Federal facilities--as "material witnesses" in the case of a Boston-area man with whom they had lived, who is accused of Mann Act violations, after they attempted to recant all or part of previous statements they had made concerning the man." See also, Bruce Rind, Phil Trexler in Beacon Journal (Akron), 2006, "A judge has jailed a 14-year-old girl who ran away rather than testify against a man accused of molesting her. The Norton Middle School student is being held indefinitely in an isolated area of the Summit County Jail on the orders of Common Pleas Judge James Murphy. The teen, jailed since Wednesday, insists she is not a sex abuse victim and is demanding a lawyer be assigned to represent her, court records show. [...] But lawyers for defendant Galo Sanchez-Pesantes contend the state -- with approval from the girl's mother-- has ``effectively kidnapped'' the teen, holding her in an adult jail while denying her access to an attorney in an effort to force her testimony." and various comments made by experts such as Rosalind Prober, "It takes a lot of debriefing and deprogramming to get those children to view themselves as victims, which they truly are, a compliant victim."