Lately i have noticed more and more outrage on the low and ridiculous punishment in Belgium on pedofilia and child abuse. Example: a 40 year old woman has been convicted this week of 12 months probation because she repeatedly raped her 5 year old son and claimed he initiated it.

When a big Australian pedofilia network was found and arrests were made a couple years back multiple Belgians were involved and the comments on reddit were riddled with ‘Belgium is a safe haven for pedophiles’.

Is that really what’s happening here?

I have this feeling that this just isn’t talked about enough in Belgian politics. At this point, as a mom, i’m inclined to vote for whoever starts speaking about this.

So my question is who has been vocal about it? Which party has points that demand heavy punishment?

Edit: adding this article because it feels really relevant. Valerie Van Peel leaving politics because she feels like she’s not getting anywhere because of political games, while she wants to reform certain laws to stop child abuse.

[Valerie Van Peel](https://archive.is/gJk6j)

18 comments

  1. The political party that has the strongest stance on any kind of punishment for criminals is Vlaams Belang. But then again they also have a strong stance against immigration, or anything that isn’t Flemish basically.

    They do love racism, sexism and the ‘traditional’ values.

  2. While it is true that not all sexcrimes are done by immigrants, a large portion of them are(mostly harrassment in public locations), and unfortunately the lack of proper punishment encourages others to do as they please.

    We should work harder in both punishment and guidance in these matters. Not all perpetrators are lost causes, but we do need to keep a close eye.

    Edit: whoops, meant to respond to the comment that mentioned Vlaams Belang. And it’s a personal opinion.

  3. The penal code has harsh punishments for sexual abuse of minors. But proving it beyond doubt in a court of law is always the hard part. There’s also the fact that sexual abuse by women is underestimated and somewhat ignored.

  4. I work in a setting where I get confronted with child abuse quite often.

    Hardest thing I had to read/work with was a “father and mother” who had abused all 8 of their children. Dad was busted when a video of him raping his baby was found. We helped on of the older kids, who was a horrible sexual mess and couldn’t understand what NO meant in a sexual setting, because you know. No had never had any kind of impact in that ‘family’Kid was mentally disabled, pretty fun kid, but would rape other residents without any real reason, other than that he didn’t understand how healthy sex worked.

    Now, after few years, dad writes to his kid. I figured the kid had written the letter. Hanengeschrift, spelling errors, looked liked a 6yo had written it. And often, this is the gist of the story. We read these horror stories, we think ‘how can a sane person do this’ and the reality is that a lot of these people aren’t sane. They are either mentally very disabled, suffering from psychiatric issues and a whole other slew of things. These things do get lost in news reports and stuff like that. I’ve had the same thing with a murder a few years ago. The perp was someone who had an IQ of like 74-78 or something. People were like ‘how dumb do you have to be to kill your own family, and you’re on camera going into their house’ etc. And yeah, he was just that dumb and could not see the consequences clearly, including what it meant to kill someone probably.

    For these people, I feel like a safe, structured setting. (residential care, PFC, beschut wonen) is a better option than jail. Nobody gets anything out of jail. You are left to rot, and we have to pay for it.

    For those who are of good mental capacity, you are right that justice is too lenient sometimes.

    It’s the same with snelheidsduivels etc. Not enough police, not enough money for justitie, etc etc. And not enough money for programs/hulpverlening that could either prevent stuff like this from happening, or helping people not to reoffending after they got caught.

  5. Vlaams Belang is the only party that is not strongly against child abuse in the form of making it illegal to hit (your own) children (https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/04/08/waarom-heeft-belgie-nog-steeds-geen-verbod-op-het-slaan-van-kind/) or https://www.unicef.be/sites/default/files/2020-06/2019_5_14_Q-en-A-politieke-partijen_A4_portrait_color_Geweld_NL.pdf

    So you can still, legally hit your child, even though that all research shows that the only effect is damage in development

    (https://www.quest.nl/maatschappij/cultuur/a33622144/waarom-mag-je-je-eigen-kinderen-niet-slaan/ or https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20181107_03922407)

    I am aware that it’s not the kind of abuse you were referring to; and since it is a form of abuse I think it’s worth mentioning here.

    For the other sort I find little or no information.

  6. I’ve read the entire “partijprogramma” for Vlaams belang with the previous elections. iIRC they had a point on this. They wanted to chemically castrate convicts of severe sexual crimes, such as child abuse and rape.

  9. I’m under the impression you’re finding most of your information on reddit? If you want an overview of Belgian policy, you might be better off getting in touch with an organisation like Child Focus.

  10. Maybe valuable info to add: in November a new sexual criminal code went into effect, so all sexual crimes committed from that date onwards get penalized remarkably stricter and stronger.

  13. The main issue here is not harsher or longer sentences, but actually getting the perpetrators convicted. These crimes are often very hard to prove objectively, unless it’s already too late and the victim got gravely injured or even killed. Furthermore, the victims are regularly not taken seriously.

    Elaborate police and justice reforms will be needed in order to improve the situation. Unfortunately, this will probably only happen very slowly, driven by similar changes in our society (e.g. me too).

  16. Many western countries are too soft on pedophilia. I’m not sure if Belgium is a haven for pedophiles but I’ve heard the same thing. There’s this video on YouTube where this woman called Anneke shares her experience being sexuay trafficked in Belgium as a child. It’s sad.

  17. I understand your frustration but please be aware that if news articles make you angry, you are served more of the same type of news articles. The angrier the article makes you the more you click and the more dramatic they become. If you click more they earn more money. Take a “stemtest” or something to get on overview of how different parties want to solve different problems.

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