Ana Isabel Marques Panzo is a psychologist at the Penitentiary Services of Angola and is part of a research unit in the province of Benguela, and decided to explore this topic, which was initially the public defense of her master's dissertation, due to the seriousness of the situation.
Speaking to the agency Lusa, the author stressed that "the number has grown a lot" and that there are several motivations, the main one being sexual satisfaction, which led her to conclude that most cases in the country are carried out by pedophiles, whose behavior differs from a simple sexual aggressor, who practices the act because he is under the effect of some psychoactive substance.
"I was able to realize that most of the aggressors are people very close to the victims, they have some degree of kinship, from brothers, parents, stepfathers, uncles," he said.
In Angola, according to the author of the work, the family is where most of this type of crime occurs, which can also happen in other places, such as schools or public places.
The prison writer and deputy inspector said the work was drawn up based on an investigation she carried out on nine penitentiary establishments in the provinces of Bengo, Benguela and Luanda, which started in 2018 and concluded at the end of last year.
"When we go to a penitentiary we find crime against the person or crimes of violence. So my task, very arduous, was to have to select which individuals attacked children and those who sexually assaulted adults And the aggressors I found in the establishments, those who sexually assaulted the minors, the number was very considerable ", he indicated.
According to Ana Panzo, the 115-page book brings the context and profile of child sex offenders, a review of the various types of abuse that children are prone to, where they occur and the causes.
"I also talk a little about the profile of sexual offenders of minors, who the individuals are, how they attract the victims to themselves, what are the processes that go on until the act is consummated and I talk about the consequences of sexual assault and at the end I present a study that was carried out in the various establishments at national level with the sexual aggressors in person ", he explained.
The belief in witchcraft has often been evoked by sexual offenders of minors in the country. Asked if she observed responses like these, Ana Pazo confirmed, noting that many "claimed that they were hidden forces, that they did not know why, because of the water load, they attacked the children".
"But with a much more profound intervention we ended up knowing that the answers given by them are simply to blame them, so they prefer to say that they were bewitched, that they were possessed by some occult force, than to say that it is sexual satisfaction" , he stressed.
The work features reports of prisoners who assaulted children from 2 to 16 years old.
"It is important to emphasize that these individuals are aware of what they do, but we must still assume that they are healthy individuals from a physical point of view, but are psychologically ill, which does not remove their guilt," he said.
Asked to tell a case that had marked her at work, the psychologist remembered the individual who raped a 4-year-old child, claiming that the child harassed him.
"It is impressive, I kept my mouth open, asked how a 4 year old child harassed him and he said that whenever the child got up - they lived in a common yard -, he left her house naked and was surrounded by the naked yard" , said.
Ana Panzo also pointed out as facilitating elements of these situations, mainly the breakdown of families.
"We have those families in which there is an alcoholic, for example, the stepfather or the father, and he, under the influence of this substance, is capable of assaulting. We have other reasons, super extended families, where there is no control, supervision, where there is no more than all openness, because there is a need for openness within the family, so that when situations of this nature happen, the child is at ease and can find in adults an opportunity to speak and not be repressed, for example, "he said.
According to Ana Panzo, these cases affect all social strata, what just differs is that the complaints happen in greater numbers in the most needy families.
"I also had a case of an individual who sexually assaulted his granddaughter, an individual who held a socially acceptable position, but actually assaulted his granddaughter," he said.
One of the recommendations he leaves in the work is about the need to denounce these practices, expressing satisfaction because it has increased the culture of denunciation by families.
"People are already talking about the case, support lines have been created for people to report, families have started to realize that it is a case that should not be managed internally, that it is a situation that affects everyone", he stressed. .
According to data released this week by the Ministry of Family and Women Promotion, from January to July this year, 2353 children suffered mistreatment, including 575 sexual abuse.
