ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Forensic Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1618162
Healthcare Needs and Barriers to Care among Female Partners of Male Suspects of Child Sexual Abuse Material Offences in Sweden: A Qualitative Interview Study
Provisionally accepted
Roberth Adebahr1,2*
Josephine Savard1,2,3
Ulrika Åkerstedt2,3
Markus Byström2,4Charlotte Sparre2
Cecilia Hadding5Katarina Görts Öberg2,3
Jussi Jokinen1,4- 1Unit of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
- 2ANOVA, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
- 3Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- 4Center for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
- 5Unit of Professional Development, Department of Clinical Sciences, Umeå Univer, umeå, Sweden
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Objective: To explore the impact on female partners of the discovery that their significant other is under investigation for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) offences, with a focus on the need for professional support. Design: Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Participants: Eight women partnered with men under investigation for CSAM offences. Setting: ANOVA, a center for sexual medicine, andrology, and trans medicine at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Results: The findings show severe negative mental health impacts on partners following a disclosure that their significant other had committed CSAM offences. Identified healthcare needs include (1) crisis support in connection with police raid; (2) medical evaluation including suicide risk assessment and follow-up visits; and (3) counseling to manage shame, guilt, self-blame, and ambivalence regarding the future of the relationship. Significant barriers that hinder affected women from seeking and receiving support from friends and family as well as accessing healthcare services were also identified. Conclusion: Female partners of CSAM offenders have healthcare needs that are currently inadequately met by the Swedish healthcare system. Healthcare professionals, both in primary care and sexual medicine clinics, may significantly contribute to improving treatment for this population. However, there is a need for improvement of healthcare practitioners' knowledge of the experiences and needs of family members of sexual offenders.
Keywords: Child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), pedophilic disorder, Partners and families, barriers accessing health services, Sexual offending against children, Crisis Intervention, Mental health service access, counselling
Received: 25 Apr 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Adebahr, Savard, Åkerstedt, Byström, Sparre, Hadding, Görts Öberg and Jokinen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Roberth Adebahr, roberth.adebahr@umu.se
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