anger
arises more especially in those who are much associated with children;
especially, that is to say, in schoolmasters and tutors, on the one
hand, and in schoolmistresses and governesses, on the other, Now, in
every case that comes under our notice, two points must be taken into
consideration. In the first place, if a remarkably large number of
teachers come before the law courts charged with sexual offences against
children, we have to remember that a certain proportion of these cases
must arise from the false accusations to which those persons precisely
are exposed who are much associated with children. The second point, on
account of which limits are imposed on the extent of the last-mentioned
etiological factor, is that certain persons adopt the profession of
schoolmaster or mistress, or tutor or governess, either because they are
aware of the fact that their sexual impulse is directed towards
children, or else, and this is commoner, because, while they are but
obscurely conscious of it, they are influenced thereby in the choice of
a profession, without having any definite intention to make use of the
children under their care in the gratification of their sexual desires.
It is an indefinite impulse towards children which is here operative,
and sometimes determines the choice of occupation. I have seen cases in
which there seemed to be a sort of mania for giving education and
instruction, but in which on closer examination it appeared that the
interest in the children was a sexual one. Two cases which have been
reported to me show that in the case of women also opportunity very
easily awakens the sexual impulse; in these cases the giving of baths to
the children under their care, first definitely gave rise in two
governesses to such perverse inclinations, and in one of them
subsequently led to serious sexual malpractices with the children.

As regards the psychiatric treatment of true paedophilia, as a rule in
such cases there is no possibility of pleading extenuating
circumstances, as provided for by Section 51 of the Imperial Criminal
Code. By this section, the offence escapes punishment if the offender
was at the time in a state of unconsciousness, or was suffering from a
morbid disturbance of mental activity, by which free voluntary choice
was rendered impossible. In general, such persons must be held to be
legally responsible. It may indeed, in individual cases, be possible to
plead extenuating circumstance