Son of a well-to-do clergiman, he studied theology and was appointed as a village parson. He was a prolific writer, initially of anti-Catholic pamphlets under various pseudonyms. In the first years of the 20th century he relinquished his ministry. Possibly a gay self-consciousness started to unfold in these years.

Between 1907 and 1914 he published several pseudonimous pamphlets about homosexual issues. In Amsterdam he met a 16-year-old boy making quite a lot of money as a rent boy. Schouten was "intimate" with him, and then tried to "save" him. The boy's mother and sister, however, seeing their easy income threatened, created a scandal, and turned Schouten over to the police as the boy's seducer. However, no lawsuit took place.

Until 1911 Dutch law did not differentiate between homosexual and heterosexual activity: both were allowed from 16 years onwards. Then, Edmund Regout, the Minister of Justice, proposed a new law: any adult (21 or older) who had sex with someone of his own sex under 21, was to be punished with imprisonment up to four years.

When Dutch Parliament was discussing this new law, Schouten issued a pamphlet consisting in a long list of homosexual kings, scientists, artists and generals. The Lower House, however, accetpted the law. Only a few months after Regout's infamous article 248-bis came into force, Schouten was accused by a boy of sexual activity. Schouten could not prove his innocence and fled to Germany.