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The term pedophilia (or paedophilia) has a range of definitions
as found in psychiatry, psychology, law enforcement, and
the vernacular. As a medical diagnosis, it is defined as a psychological
disorder in which an adult experiences a sexual preference for prepubescent children.
According to the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), pedophilia is specified as
a form of paraphilia in which a
person either has acted on intense sexual urges towards children, or experiences
recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about children that cause distress
or interpersonal difficulty. The disorder is
common among people who commit child sexual abuse; however,
some offenders do not meet the clinical diagnosis standards for pedophilia.
In strictly
behavioral contexts, the word "pedophilia" has been used to refer to child
sexual abuse itself, also called "pedophilic behavior".
In law enforcement, the term
"pedophile" is generally used to describe those accused or convicted of the sexual abuse of a minor (including both
prepubescent children and adolescent minors younger than the local age of consent).
An example of
this use can be seen in various forensic training manuals. Some researchers have
described this usage as improper and suggested it can confound two separate
types of offenders. In common
usage, the term refers to any adult who is sexually attracted to children or who
sexually abuses a child.
The causes of pedophilia are not known; research is ongoing.
Most pedophiles are men, though there are also women who are pedophiles.
Due to
the stereotype that pedophiles
are always male, it has been difficult to determine the prevalence of female
pedophiles; however, studies in the UK and USA suggest that a range of 5% to 20%
of child sexual
abuse offenses are perpetrated by women.
In forensic
psychology and law enforcement, there have been a variety of typologies
suggested to categorize pedophiles according to behavior and motivations. No
significant curative treatment for pedophilia has yet been found. There are,
however, certain therapies that can reduce the incidence of pedophilic behaviors
that result in child sexual abuse.
The International
Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
(F65.4) defines pedophilia as "a sexual preference for children, boys or girls
or both, usually of prepubertal or early pubertal age."
The APA's Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition, Text Revision
gives the following as its "Diagnostic criteria for 302.2 Pedophilia":
The diagnosis is further specified by the sex of the children the person is
attracted to, and if the impulses or acts are limited to incest. It is also
sometimes split further into two categories: exclusive type (attracted only to
children) and nonexclusive type.
Exclusive pedophiles are attracted to children, and children only. They show
little erotic interest in adults their own age and in some cases, can only
become aroused while fantasizing or being in the presence of prepubescent
children. Nonexclusive pedophiles are attracted to both children and adults, and
can be sexually aroused by both. According to a U.S. study on 2429 adult male
pedophile sex offenders, only 7% identified themselves as exclusive; indicating
that many or most pedophiles fall into the nonexclusive category. Some
systems further differentiate types of offender in more specific categories (see
Child Sexual Offender
Types).
Neither the ICD nor the DSM diagnostic criteria require actual sexual
activity with a prepubescent youth. The diagnosis can therefore be made based on
the presence of fantasies or sexual urges even if they have never
been acted upon. On the other hand, a person who acts upon these urges yet
experiences no distress about their fantasies or urges can also qualify for the
diagnosis. Acting on sexual urges is not limited to overt sex acts for
purposes of this diagnosis, and can sometimes include indecent exposure, voyeuristic or
frotteuristic behaviors,
or masturbating
to child pornography. Often these
behaviors need to be considered in-context with an element of clinical judgment
before a diagnosis is made. Likewise, when the patient is in late adolescence,
the age difference is not specified in hard numbers and instead requires careful
consideration of the situation.
Nepiophilia, also called infantophilia, is used to refer to a
sexual preference for toddlers and infants (usually ages
0–3). The cause or causes of pedophilia are not known.
The
experience of sexual abuse as a child was previously thought to be a strong risk
factor, but research does not show a causal relationship, as the vast majority
of sexually abused children do not grow up to be adult offenders, nor do the
majority of adult offenders report childhood sexual abuse. The US Government Accountability
Office concluded, "the existence of a cycle of sexual abuse was not
established." Until 1996, there was greater belief in the theory of a "cycle of
violence," because most of the research done was retrospective—abusers were
asked if they had experienced past abuse. Even the majority of studies found
that most adult sex offenders said they had not been sexually abused
during childhood, but studies varied in terms of their estimates of the
percentage of such offenders who had been abused, from 0 to 79 percent. More
recent prospective longitudinal research—studying children with
documented cases of sexual abuse over time to determine what percentage become
adult offenders—has demonstrated that the cycle of violence theory is not an
adequate explanation for why people molest children
Several researchers have reported correlations between pedophilia and certain
psychological characteristics, such as low self-esteem and poor social skills.
Beginning in 2002,
other researchers began reporting a series of findings linking pedophilia with
brain structure and function: Pedophilic (and hebephilic) men have lower IQs,
poorer
scores on memory tests, greater
rates of non-right-handedness, greater rates of school grade failure over and above the IQ differences,
lesser physical
height, greater
probability of having suffered childhood head injuries resulting in
unconsciousness, and several
differences in MRI-detected
brain structures. They report that their findings suggest that there are one or more neurological
characteristics present at birth that cause or increase the likelihood of being
pedophilic. Evidence of familial transmittability "suggests, but does not prove
that genetic factors are responsible" for the development of pedophilia.
Another study, using structural MRI, shows that pedophilic men have a lower volume of white matter than non-sexual
criminals.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has shown that child molesters diagnosed with
pedophilia have reduced activation of the hypothalamus as compared with non-pedophilic
persons when viewing sexually arousing pictures of adults. A 2008 functional neuroimaging study notes that central processing of sexual
stimuli in heterosexual "paedophile forensic inpatients" may be altered by a
disturbance in the prefrontal networks, which "may be associated with
stimulus-controlled behaviours, such as sexual compulsive behaviours." The
findings may also suggest "a dysfunction at the cognitive stage of sexual
arousal processing."
Blanchard, Cantor, and Robichaud (2006) reviewed the research that attempted
to identify hormonal aspects of pedophiles.They
concluded that there is some evidence that pedophilic men have less testosterone
than controls, but that the research is of poor quality and that it is difficult
to draw any firm conclusion from it.
While not causes of pedophilia themselves, comorbid psychiatric
illnesses—such as personality disorders and substance abuse—are risk factors for
acting on pedophilic urges. Blanchard,
Cantor, and Robichaud (2006) noted about comorbid psychiatric illnesses that,
"The theoretical implications are not so clear. Do particular genes or noxious
factors in the prenatal environment predispose a male to develop both affective
disorders and pedophilia, or do the frustration, danger, and isolation
engendered by unacceptable sexual desires—or their occasional furtive
satisfaction—lead to anxiety and despair?" They
indicated that, because they previously found mothers of pedophiles to be more
likely to have undergone psychiatric treatment, the
genetic possibility is more likely.
Cohen et al. (2002), studying child sex offenders, states that pedophiles
have impaired interpersonal functioning and elevated passive-aggressiveness, as
well as impaired self-concept. Regarding disinhibitory traits,
pedophiles demonstrate elevated sociopathy and propensity for cognitive
distortions. According to the authors, pathologic personality traits in
pedophiles lend support to a hypothesis that such pathology is related to both
motivation for and failure to inhibit pedophilic behavior.
According to Wilson and Cox (1983), "The paedophiles emerge as significantly
higher on Psychoticism, Introversion and Neurotocism than age-matched controls.
[But] there is a difficulty in untangling cause and effect. We cannot tell
whether paedophiles gravitate towards children because, being highly
introverted, they find the company of children less threatening than that of
adults, or whether the social withdrawal implied by their introversion is a
result of the isloation engendered by their preference (i.e., awareness of the
social approbation and hostility that it evokes" (p. 324).
Studying child sex offenders, a review of qualitative research studies
published between 1982 and 2001 concluded that pedophiles use cognitive
distortions to meet personal needs, justifying abuse by making excuses,
redefining their actions as love and mutuality, and exploiting the power
imbalance inherent in all adult-child relationships.Other cognitive distortions include the idea of "children as sexual beings,"
"uncontrollability of sexuality," and "sexual entitlement-bias."
One review of the literature concludes that research on personality
correlates and psychopathology in pedophiles is rarely methodologically correct,
in part owing to confusion between pedophiles and child sex offenders, as well
as the difficulty of obtaining a representative, community sample of
pedophiles. Seto (2004) points
out that pedophiles who are available from a clinical setting are likely there
because of distress over their sexual preference or pressure from others. This
increases the likelihood that they will show psychological problems. Similarly,
pedophiles recruited from a correctional setting have been convicted of a crime,
making it more likely that they will show anti-social characteristics.
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