Pedophilia

Pedophilia (American English), or pædophilia/paedophilia (Commonwealth English), is the paraphilia of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to pre-pubescent children. Persons with this attraction are called pedophiles.

In the United States and some other countries, the term pedophile is frequently used also to denote people who are sexually attracted to adolescents, as well as people who have engaged in sexual activity with a child. In countries where the legal age of consent is lower, like France or Brazil, the mainstream media avoid using the terms pedophilia or pedophile to refer to consented relationships between adults and adolescents.

Some scientists refer to a sexual interest in adolescents as ephebophilia.

Definition

The word comes from the Greek paidophilia (παιδοφιλια)—pais (παιδί, "child") and philia (φιλια, "love, friendship").

The term paedophilia erotica was coined in 1896 by the Vienna psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his writing Psychopathia Sexualis. He gave the following characteristics:

• the sexual interest is toward children, either prepubescent or at the beginning of puberty
• the sexual interest is the primary one, that is, exclusively or mainly toward children
• the sexual interest remains over time

Strictly speaking, this definition would include many adolescents and prepubescents, for whom such an interest might be normal; thus, some experts add the criterion that the interest be toward children at least five years younger than the subject. However, according to some experts, there is evidence that a diagnosis of pedophilia can be appropriate for a post-pubescent adolescent. See entry for sexologist Dr. John Money.

Use of the term pedophile to describe all child sexual offenders is seen as problematic by some people, especially when viewed from a medical standpoint, as the majority of sex crimes against children are perpetrated by situational offenders rather than people sexually attracted to prepubertal children. Nevertheless, some researchers, such as Howard E. Barbaree , have endorsed the use of actions as a sole criterion for the diagnosis of pedophilia as a means of taxonomic simplification, rebuking the American Psychiatric Association's standards as "unsatisfactory".

Some individuals, such as Dr. Fred S. Berlin, assert sexual attraction to children to be a sexual orientation in itself. This is at odds with the current popular acceptance of the term sexual orientation as meaning attraction to the opposite sex, the same sex, or both.

Diagnosis

The ICD-10 (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":

• Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger).
• The person has acted on these urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.
• The person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A.

  Note: Do not include an individual in late adolescence involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 12 or 13-year-old.

The actual boundaries between childhood and adolescence may vary in individual cases and are difficult to define in rigid terms of age. The World Health Organization, for instance, defines adolescence as the period of life between 10 and 20 years of age, though it is most often defined as the period of life between the ages of 13 and 18.

The APA diagnostic criteria do not include actual sexual activity with a child. The diagnosis can therefore be made based on the presence of fantasies or sexual urges alone, provided the subject meets the remaining criteria.

Extent of occurrence

The extent to which pedophilia occurs is not known with any certainty. Some studies have concluded that at least a quarter of all adult men may have some feelings of sexual arousal in connection with children . A study by Hall et al. of Kent State University, for example, found that 32.5% of their sample — consisting of eighty adult males — exhibited sexual arousal to pedophilic stimuli that equaled or exceeded their arousal to the adult stimuli. Further studies indicate that even men erotically fixated on adult females are generally prone to react sexually when exposed to nude female children.

In 1989 Briere and Runtz conducted a study on 193 male undergraduate students concerning pedophilia. Of the sample, 21% acknowledged sexual attraction to some small children; 9% reported sexual fantasies involving children; 5% admitted masturbating to these fantasies; and 7% conceded some probability of actually having sex with a child if they could avoid detection and punishment.

Occurrence in child sex offenders

A perpetrator of child sexual abuse is, despite all medical definitions, commonly assumed to be a pedophile, and referred to as such; however, there may be other motivations for the crime, much as adult rape can sometimes have non-sexual reasons. Thus, child sexual abuse alone may or may not be an indicator that its perpetrator is a pedophile; most perpetrators of it are in fact not primarily interested in children.

Those who have committed sexual crimes against children, but do not meet the normal diagnosis criteria for pedophilia, are referred to as situational or regressed offenders, whereas offenders primarily attracted toward children are called structured, preferential, or fixated pedophiles, as their orientation is fixed by the structure of their personality. It is estimated that only 2 to 10 percent of child sexual abuse perpetrators meet the regular criteria for pedophilia. (Kinsey-Report, Lautmann, Brongersma, Groth).

As noted by Abel, Mittleman, and Becker (1985) and Ward et al. (1995), there are generally large characteristical distinctions between the two types of offenders. Situational offenders tend to offend at times of stress; have a later onset of offending; have fewer, often familial victims; and have a general preference for adult partners. Pedophilic offenders, however, often start offending at an early age; often have a large number of victims who are frequently extra-familiar; are more appetitively driven to offend; and have values or beliefs that strongly support an offense lifestyle.

Most cases of father-daughter incest are believed to involve fathers who are situational offenders, rather than pedophiles.

Treatment

A number of proposed treatment techniques for pedophilia have been developed. Many regard pedophilia as highly resistant to psychological interference and have dismissed as ineffective most "reparative strategies," which may be analogous to homosexual reparative therapy. Others, such as Dr. Fred Berlin, believe pedophilia can "indeed be successfully treated," if only the medical community would give it more attention.

Treatment strategies for pedophilia include a "12 step support system", parallel to addiction therapy, though such a system is generally regarded as the least efficacious method of treatment. Anti-androgenic medications such as Depo Provera may be used to lower testosterone levels, and are often used in conjunction with other approaches.

More favoured is cognitive-behavioral therapy, in which the subject is taught to associate "pedophilic behavior" with various unpleasantries. Usually, this is done by telling the pedophile to fantasize of "deviant sexual activity", and then, once aroused, they are given instructions to imagine the assumed legal and social consequences of such an action. Other programs induce an association of illegal behavior with pain by means of more controversial aversion therapy, in which the pedophile is sent an electric shock while fantasizing. These methods are rarely used on pedophiles who have not offended.

Related terms

• Ephebophilia, also known as hebephilia, is the condition of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to adolescents. These terms are used in contrast with pedophilia; however pedophilia is sometimes used more broadly in the western world to describe both ephebophilia and attraction to younger children, that is, any person younger than the legal age of consent.
• Pederasty, or the Shotaro complex, generally refers to the attraction toward adolescent or older underage males.
• Lolita syndrome or Lolita complex are terms sometimes used to refer to attraction to adolescent or older underage females.
• Nepiophilia, also called infantophilia, is the attraction to toddlers and infants (usually ages 0-3). Some researchers have suggested a distinction between pedophilia and nepiophilia, as it is unusual for pedophiles to prefer toddlers.

Law

Pedophilia is itself neither a crime nor a legal term. It does not describe an act, but a psychological state. It is, generally speaking, not illegal to be sexually attracted to a child.

Sexual activity between adults and prepubescent children is almost always considered child sexual abuse, and it is illegal in most countries. The matter can be complicated, however, by varying laws concerning youth marriage, emancipation of minors, and the age of consent, all of which can affect the legality of child sex in certain jurisdictions. Intercourse is typically allowed at the ages of 16 to 18, but can range as high as 21 or as young as 12.

Child pornography, child prostitution, and recruiting or meeting children for sex using the Internet may also be illegal depending on the jurisdiction. Some people with a history of sexual activity with children may be prevented, by court order or by legislation, from associating with children or being employed in a position that may bring them into contact with children, or from owning mobile phones, computers, having the ability to use the Internet or owning childrens' toys.

Pedophile activism

Main article: Pedophile activism

The pedophile activism movement, referred to by some supporters as the childlove movement, is a social movement that encompasses a wide variety of views, but generally advocates one or more of the following: social acceptance of adults' romantic or sexual attraction to children; social acceptance of adults' sexual activity with children; and changes in institutions of concern to pedophiles, such as changing age-of-consent laws and mental illness classifications. The movement is extremely controversial and has made little progress toward these goals.

See also

• Child sexuality
• Age disparity in sexual relationships
• Child sexual abuse
• Pedophilia in literature and film
• Moral panic and the Brass Eye 2001 Pedophilia Special
• Child pornography
• Lolicon
• Shotacon

Notes and references

• Ames, A. & Houston, D. A. (1990). "Legal, social, and biological definitions of pedophilia." Archives of Sexual Behavior. 19 (4), 333-342.
• Scruton, Roger, Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic, Free, 1986.
• Pryor, Douglass, Unspeakable Acts: Why Men Sexually Abuse Children, New York Univ. Press, 1996.
• Fagan P. J. et al (2002). "Pedophilia" (requires registration). Journal of the American Medical Association. 288, 2458-2465.
• Rind et al. (1998). "A meta-analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples." Psychological Bulletin. 124 (1), 22-53.
• Levine, Judith. (2002). Harmful to Minors. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Discusses the perception and reality of pedophilia. ISBN 0816640068.
• Wilson, Paul R. (1981). Paul Wilson: The Man They Called a Monster. Melbourne: Cassell Australia. ISBN 0726992828. (Book about a court reporter who had sexual relationships with 2500 adolescent males; includes interviews with the later adults who reflect on these relationships.)
• Green, Richard (2002). "Is pedophilia a mental disorder?", Archives of Sexual Behavior. 31 (6). 467-471. (summary)
• Abel, G. G., Mittleman, M. S., & Becker, J. V. (1985). "Sex offenders: Results of assessment and recommendations for treatment." In M. H. Ben-Aron, S. J. Hucker, & C. D. Webster (Eds.), Clinical criminology: The assessment and treatment of criminal behavior (pp. 207-220). Toronto, Canada: M & M Graphics.

External links

• Dictionary of Sexology, based on the books of sexologist Dr. John Money.
• Diagnostic criteria for Pedophilia in DSM-IV
• FAQ For Parents of Teenage Boys who are Attracted to Minors