Pedophilia

Encyclopedia of Psychology, Apr 06, 2001 by Lauri R. Harding

Pedophilia is a subcategory of a larger group of sexual disorders commonly classified as paraphilias. These are defined as recurrent, intense, aphrodisiac fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors, over a period of at least six months, which involve non-human objects, the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner, or children or other non-consenting partners. If these recurrent fantasies, urges, and behaviors involve sexual activities with prepubescent children (generally age 13 or younger), the main diagnostic criterion for pedophilia is met.

Pedophilia encompasses simple voyeurism of nude children, observing children at various stages of undress or assisting them to undress, sexual fondling, exposing oneself, performing oral sex on children and/or requesting them to return oral sex, or mutual masturbation. In most cases (except those involving incest), pedophiles do not require sexual penetration, and do not force their attentions on a child. They instead rely on guile, persuasion, and friendship, often displaying great tenderness and affection toward the child of their desire. Once a person has engaged in sexual activity with a child, he or she is then additionally labeled a "child molester." Thus, child molestation is subsumed in the overall condition of pedophilia.

A psychological profile of pedophilia escapes development because perpetrators appear to constitute a heterogenous group. However, some common characteristics prevail among both pedophiles and child molesters. The great majority of pedophiles are male, and they may be heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual in orientation. Preference for children as sex partners may not be exclusive, and more often than not, pedophiles have no gender preference in prepubescent children. However, by a margin greater than two to one, most victims are girls. Moreover, the pedophile is usually a relative, friend, or neighbor of the child's family. Alcohol is associated with almost 50 percent of molestation cases, but is not necessarily correlated with pedophilia in general. Pedophilia tends to be a chronic condition, and recidivism is high.

The motives for engaging in sexual activity with children are rather divergent among pedophiles, but one theme recurs: the pedophile tends to justify his/her conduct. Pedophiles often indicate to authorities that the child solicited sexual contact or activity, and also claim that the child derives as much sexual pleasure from the activity as the perpetrator. Pedophiles also excuse their behavior as non-harmful, non-violent, non-forced, even "educational" for the child. They often tend not to see themselves as abusers, molesters, or sexually deviant. This quality of being into denial as to the true harm that they may cause belies the fact that clearly, most pedophiles act for their own gratification and not that of the child. In fact, more often than not, they describe their urges as compulsive, non-controllable and overwhelming.

The pedophilic disposition may not manifest until later in life, but more often than not, manifests in adolescence. By definition, it requires a minimum of five years' age between the perpetrator and the child in order to be classified as pedophilia. The disorder is more common in those who have been sexually abused in their own childhoods. In that subcategory of persons, the perpetrators choose victims in accordance with their own ages at the time of their experiences.

Pedophiles describe themselves as introverted, shy, sensitive, and depressed. Objective personality test results tend to confirm these subjective assessments, with the addition traits of emotional immaturity and a fear of being able to function in mature adult heterosexual relationships. A common characteristic of pedophiles is a moralistic sexual attitude or sexual repression.

Accurate diagnostic studies of prevalence among populations are unreliable for two reasons. First, the tendency may remain latent and undiagnosible unless the person voluntarily seeks counseling or help. Often the condition is masked by feigned responses to diagnostic criteria. Second, there is even among professionals a wide variance in definitional criteria and identification of this disorder.

There are two major professional tools employed to assess and diagnose pedophilia. The first is through phallometric testing (also referred to as penile plethysmographic assessment, or PPG), which measures changes in penile blood volume occurring simultaneously with the presentation of varying erotic stimuli. There has been some criticism of the reliability of this test because physiological changes are easier to measure than interpret. Second, arousal also may be a function of general arousability rather than of specific stimuli. To address this, researchers have developed a second diagnostic tool as a central arousability system intended to work adjunctly with PPG. The contingent negative variation (CNV) system measures brain waves as putative indices of sexual desire under conditions of sexual stimulation relevant to pedophilic arousal.