Introduction
Few psychological disorders are as stigmatized as pedophilia. From the Greek meaning “love of children,” pedophilia is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as “recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children,” (Muller, 2016, p. 1). The media perpetuates stigma by semantically linking pedophilia with child sexual abuse or child molestation. In fact, pedophilia refers only to the desire or fantasy, but not to the behavior. Differentiating between pedophilia and child molestation is important both for dispelling myths and for promoting effective interventions for people with pedophilia.
What is Pedophilia?
Pedophilia literally meals love of children, but more specifically refers to having a sexual attracting to children. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual describes pedophilia as “recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children,” (Muller, 2016, p. 1). For a brief time the American Psychiatric Association defined pedophilia as a “sexual orientation,” but quickly backpedaled due to public outcry (Whitney, 2015). As Berlin (2014) points out, the APA and other professional organizations that set standards for diagnosis, treatment, and public health policy should revert to a definition of pedophilia that does refer to sexual orientation. Doing so would reduce stigma, showing that having sexual urges or fantasies about children is something that is beyond the person’s control; essentially the pedophile was born that way. In fact, emerging evidence has been showing that pedophilia may be a “biologically based neurodevelopmental disorder,” (Fazio, Dyshniku, Lykins, et al, 2015, p. 1). Neurological tests also show that structural alterations in the brain “account for common affective and neurocognitive impairments in pedophilia,” (Poeppl, Eickhoff, Fox, et al, 2015, p. 2374). Therefore, it is reasonable to classify pedophilia as a sexual orientation.
By definition, pedophiliacs experience serious emotional and psychological distress. The DSM-V includes as part of its clinical definition the parameter that “to be diagnosed with pedophilia, the person must experience these symptoms for at least six months, and feel serious distress from the sexual urges and fantasies,” (Muller, 2016, p. 1). The distress pedophiles feel can be serious, making comorbidity with other psychological disorders, such as depression or anxiety disorders, a high likelihood. In fact, pedophilia has been associated with “agonizing self-hatred” and suicidal ideation (Muller, 2016). Treating pedophilia as a psychological disorder is an appropriate and sensible response.
Unfortunately, research on pedophilia is scant. Treatment interventions are also scarce, which increases the likelihood that some pedophiliacs might act on their urges, placing children in serious danger. It is crucial to remember that pedophiles are not inherently dangerous; their urges are not necessarily going to be translated into action. “The great majority of pedophiles may never offend against children, and choose to keep their attractions a secret,” (CBC Firsthand Productions, 2016). A pedophile is not a child molester; a child molester is also not necessarily a pedophile but just a sexual predator (CBC Firsthand Productions, 2016). Differentiating between pedophilia and child molestation is the most important first step towards improving prognosis for pedophiles, improving public health, and improving public safety and the welfare of children.
Prevalence
Because of measurement discrepancies and difficulties relying on self-reports, t is hard to know how many pedophiliacs there are in the general population or overall prevalence rates. Muller (2016) claims, “it is now believed that approximately 1 to 5 percent of men identify as a pedophile,” (p. 1). Population research substantiates the estimate of “0.5–1% lifetime prevalence in men,” (Poeppl, Eickhoff, Fox, et al, 2015, p. 2374). Research on the prevalence, types, and effects of stigmatization of people with pedophilia is in fact difficult to acquire in part because of stigma and reluctance to frankly address the taboo topic.
Support groups for pedophiles are mostly online affairs because of the shame, stigma and lack of established or formal social services. The online support group Virtuous Pedophile has over 1200 registered members (CBC Firsthand Productions, 2016). Both men and women can be pedophiles, but males are “far more likely than females to commit child sexual abuse,” (Pittaro, 2016, p. 301). Again due to stigma related to pedophilia, there are no precise numbers of the prevalence of pedophilia among adult women. As Pittaro (2016) points out, female pedophiles are “uncommon,” but being uncommon does not mean it is acceptable to ignore this small subset of the population and provide appropriate treatment intervention to reduce harm (p. 301).
Stigmatizing
References
Berlin, F.S. (2014). Pedophilia and DSM-V. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 42:404 –7, 2014. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.881.9053&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Carroll, J. (2015). Screw-turnizing the Governess’s touching story. Sigma Tau Delta Review 12(2015): 16-29. https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/36879703/review.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1519442786&Signature=4O3HxQm%2BiSNZrbwU90A1BrKxEzA%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_Horror_of_My_Other_Self_Transformat.pdf#page=16
Fazio, R.L., Dyshniku, F., Lykins, A.D., et al (2015). Leg length versus torso length in pedophilia. Sexual Abuse 29(5): 500-514.
Firsthand Productions (2016). I, Pedophile. CBC. http://www.cbc.ca/firsthand/features/four-misconceptions-about-pedophiles
Hall, R.C.W. & Hall, R.C.W. (2007). A profile of pedophilia. Mayo Clinical Proceedings 82(4): 457-471.
Harper, C.A., Bartels, R.M. & Hogue, T.E. (2016). Reducing stigma and punitive attitudes toward pedophiles through narrative humanization. Sexual Abuse, https://doi.org/10.1177/1079063216681561
Imhoff, R. & Jahnke, S. (2017). Determinants of Punitive Attitudes Toward People with Pedophilia: Dissecting Effects of the Label and Intentionality Ascriptions. Archieves of Sexual Behavior 47(2): 353-361.
Jahnke, S., Imhoff, R. & Hoyer, J. (2015). Stigmatization of people with pedophilia. Archives of Sexual Behavior 44(1): 21-34.
Muller, R.T. (2016). Non-offending pedophiles suffer from isolation. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/talking-about-trauma/201603/non-offending-pedophiles-suffer-isolation
Whitney, B. (2015). Facing disturbing truths about pedophilia could help us keep kids safer. Pacific Standard https://psmag.com/social-justice/facing-disturbing-truths-about-pedophilia-could-help-us-keep-kids-safer
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