Mind of a Pedophile

A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY: THE MIND OF A PEDOPHILE

Introduction

Pedophiles are known to be dangerous criminals who prey on young children. We will learn, through this paper, certain issues that revolve around pedophiles. We will also focus on the causes of this type of behavior through a psychological and social perspective. By the end of this paper, the reader should be able to understand the behavior of pedophiles from psychological and social perspectives.

Literature Review

The first problem with treating pedophilia is to understand just what it is. While all pedophiles seek sexual gratification with children, not all people who molest kids are true pedophiles. Often a child abuser acts less from genuine libidinousness than from rage, impulse or a simple desire to dominate another person. In such cases the urge can be satisfied by sexual behavior directed at anyone of any age (Kluger, 2002).

Some pedophiles where so sick in the head, they decided to form an association called NAMBLA, North American Man/Boy Love Association. Marnie Ko explains how two pedophiles who actually belong to this organization are trying to avoid prosecution. On October 1, 1997, Jeffrey Curley, 10, of East Cambridge, Massachusetts, was lured into a van by two men. They offered to help him search for his bicycle, which they themselves had stolen. Once he was inside the van, the men offered Jeffrey $50 and a new bicycle and then tried to rape him. He resisted and they beat him violently. Then Christopher Jaynes, a 250-pound-plus man who lived a block away from the Curley family, sat on Jeffrey, smothered him to death with a gasoline-soaked rag and raped his corpse. Jaynes, 25, and his homosexual lover, Salvatore Sicari, 24, both belonged to the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), a U.S.-based pedophile group which has demanded adult-child sex be legalized (Ko, 2002).

    Not all pedophiles are child abusers and most of them actually believe that the victims do not suffer. They are almost always men, but can be of any age and sexual orientation. More victimize girls than boys. They tend to live alone or with a parent, are often unemployed or in a low-paying job and have trouble forming adult relationships.

    They usually start having or fantasizing about sex with kids before they are 18. The American Psychiatric Association classifies pedophilia as a mental illness marked by "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children." The fantasies or behaviors must persist for at least six months, and their target must be no older than 13. Children are the exclusive focus of a pedophile's sexual interest, but he desires children for companionship, too (Begley and Nordland, 2001).

    Pedophiles' actions vary, according to the DSM-IV. Some pedophiles only look at and do not touch the child. Others want to touch or undress the child. Some expose themselves, but usually exhibitionists do not approach the child sexually. Some want to fondle the child. When sexual activity occurs, it often involves oral sex or touching the genitals of the child or of the perpetrator. In most cases (except incest), pedophiles do not require penetration. When the pedophile demands penetration, he may use threats or force. The victims in these cases are usually older children. Most pedophiles do not force their attentions on the child; they depend on persuasion, guile, and friendship (Murray, 2000).

    Pedophilia is a sexual orientation, just like heterosexuality or homosexuality. It involves a sexual attraction to children, with an erotic arousal pattern and fantasy life centered on them. For most pedophiles, their condition is a curse which can destroy their lives, sometimes leading to decades of imprisonment. At other times, it ruins their careers friendships and standings in the community (Musk, Swetz, and Vernon, 1997).

Research Methods

Many pedophiles and child molesters claim that they were sexually abused as children (Ames & Hovston, 1990; Finkelhor, 1980; Greenberg et al., 1993). The chart below shows the results of a national telephone survey of 2,626 randomly selected respondents (Finkelhor et al., 1990), who reported that they were victims of sexual abuse as children, 27% women and 17% men. Freund et al. (1990) explored the attribution of pedophilia to childhood sexual abuse by reviewing the self-reports of 344 men. Self-reports were compared with phallometric measurements of erotic preferences for gender and age. The subjects included 77 heterosexual pedophiles, 54 homosexual pedophiles, 57 nonpedophilic sex offenders, 36 offenders against physically mature women, 51 homosexuals who preferred adult males, and 75 heterosexuals who preferred physically mature women. Analysis of self-reports confirmed that some pedophiles had experienced sexual abuse by adults in childhood. A control group of those not accused or charged with sexual activity with children also had been abused sexually as children, but the differences in self-reports were relatively small (Murray, 2000).

Sixty to 80 percent of adult incarcerated pedophiles started acting on their pedophilia as juveniles. In fact, 30 to 50 percent of child molestations are perpetrated by juveniles, which speak to the problem faced in juvenile correction facilities. Corollary to these facts, about half of inmate pedophiles were, themselves, sexually abused as children (Musk, Swetz, and Vernon, 1997).

Several studies of pedophilia were conducted by Greenberg, Bradford, and Curry (1993) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, Canada. They studied 135 pedophiles who admitted to their offenses. Most pedophiles choose children 12 years old or younger as their victims. Among the perpetrators, 33% chose only boys, 44% chose only girls, and 23% had sexually abused both boys and girls, which is shown in the table below. In response to questioning, 42% of the pedophiles claimed to have been sexually abused in their own childhood. Members of both groups appeared to choose victims in accordance with their own ages at the time of their experience as sexual victims (Murray, 2000).

Demographic characteristics of victims of child sexual abuse, and subsequent perpetrators of abuse (risk and protection sample only):

Legend for Chart:

A - Characteristic

B - Non-abuser (n=83)

C - Victim-abuser (n=21)

D - p

       B                  C              D

Age at follow-up

            21.7          23.3

(years [mean, SD; range])

(2.8; 18.1-30.8)   (4.3; 18.1-32.2)      0.11

Age at time of referral

            10.7            10.7

(years [mean, SD; range])

 (3.0; 4.6-16.5)    (3.7; 5.0-19.3)      0.94

Ethnic group(*)

                                      0.47(a)

White

        42 (84%)           17 (94%)        ..

African-Caribbean

           3(6%)              1(6%)        ..

Asian

           1(2%)                  0        ..

>1 ethnic group

           4(8%)                  0        ..

Living arrangements at referral

                                         0.41

Family

        54 (65%)           11 (52%)        ..

Children's home

        15 (18%)            5 (24%)        ..

Foster home

        14 (17%)            5 (24%)        ..

Geographical location at referral

                                      0.13(b)

Greater London

        31 (37%)            8 (38%)        ..

Southeast England

        42 (51%)            7 (33%)        ..

Other parts of UK

        10 (12%)            6 (29%)        ..

On child protection register

        42 (51%)           12 (57%)      0.77

Special educational needs

        14 (17%)            5 (24%)      0.68

Received psychological treatment

        42 (51%)            8 (38%)      0.44

(*)Data missing for 33 non-abusers, three victim-abusers. (a)For the purpose of this calculation, ethnic origin was coded as a dichotomous variable (white/non-white) because of small cell sizes. (b)For the purpose of this calculation, living arrangements at referral was recoded as a dichotomous variable (living with family/not living with family) because of small cell sizes (Salter, McMillan, Richards, Talbot, Hodges, Bentovim, Hastings, Stevenson, Skuse, 2003).

Summary and Conclusions

The author of this paper managed to discuss certain issues pertaining to pedophiles and their behavior, throughout this paper. One of the most important strengths of this paper, is the abundance of information provided by the author. If further research is done on this topic the author may want to include the psychological and social aspects of the victim’s behavior, rather than just focusing on pedophiles. If people become more aware of their children’s surroundings, then there may be some way to get rid of these disgusting creatures, known as pedophiles.

References

Kluger, J. (2002).Why do they target kids? Time Magazine, 159, 37.

Murray, J.B. (2000). Psychological profile of pedophiles and child molesters. Journal of Psychology, 134, 211-225.

(Salter, D., McMillan, D., Richards, M., Talbot, T., Hodges, J., Bentovim, A., Hastings, R., Stevenson, J., & Skuse, D. (2003). Lancet, 361, 471-477.

Musk, H., Swetz, A., & Vernon, M. (1997). Pedophilia in the correctional system. Corrections Today, 59, 24-29.

Ko, M. (2002). Rape a child and avoid prosecution. Newsmagazine (National Edition), 29, 19.

Begley, S., & Nordland, R. (2001). What is a pedophile? Newsweek, 137, 48.

Last updated: 12/01/03