Introduction to male homosexual attraction to minors

This site uses the phrase male homosexual attraction to minors to refer to feelings of sexual attraction that some men have for underage boys.

• Some of these men are primarily attracted to boys who have not yet entered puberty, while others are mainly attracted to adolescent boys.¹
• Some are primarily or exclusively attracted to underage boys, while others are also attracted to underage girls, adult women, and/or adult men.²
• According to researchers, these feelings for boys frequently also include feelings of affection and being "in love".³
• The phrase "male homosexual attraction to minors" as used by this site does not necessarily indicate sexual activity with boys, but rather feelings of attraction.

Not exactly, although different groups of people use the term pedophilia differently.

• In North America, pedophilia is defined by scientists as the presence of enduring preferential feelings of sexual attraction only for children (boys or girls) who have not yet reached puberty.⁴
• The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders defines pedophilia as "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children" where the adult has "acted on these sexual urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies caused marked distress or interpersonal difficulty."⁵
• Scientists call preferential attraction to boys or girls who have entered puberty ephebophilia or hebephilia.⁶ These terms do not appear at all in DSM.

Male homosexual attraction to minors includes both pedophilia and ephebophilia in those cases in which men are attracted to boys. However, it is important to keep in mind that it includes feelings of attraction even when they have not been acted upon and do not cause distress or interpersonal difficulty.

Pedophilia and ephebophilia are not the same as child molestation.

• Scientists classify people as pedophiles and ephebophiles based on psychological criteria -- their sexual feelings for children or adolescents -- rather than legal criteria (whether or not they have engaged in sexual activity with a child or adolescent).⁷
• Child molesters, sex offenders against minors, and child sex abusers are classified as such based on legal criteria -- the violation of laws prohibiting sexual activity with a person under the legally-defined age of consent.
• Pedophiles and ephebophiles may or may not act on their sexual feelings. There is evidence that many abstain from sex with minors, but it is unknown how many do so.⁸
• Several studies show that a majority of child molesters are not preferentially attracted to children, and therefore are not pedophiles.⁹ They often engage in sex with children because of situational factors such as marital problems, alcoholism, or unavailability of adults.¹⁰

Thus, many child molesters are not pedophiles or ephebophiles, and an unknown number of pedophiles and ephebophiles are not child molesters. Child molestation and sex offenses are crimes. Pedophilia and ephebophilia are not.

Surprisingly, research does not support common perceptions of pedophiles.

• Studies of personality characteristics of pedophiles and ephebophiles have failed to find any evidence of elevated levels of aggression or any other particular personality profile.¹¹
• According to research, some men preferentially attracted to boys refrain from sexual activity, and many interact with them in non-sexual ways, sometimes developing close relationships with them.¹²
• Studies have found that even those who do engage in sexual activity with boys often do so with the boy’s apparent willingness or initiative. According to some researchers, the interaction may resemble a "love affair" in that the man desires a "consenting" sexual relationship, has affectionate feelings for the boy, and will stop if the boy resists.¹³
• Both non-criminological and criminological studies of pedophiles and ephebophiles who have engaged in sexual activity with children have found that the most frequent activities are cuddling, caressing, fondling, and masturbation. Violence, force, and aggression are rare.¹⁴

Findings that aggression, force, and violence are rare among minor-attracted adults seem to contradict media and police reports. There are three reasons for this.

• Because non-violent adult-minor sexual interactions often take the form of sex play or are part of affectionate relationships, children and adolescents may experience them pleasantly and may be less likely to report them than are those who experience violence or coercion.¹⁵
• Although aggressive attacks are rare, they receive much more attention from the media.¹⁶
• Because society agrees that children and adolescents cannot meaningfully consent to sex with adults, such interactions are seen as inherently coercive.¹⁷ Thus, by definition, they are considered to be violent and aggressive regardless of the boy’s willingness, his perception of the situation, the emotional context of the interaction, or the amount of actual violence in a literal sense.¹⁸ That is, terms such as abuse, attack, assault, victimization, and exploitation are often used by police and the public not literally, but rather as a reference to an ethical, moral, or legal violation.¹⁹

The American Psychiatric Association's DSM says that pedophilia involves "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors."²⁰ However, no studies have been conducted to determine whether attraction to minors is more recurrent and intense than normal sexual attraction to adults.

A handful of researchers have examined the thoughts and feelings of men attracted to boys:²¹

• They report that these men find both personality and physical traits of underage boys attractive, such as curiosity, spontaneity, gentleness, warmth, enthusiasm, honesty, affection, smooth skin, attractive eyes, and slim stature.
• They have found that many of these men desired to give love, and affection to the boys, and indicated that a sense of emotional contact was as important as, or more important than, sexual activity.
• Some men believed that their sexual feelings were a natural, innate part of their constitution.²²

This has led some researchers to conclude that the feelings and fantasies of pedophiles and ephebophiles resemble those of normal heterosexual men’s feelings toward women.²³

On the other hand, providers of sex offender treatment work under the assumption that pedophilia and ephebophilia can be treated by relapse prevention methods adopted from the field of addiction recovery.²⁴

This is unknown. According to one study of sexual attraction, most men are sexually attracted to minors, but less intensely than they are attracted to adults.²⁵ Estimates of the number who are preferentially attracted to boys come from criminological studies or speculation.

• Criminological estimates range from 0.1% to 0.5%. This puts the number of such men in the U.S. roughly between 100,000 and 500,000.²⁶ However, these studies are highly unreliable since no one knows how many such men never act on their feelings, or if they do, how many are never reported.²⁷
• Based on a theory that attraction to minor males has a hormonal basis, Jay Feierman of the University of New Mexico predicts that 7% to 10% of men are preferentially attracted to underage boys, but believes that many of them can suppress their feelings in favor of those toward adults. If correct, this would mean that there are about 7 to 10 million such men in the U.S.²⁸

The cause of adult attraction to minors is unknown; in fact, the development of normal heterosexual and homosexual attraction to adults is not understood.²⁹ A large number of theories involving psychoanalysis, hormonal influences, genetics, evolutionary processes, negative socialization, poor parental relationships, and childhood sexual experiences have been proposed, but most have not been tested scientifically, and none are supported by reliable evidence.³⁰

In particular, there is no evidence to support the common belief that sexual attraction to children or adolescents in adulthood is due to childhood sexual abuse,³¹ or to narcissism, psychosexual immaturity, low intelligence, aversion to adults, psychopathology, neurosis, or any personality disorder. Relationships between these characteristics and minor-attraction have been assumed to exist, rather than being tested scientifically.³²

The sexual attraction to prepubescent children is believed to first appear during adolescence.

• Two researchers have found evidence that pedophilia may be predetermined before puberty.³³
• Criminological literature shows that some juvenile sex offenders are preferentially attracted to prepubescent children.³⁴

There is no literature on the appearance of ephebophilia, and there are no non-criminological studies of the development of pedophilia or ephebophilia among youth. As a result, no information is available about the characteristics or behavior of these children or adolescents in the general population, or of effective ways to help them.³⁵

When a boy is suspected of interacting sexually with a younger child, he is often arrested and placed in family therapy and/or adult-style sex offender treatment that may involve aversion therapy (or related behavioral methods), cognitive restructuring, relapse prevention approaches, and/or sex-drive reducing drugs.³⁶

The most common type of treatment available is sex offender treatment provided by clinics and university departments that work in concert with the criminal justice system. Since most participants are offenders whose attendance is court mandated, the approach is adversarial rather than therapeutic.³⁷ The singular purpose of sex-offender treatment is to prevent re-offending and involves the following components:³⁸

• Reduction of sexual attraction to minors is attempted through behavioral methods such as aversion therapy, developed in the 1930's to eliminate homosexuality. The goal is to associate attraction to minors with boredom, revulsion, fear, shame, or physical pain.
• Plethysmographs (devices connected to the genitals) and polygraphs (lie detectors) are used to monitor sexual feelings and behavior.
• Cognitive and relapse prevention methods are used to change incorrect thinking, eliminate or control aggressive attitudes and urges, develop social skills, and teach concepts about sexuality.
• Sex-drive reducing drugs may be administered.

Studies of the effectiveness of behaviorial methods to change sexual feelings suffer from serious methodological flaws, and have led to inconsistent results. The few well-constructed studies have found little evidence that they are effective.³⁹

An alternative for those who voluntarily seek treatment is provided by independent sexual addiction recovery programs. They operate on the belief that minor-attraction is one type of addiction, and often use 12-step programs modeled on alcohol addiction recovery. These programs attempt to help members learn to control their sexual feelings, avoid temptation, and/or develop appropriate relationships with adults. MHAMic was unable to locate published studies on their effectiveness.

Finally, there are a small number of therapists and counselors who describe approaches which attempt to address issues of self-understanding, the development of a positive self-concept, the maintenance of healthy relationships, and the discovery of ways of coping with one’s sexuality and society’s reaction to it.⁴⁰ There are no published studies on their effectiveness.

Research on the effects of adult-minor sexual activity yields contradictory and surprising results. This is because it often fails to distinguish among very different types of experiences:⁴¹

• coerced activity and unwanted advances, vs. mutually desired interaction (both recreational sex and ongoing sexual relationships)
• various kinds of contact, from touching or kissing to genital stimulation to intercourse
• varieties of non-contact interaction, including exhibitionism, viewing of pornography, and verbal propositioning

Thus, results of studies vary widely depending on definitions used, as well as on the group of people studied, and on the extent to which other factors are considered:⁴²

• Studies find some sexually abused boys suffer from a wide range of serious social, psychological, sexual, and school problems.
• Studies that mix willing sexual activity and non-contact incidents with coerced contact tend to show less frequent harm.
• Studies of those identified by therapists or police as victims of sexual abuse (clinical and criminological studies) tend to show more extensive and serious harm.
• Many non-clinical studies find the majority of boys are unharmed.

Researchers seem to agree that there is no set of reactions that is a single inevitable outcome of adult-minor sexual interaction, such as some sort of personality disorder. Negative outcomes seem to be associated with the following:⁴³

• coercion (particularly if the boy seems willing but is in fact not)
• negative feelings about the interaction
• invasiveness and duration
• sex-negative attitudes
• emotional, unsupportive, or judgmental adult reactions

Researchers agree that the state of understanding of sexual attraction to minors is poor.

• Cultural, political, and legal obstacles prevent the study of minor-attracted men who have not been convicted of a crime. Thus, most studies are based on criminal samples of convicted offenders who are not representative of the general population.⁴⁴
• Several researchers have written that the development of a knowledge base is hampered by narrow conceptual perspectives, poor methodology, and imprecise or inconsistent definitions.⁴⁵
• Scientists have also noted that conclusions often result from biased methodology based on moral beliefs rather than scientific principles.⁴⁶