7. How many men are attracted to underage boys?

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

• For more information, see the section on this site about prevalence.