Facts:
- Psychologists classify people as pedophiles or ephebophiles on the basis of their feelings, not their actions. They are people who have enduring preferential feelings of sexual attraction for pre-pubescent children or adolescents, respectively.1
- They 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.2
- On the other hand, people are classified as child molesters based on their behavior, usually according to legal criteria. They are people who have interacted sexually with a person under the legally-defined age of consent.
- A large number of studies show that a majority of child molesters are not preferentially attracted to prepubescent children or adolescents, and therefore are not pedophiles or ephebophiles.3 Many engage in sex with children because of situational factors such as marital problems, alcoholism, or unavailability of adults.4
Child molestation is a crime. Pedophilia and ephebophilia are not.
Facts:
- Studies of personality characteristics through the use of psychological assessments, such as the MMPI, on average have found low levels of aggression among both pedophiles and offenders against minors.5
- Some pedophiles and ephebophiles refrain from sexual activity with boys. Research shows that many interact with boys in a variety of non-sexual ways and sometimes develop close relationships with them.6
- Researchers who have examined the thoughts and feelings of men attracted to boys report that many find emotional contact as important as, or more important than, sexual activity. Researchers say their feelings and fantasies resemble those of normal heterosexual men’s regarding women.7
- Both non-criminological and criminological studies of pedophiles who have engaged in sexual activity with children have found that the activity resembles sex play rather than sexual assault. It often occurs with the boy’s apparent willingness or initiative, and frequently resembles a "love affair." An overwhelming number of studies show consistently that violence, force, and aggression are rare.8
Researchers write:
Glenn D. Wilson, University of London Institute of Psychiatry, and David N. Cox, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia:
Our results are also consistent with previous findings in failing to discover any obvious links between paedophilia and aggressive or psychotic symptoms. The majority of paedophiles, however socially inappropriate, seem to be gentle and rational.9
Paul Okami, Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles:
Virtually all research in this field, including studies by the victimologists under discussion, documents the low incidence of violence or forceful coercion in cases of adult human sexual behavior with children and adolescents.10
Facts:
- No studies of pedophiles or ephebophiles outside of the criminal justice system have been conducted to examine this assumption.
- Even among sex offenders against minors, only a minority experienced childhood sexual contact with an adult.
- Most minors who experience sex with adults do not grow up to have sex with minors.11
Researchers write:
Randall J. Garland and Michael J. Dougher, Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico:
The available evidence indicates that...sexual contact with an adult during childhood or adolescence is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of adult sexual interest in children or adolescents...The abused/abuser hypothesis--the belief that sexual behavior between adults and children or adolescents causes those children and adolescents, as adults, to become sexually involved with other children and adolescents--is inadequate and incorrect...the so-called "abused/abuser hypothesis" is simplistic and misleading.12
Facts:
- One researcher has found evidence that pedophilia may be predetermined before puberty.13
- Criminological literature shows that some juvenile sex offenders are preferentially attracted to prepubescent children.14
Researchers write:
Jay Feierman, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico:
Materials, as well as interested and compassionate professionals and nonprofessionals, are available to an adolescent or a young-adult male who is personally dealing with his homosexuality. These resources simply are not available in most Western industrialized societies for an adolescent or a young-adult male who is dealing with a preferential sexual attraction to children or younger adolescents.15
Facts:
There is no evidence to support the common belief that sexual attraction to children or adolescents in adulthood is related to fixation at an immature stage of development or aversion to adults:16
- The theory that pedophiles and ephebophiles fear adult sexuality has not been investigated scientifically, but rather assumed as the only reason a man would interact sexually with a child or adolescent. Pedophiles and ephebophiles may simply lack interest in adult women rather than fear them.
- Similarly, the belief that pedophiles are psychosexually immature has not been studied scientifically, but assumed based on the types of behaviors in sexual encounters between adults and prepubescent children. Research shows it usually involves exhibitionism, fondling, and/or masturbation rather than intercourse.
Researchers write:
Theodorus Sandfort, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands:
Psychiatric literature has played an important role in establishing this misconception: in it one reads that pedophilia occurs in regressive personalities who are frightened of sexual contact with women and have not sufficient social skills to be able to get along with adults. Such stereotyping is completely without empirical support. There is no research which justifies any kind of type-casting of "the" pedophile, assuming such research would even be possible.17
Facts:
- The few studies that have actually addressed personality pathology among pedophiles and ephebophiles have suffered from numerous methodological problems, including the use of prison or clinical samples, basing conclusions on scales that have not been validated, or including incorrectly reported data.21
- One well-conducted study was unable to find any particular personality profile for pedophiles.22
- Two British researchers found pedophiles and ephebophiles to be on average slightly higher in their levels of psychoticism and neuroticism, but no more so than members of several occupational groups including actors, architects, doctors, and students. They concluded that pedophiles and ephebophiles show no sign of clinically significant psychopathy or thought disorder. Based on an extensive review of the literature, two UCLA researchers came to the same conclusion.23
Researchers write:
Paul Okami and Amy Goldberg, Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles:
Surprisingly little clinically significant pathology of any sort has been found among these groups...Our findings are consistent with those of Langevin...that "None of the commonly held hypotheses were supported."24
Facts:
Child sexual abuse is not a syndrome or illness, but rather an event. Furthermore, it is defined by the law, not by psychological science. As a result, a wide variety of incidents are defined as sexual abuse, and they may bear little resemblance to each other.
- In many jurisdictions, sexual abuse need not involve contact; e.g., exhibitionism, displaying pornography, or verbal propositioning.25
- By law, sexual activity involving an adult and someone under a certain age is defined as sexual abuse regardless of the willingness of the younger person.26
- By law, sexual abuse also includes willing sexual activity among adolescents or children who differ sufficiently in age (usually by 2 to 5 years depending on the jurisdiction) or size.27
- Researchers and clinicians vary in their definitions of sexual abuse because they may or may not adhere to criteria determined by laws and social norms in their locations.28
Thus, different children and adolescents found to be sexually abused may have experienced very different events:29
- They may have experienced coerced sexual activity or unwanted advances. On the other hand, they may have experienced mutually desired interaction with adults, or with children or adolescents who were older or larger.
- They may have experienced recreational sex, or an ongoing sexual relationship. One study suggests that over 80% of activities classified as abuse may be consensual.30
- The activity may have been limited to touching or kissing, or may have included genital stimulation, or may have involved intercourse.
- It may have been limited to exhibitionism, consensual viewing of pornography, verbal propositioning, or some other non-contact event.
Children identified as sexually abused are similar to each other only in that they have been exposed to sexual behavior deemed to be inappropriate, socially unacceptable, or harmful.31
As a result, there is no set of reactions that is a single inevitable outcome of what is called child sexual abuse. There is no particular identifying syndrome or set of symptoms, such as multiple personality disorder or borderline personality disorder.32
Facts:33
- Studies find some, but not all, boys suffer from a wide range of serious social, psychological, sexual, and school problems.
- Studies that mix willing activity and non-contact incidents with coerced contact tend to show less frequent and less intense 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.
- Some clinical and 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:34
- 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 write:
Thomas D. Oellerich, Department of Social Work, Ohio University:
The notion that child sexual abuse is a "destroyer" of mental health has been based largely on studies involving clinical samples. But even these, if objectively considered, indicated that child sexual abuse is neither necessarily nor usually psychologically harmful. That is, for the vast majority child sexual abuse is not a "destroyer" of mental health at any age...the widespread belief that child sexual abuse necessarily and usually causes psychological damage is a myth.35
Facts:
Researchers disagree on the the prevalence of sexual abuse. Estimates for boys range from 1% to 30%. Variations are due to several factors:36
- differing definitions of abuse
- reliance on retrospective reports by adults whose accuracy depends on the reliability of respondents' memories
- varying ways of framing questions which affect how respondents decide whether their experiences constitute abuse
Definitions of abuse are usually very broad:37
- They define youth in middle to late adolescence as children.
- They define as abuse kissing and non-contact experiences such as exhibitionism, suggestive remarks, consensual viewing of pornography, and verbal propositioning.
- They include consensual sexual relationships with someone over 18, or with an older child or adolescent, regardless of the nature of the interaction.
Some scientists have written that this leads to inflated and shocking estimates of the prevalence of abuse, and misleads the public into believing that all incidents are similar to the rape of young children.38
Researchers write:
David M. Fergusson, Christchurch School of Medicine, and Paul E. Mullen, Monash University:
The popular rendition of the literature on CSA has frequently resulted in trite conclusions that are chanted like sacred mantras about the proportion of children who are sexually abused. However, underlying these trite and perhaps socially convenient claims, there is a complex body of evidence that is both highly variable and by no means easy to interpret. Reducing this evidence to claims that one in four (or whatever fraction of) children is subject to sexual abuse conceals the very real uncertainties, debates, and issues that surround this evidence.39