In 1970, a national survey said 70% of Americans believed “homosexuals are dangerous as teachers or youth leaders because they try to get sexually involved with children” (Herek). The idea that homosexuals are prone to child molestation has lessened in later years, however, another poll taken in 1999 stated 19% of heterosexual men and 10% of heterosexual women believed gay men are likely to molest children (Herek). Catholic officials are considering whether to ordain homosexuals as priests. This debate has been sparked by allegations, mostly by young boys and men, that priests sexual molested them. The Boy Scouts of America have declared homosexuals are not welcome in their organization, despite the fact that scoutmasters accused of molestation tend to be married. Fundamentalist Christians are determined to keep homosexuals away from children, claiming, “homosexuals molest children at a much higher rate than heterosexuals” (Traditional). This assertion is wrong, and an unfounded stereotype. Homosexuals are no more prone to child molestation than anyone else. In this paper, I will show the lack of a correlation between homosexuality and child molestation.
Note that this paper deals exclusively with homosexual and heterosexual men. This is because the research regarding sexual molestation perpetrated by women is not as fully developed, and women tend to make up an almost immeasurably small percentage of molesters at large.
Also note that I am using the term ‘child molester’ almost exclusively. This is because there is a difference between a pedophile and a child molester. Pedophilia is a psychological disorder in which a sexually mature adult is attracted, either preferentially or exclusively, to pre-pubescent childr...
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...attraction to underage persons. Archives of sexual behavior, 7 (3), 175-181.
Herek, Gregory M. “Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation.” 2002. Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy. Nov. 29, 2002.
“Homosexual Urban Legends: The Series” 2002. Traditional Values Coalition. Dec. 1, 2002.
Jenny, C., Roesler, T. A., & Poyer, K. L. (1994). Are children at risk for sexual abuse by homosexuals? Pediatrics, 94(1), 41-44.
Johnson, Nick “spatula”. “People who live in glass houses…” Nov. 2, 2001. morons.org. Nov. 30, 2002.
Lee, I. “How to Write a Bibliography: Examples in MLA Style.” Nov. 17, 2002. A Research Guide for Students. Dec. 2, 2002.
When a late adolescent or adult is primarily or exclusively attracted to a minor child sexually they become diagnosed with the psychiatric disorder pedophilia. Mostly a person is not diagnosed with this disorder unless they have had this attraction for six months or longer. This attraction can be in the form of fantasies which are sexually arousing to the perpetrator, or the urge to engage in sexual activities with a minor child. In addition, in order to be diagnosed the molester will have to have acted on these urges or suffered from some type of distress, which will be result from having these feelings. Also the molester should be at least sixteen years old with the victim being younger than them by a minimum of five years.
This study is about whether there is a correlation between physical and sexual abuse in adolescents becoming homosexual. Throughout past research there has been no direct correlation in stating is does cause adolescents to become homosexual. The event of someone changing their sexual identity is when they gone through some traumatic situation in their life. The tests we ran for this study are The Life Experience Questionnaire, The Lesbian Internalized Homophobic Scale, and The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire. This study is done to prove there is a correlation between physical and sexual abuse equaling homosexuality.
Burton, D. L. (2003). Male adolescents: Sexual victimization and subsequent sexual abuse. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 20(4), 277-296.
There have been a large number of studies that compared adults that had been sexually abused as well as adults that had not and what their differences were. What about the effects that child abuse has on Adults? This study purpose is to try and pinpoint the effects that psychosexual functioning in adults has on sexually abused children. During this study it got a closer look at how events of childhood sexual abuse effected psychosexual functioning, emotional, behavioral and evaluative after childhood. This article looks at the effect that childhood sexual abuse can have on an adult. It compares the different effects if the child tells someone when the attack happens or if they don’t what the long term effects could be. The questionnaire was given to find out which effect child abuse had on 165 different adults: fear of sex and guilt during sex, issues with physical touch, sexual arousal, and sexual satisfaction. First the characteristics of the adults have to be determined. They were looking and determine characteristics like age...
Finkelhor, D., Hotaling, G., Lewis, I., & Smith, C. (1990). Sexual abuse in a national survey of
Sexuality is defined in many ways, for the sake of this papers clarity sexuality will be defined as, sexual feelings and interactions that are defining features of romantic intimacy. (Fering 2009) Child sexual abuse (CSA) is defined in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences as "any [sexual] action that is inflicted upon or must be tolerated by a child against their own will or any [sexual] action about which the child cannot make a decision due to their physical, emotional, mental, and verbal inferiority." Statistics for the prevalence of CSA range from anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of women to 5 to 10 percent of men according to Deegener. (2002)
The essay by Peter J. Gomes, entitled �Homophobic? Read Your Bible,� can be analyzed in many ways. The essay discusses the issue of homosexuality as it relates to religion. The Baptist minister provides an unexpected approach to the subject. Mr. Gomes�s thesis statement in this essay is, �The army of the discontented, eager for clear villains and simple solutions and ready for a crusade in which political self-interest and social anxiety can be cloaked in morality, has found hatred of homosexuality to be the last respectable prejudice of the century� (�Homophobic� 414). This essay uses effective evidence to prove the thesis statement while also doing a good job of refuting opposing views.
The committee makes several recommendations in regards to changing the laws and legislations surrounding the incrimination of homosexuals for what had previously been considered sodomy. The basic premise being that “homosexual behaviour betwe...
Pedophilia is a medical diagnosis, which is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or older adolescents, ranging from ages 16 and older. Pedophilia is characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children, unusually ages 13 and under. The victim of a pedophile is usually at least five years younger in the case of adolescent pedophiles. The word pedophilia derives from the Greek word: παῖς (paîs), meaning "child," and φιλία (philla) meaning "friendly love" or "friendship. This literal meaning has been altered toward sexual attraction in modern times, under the titles "child love" or "child lover," by pedophiles who uses symbols and codes to identify their preferences.
Perrin, Ellen C., and Benjamin S. Siegel. "Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian." Pediatrics 131.4 (2013): 1374-383. PDF file.
Briggs, David., et al. Assessing Men Who Sexually Abuse. United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsly Publishers, 1998.
Homosexuality was once considered a mental illness which lead to attempts to “cure” it. One of the main theories of homosexuality is that it stems from deviant behavior experienced in childhood. Some men develop homosexual attractions due to a bad relationship with a distant father or in response to childhood molestation (Shapio 5). While some homosexual attractions have been caused by these issues, most homosexuals have not been exposed to molestation or family issues. One of the methods to cure homosexuality is conversion therapy. Conversion therapy consists of a variety of methods, both physical and psychological. Some of these methods include praying away the gay, electroconvulsive therapy, hypnosis, and drugs (“11 Ridiculous” 1). There are many camps which are designed for conversion therapy but many of their practices remain secret. There is little information to be found online regarding these camps because they realize that they are behaving inappropriately so they hide their acts. In the 1980s, homosexuality was determined to have a biological cause; this created two sides – supporters of conversion therapy and its detractors (Friedman 1).
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice found that 4% of all priests who had served in the US from 1950 to 2002 had allegations of child sexual abuse made against them (John Jay College, 2004; Terry, 2008). Most victims were male and older in age compared to victims in the general population (Terry and Ackerman, 2008).The John Jay College study of child sexual abuse in the US Catholic Church found that 81% of the victims of abuse were male. Richard Sipe, a leading expert on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, reported that of the priests with a tendency to abuse young children, about three-quarters had a preference for abusing boys. The gender preference was more equal among the group of priests who targeted adolescents (Sipe, 1995: 27). Rossetti, (1995) reported on the results of a questionnaire that was sent to more than 7000 adults. Of the 25% that responded, most of the people who completed the questionnaire were either priests, nuns or actively involved in the Catholic Church. 3.3% of the men said that they had been sexually abused by a priest before the age of 18, and 1.7% of the women reported being a...
Zieve, David, Juhn, Greg, and Eltz, David R. "Child Abuse-Sexual." New York Times. N.p., 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
D’Augelli, A.R. (1998). Developmental implications of victimization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths. In G.M. Herek (Ed.), Stigma and sexual orientation: Understanding prejudice against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (pp.187-210). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.