Pedophilia, which is defined as the sexual attraction to children who have not yet reached puberty, remains a vexing challenge for both clinicians and public officials. Part of this challenge stems from the fact that not all pedophiles are child molesters (or vice versa). Child molesters are defined by their sexual actions to children, whereas pedophiles are defined by their sexual desires for children. Essentially, one can be a pedophile without ever coming in contact with a child, and likewise, acts of sexual abuse can be committed by ordinary people not generally attracted to children. This topic brings up the question of whether pedophilia should be considered a legal issue or a mental health issue. Yes, the acts pedophiles commit on children …show more content…
Much like one’s sexual orientation, pedophilia is unlikely to change. People do not choose to be attracted to children or adults any more than they choose to be attracted to males or females. In the very early stages of fetal development, the brain of the fetus will either develop in the male direction due to a direct effect of testosterone on the developing neurons, or it will develop in the female direction due to the absence of such a testosterone surge (Bao & Swad, 2010). In regards to pedophiles, studies have shown that there is genetic involvement in pedophilia. Researchers wanted to look at which specific parts of the brain distinguish pedophilic from non-pedophilic men. Pedophiles were found to have lower volumes of gray matter in the ventral striatum compared to both homosexual and heterosexual subjects. Furthermore, they were also found to have smaller volumes of their hypothalamus, amygdala, septal regions, and substantia innominate. Finally, they found that pedophiles have lower white matter volumes of the superior frontooccipital fasciculus. White matter is the cabling that connects the different parts of the brain together and enables people to react appropriately to people and situations (Cantor, Christensen, Zipursky, Barbaree, & Dickey, 2008). Therefore, when there is a lack of this white …show more content…
The best way to fight this problem is by focusing on the cause of pedophilia. Pedophiles are responsible for molesting 88% of the children that are victims of sexual abuse (Abel & Harlow, 2001). By looking at the research support, I think that pedophilia is more of a mental health issue than a legal issue. One reason may be that being labeled a pedophile in itself is not a legal issue. Rather, it is the impulses that pedophiles act upon that make it illegal. It is more difficult to find research support when not all pedophiles are acting on their urges. However, it is easier to examine the physical differences in the brain that provide evidence that pedophilia is a mental disorder. This should be more of a focus in our society because we can help treat the mental illness, which would ultimately reduce the amount of children harmed. If pedophiles were given treatment to help reduce their desire to act upon their sexual urges, then less incidents of child molestation would occur. Our society should be establishing an environment where pedophiles can come in and receive either therapy or medication that would lower their sex drive. By focusing on the mental health issues of pedophilia and increasing treatment options, it will lead to a decrease of sex crime rates in the future. This research provides evidence that there is an association between
Could you imagine how children must feel when they are abused by someone that is supposed to love and protect them, and nothing is done to help them? For this reason, it is important to realize there are legislative laws protecting child abusers from hate crimes, and excuses certain people from mandated reporting abuse. In fact, almost five children die every day as a result of abuse. Also, money is spent to convict and imprison child abusers which could be put towards programs that help people to recognize and prevent abuse. Children are the future; therefore, it is important for them to grow up in an environment they can thrive, feel safe and free from harm. After all, as the old saying “It takes a village to raise a child” stands true to this day. Now is the time for everyone to put forth the extra effort to create ways to bring child abuse, a growing epidemic to an end. As responsible citizens it is the duty to report when child abuse is suspected, create laws that
Our text describes pedophilia as a person who “gains sexual gratification by watching, touching, or engaging in sexual acts with prepubescent children, usually 13 years old or younger” (Comer, 2013, p. 411). The movie, The Woodsman describes the story of a convicted sex offender recently released from prison. Walter, depicted by Kevin Bacon shed some insight into the motivations and thought processes that a sex offender, specifically a pedophile might have.
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...
It is a common stereotype that all sex offenders have some form of psychopathy, and therefore they cannot be treated, however most sexual offenders do not have major mental illness or psychological maladjustment (Ward, Polaschek and Busch, 2006), therefore it is not impossible to treat them. Finkelhor’s (1984) precondition model was made with the assumption that the psychopathology of an individual will only take us so far in explaining sexually abusive behaviour, Finkelhor states that 4 stages of preconditions must exist before sexual abuse can take place, these are; Primary motivation to abuse a child sexually, overcoming of internal and external inhibitions and dealing with a child’s resistance to sexual abuse, for each subsequent precondition to occur the previous one must be achieved. Finkelhor argues th...
The term sex offender is generically used to describe someone who has been convicted of crimes involving sex, and these crimes include rape, molestation, sexual harassment, and pornography production and distribution. A sexual offender usually differs from a sexual predator because sexual predators usually seek to obtain sexual contact with another person in a methodically “predatory” manner. There are also pedophiles, and they are a categorically distinct form of sexual offenders, as their crimes are geared toward children. Also, they are considered to be sexual deviants. Pedophilia itself is defined as “a sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object.” There has been many cases in the news about pedophiles and pedophilia. In Canada, there was Cecilia Zhang, who was kidnapped and murdered by Min Chen, a Chinese national who was in the country as a student. More recently, in the United States, Ariel Castro was convicted of kidnapping and raping three young girls; Georgina “Gina” DeJesus, Amanda Berry, and Michelle Knight. How can we explain pedophilic tendencies? Are pedophiles born that way or are they conditioned to be that way? There is no definite answer, but there are arguments to support both sides of this statement. This essay seeks to demonstrate that there are both biological and environmental factors that can influence a pedophile’s behaviour, and there are various ways in which they are assessed and treated.
Have you ever asked the question, how we know if a pedophile or sex offender can ever be cured or rehabilitated. Would I be comfortable with them living in my neighborhood? If you have you are just like the rest of the world. Pedophilia is a true illness, and not just in my opinion it also in the DSMIV 302.2. We may never truly be comfortable with the thought that researchers say Pedophiles can not be cured, but they can be rehabilitated in time with and they have test to prove it,
According to biblical texts, in the beginning, God created the first man, Adam and made him a woman, Eve. He gave Adam a woman, not a man, so that the human race can maintain a man/woman relationship. For thousands of years homosexuality has been misconduct or in the church’s case, sin. We are continuously beset with this controversial topic and have since reached a point where homosexuality is more open and more accepted than ever. Now, gay men and women fight for the right to be legally married in the United States. In Christianity, marriage is a lifelong commitment under God and many Christians believe this is a “major sin.” However, no matter the relation of man and woman or man and man, Homosexuals should be allowed to have a lifelong
The Central Administration Committee for Pedophilia by the NVSH in 1973 decided to send out a questionnaire to try to learn about the various aspects of pedophilia itself and the composition of the group (Bernard, 1975). The questions asked concerned personal things such as age, education, etc, questions concerning their pedophilia, questions on substitutes to help combat the problem, and finally questions concerning conflicts with society and the criminal justice system. Most of the people participating in the questionnaire were under 40. This is surprising due to the image the criminal justice and media points out for us. We typically tend to see a man who is much older than 40 who is senile. Ninety percent of pedophiles were found to be unmarried and with no children. Their job profiles also varied widely from office jobs to academic professions. Overwhelming, when going back to the diagnosis criteria about when to diagnose someone with pedophilic disorder we usually do not diagnose someone in adolescence due to puberty. In the questionnaire, those with the disorder realized their disorder between the ages of 10 and 20 years old. This is shocking to the fact that at the age of ten they have not gone through puberty and many do not know what sex is. Most children have homorelationships as friends, aka girls think boys are gross. They grow out of this once they hit puberty. This question brings into question how much research should be done on adolescence to inquire about when pedophilia really can begin. What is even more shocking and brings into question more research, is the fact that the age when individuals had their first pedophile contact with a child was between the ages of 11 and 20 years old. Eleven years old is pretty young to even know about sex and sexual connotations. The ages of which individuals were most interested in varied. The highest percentage was those in puberty, ages
Are we bothered by the fact that in the current social climate, the rights of convicted pedophiles are routinely violated and nobody cares. Rules of evidence are stretched, and terms of punishment are increased. The danger of this precedent is impossible to ignore.
The public does not know how to adequately and appropriately respond to rape because usually when these incidents occur, typically perpetrated by men victimizing women, society tends to blame the survivor, while excusing and justifying the attacker. This almost always occurs when the perpetrator is a white, upper class male, seen in the most recent case with the rapist from Harvard who was only sentenced to six months in jail for raping an unconscious woman. Rapists of color are typically given longer sentences than white rapists, while sometimes, many of these rapists do not serve any time in jail nor are charged for their crime. Rape can happen by women to men, women to other women, and by men towards other men, but because of the unbalanced power dynamics that leave women hierarchically inferior to men, they are most often the victims to these social superiors.
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 essay will discuss the many different types of sex offenses that are considering a crime. It will then talk about some of the historical sexual offenders laws that have shaped society as a whole. It will also define the role religion plays on the emergence of new Sex offender’s laws that we have in contemporary societies. And finally talk about the emergence of some currents sex offenses laws we have in our nation.
“Stolen people, stolen dream” is the brutality faced by numerous, vulnerable, gullible children in the black market around the world even in the admirable United States. Trafficking of children is the modern day slavery, the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. More than ever, it has become a lucrative method that is trending in the underground economy. A pimp can profit up to $150,000 per children from age 4-12 every year, as reported by the UNICEF. Also, according to the International Labor Organization statistics, “There are 20.9 million victim of human trafficking globally, with hundreds of thousands in the United
There are so many things that I have never found really interesting to me or at least something that could make me want to try and change it. I still don’t understand why people want to hurt kids. This is not something that should be a norm in our culture, but it is. This should be changed instead of just letting it happen sure it is going to be hard to charge, but there are still things that we can do to help kids that have gone through it and their parents. It also does depend on who abused them then they can go to jail. There are still things that we do not have a real understanding as to what sexual abuse is in general. It is not a well-known topic unless some has been abused. We assume that the victim is to blame them for what happened to them, but it is not their fault. We blame people because we do not want to see the perpetrator as the one who should be in trouble. In this case we do not have the knowledge as to what sexual abuse really is. The definition of sexually abuse is a sex act that is non-consensual and this could be anything. This does not mean that consensual sex is
The glamorous side of sex is everywhere; music, tv shows, movies and social media. To a mature adult, it is easy to ignore the sexual messages in those outlets. However, to a teenager, going through mental and physical changes and peer pressure, it is extremely easy to fall for what is shown to “cool.” Everyone has fallen for half truths to be cool in their teenage life. It just so happens that teen pregnancies and STDs are not one of those things that one can simply walk away from. Babies and STDs leave a lasting effect on everyone involved. The National Conference of State Legislatures states: