Essay On Pedophilia

The prevalence of pedophiles, or those attracted to young children, is believed to be roughly 5% of the U.S. population (Seto, 2009). The relationships formed with children by these pedophilic individuals may seem beneficial to the perpetrators; however, the young victims are scarred for life. Abused children face short and long-term problems including anxiety, fear, anger, depression, shame, and poor self-esteem (Murray, 2000). The best way for society to counteract these detrimental side affects is to tackle the offenders. However, current treatments for pedophilia have been far from helpful, some of which include psychotherapy, behavior therapy, surgery, and medication (Berlin & Krout, 1994; Repique, 1999). While some of these treatments are effective, they are also unethical. In addition, of those that can be used, very few keep the recidivism rates down. Booxbaum and Burton (2013) discovered that only 70% of participants had attempted to stop, decrease, or slow down their sexual abuse towards children and only 56% of those individuals were able to stop temporarily. However, if the origin of pedophilia is correctly identified, treatments can be refined in order for them to be more effective rather than focusing on changing sexual preferences (Seto, 2012). To begin truly understanding the etiology of pedophilia, the characteristics of this first must be addressed.

Defining Pedophilia

Pedophilia is commonly defined as sexual attraction to prepubescent children, within the age range of 13 years or younger, with no attraction to adults (Seto, 2012; Murray, 2000). Within the U.S., an adult having sexual contact with a minor is illegal (Seto, 2004). However, pedophilia can be seen across cultures all well as throughout history. In...

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... and bisexual pedophiles reported having a later birth order compared to that of heterosexual pedophiles. This association has also been addressed by Langevin et al. (2007) in a population of 1,823 paraphilic males. Langevin et al. (2007) concluded that homosexual and bisexual pedophiles report a higher birth order to that of heterosexual pedophiles. In general, sexual offenders and paraphilics, or individuals interested in exhibitionism, pedophilia, transvestitism, and androphilia, reported larger families as well as more siblings (Langevin et al., 2007). Langevin et al. (2007) concluded that birth order is not only applicable to homosexual men, but to paraphilic individuals as well. Bogaert et al. (1997) and Langevin et al. (2007) successfully linked age-preference and sexual orientation to birth order and provided substantial evidence to the biological etiology.