Pedophilia and the Nature-Nurture Controversy

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.
As early as 1285 anno domini, rape was punishable by death in England (Racquel Blacher, 1995). During the reign of William the Conqueror, punishment for rape was restricted to castration and blinding; however, when Henry III rose to power, he reintroduced the death penalty (William ...

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Davis, Kent F., Cruel and Unusual Punishment for Whom? Advocating the Imposition of Penile Plethysmography and Chemical Castration as Conditions of Supervised Release for Habitual Child Sex Offenders (April 18, 2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2041769 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2041769
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