I am thinking specifically of adult men preying on pre-pubescent girls, if distinctions matter.
Anyway, is there any consensus in the scientific community about what causes this? Genetics? Traumatic experience in childhood?
I am pretty sure that “being sexually abused as a child” is a factor, but I would think that was more of a causation factor in terms of male-on-male abuse. I’m specifically interested in the causes of grown men abusing girls (not teenagers, children) because I just found out a relative of mine was guilty of this.
On the TED radio hour podcast there was a story about a man who had brain surgery for epilepsy. Following the surgery, he began buying and watching child porn (among other major changes to his personality). A doctor defended him in court by saying the brain surgery caused the behavior, and pointed to studies on monkeys who had similar areas of their brains removed. In those studies, the monkeys sometimes became hypersexual following the procedure, and would hump anything they could get away with.
All of this is pretty compelling evidence for a physiological source for at least some cases of pedophilia. Not necessarily that part of the brain is missing, of course, but rather some physical condition may be a contributing factor at least.
There’s several theories, and a few cases that in my opinion go beyond theory to proven fact.
Here’s one story from 15 years ago.
Here’s a story about a convicted pedophile whose problems (not just pedophilia, but other issues as well) apparently started with epilepsy. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2009/11/23/brain-damage-pedophilia-and-the-law/
More generally speaking, some scientists view pedophilia as a hard-wired condition. Whether that’s caused by genetics or something else is not clear at this point.
If being “born this way” causes them to engage in behavior that harms others, then I hope society is well protected from them and any possible treatments explored.
Jared Fogle, the Subway guy, developed an interest in children seemingly out of nowhere, and at his trial, a psychiatrist tried to testify that it had to do with some kind of transference of obsessions and losing weight-- that he used to overeat, and when he couldn’t do that anymore, he became a pedophile. No one in the jury bought it, even as a mitigating factor in sentencing.
However, I know at least one person who wondered if the truth wasn’t possibly that Fogle, who had gained some weight, was abusing amphetamines. She works in mental health and knows a lot about addictions, and apparently amphetamine abuse is common enough among pedophiles that there’s been some speculation that if it’s not a causative factor, it at least disinhibits people to the point that they can’t NOT be a pedophile if they have underlying tendencies, but lots of people with “tendencies” can keep them in check if they have no other problems or conditions. She says that some people may not even realize their “tendencies” are not normal, but they know enough not to act on them, just like everyone knows it’s wrong to steal, even though people who have a lot less may have more “reason” to steal (or think about it, if that makes sense) than people with the money to buy anything they want.
Anyway, my point is that I personally suspect while there may be a few people in whom the urge to abuse children is so strong, they do it no matter what, in most people, there is some kind of tipping factor. It might be a head injury, or it might be drug abuse, but it’s something.
One theory I read about is that our brain has “recognizers”. We have places in our brain configuration(?) that recognize “healthy male”, “healthy female”, “not healthy”, “cute child”, “dangerous animal”, “very undesirable”, etc.
This is instinctual -which is how we typically instinctively recoil from creepy crawly things like spiders, snakes, etc. “Cute child” obviously is necessary for instinctively caring for children. (And puppies and cats hit these same recognizers, big head, big eyes, etc.) We need to recognize desirable potential mates and possible competitors.
The theory is that these pieces sometimes attach incorrectly - so the healthy male connecting to the sex drive in a male, results in homosexuality; or the child recognizer connecting to the sex drive results in pedophilia. (Which is unfortunate, because acting on that last one is illegal and harmful). If this is the case, then it is a developmental disorder from birth. Judging by the number of people in the news with illegal porn on their computer but no charges of actual molestation, perhaps the tendency is more common than we think and most such people hide it well.
Why does evolution tolerate this? Because the process results in a strong heterosexual sex drive most of the time, so is a good mechanism for ensuring reproduction. Like bad vision or flat feet, the occasional deviation from the norm is tolerable in the grand scheme.
I have to wonder in some of the cited cases whether the problem is that someone developed the tendency, or whether the changing circumstances removed the normal inhibitions controlling their urges. Certainly their lawyer is not going to argue “they were always like this but kept it under control until now…”
IMO you left out the word “inevitably” between “to” and “engage”.
The alternative is “protecting” society from something someone has never done and might never do. Probably not a smart road to go very far down.
Agree that identification is the first step towards treatment. Provided we can treat with appropriate regard for personal autonomy and freedom. A lifetime in re-education camps ain’t it, no matter what your specific anti-social tendencies are.
It does. I mean if you are a normal heterosexual male and you are not aroused by the early Traci Lords (I am gonna put aside “she’s not my type” loophole) then there’s something maybe a little wrong. You should be. But it is still illegal.
Just like if you see a big cart of money in a bank you may desire that money without being thought of as a sicko, but actually trying to steal it is still a crime.
However, there is something wrong with men (and it’s almost always men, yes, women are just as likely as guys to desire that 17yo football star mowing their lawn in his cut-offs, but I have seen very little about women wanting to have sex with pre-pubescent children) who desire pre-pubescent children. So, interesting OP.
I have heard that men who are hard core pedophiles dont desire adults at all.
I’m not exactly sure what are reading into my post, but I never suggested we should protect society from pedophiles in and of itself. We protect society from people who [do] engage in harmful behavior. People can privately think all the pedophilic thoughts in the privacy of their own mind and we should do nothing. But when they engage in behaviors that harm people, then we step in.
I was replying to what felt like a gotcha post (“well gays are born that way and we have to accept them!”). I was saying that we deal with it when they engage in harmful behavior, regardless if they are “born this way” or some other reason.
On re-read it’s pretty clear I did read in more than you meant. Sorry.
The initial impression I mistakenly got was that you were advocating “Genetically test them at birth. Then jail or kill 'em right there and then if they have the bad genes. It’s the only way to be sure. Society must be protected at all costs.”
Which, as you say, is not what you actually wrote.
I think there is some difference between regular pedophiles and pedophiles who go strictly for prepubescent girls. My neighborhood as a kid was a hot bed of child molesters but it seemed most of them preferred boys. I can’t think of anyone I have ever known that was strictly young girls but I have spoken to many girls over the years who have reported that family members molested them when they were children. The ones that go outside the family also seem more prone to murdering their victims.
I have always just assumed that, for every person that actually sexually molests a child, there are ten others out there who have that odd sexual proclivity, but are able to control themselves and never act on said desires.
In other countries (e.g., Germany) they encourage anyone with pedophilic thoughts to get treatment. Support systems are set up to keep them from acting on them. The goal is to teach self-control.
If this is the same guy described in a RadioLab show, it sounded to me more like he was hypersexual in general (and maybe a bit disinhibited), but not specifically attracted to child porn, IIRC.
Yeah, I thought this paragraph from the LA Times article linked above was interesting:
If the words above are accurate, there are the “hard core” pedophiles and the “personality disorder” abusers, and their behavior doesn’t necessarily have the same causes. Actually, I suspect the relative that prompted me to pose the question fell into the personality disorder category. However, the responses to this thread have been quite interesting - thanks for the info, everyone.
Yeah, that was the same guy - I just got the podcast mixed up.
The charges against him were for child porn, but he was indeed hypersexual in general. The child porn was just one of the ways it manifested. IIRC the judge agreed that the brain damage was the cause of his actions, but that he also recognized what he was doing was wrong and had many opportunities where he was in control of himself enough to seek outside help. He ended up getting like a year in prison, and now he takes medication which completely kills his libido.