Pedophile's Typical Victim

Of the many problems faced by children and adolescents, few provoke such moral outrage as childhood sexual abuse. Many times, as on the television show “To Catch a Predator”, such abuse can be inflicted by strangers who may gradually become familiar with the child online. Sadly, however, often times the perpetrator of sexual abuse on children is someone much more familiar to the child- someone the child may even love.

Throughout the ages, media and society have been concerned over children. Instead of youth as folk devils, children nowadays serve as the victims of folk devils (Critcher, 2002, p.532). With these trigger events popping up, stereotypes are gradually formed. In recent British history, Paedophile had become one of the most terrifying folk-devils (Jenkins, 1992, p.99). Paedophile behaviour is a moral panic one legal case and the panic is generally fuelled by the sensationalism of media in

Many etiological theories exist attempting to explain the root causes of sexual offending. Although few provide substantial evidence and no definitive conclusions have been made, the social learning theory has been proposed to account for sex offending behaviors. Specifically, the social learning theory, or victim-to-victimizer theory, suggests sexually abused children learn these behaviors and are much more likely to perpetrate abuse when they’re older (Seto & Lalumiere, 2010). The following studies have provided substantial support for the social learning etiology. Through the use of a meta-analysis, Seto and Lalumiere (2010) concluded that sexual offending is tied to prior sexual abuse. Burton, Miller, and Shill (2002) discovered

As time progresses on, more reports of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been documented. According to Colangelo and Cooperman, CSA is defined as “the use of a child under 18 years of age as an object of gratification for adult sexual needs and desires.” Another definition of CSA is “sexual abuse [that] occurs whenever one person dominates and exploits another by means of sexual activity or suggestion.” (Hall, M., & Hall, J., 2011) it is difficult to

Many experts agree that pedophiles develop a sexual interest over a long period of time. Most commonly pedophiles are subject to some form of sexual abuse or trauma at a young age. Other common reasons are abuse or some other related problem during sexual development, as a result they develop an interest in children as sexual objects. According to some of the pedophiles arrested they stated that they developed an interest in children as sexual objects as a result of seeing such images over the internet

Barbaree looked at 224 sex offenders. Of those men, 33 committed a new offense of some kind for a general recidivism rate of 14.7 percent. Even more interesting was the study did not support the idea that good treatment behavior, as in positive or appropriate behavior in group sessions, good homework assignments, and positive ratings of motivation, could be associated with a less of a chance for recidivism. They gave two possible reasons for this finding. Sex offenders, by the very nature of their criminal behavior, are masters of manipulation and exploitation. These individuals can exhibit behavior that contributes to favorable assessments. The second possible reason is these skills are learned, or enhanced, in the treatment setting. Data from a program

While sexually deviant behavior among juveniles is not a new phenomenon there has been a dramatic increase in the concern of this problem over the last two decades. As the number of juvenile sex offenders arrested increases, the recognition of it as a serious issue also increases. The anxiety over juvenile sex crimes has led to a wide variety of research being conducted to determine if there are antecedent traits in offenders. The tremendous data collected and analyzed to try to understand the factors leading a juvenile to sexually violate has piloted a wide range of theories and also much disagreement among professionals about the appropriate consequences a violator must face.

Since the world has penetrated into the epoch of twenty first century, it has experienced gargantuan changes in almost every sphere of life whether it is social, economic, political, technological, environmental or cultural aspects and has also manipulated the human existence to a great deal. Besides, these advancements have made the entire populace of the world enter into the age of industrial revolution that is satiated with technological and scientific advancements and innovations. However, social issues at the same time have been witnessed to grow at an accelerated pace in this epoch of evolution and colossal progression (Selfe & Burke, 2001).

There also is a noted link to recidivism and repeat offending. In over half of early case studies completed it was found that alcohol was a factor. Either the offender was classified as an alcoholic or was drinking at the time of the event. In addition, this was even more indicative when it came to the grouping of child molesters where the numbers were again over half but on the higher end of almost seventy percent. The highest group of offenders where alcohol was mentioned involved incest abusers. (Aarons et Al. 1978 541-548). Later research has further supported this information in groups of inmates that had taken the MAST and the DAST. It was noted that again there was a high reported correlation between reported alcohol abuse among those convicted of sexual offenses. “This was almost ten times the rate of other violent offenders.” When looking at research throughout the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom offenders that were surveyed included rapists, child molesters, and exhibitionists. The highest level of alcohol abuse was noted with the population of child molesters. It is compelling that such data is there and often disregarded in the realm of treatment. (Abracen, Looman, Fazio, Kelly, Stripe 20; Kraanen, Emmelkamp

With the Pandora’s Box opened, we may find ourselves forced to rediscover morality due to our natural tendencies. This does not mean accepting adult-child relationships. Figure 3 indicates if we are serious about protecting children, then that ultimately requires some level of understanding, which is a problem for most because that is dangerously close to compassion. On the contrary, the risk they pose is the very reason why we need to support pedophiles who do not want to become sex offenders. We all want the same thing. We do not want them to offend nor their potential victims to offend. In 2008, Michael Seto, a forensic psychologist, published a book stating that the onset of pedophilia is right around the stages of puberty, as with any other sexual orientation. I believe we can prevent a greater number of victims if we put more energy into early detection and providing support before the first offense occurs, rather than solely relying on punishment after the fact. We need to be thinking about the children that pedophiles once were and catch them at their vulnerable stages, which are during puberty. There we can find a sense of compassion and support to want to help. In 2014, Margo Kaplan, an associate professor at Rutgers School of Law, wrote an op-ed in New York Times stating that pedophilia is neurologically rooted, supporting Cantor’s research.

Sex offenders tend to blend in to society virtually unnoticed until they offend or reoffend (Polizzi, MacKenzie, & Hickman, 1999). Currently, there is a large group of mental health professionals representing a variety of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry clinical social work, counseling, and medicine, that continue to believe in the potential efficacy of treating sex offenders. Over the past decade, the sex offender treatment field has grown rapidly and the treatment of juvenile sex offenders is on the rise (Parks & Bard, 2006). The rationale for treating juvenile offenders is based on research which indicates that inappropriate sexual behavior patterns develop early and a failure to intervene and change behavior early often means that the offender will continue to escalate his/her inappropriate behavior, which could present an even greater danger to society (Ayland & West, 2006). Vivian-Bryne, (2004) suggests that professionals who treat adult sex offenders report that offenders who are incarcerated will eventually return to the community and therefore, therapeutic measures should be taken to reduce the likelihood that they will reoffend even if those measures have not conclusively been identified as effective. Sexual offenders may find therapy valuable because it can allow them to retrace their upbringing to help them identify and understand the roots of their

Most people consider pedophiles to be anyone who has committed a sex offense against a child and that all pedophiles will commit this offense. In both cases that is, at best, a half truth. The DSM-5, which is a tool that outlines the diagnostic criteria for a given disorder, defines pedophilic disorder as, “a paraphilia involving intense and recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about prepubescent children that have either been acted upon or which cause the person with the attraction distress or interpersonal difficulty.” With the latter half of this definition, we begin to open up to the idea that there are those who have sexual interests in children who have had no form of inappropriate contact with a child, but rather just have their daily life affected by the feelings that they are having toward

The treatment for sexual offenders is done in a three principal approach which is cognitive behavioral approach, psycho-educational approach, and pharmacological approach. The cognitive behavioral approach gives emphasis on altering the habits of the offended relating toward sexual offending and “deviant patterns of arousal”. (CSOM) This means altering the daily habits of the offender which may be everything they had known previously to incarceration. The second principal of psycho-educational focuses on altering the offender’s state of mind toward their victims and attempts to instill the understanding of how they inflicted harm with their actions. With psychology there is never a set time on how long a set goal will be reached. Times vary between individuals and can sometime never reach their desired outcome. In conjunction with those previous principals the offenders are also treated under the pharmacological

     Cohen, Seghorn, and Calmas (1969) described three types of child molesters derived from their clinical studies. One type had a history of relatively normal functioning and the incident of molestation appears to reflect a reaction to a severe threat to their sense of sexual adequacy. Another type had a history of poor social-sexual functioning and is regarded as primitive and immature in terms of social-sexual skills. The last type they found in their study had offenses involving cruel and vicious assaults on children and the act of molestation is regarded as more aggressive then sexual. (Mc Creary, 1975)

Perpetrators of sex crimes committed against children often start by gaining the trust of potential victims and the adults in their lives’ by using a tactic called “grooming.” The purpose of this memo is to give the court a baseline understanding of what sex offender victim grooming is, its purpose, and techniques. Because of the extensive amount of research and information on this topic, this paper does not detail all of the grooming techniques used by child sex offenders to groom potential victims.