Essay on Pedophilia, and Sexual Offenses

Further exploration discovered that the choice of sexual expression correlates more to the child’s age then the offenders (Sanford, 87). Offenders do not form intimate relationships with other adults (Henderson, 39). Eight-five percent of sexual activity was nonorgasmic with one-fourth of activity ending before any stimulation occurred by the offender (Sanford, 83). Now that we know some offenders characteristics, it is paramount that we learn to identify traits that may be common to youthful victims.

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

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.

Pedophilia is a psychological disorder in which a person is primarily or exclusively attracted to children who have not undergone puberty. A pedophile, the term for a person with this condition, is not necessarily one who engages in sexual activities with children. However, they have strong urges and sexually arousing fantasies about having sex with a child. Generally, pedophiles are attracted to children under the age of thirteen years. In our society the term pedophile is more broadly used for anyone who is attracted to a minor or someone that's under the age of consent. However, there are different terms used for different types of paraphilias involving minors. A paraphilia is a

The crime thriller Hard Candy by, Brian Nelson showcase the sociology and criminal of pedophile. A pedophile according to Webster dictionary, is a person with an intense sexual arousal fantasy, sexual urges or behaviors that involves children, nonhuman subjects or non-consenting adults. The movie is about a young teenager 14 years old age who lures a 32 year old man who she believes is a pedophile. The encounter will lead to punishment, abuse, enlightenment and death.

A great many people envision pedophiles as monstrous old men wearing trench coats, stowing away in the brambles, holding up to grab youthful youngsters off the road. Be that as it may, late TV programs, for example, To Catch a Predator, have uncovered pedophiles as nearby neighbors, trusted companions, ministry, sitters, educators, and even relatives.

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,

There is a fine line that is drawn when it comes to distinguishing the difference between deviant and normal sexual behavior among juveniles. However, due to the strict rules and statutes within our court systems, some of the minor offenses can be mistaken for sexual deviance oppose to sexual curiosity when it involves adolescents. This proposes a major issue in today’s criminal justice because you have these minors who are sexually curious being in processed into the court system for minor mistakes. According to Glowacz (2013), when comparing adult sex offenders to juvenile sex offenders, these delinquents do not possess the sexual arousal and fantasies caused by deviance like you would see adults to have. Glowacz also mentioned that these young teens do display symptoms of long term desires to leads them to want to commit sexual offenses like some adults do.

There has been much debate about why people commit sexual crimes. As far as to what causes people to become sex offenders, there is no real answer to this question. No single factor can fully interpret why someone commits a sexual offense, though it is believed that some combination of factors may combine to increase sexual deviancy dramatically. These factors include biological, circumstantial, environmental, and sociocultural aspects of the person, describing the development of abnormal sexual expression through the same mechanisms by which conventional sexuality is also learned (Terry and Tallon). There are a number of sub-theories which have been designed to explain the onset of sexual deviancy. However, because no one can pinpoint the dynamics of sexual deviancy, different theories have been developed to study and account for the development of sexual aggression and behavior. An explanation of the main theories is offered below:

Sexual behaviors and experimentation are very much a part of childhood development. Normative sexual behaviors of children consists of preschool children poking others bodies, and being interested in bathroom functions, while children ages 5 to 7 years are telling dirty jokes, kissing, and holding hands, and children ages 8 to 12 years, are mooning and exhibitionism, kissing, and touching others’ genitals (Caldwell, 2007). However when children are not supervised appropriately they are capable of sexually harming other children. Adolescents are accountable for perpetrating 20% of all sexual assaults, along with 50% of all child sexual abuse cases (Keelan & Fremouw, 2013). However in considering that statistic some sexual harming behaviors can be within the parameters of normal child behavior, and sometimes rarely signal predatory inclinations (Caldwell, 2007). The vast majority of youth harmful sexual acts are manifestations of non-sexual feelings. In fact, many mental health care professionals have found that much of the behavior classified as sex offenses should not necessarily be considered predatory. Therapists point out that many sexual offenses are carried out by naïve experimenters who are overly impulsive and/or immature adolescents that sometimes engage in sexual experimentation (Smith, Wampler, Jones, & Reifman, 2005). Examining the sexual behavior along with the age of the perpetrator and victim helps classify whether or not those behaviors fall

Pedophilia is characterized as a sexual fondness for and activity with children. Pedophilia is a form of paraphilia (deviant sexual behavior). Pedophiles partake in acts that include fondling with a child's genitals, having sexual intercourse with and exploitation of children through prostitution or pornographic materials (Pedophilia, 2008). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in order to be diagnosed as a pedophile one must experience intense sexual arousal from prepubescent children over a period of six months. In addition to the sexual arousal the person must have acted on the urges and as a result experience extreme distress or impairment in important areas of functioning

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

     Harding wrote an article on pedophilia stating that pedophilia is a subcategory of a larger group of sexual disorders commonly classified as paraphilias. “These are defined as recurrent, intense, aphrodisiac fantasies, sexual urges,

The American Psychiatric Association has declared that pedophilia is no longer thought of as a mental disorder. In early studies, (DSM-III-R), pedophilia was characterized as a disorder if "the person acted out on the urges, or was markedly distressed by them" (Medinger 2). Nowadays, the diagnostic description is that pedophilia is a disorder if the offender is mentally impaired, agitated, or experiencing guilt as a result of what he is doing. In other words, a pedophile can "play" all he wants until he becomes irrational about it. Outwardly, the pedophile may, in today's society, seem to be a perfectly normal human being. Pedophilia, like homosexuality and transvestitism, is just a sexual preference (APA).