Pedophilia as a Mental Disorder: Why Pedophiles are not Criminals
A pedophile can be described as an adult person who gets sexually attracted to young people. Pedophiles exhibit behaviors which deviate from what the society expects-especially on sexual behavior. According to medical diagnosis, pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which people who are 16 years of age (and above) have exclusive or primary sexual interest in prepubescent young ones; mostly children of 13 years of age and below. For the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia, the prepubescent child must be younger than the adolescent by at least five years (Blaney & Millon, 2009). Although many people view pedophiles as criminals, conceptually pedophiles should be treated as mentally ill.
The term pedophilia has various definitions. For instance, psychologists, psychiatrists, law enforcement agents have various explanations of the term pedophilia. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) terms pedophilia as a disorder in which adults exhibit sexual attraction for children of early pubertal age (Hobart & Frankel, 2008). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), pedophiles have strong, and persistent sexual urges towards young children (Hobart & Frankel, 2008). However, in most cases, the term pedophilia refers to the act of child sexual abuse or any sexual attractions to children; commonly called the pedophilic behavior.
Since pedophilia occurs as a result of a brain disorder, people who do show pedophilic behavior should be treated as mentally ill people rather than criminals. Pedophilia is as a disorder of sexual preference just like the homosexual and heterosexual sexual orientations. Pedophilia, just like other disorders, which control sexual preference, starts before reaching puberty (or during puberty) and becomes a permanent behavior with time as one grows old. The observations do not, however, exclude pedophilia from the common group of mental disorders since pedophilic acts result in harm, and those involved can be assisted, by mental health professionals, to abstain from acting on their urges or impulses.
According to several researchers, pedophilia could be correlated to some psychological characteristics such as poor social skills, and low self-esteem (Hall & Hall, 2009). Research shows that child sex offenders have elevated passive aggressiveness, impaired self-concept and afflicted interpersonal functioning. Child sex offenders also show increased propensity and psychopathy for cognitive distortions due to inhibitory personality traits. The pathologic personality characteristics in pedophiles give support to a hypothesis that such disorders could be connected to the failure to prevent the pedophilic behavior.
Pedophiles appear to be extensively high on neuroticism, introversion and psychoticism than age-matched controls. However, it is difficult to detect the cause and effect. Nonetheless, it could be concluded that pedophiles attack children since if they are highly introverted, and they see the company of young children less threatening than the company of adults. Sometimes their social withdrawal could be disguised by their introversion, which occurs due to isolation engendered by their partiality; knowledge of their social approval and hostility could be helpful in understanding their behavior.
A review (published in 2001) of qualitative research studies indicates that child sex abusers use cognitive distortions to fulfill their personal needs (Hall & Hall, 2009). They justify abuse by creating excuses to redefine their activities of love and mutuality while exploiting the power imbalance inbuilt in all child-adult relationships. Other cognitive disorders that affect the pedophiles include the inability to control sexuality, the notion of kids as sexual beings and sexual entitlement-bias. In most cases, the pedophiles who present themselves for a clinical help do so due to distress, due to sexual preference or due to pressure from other people. This raises their chances of developing psychological problems. In most cases, pedophiles convicted of crime end up in correctional institutions, and this makes them display antisocial traits.
There are some risk factors which prompt people to act on pedophilic urges, even if they are not pedophilic themselves. These risk factors may include comorbid psychiatric illness (like substance abuse), personality disorders or child abuse by adults (Puri, 2008). Certain genes or harmful factors in the environment before birth expose a male to have both pedophilia and affective disorders. This may lead to frustrations, isolation and dangers engendered by inappropriate sexual urges or irregular stealthy satisfaction resulting in despair and anxiety.
Scientifically, pedophilia can be linked with the structure of the brain and its functions. For instance, pedophilic men have poor scores on memory tests, lower IQs, higher rates of school failure and above the IQ differences (Sanderson, 2004). Other research studies link pedophilia to non-right-handedness, short stature, childhood head injuries causing unconsciousness and various variations in MRI detected brain structures. There are one or several neurological traits present at child delivery that result to or increase the chance of being pedophilic. Evidence of inherited transmission shows the development of pedophilia, but does not prove that genetic factors are entirely responsible for pedophilia (Sanderson, 2004). An examination using structural MRI indicates that male pedophiles have decreased volume of white matter of the brain than normal males.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) demonstrates that child molesters (with pedophilic tendencies) have decreased activation of the hypothalamus when compared to the people who are not pedophilic, after exposing both groups to sexually arousing films or pictures of adult people. A functional neuron -imaging examination shows that the main processing of sexual stimuli (in different sex pedophile forensic inpatients) may be changed by interference with the prefrontal networks that may be linked to stimulus-controlled traits like sexual compulsive behaviors. It may also be caused by malfunctioning at the cognitive phase of the sexual arousal processing.
Pedophilic behavior has also been found to be commonly present in men who have less testosterone than the normal men. Another study showed that a great number of the pedophiles had a large number of older brothers (Keeble, 2006). This shows that they were exposed to excess amounts of estrogen before birth. They also have a greater chance of being left-handed, which suggests that they had interposed hemispheric brain lateralization; this affects an individual resulting in deviant attractions.
Pedophiles are not criminals and, therefore, jail terms should not be the only solution for them. They can be treated by preventing or reducing the expression of the pedophilic behavior thus decreasing the prevalence of child sexual abuse. There should be collective responsibility between the health care team and law enforcers. In context sex offenders, cognitive, behavioral therapy or the relapse prevention can be used to reduce the pedophilic behavior.
The cognitive, behavioral therapy focuses on attitudes, behaviors and beliefs known to raise the chances of sexual offenses against young children (Edwards, 1997). In most cases, relapse prevention is preferred as the best alternative for cognitive, behavioral treatment used. Relapse prevention focuses on the principles used to treat addiction to sexual pervasion. Recidivism tolls of pedophiles who undergo therapy is lesser compared to those of pedophiles who avoid the therapy.
Pedophiles can also be treated through behavioral therapies, which focus on sexual arousal to children. The method focuses on the use of aversion and satiation methods to alleviate sexual arousal to young ones, and masturbatory reconditioning or covert sensitization to raise sexual arousal in adults. Behavioral therapies seem to have influence on sexual arousal cycles on phallocentric examination, although it is not clear whether the examination changes represent alterations in sexual needs or alternations in the capability to maintain genital arousal during testing.
Pedophiles, like any other mentally ill people, can also be treated using drugs. Medications that reduce the sex drive (by altering the activity of the testosterone like the Depo-Provera and Lupron) can be administered to them. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues can also be given since they have fewer side-effects, and last longer hence reducing the libido in pedophiles (Blaney & Millon, 2009). These drugs are collectively called “chemical castration” and maybe used together with the above mentioned nonmedical therapies. The anti- androgen therapy should be used together with the necessary monitoring and counseling to form a complete and comprehensive treatment plan.
In some cases, judges free pedophiles and claim that children should be protected since pedophiles are sick people who should not be kept in jail. However, this should apply to the pedophiles who confess their offences and accept that their condition cannot be cured. Some pedophiles may not attack or harm children because of their mental condition, but because they are part of a child pornography cycles dealing with the distribution of pornographic pictures and videos. In such circumstances, a jail sentence could be effective in taking care of the public and reducing the habits of pornography. Behind every image of child pornography, there is a traumatized child; therefore, children should be protected by their parents, guardians and the government (Puri, 2008). However, in some instances, some pedophiles escape jail when the judges advocate long-term solutions, which involve mingling with the society instead of serving a jail term.
The fact that pedophilia is a mental disorder has also been affirmed by law enforcers. For instance, a police detective carrying out investigations about some convicted pedophiles admitted that, during his investigations, he never met any cured pedophile and he never thought meeting any. He concluded that after they are found guilty, pedophiles should be locked somewhere so as to control and monitor their activities (Edwards, 1997). The lock up helps to protect the welfare of children, who are at risk when the pedophiles are free in the society. It also helps them to receive treatment through the various behavioral therapies used to monitor and regulate their behavior. During the lock up, they should be monitored for any change of behavior, and if found fit for the society, they can be freed to continue with their life in the society.
Some of the rehabilitated pedophiles admit that rehabilitation and counseling are the most effective methods of treating them rather than jail terms. When taken to jail, pedophiles get exposed to harsh conditions, and since the pedophilic behavior may have resulted from cognitive disorders the jail term may worsen the condition. When released out of the jail, they repeat the same offences and end up in jail again. To avoid the problem of re-arresting pedophiles, instead of being jailed when found guilty, they can be taken to rehabilitation centers and treated through guidance and counseling.
Since pedophiles are mentally ill people, the parents, guardians and the government should take responsibility to take care of children. Parents and guardians should ensure that the pedophiles are not kept in the same house with children, since they can abuse them. When the parents know that there is a pedophile in the area, they should take care of their kids to assure that they do not suffer abuse.
Pedophilia in itself should not be taken as a criminal offence, but as a mental disorder. The acts that come with being pedophilic are the ones that should be taken as crimes. Pedophiles should not be jailed due to the disorder, but if they commit serious crimes like raping of minors (children under the age of thirteen years), they can be locked up. After being locked up, they should be counseled and monitored for their progress. If the pedophiles improve with counseling, they can be released to the society. The society also needs to be educated on how to deal with the pedophiles. Some of the pedophiles develop the condition due to social alienation. The society should, therefore, be friendly to such people so as to help them out of the condition.
In conclusion, pedophilia is a mental condition but not a criminal offence. Therefore, convicted pedophiles should be treated as mentally ill people rather than criminals. The use of rehabilitation and counseling should be considered for such individuals instead of punishing them with jail terms. This arises from the fact that, in some circumstances, jailing pedophiles can worsen their mental health. Consequently, the law enforcement methods, which prescribe jailing, do not deal with the cause of the pedophilic behavior.
References
Blaney, P. H., & Millon, T. (2009). Oxford textbook of psychopathology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Edwards, M. (1997). Treatment for paedophiles: Treatment for sex offenders. Australian institute of criminology research and public policy, 12, 74-75.
Hall, R. C., & Hall, R. C. (2009). A profile of pedophilia: Definition, characteristics of offenders, recidivism, treatment outcomes, and forensic issues. Focus, 7, 522-537.
Hobart, C., & Frankel, J. (2008). Good practice in child protection. Washington, WA: Nelson Thornes.
Keeble, R. (2006). Communication Ethics Today. Leister: Troubador Publishing Ltd.
Puri, B. K. (2008). Textbook of psychiatry. London: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Sanderson, C. (2004). The seduction of children: Empowering parents and teachers to protect children from child sexual abuse. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
