Stigmatization of people with pedophilia: two comparative surveys (original) (raw)
Related papers
Stigma-Related Stress and its Correlates among Men with Pedophilic Sexual Interests
Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2015
Despite decades of research on the adverse consequences of stereotyping and discrimination for many stigmatized groups, little is known about how people with pedophilia perceive and react to stigma. In this article, we present a framework that outlines how stigma-related stress might negatively affect emotional and social areas of functioning, cognitive distortions, and the motivation to pursue therapy, all of which may contribute to an increased risk of sexual offending. We tested our hypotheses in an online survey among self-identified German-speaking people with pedophilia (N = 104) using a wide range of validated indicators of social and emotional functioning (Brief Symptom Inventory-53, UCLA Loneliness Scale, Emotion Subscale of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, Fear of Negative Evaluation-5, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). Specific risk factors such as self-efficacy, cognitive distortions and the motivation to seek treatment were also assessed. In line with our hypotheses, fear of discovery generally predicted reduced social and emotional functioning. Contrary to our predictions, perceived social distance and fear of discovery were not linked to self-efficacy, cognitive distortions, or treatment motivation. Results were controlled for the effects of confounding variables (e.g, age, educational level, social desirability, relationship status). We critically evaluate the empirical contribution of this study to research on stigma and child sex offenses, including a discussion of the results in light of the potential indirect effects that public stigma may have on the overall risk for sexual offenses.
Humanizing Pedophilia as Stigma Reduction: A Large-Scale Intervention Study
Archives of Sexual Behavior
The stigmatization of people with pedophilic sexual interests is a topic of growing academic and professional consideration, owing to its potential role in moderating pedophiles’ emotional well-being, and motivation and engagement in child abuse prevention schemes. Thus, improving attitudes and reducing stigmatization toward this group is of paramount importance. Prior research has suggested that narrative humanization—presenting personal stories of self-identified non-offending pedophiles—could be one route to doing this. However, this work has only been conducted with students or trainee psychotherapists, meaning the public generalizability of this method is still unknown. In this study, we compared two stigma interventions to test whether narratives reduce stigma toward people with pedophilic interests more effectively than an informative alternative (scientific information about pedophilia). Using a longitudinal experimental design with a lack of non-intervention control (initia...
Archives of sexual behavior, 2015
In the present research, we addressed the question of whether people harbor punitive attitudes against individuals sexually interested in children even if no sexual offense is mentioned and whether this effect is amplified by the clinical label pedophilia. In two online studies (total N = 345), participants rated the extent to which they saw individuals sexually interested in children as necessarily committing child sexual abuse (dangerousness), responsible for their sexual interest (intentionality), and clinically disordered (deviance) before judging their endorsement of means of punishment (punitive attitudes). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which either the "pedophilia" label or the descriptive term "sexual interest in (prepubescent) children" was included in all items. Across both studies, results showed high degrees of punitive attitudes against sexually deviant men, an effect that was particularly pronounced if the pedophili...
Reducing Stigma and Punitive Attitudes Toward Pedophiles Through Narrative Humanization
Sexual abuse : a journal of research and treatment, 2016
Stigmatization and societal punitiveness about pedophilia have a range of potential consequences, such as the social isolation of people with sexual interest in children, and the formation of policies that are not consistent with empirical research findings. Previous research has shown that people with pedophilic sexual interests use societal thinking to self-stigmatize, which in turn may actually serve to increase their risk of committing a sexual offense. In this study, we compared two attitudinal interventions (first-person narrative vs. expert opinion) using a student sample (N = 100). It was hypothesized that both interventions would lead to reductions in stigmatization and punitive attitudes about pedophiles on an explicit (self-report) level but that only the narrative intervention would lead to reductions of these constructs at the implicit level. Our findings supported both hypotheses. We further discuss the role of narrative humanization in this area and offer suggestions ...
Pedophilia - the Need for New Research and a New Solution to the Problem
Nauka, bezbednost, policija
Paedophilia is a specific disorder in a spectre of sexual affinities in humans, which is in the nomenclature of the World Health Organization in the group of sexual preference disorders or paraphilia. Due to mobility, inventiveness, and invisibility, there is no relevant statistical data about this deviation’s volume and extensiveness. This paper aims to determine the prevalence of paedophiles in the general population based on an anonymous survey, the number of processed perpetrators of sexual offenses toward children, and the number of unique visitors of the Internet “decoy”. The research data were gathered through an anonymous survey (the survey was created for this research purposes, and it was an indirect, written survey) that enveloped a total of 658 individuals (60.49% males and 39.51% females) through the creation of a virtual Internet profile (1095 visitors, 89.86% males and 10.14% females), as well as through the statistical data of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic...
Pedophilia as a Form of Sexual Deviance from a Social Bonds Theoretical Perspective
2021
Sexual crimes have seen a considerably increase in Indonesia. It not only affects women but also children. Sexual crime against children is also known as “pedophilia” and has now become a terrifying phenomenon. The escalation of sexual crime against children in Indonesia shows that there is a dire need to look into possible prevention strategies to sexual crime prevention. Considering the rapid increase of case of pedophilia in Indonesia, the government has enacted more severe punisment to the offender, that is, by imposing chemical castration under the Law No. 17 Year 2016 on the second amendment of the Law No. 23 Year 2002 on child protection. This article examines the causal factors of pedophilia by employing the social bonds theory introduced by Travis Hirschi. The primary premise of this theory states that deliquency comes up when social bonds tend to be fragile or not unavailable, or in other words, the stronger there bonds, the less likelihood of delinquency. Hirschi also men...
The definition of Pedophilia as as a Social Problem
Constructionism has emerged as an influential approach among sociologists interested in social problems. While objectivists identity the essence of social problems in objective conditions found to be problematic, constructionists suggest a subjective nature of social problems and the existence of putative conditions subjected to claims. This theoretical and research approach focus on "the processes by which people define some social conditions as social problems" (Best 1989, p. 6). Social problems are viewed as social constructions shaped and named by claimsmakers who offer orientations toward the problems and particular perspectives which help locating the problems' cause and recommending solutions. In the claimsmaking process, typifying examples are used to illustrate particular features of a social problem. This characterization of a problem in particular terms is considered by constructionism to be an inevitable and integral part of social problems definition. According to Lowney and Best (1995), the typification of a problem draws upon cultural resources and it's influenced by the audience's favorable response to the claim. As claimsmakers depend upon whether a claim persuades the audience, claimsmaking activities have been defined by Best (1989) as a rhetorical act of communication. Constructionists theorize a determinant link between sociocultural circumstances and the definition of a condition as social problem. Such circumstances, in fact, produce particular actors who construct particular conditions as social problems and represent the "sociology of knowledge" theme in the constructionist approach (Hazelrigg, 1986). One of the key steps in social problem construction is linking a troubling event to a problematic pattern, defining a particular incident as an instance of some larger problem. In this light, the mass media become important, relevant and emotionally provocative claimsmakers that contribute to the definition and typification of social problems within a society. This study investigates the rhetorical elements that have contributed to the recent definition of pedophilia as a social problem in Italy, through a qualitative analysis of the content and language of selected Italian newspaper items between 1992 and 1999. The questions of when and how pedophilia has become a social problem in this country are explored using a constructionist approach.
Psychological Assessment, 2013
The present study addressed the question whether deviant sexual preferences for children can be considered a taxon utilizing data from a multi-method assessment battery. The test battery comprised direct self-report as well as indirect latency-based measures (Implicit Association Tests, viewing time) of deviant sexual preferences for children. In a mixed sample of adult men (N = 304, including sexual offenders against children, as well as sex offenders against adults, non-sex offender and non-offender controls), 27% of the offenders convicted for child sexual abuse or child pornography charges were identified as a homogeneous and distinct latent class. Additional taxometric analyses corroborated the notion of a pedophilic subgroup. Individuals in this pedophilic group showed elevated scores on measures of deviant sexual preference for children over adults. The offense histories of the individuals from the pedophilic cluster indicated an increased likelihood of pedophilic preference as assessed by a file-based summary index. We interpret the results as evidence for pedophilic sexual preference as a distinct and taxonic clinical construct.
Pedophilia: Its Relationship to the Homosexualities and the Roman Catholic Church. II
Antonianum, 2010
The issue of sexual advances by Roman Catholic priests and religious brothers towards minors, most of whom have been pubescent boys, is increasingly at the center of often heated and anguished discussion in and around the Church nowadays. There have already been far reaching consequences to the intense preoccupation with this matter. Throughout these tumultuous goingson, the term "pedophilia" is being bandied about as a catch-all name for the panoply of abuses. Semantic precision may not, of course, be the most important element in organizing to meet the horrendous challenges facing the Church in this context, but it does have its own importance. In part I of this two-part article the author expounds on the precise meaning of the terms being used. After some basic background information on human sexuality and sexual (gender and age) orientations the author will explain precisely what "pedophilia" is and who is a "pedophile" and what the medical and behavioral sciences have to say that is relevant. Part II, which will appear in the next edition of Antonianum, will address whether men who are homosexualo, especially in the priesthood and religious life, are particularly prone and pedophilia. Is this implication correct? Or is the association better understood as semantic confusion, homophobia, or both? On these and some other issues related to harm reduction and prevention, which will conclude Part II, the author aims to present the "best knowledge" among professionals today, including the author's own work, as his contribution to the ongoing discussion.