PAEDOPHILIC CHILD SEX OFFENDERS

• Jurisdiction: Australia

Overview ....................................................................................................... [63.200]

Aetiological theories ...................................................................................... [63.220]

Descriptive characteristics ............................................................................ [63.240]

Assessment ................................................................................................... [63.260]

Treatment ...................................................................................................... [63.280]

Recidivism ..................................................................................................... [63.300]

[63.200] Overview

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed, 2013) (DSM V) defines Paedophilic Disorder as "recurrent intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally 13 years of age or younger) in a person over 16 and at least five years older" over a six-month period. This manual differentiates this from paedophilia sexual orientation on the basis of functional impairment composed of distress at or acting on such urges. Hebephilia refers to a sexual preference for those in the early stages of puberty, and while in some cases this may be biologically normative it is still considered as requiring intervention. In Australia, one cannot be charged with paedophilia (or hebephilia), as it is only perpetrating a sexual act against a child that results in prosecution and conviction. As the majority of convicted child sex offenders are male, the following section has been limited to male offenders. For information specific to female child sex offenders, please refer to the relevant section under "Special Populations".

[63.220] Aetiological theories

Why are some adults sexually attracted to children? Seto, an acknowledged leader in the field, outlines three possible aetiological factors that attempt to describe the development of paedophilia - conditioning, childhood sexual abuse and neurodevelopmental perturbations (2008).

Conditioning

While most people adjust their sexual preference for similar aged peers as they develop throughout adolescence and adulthood a small number of people may pair sexual gratification during early sexual experiences with the specific physical attributes of their early sexual partners (such as small body size, an absence of pubic hair, etc) and remain sexually aroused to children despite their own development over time (Seto, 2008). As a consequence, deviant sexual fantasies may develop. It remains unclear why these people associate the pleasant sexual experiences specifically with children or their physical attributes, although some suggest previous history of childhood sexual abuse (Ryan et al, 1996) and poor parent attachments/loss of parenting figures (Rich, 2006) as possible contributors.

Research has found that sexual offences against children are often accompanied by deviant sexual fantasies (Marshall et al, 1991) and that an increase in sexual arousal can be paired with non-sexual stimuli (as occurs in conditioning theory) (Lalumiere and Quinsey, 1998). However, the effect sizes of these studies are small, suggesting that while conditioning (rewards and consequences changing frequency of behaviour) may play a role in the development of paedophilic tendencies, it is unlikely that this is the only factor involved.

Childhood sexual abuse

Research suggests that paedophilic sex offenders are more likely to have experienced sexual abuse as a child than other sex offenders (Connolly and Woollons, 2008; Jesperson et al, 2009). The over-representation of sexual abuse experiences among paedophiles has also been used to explain why male victims are more likely to be targeted (Seto, 2008b). However, most victims of sexual abuse do not go on to commit sexual offences against children, suggesting that other factors, perhaps interpersonal differences amongst victims or other aspects of the early abuse play a role in predicting who will sexually offend (Burton et al, 2002; Seto, 2008).

Neurodevelopmental Disorder

It has also been suggested that problems in brain functioning could explain the development of paedophilia (Seto, 2008). Blanchard et al (2003) reported that sex offenders were more likely to experience head injuries before the age of 13 and Cantor et al (2005) found differences on measures of intelligence among child sex offenders. Areas of the brain that may be related to the development of sexual preference include the frontal lobe (associated with executive functioning) and temporal lobe (often associated with emotional processing and regulation of sexual behaviour) (Seto 2008b). Results in general though have been mixed and there is no conclusive evidence that neurological differences between paedophilic and non-paedophilic sex offenders can explain child sex abuse (Seto, 2008).

If future research can demonstrate neurological difference between paedophiles, other offenders and non-offenders, then questions around causality are likely to arise, for example, whether paedophilic tendencies change brain structures or if the abnormalities in brain functioning contribute to the development of paedophilia.

[63.240] Descriptive characteristics

The prevalence of paedophilia in the general population is unknown, as studies investigating this would need to measure the persistence and intensity of sexual thoughts, fantasies, urges, arousal or behaviour involving children (Seto, 2008). Some studies have attempted to do this; however, they often include everyone who has had a thought of sexual contact with a child (a much lower hurdle than meeting diagnostic criteria for paedophilia) and therefore did not examine the persistence and intensity of these thoughts required for such a diagnosis. As such, these studies can only provide upper limit estimates regarding prevalence (Seto, 2008).

In studying 193 male university students, Briere and Runtz (1989) found that 9% had fantasised about having sex with a prepubescent child. Of the participants, 7% indicated some likelihood of having sex with a child if they were guaranteed that they would not be punished or identified and 5% reported that they had masturbated to fantasies of sex with children. These results are consistent across studies using student samples (Fromuth et al, 1991; Smith, 1994).

Using members of the general community, research has generally found that heterosexual men exhibit some sexual arousal to prepubescent girls; however, this rate was less than the rate of arousal towards pubescent girls and adult females. There was less sexual arousal to male stimuli (Seto, 2008). The DSM-V states that the highest possible prevalence is 3%-5% of the male population.

[63.260] Assessment

The aim of a risk assessment in this area is to identify the presence or absence of a sexual preference for children in a person who has committed a sexual offence against a child (Camilleri and Quinsey, 2003) and also to identify other factors that increase the likelihood of recidivism so that an effective intervention strategy can be developed (Craig et al, 2008). It is important to keep in mind that conceptually, "high risk" in these assessments does not usually correlate with "level of dangerousness" which refers to the severity of behaviour as opposed to likelihood of re-offending. There are three essential approaches to conducting a risk assessment which are...