Kelly Richards
Senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology
The public often feels intense loathing and anger towards paedophiles and those who sexually abuse children. A raft of sex offender policies such as Western Australia’s publicly accessible register of “dangerous and high risk offenders” has been introduced globally to appease an increasingly hostile, punitive and vocal community.
What the public thinks about the causes of child sexual abuse is important, because what people think causes a problem informs what they believe should be done.
My recent research examined what the public think causes paedophilia and child sexual abuse. I found there were four common causal explanations, and while each had some truth to them, they ultimately missed the complexity of the actual causes.
‘Born that way’ or cycle of abuse?
I analysed nearly 800 comments posted by members of the public to four online forums created following the announcement of a new program for reintegrating sex offenders in South Australia.
The forums are a rich source of data on public views about causality, particularly since people’s comments are “off the cuff” rather than telling the researcher what they want to hear.
People posting on the forum put forward four causal explanations for paedophilia and child sexual abuse.
The first common view was that paedophilia is a sexual orientation akin to homo- or heterosexuality. This is the belief that paedophiles are simply “born that way”:
They do it because their sexual orientation is children.
If their brain says it’s children [there is] nothing anyone can do to change that.
U can’t “cure” a persons eye colour! And u can’t cure the way these child rapists think or behave.
A mental health issue
Others believe that paedophilia and/or child sexual abuse is caused by mental illness, making reference to “a mental health issue”, and the need for “mental health support” and to help “the mentally ill”.
Typical comments include:
[…] paedophilia is also a sort of mental illness. Their brain isn’t “wired” correctly, causing them to be sexually attracted to children.
[…] they have a brain malfunction and they cannot change.
Cycle of Abuse
In line with previous research findings from the US, I found that members of the public also commonly view paedophilia and child sexual abuse as a manifestation of the cycle-of-abuse theory.
This refers to the notion that child sexual abusers were themselves abused as children, and go on to perpetuate the abuse as adults.
For example, posters to the online forums repeatedly referred to the “vicious cycle” of abuse. Others claimed that:
Most of them have been sexually abused as kids.
They are almost always manifesting their own abuse.
It's a choice
Finally, many members of the public believe that child sexual abuse simply reflects a choice on the part of the perpetrator, referring to perpetrators’ “choice to take a child’s life and innocence away”, the “choice they have made to permanently destroy a child’s life by raping them”, and their “sick cowardly choice that they make to destroy a child”.
Some even characterise sexual interest in children in and of itself as a choice: “They have made a choice between having sexual feelings towards children over having sexual feelings towards adults”.
What’s really going on
First, it’s important to understand that paedophilia and child sexual abuse are not the same thing. “Paedophilia” refers to an enduring sexual interest in prepubescent children, which may or may not be acted on.
Not all those who sexually abuse children are paedophiles, with many abusers acting opportunistically or due to something other than a sexual preference for children. This distinction isn’t always well understood.
In my research (ie this blog) it is often associated with drugs or alcohol when normal inhibitions (ie decency) are broken down and it becomes an 'any old port in the storm' type of scenario.
Secondly, the reality of child sexual abuse is far more complex than any of the four explanations suggest. While it is a truism that anyone who abuses a child chooses to do so, it is not the case that people with paedophilia choose to have this sexual attraction.
In the end that may be true, but in the beginning, the potential paedophile will, at some point, make choices that will lead him down the road toward paedophilia. For example, he may choose to watch a lot of pornography. Pornography, itself, becomes boring very quickly for many people and so one has to look for more interesting porn. It may be more violence; it may be younger and younger girls; it may be bestiality; violence; etc. The principle here is that sin is progressive!
Research increasingly suggests that a paedophilic orientation is innate. But this does not explain all child sexual abuse, because not all paedophiles act on their sexual interest in children, and many child sexual abusers do not have paedophilia.
There is some truth to the cycle-of-abuse explanation too, but again the reality is more complex. It is clear that most victims of child sexual abuse do not become perpetrators. Most victims are female, while most perpetrators are male, and there is no direct link between victimisation and perpetration.
I think this is very questionable. If you consider the abuse of aboriginal peoples in residential schools in Canada, it has become very obvious that that abuse has been transferred generationally to the present day. I expect the same is true with Australian aboriginals.
However, male victims of child sexual abuse are over-represented among perpetrators of child sexual abuse. This suggests that that for males, victimisation is a risk factor for later offending. A range of factors, including the severity of the abuse, the age of the victim, and the gender of the perpetrator, appear to shape this risk.
There is also some truth to the public belief that paedophilia and child sexual abuse reflects a mental disorder, but only in some circumstances.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, paedophilia can only be classed as a disorder if it causes distress or impairment to the individual, or if acted on would cause harm or risk of harm to others.
So are members of the public right about what causes paedophilia and child sexual abuse? The short answer is “yes and no”.
While they adhere to a number of explanations that are correct in some circumstances, the problem is that most people strongly adhere to only one explanation.
In reality, the causes of paedophilia and child sexual abuse are multiple and complex. Given that public opinion influences law and policy, it is critical that the public is better informed about this important issue.
Kelly Richard's research is both interesting and accurate to a point. The main point, that the public does not understand the causes of paedophilia is certainly correct, as is the need for us to understand. However, her research seems to fall a little short in that she, at least as far as this article is concerned, doesn't include much in terms of moral choices.
Morality isn't something we are born without. We have an inherent morality which is either strengthened or weakened by our environment as we grow to adulthood. Poor moral choices that are not addressed quickly will often lead to progressively worse moral choices. Eventually, one finds oneself making horrible choices and not even knowing why.
The other missing piece to Ms Richard's research is any element of spirituality. This is where science often leaves us completely baffled, because they refuse to admit that there is a spiritual element to life that is very real. There are good spirits (angels) and bad spirits (demons). Bad, or evil spirits are hateful and love to destroy anything that reminds them of God the Father or Jesus Christ the Son.
This very simple explanation tells us why antisemitism exists. It also tells us why genuine paedophilia exists. Pre-pubescent children are innocents; they reverberate the innocence of God. Demonic creatures love to destroy that innocence. That's what paedophilia really is - the destruction of innocence.
Sin opens the doors of one's soul to the demonic; that's why sin is progressive. The more you hold the door open, the more demons can gain influence over you. You can close those doors and start making good moral choices and you just might overcome the temptations. You might also ask God to forgive you and rescue you from evil.
In the big picture, this rapidly proliferating paedophilia will not be stopped until Jesus returns.
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