Pedophilia is a sexual disorder. The types of sexual contact that a pedophile strives for with a child can be very different, ranging from exposing and masturbating in the presence of minors, touching their genitals, and ending with full sexual intercourse.

Pedophiliahas no one specific cause. Although usuallypedophilecommits forbidden acts only in adulthood, the reasons for such a formation of their sexual preferences lie, according to experts, in earlier years.

Pedophilia: causes

The causes of pedophilia include four groups of factors that may be responsible for pedophilic behavior:

  • emotional congruence - an adult has a sense of fit, because the development of his needs and behaviors is on a similar level to that of a child;
  • reacting with excitement to the child - they refer to the development of sexual arousal in contact with the child;
  • blocking towards adults - sexual reactions of a pedophile to an adult person are inhibited;
  • unlocking - disappearance of social brakes or control of own behavior towards children.

Pedophilia: types of pedophilia

Due to the age of the children the pedophile is interested in, we divide pedophilia into:

  • infantophilia - the object of interest is a child under the age of 5,
  • nepiophilia - the target of interest is a preschool child,
  • pedophilia - the target is a pre-adolescent school-age child
  • ephebophilia - the object is a boy in adolescence (i.e. from 13 to 16 years of age)
  • hephobophilia - the object is a girl in adolescence (i.e. from 13 to 16 years of age)

Pedophilia: who is the victim of a pedophile?

In most of the disclosed cases, girls aged 8-11 and boys aged 11-15 are among the interest of pedophiles. This is partly due to the fact that cases of pedophilia towards younger children are reported much less frequently.

Up to 90 percent of the time, the molester is a family member or someone closely related to them. Much more often it is a man, and even in two-thirds of cases - the father, stepfather or mother's partner. Most acts of sexual violence occur in an orphanage, and extremely rarely (up to 2% of cases) innursery or kindergarten, which is the most common concern of parents. It's scary because it turns out that a child usually falls victim to someone they can trust and everything happens in an area that is close to them and where they feel safe.

Pedophilia treatment

Experts believe that pedophilia is strongly related to personality disorders and less to human biology. Hence, treatment should primarily concern the mental sphere.

Category:

Psychiatry