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Summary Section B Study Unit 8: SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH
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Intensive summary about pedophilia and sexual abuse of children.
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JULY EXAMINATIONSECTION B
STUDY UNIT 8: SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH
Paedophilia (from the Greek word for child love) is the clinical term that is sometimes used infer
changeably with crimes like child molestation and child sexual abuse.
Paedophilia is a clinical condition that is not necessarily
accompanied by action.
When criminal action is involved, even though we may
refer to the offender as a "paedophile," this is not the
official term.
That is, the person prosecuted for child sexual
assault, child molestation, child sexual exploitation, distributing child pornography, or any
one of a number of other sexual crimes against children.
Essentially, "paedophilia" is a psychological or psychiatric condition that may require treatment. It is
included in the DSM-5 as a lifelong mental disorder, though it may fluctuate, increase, or decrease
with age.
Paedophilia is defined in a variety of ways. The DSM-5 refers to it as a condition in which "over a
period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or
behaviours involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or
younger) occur".
Note that the definition contains the terms "fantasies" and "urges," which-by themselves-are not
criminal unless there is an accompanying action (behaviour) that is against the law.
The DSM-5 further specifies that some paedophiles are sexually attracted only to children (the
exclusive type), whereas others are sexually attracted to both children and adults (nonexclusive
type).
According to Finkelhor and Araji (1986), paedophilia is an adult's conscious sexual interest in
prepubertal children.
One of two behaviours signify that interest.
Either the adult has had some sexual contact with a child
The adult has masturbated to sexual fantasies or images involving children.
Although the second behaviour is not a crime, criminal behaviour may have been involved in the
procuring of the images, such as downloading child pornography or soliciting the images from a child
or adolescent. Occasionally, researchers extend the definition of paedophilia to include ages 13
through 15, but most literature uses the term hebephilia for sexual contact by adults with young
adolescents.
,However, the distinction between hebephilia and paedophilia does not appear to be clinically
meaningful, so hebephilia is usually not considered a distinct, diagnostic category.
Traditionally, most nonclinical definitions of paedophilia were restricted to sexual contact between
an adult and child who are not closely related.
Sexual acts between members of a family when at least one participant is a minor has traditionally
been labelled incest or intrafamilial (within the family) child molestation and is most commonly
perpetrated by men who molest their sexually immature daughters or stepdaughters. Sexual contact
with immature family members by individuals from outside the family is called extrafamilial child
molestation.
Terms used in Research on Child Molestation:
Term Definition
Extrafamilial Child Sexual contact with a minor child by someone outside the
Molestation immediate family.
Infrafamilial Child Sexual contact with a minor child by someone within the
Molestation immediate family.
Paedophilia For some researchers and clinicians, the term refers to strong
sexual attraction toward children. Others use the term to refer
to sexual contact with children.
Paedophile Someone with strong sexual attraction toward children or
someone who has frequent sexual contact with children.
Incest Sexual activity between individuals of close blood relationship
that is prohibited by law or custom.
Child Sexual Abuse Refers to any sexual activity involving a child that provides
gratification or stimulation to an adult or older adolescent.
Child Molester Largely accepted term for someone who has sexual contact or
sexually abuses a minor child.
Hebephilia Sexual contact by adults with young adolescents.
Paraphilia Sexual disorders in which sexual arousal occurs almost
exclusively in the presence of inappropriate objects or unusual
sexual practices or fantasies.
A term closely related is the more all-encompassing paraphilia, which covers other cognitions and
behaviours in addition to those relating to children. Paraphilia denotes any intense and persistent
sexual interests other than sexual interest in genital stimulation or preparatory fondling with
consenting human partners. Examples of paraphilic disorders include repetitive sexual activity
involving real or simulated suffering or humiliation, such as whipping or bondage; strong preferences
for nonhuman objects, such as animals or underclothing or shoes of the opposite sex; touching or
rubbing against a nonconsenting individual (frotteurism); exposing genitals to nonconsenting
persons (exhibitionism); or spying on others engaging in private activities (voyeurism).
, INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF CHILD SEX ABUSE
As with sexual offenses in general, a strong caveat pertaining to the statistics is necessary.
Data on child sexual abuse are difficult to obtain, because there are no central or national objective
recording systems for tabulating sexual offenses against children.
Sex crimes as a group have the lowest rates of reporting of all violent crimes.
Furthermore, similar to cases of elder abuse, the alleged sexual abuse of children is often referred to
a human service agency and may never appear in official crime statistics.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) (2014), approximately
61,000 children who were believed to be sexually abused received child protective services in
2013.
Among these victims, nearly 30% were abused at age seven or younger.
The DHHS defines sexual abuse as engaging a child in sexual acts that may include fondling, rape,
and exposing the child to other sexual activities.
From a national survey of about 1,200 American males, it was estimated that between 5 and 10% of
the male population has engaged in or will engage in child sexual abuse at some time in their lives.
In a more recent online survey of both men and women, Wurtele, Simons, and Moreno discovered
that 6% of men and 2% of women indicated some likelihood of having sex with a child
if they were guaranteed they would not be caught or punished .
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has the potential to provide better
information on the prevalence of sexual assaults of young children.
Using NIBRS data between 1991 and 1996, Snyder (2006) found that 34 percent of the
victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement was under age 12.
Most disturbing was the finding that one of every seven victims of It is well recognized in the
criminology literature that female adolescents with persistent antisocial behaviour as well as
adult female offenders have often experienced child sexual abuse
Overall, 28 percent the 930 women reported at least one incident of sexual abuse before
reaching the age of 14.
Prison data also give us an indication of the extent of the problem.
Two-thirds of all prisoners in state prisons convicted of rape or sexual assault had committed
their crime against a child adolescent, and in most cases the victim was female.
Approximately 60 of those convicted of child molestation had victimized children younger
than 13
Other data obtained from prisoners point to the extent of the problem and suggest that
sex offenders have numerous victims.
Incarcerated homosexual child sex offenders had, on the average 31 victims, while
heterosexual had an average of 62 victims.
The global estimated prevalence for girls is 18% and about 8% for boys.
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