The Man They Called a Monster: Forty Years On.

In 1981, Cassell Australia published Paul Wilson's monograph, The Man They Called a Monster: Sexual Experiences Between Men and Boys. In his book, Wilson examines the case of Clarence Osborne, an older man who had "sexual relations" with around 2500 boys and adolescents over a twenty-year period. He uses Osborne's life to reflect on broader questions of pedophilia in Australian society. In this commentary, I revisit the book to consider its contemporary legacy 40 years on. According to Google Scholar, at the time of this writing, the book has only 50 citations, yet it is a book that continues to live on in our cultural imaginary for a variety of reasons, and in no small part due to its author, Paul Wilson, and his remarkably similar interaction with the criminal justice system in the decades since its publication. This commentary explores the historical context in which the book was written, pays particular attention to the changing social attitudes towards pedophilia, the recent controversy pertaining to its author, and discourses surrounding the sexual autonomy of minors.

'Chronophilia': Entries of Erotic Age Preference into Descriptive Psychopathology.

A scientific nomenclature of erotic age preferences informed the mid- through late nineteenth century joint appearance of homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors on the medico-legal scene. Yet, even in the twenty-first century, legal, psychiatric and culture-critical dimensions of related terms are rarely cleanly distinguished. Review of primary sources shows the ongoing Western suspension of notions of 'sick desire', alongside and beyond the medicalisation of homosexuality, between metaphor, legal interdiction and postulated psychopathology. Virtually all early attention to erotic age preference occurred in the context of emergent attention to erotic gender preference. Age of attraction and age difference centrally animate modern homosexuality's pre-modern past; its earliest psychiatric nomenclature and typologies (1844-69); its early aetiologies stipulating degrees of sexual differentiation (1890 s); its concomitant sub-classification (1896-1914); its earliest psychophysiological tests (1950s); and, finally, its post-psychiatric, social scientific typologies (1980s). Several identifications of 'paedophilia' were seen throughout the 1890 s but as a trope it gained cultural momentum only during, and as a seemingly intriguing corollary of, the progressive depsychiatricisation of homosexuality across the Anglo-European world (late 1950s through 1980s). Early twentieth century sources varied in having it denote (1) a distinct perversion, thus possible 'complication' of sexual inversion (2) a discrete corollary of psychosexual differentiation akin to gender preference (3) a distinct subtype of fetishism, thus a likely imprint of early seduction (4) a more intricate expression of erotic symbolism or psychosexual complex or (5) a taste answering to culture, a lack of it, or a libertine disregard for it.

The Imperialism of Historical Arrogance: Where Is the Past in the DSM's Idea of Sexuality?

This article questions the historical awareness of the DSM-5 by investigating first the treatment of prostitution from the Victorian period to today as a means of medicalizing desire; and second, by looking at the category of hebephilia, where modern medicalizing classifications are criticized for ignoring ancient evidence. By this comparative method, the article shows how ignoring historical evidence allows the social and ideological elements in the work of defining psychological sexual diseases to remain concealed.

Sexual assault, irresistible impulses, and forensic psychiatry in Sweden.

After forensic psychiatry was firmly established in Sweden in the 1930s, many rapists and individuals charged with assaulting children underwent a forensic psychiatric examination. The physicians found that most of them had not been "in control" of their senses or not "in complete control" of their senses at the time of the crime. If the court ordered a forensic psychiatric examination, the defendant had a very good chance of either being discharged or having his sentence reduced considerably. By the 1950s psychological perspectives began to dominate in forensic psychiatry. In the forensic records of the 1950s we can notice a shift from a biomedical to a socio-psychological perspective, and crime was increasingly related to conditions that were not seen as mental derangement from a legal point of view. As a result, it became less and less common, from the 1950s onwards, for sentences to be commuted or defendants discharged.

Pedofilia: informações médico-legais para o profissional da saúde / Pedophilia: medical legal information for the health personnel

Todas as formas de violência contra a criança produzem consequências nefastas ao desenvolvimento infantil. Existe uma forte influência do trauma no progresso da arquitetura cerebral, da estruturação permanente da personalidade e dos padrões de relacionamento posteriores. Geralmente, os pedófilos iniciam suas atividades durante a adolescência, e a preferência pelo sexo masculino é duas vezes maior do que pelo feminino; sabe-se que as relações sexuais entre adultos e crianças ocorrem desde a antiguidade. Existem várias teorias para explicar a pedofilia: para alguns, a testosterona predispõe aos desvios de comportamento sexual; outros a explicam como resultado de fatores psicossociais. O diagnóstico é estabelecido preenchendo-se os critérios do Manual Diagnóstico e Estatístico de Transtornos Mentais (DSM-IV-TR). O tratamento de escolha é a psicoterapia de longa duração, e o tratamento medicamentoso se baseia em três classes de drogas: hormônios femininos, agonistas do LHRH ou antiandrogênios. A castração cirúrgica é oferecida em casos especiais. A prisão remove os pedófilos da sociedade, mas não os modifica. Além dos dispositivos constitucionais que preveem, de forma ampla e integral, a proteção da criança e do adolescente, o Código Penal e o Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente estabelecem um sistema de normas imperativas destinadas à repressão de abusos envolvendo a temática em comento. Frente a essas novas revelações, faz-se mister ao profissional da saúde receber noções médico-legais sobre a violência e suas aberrações.(AU)

All forms of violence against children produce disastrous consequences to the infantile development. There is a strong influence of the trauma in the progress of the cerebral architecture, the permanent structure of the personality and the standard of posterior relationships. Pedophiles usually begin their activities during adolescence, and the preference for males is twice as high as for females. It is known that sexual relations between adults and children have occurred since ancient times. There is a handful of theories to explain pedophilia: for some, testosterone predisposes the individual to sexually deviant behaviors; for others, it is the result of psychosocial factors. The diagnosis is established by comparison with the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), and the treatment of choice is long-term psychotherapy; drug therapy is based on three classes of drugs: female hormones, LHRH agonists or anti-androgens. Surgical castration is resorted in special cases only. Imprisonment removes pedophiles from society, but does not change or cure them. Along with the constitutional provisions that offer, in a broad and integral manner, the protection of children and adolescents, the Criminal Code and the Statute of the Child and Adolescent establish a system of mandatory regulations for the prosecution of those abusive individuals concerning the matter herein discussed. Due to these new revelations, it is important that health personnel receive medical legal notions about the violence and its aberrations.(AU)

[Syphilis, brothels, unwanted children and wet nurses. Italy and syphilis infection in the 19th century]. / La sifilide e le case di tolleranza, i bambini esposti e le balie. L' Italia e il contagio luetico nell'ottocento.

In 1861 in Italy a repressive law was passed against prostitution to reduce syphilis transmission. After the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy there began a debate on this law which was harsh on prostitutes and failed to resolve the health problem in question. In 1880, in Italy, studies were promoted under the aegis of a royal commission to understand the social situation of prostitution and the epidemic spread of syphilis. In 1888 Crispi issued new regulations concerning prostitution, prevention and therapy of infectious diseases: three years later a new regulation was established which partly restored the 1861 law. In this paper we present not only the question of prostitution in Italy in relation to syphilis, but also the serious problem of infection transmission to unweaned babies and to wet nurses in orphanages.

Eugenic and sexual folklores and the castration of sex offenders in the Netherlands (1938-1968).

This contribution questions the positive/negative eugenics dichotomy that typifies the historiography on the eugenic movement in the Netherlands and the claim that this movement was mostly marginal because only positive eugenics was pursued. From 1938 to 1968 in the Netherlands, after a decade of debates, 400 sex offenders who had been committed to asylums for the criminally insane were 'voluntarily' and 'therapeutically' castrated. For political reasons debates on castration, meant to create consensus, eliminated any reference to or connotation with eugenics, yet these policies were unthinkable without them. This article shows that thinking about social and sexual problems and their solutions in the 1930s were permeated by eugenic folklore which in turn was informed by sexual folklore. Both eugenic and sexual lore, as common sense, or as ways of knowing, were about individual and collective loss of self control which was referred to with a catch-all phrase: 'hypersexuality'. Although sexual classifications used in diagnosing sex offenders suggested the existence of discrete sexual categories, homosexuality for instance was not seen as a sexual alternative or as an identity but as the extent to which an offender suffered from a form of hypersexuality that threatened the fabric of society.

Review of medical reports on pedophilia.

The present report is a review of all 554 papers published on Medline on pedophilia. The first discussion is the history of the disorder from ancient Greece to the present time, especially the influence of the liberal country of the Netherlands, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, and the sexual crisis in the Catholic Church. One important question is the relationship between homosexual pedophilia and adult homosexuality. Evidence for and against this relationship is presented. Next discussed are the characteristics of the victim and the long lasting serious effects of sexual abuse. Laboratory correlations are included, especially phallometric tests in order to objectively measure the physical responses to sexual stimuli. Electrophysiological and radiographic tests are also mentioned, including electroencephalography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography scans. An important section is the characterization of pedophiles with emphasis on their frequent previous sexual abuse, their past, their present, and their anticipated future. The final topic is treatment of this disorder with surgery, medication, behavioral therapy and the combination of medication and behavioral therapy.

Some myths and anomalies in the study of Roman sexuality.

This paper seeks to dispel several myths prevalent in the scholarship on Roman sexuality: that a freed slave was still obligated to serve his former master's sexual demands (I.A.), that the cinaedus cannot be the same as the modern male homosexual because the cinaedus was thought capable of performing cunnilinctus (I.B.), that exoleti were male prostitutes (I.C.), that the Romans were implacably hostile to lesbianism and that they constructed the lesbian as a phallic monstrosity (II.). It also draws attention to some neglected, unfamiliar, or misinterpreted evidence-anomalous on the current understanding of Roman sexuality, where women, boys, and lower-class men are supposed to have equal standing as potential passive sexual partners for adult men-for adult men whose sexual partners are exclusively male, and either active or passive: exoleti as active partners (I.C.), a puer delicatus who is prized for a masculine appearance rather than a feminine one (I.D.), and the Warren Cup, which glorifies a world of exclusively male-male sexuality (I.E.).

[Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos: criminal and legal aspects of serial homicide with over 200 victims]. / Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos: Kriminalistische und juristische Aspekte einer Serientötung mit über 200 Opfern.

This is the first scientific report on the crimes of the homosexual paedophile sadist Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, based on a research stay of the authors in Columbia, and including discussions with the investigators, and the offender. Between 1992 and 1999, Garavito killed more than 200 children in the core age span between 8 and 13 years (as an exception, 6 to 16 years). His modus operandi remained stable. During daytime, he lured children of a lower social status out of crowded parts of the city into hidden areas that were overgrown with high plants. Garavito promised either payment for easy work, or drugs, or made other socially believable offers. The children were tied up, tortured, raped, and killed by at least one cut in the lateral part of the neck, or by decapitation. During the killings, Garavito was drunk. Even after his arrest (for attempted sexual abuse under a wrong identity) it was not immediately possible to track his crimes since Garavito had frequently changed his places of stay and his jobs. He also grew different hairdos and used wrong names. During his still ongoing confessions, he directs the investigators correctly to all scenes of crime spread over large parts of Columbia. In our report, we give an overview over the course of investigations, hint to similarities in the cases of the German serial killer Denke (1920's) and homosexual paedophile serial killer Jürgen Bartsch (1960's), and give preliminary impressions on the offender's personality. Furthermore, the violent environment and juridical peculiarities in Columbia are discussed. In spite of a total penalty of 2600 years in prison, it is formally well possible that Garavito will be released out of prison within the next 10 to 20 years, i.e. even before the maximum sentence of 40 years will be over.

Symbiogenesis: the hidden face of Constantin Merezhkowsky.

Constantin Merezhkowsky is celebrated today for his theory of symbiogenesis, postulated in the early decades of the twentieth century, particularly that chloroplasts were symbiotic cyanophytes (cyanobacteria). While biologists point singularly to what they see as his heroic achievement, its neglect and subsequent rediscovery, we introduce a broader and much more complex perspective on his science, his troubled life and career. We present a view of Merezhkowsky as zoologist, anthropologist, botanist, philosopher, and novelist. We explain the genesis of his theory of the origin of chloroplasts and of nucleus and cytoplasm as symbionts, as well as his depiction of the geo-chemical context of the origins and early evolution of life on earth. We also disclose his sordid social and political activities, his eugenics and racist writings, his paedophilia, and his metaphysics. Finally, we describe the context of his elaborate suicide in 1921.

Ephebophilia and the creation of a spiritual myth in the works of Ralph Nicholas Chubb.

The writings of Chubb, a boy-lover inclined to spiritualism will be studied with a view to understanding how he created an exonerative myth to reconcile his sexual interest with his desire for spiritual fulfillment. In this myth Chubb is the prophet of a deity who looks like a young boy and loving boys has spiritual significance. Chubb's pre-modern perception of his sexual orientation helps us to understand the changing views of homosexuality. This study may help in understanding the relationship between sexual desire and the development of personal myths.

The Thera inscriptions--ritual or slander?

Inscriptions carved in a rock on the Greek island of Thera and dating from the 6th or 7th century BC have homosexual contents. Originally considered a testimony to ritual sacred acts, they were described by Marrou (1956) and Dover (1978) as vulgar pornographic graffiti. Arguments against this view and in favor of the formal ritual interpretation are proposed. A final explanation is suggested, conforming to local customs and the general conceptions of ancient Greek boy-love.

Man-boy friendships on trial: on the shift in the discourse on boy love in the early twentieth century.

Ideas on man-boy friendships prevailing in early 20th century Germany are analyzed in this paper. The friendships based on the concept of pedagogical Eros, as propagated by Gustav Wyneken (1875-1964) in his Wickersdorf Free School Community, are presented as an example. Wyneken's conviction in 1921 for acts of vice with minors and the diverse reactions in the homosexual and youth movements and the popular press shed light on the viewpoints then held regarding these friendships. As a result of this confrontation, the Platonic model was superseded by the medico-sexological model which has continued to dominate thought on man-boy friendships up to the present day.

Boys in art. The artist and his model: Ferdinand and Hector Hodler. A new approach.

In literature serious attention is rarely paid to the theme of "the boy in art," although many artists used and still use boys as a medium for their message. By a detailed analysis of the symbolism in a series of paintings by Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), the author attempts a reinterpretation of the pictures this Swiss artist made of his young son Hector. The author rejects traditional Freudian speculations and uses a hitherto neglected and repudiated source for understanding Hodler's symbolism, the social and artistic ideas of a circle of Rosicrucians to which the painter adhered.