Taxometric Analysis of the Latent Structure of Pedophilic Interest.

The present study examined the latent structure of pedophilic interest. Using data from phallometric tests for pedophilic interest across four samples of offenders (ns = 805, 632, 531, 261), taxometric analyses were conducted to identify whether pedophilic interest is best characterized as taxonic or dimensional. Across the samples, the majority of analyses supported taxonic latent structure in pedophilic interest. Visual inspection of taxometric curves indicated trichotomous latent structure (i.e., three-ordered classes) may characterize pedophilic interest in these samples. In a second step of taxometric analysis, the results supported trichotomous latent structure, indicating the presence of a complement taxon and two pedophilic taxa. In comparison with the complement taxon, the men in the first pedophilic taxon were non-exclusively pedophilic and had similar rates of sexual recidivism and sexual compulsivity. The men in the second pedophilic taxon were exclusively pedophilic, had more child victims and total victims, sexually re-offended at a higher rate, and were more sexually compulsive. The finding of trichotomous latent structure in pedophilic interest is both consistent and inconsistent with previous taxometric studies and has implications for research, assessment, and treatment of pedophilic interest.

Taxometric analyses of pedophilia utilizing self-report, behavioral, and sexual arousal indicators.

Pedophilia refers to the recurrent, intense sexual interest in prepubescent children who, by definition, have not developed any secondary sex characteristics. Researchers have begun to investigate whether persons with pedophilia are qualitatively different from those without pedophilia (pedophilia is a taxon) or if people vary in their level of sexual interest toward children (pedophilia is dimensional). Two relatively small studies have previously attempted to address this question, but produced conflicting results. The present study built on these studies with a substantially larger sample of 2,227 men who committed sexual offenses and were assessed at a sexual behavior clinic. The present study also examined a broader range of measures more closely approximating the diagnostic criteria for pedophilic disorder, including phallometric assessment of sexual arousal patterns. The results of 3 taxometric analyses did not find support for the assertion that pedophilia is a taxon. (PsycINFO Database Record

Looking Beyond the Screen: A Critical Review of the Literature on the Online Child Pornography Offender.

This article reviews the current literature pertaining to those who engage in child pornography offending. The basic characteristics of online child pornography offenders (CPOs) and related typologies are briefly presented prior to reviewing the comparative literature pertaining to CPOs and child contact sexual offenders. In general, CPOs have been found to be relatively high functioning and generally pro-social individuals with less extensive and diverse offending histories than contact offenders. CPOs also display high levels of sexual pre-occupation, deviant sexual interests, and deficits in interpersonal and affective domains that surpass those of contact offenders. Although further research is required to replicate and clarify preliminary findings, the available evidence indicates that existing sexual offender risk assessment tools and treatment programs are not suitable for use with CPOs, and thus require revision and empirical evaluation prior to widespread use among this population. The article concludes with implications for clinical practice and directions for future research.

Evidence of Construct Validity in the Assessment of Hebephilia.

Hebephilia refers to a persistent intense sexual interest in pubescent children. Although not as widely studied as pedophilia, studies of hebephilia have indicated convergence in self-report and sexual arousal. The present study expanded on previous work by examining convergent and divergent validity across indicators of hebephilia that included self-report, sexual behavior, and sexual arousal in a sample of 2238 men who had sexually offended. We included men who denied such interest and specifically examined the overlap between hebephilia and pedophilia and examined pedohebephilia (i.e., sexual interests in both prepubescent and pubescent children). Results indicated that there was considerable convergence across indicators of hebephilia. The results suggested poor divergent validity between hebephilia and pedophilia, as there was substantial overlap between the two constructs across analyses. Finally, a distinct pattern of sexual arousal was found in offenders with pedohebephilia. The results of the present study were discussed with a focus on implications for the assessment of sexual interest in children and the conceptualization of pedohebephilia.

Sensitivity and Specificity of the Phallometric Test for Hebephilia.

INTRODUCTION: The phallometric test has been examined most widely in the literature with regard to its ability to detect pedophilia; however, it has become of increasing interest to clinicians and researchers to ascertain to what extent the test accurately detects hebephilia: Whereas pedophilia refers to an adult's sexual interest in prepubescent children (age 10 or younger, on average), hebephilia refers to an adult's sexual interest in pubescent children (ages 11-14, on average). AIM: The aim of this study was to estimate the accuracy of volumetric phallometry in distinguishing pedophilic men and hebephilic men from men who are teleiophilic (primarily sexually interested in adults, age 17 or older). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted on the cumulate database of a large phallometric laboratory and clinic to identify a group of 239 men who committed sexual offenses against extrafamilial adults age 17 or older and a group of 996 men who committed sexual offenses against extrafamilial children age 14 or younger, all of whom professed a greater sexual interest in adults over children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The sensitivity and specificity of the phallometric test is calculated for its accuracy in distinguishing sexual preferences for children spanning various age ranges. RESULTS: Receiver operator characteristic curves were highly significant for each classification decision: Using its previously established cut-point of +0.25 standard deviation (SD) units, the phallometric test detected hebephilia with a sensitivity and specificity of 70.0% and 90.7%, detected pedophilia with 46.9% and 100%, and detected pedohebephilia with 75.3% and 90.7%. At a new cut-point of +0.0 SD units, the sensitivity and specificity of the test for pedophilia was 71.9% and 95.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Volumetric phallometry significantly distinguishes teleiophilic sex offenders from each of pedophilic, hebephilic, and pedohebephilic sex offenders and can serve as a reliable diagnostic test of sexual age preference among men who deny sexual interest in children.

Heteronormativity and Repronormativity in Sexological "Perversion Theory" and the DSM-5's "Paraphilic Disorder" Diagnoses.

The move from "paraphilias" to "paraphilic disorders," where only the latter constitute mental disorders, has been hailed as a major change to the conception of non-normative sexualities in DSM-5. However, this is a claim that has been criticized by numerous activists and doctors working for removal of all diagnoses of so-called sexual disorders from the APA's manual. This article, written from a critical humanities, queer theory-inflected perspective, examines the historical and ideological grounds underlying the inclusion of the newly branded "paraphilic disorders" in DSM-5. It argues that the diagnosis does nothing to overturn the conservative and utilitarian view of sexuality as genitally oriented and for reproduction that has colored sexological and psychiatric history. It suggests that despite homosexuality no longer being classed as a disorder, an implicit heteronormativity continues to define psychiatric perceptions of sexuality. In sum, this article proposes that (1) the production of the field of psychiatric knowledge concerning "perversion"/"sexual deviation"/"paraphilia"/"paraphilic disorder" is more ideological than properly scientific; (2) the "normophilic" bias of the DSM is a bias in favor of heteronormativity and reproduction; and (3) some sexual practices are valued above others, regardless of claims that the presence of a paraphilic practice itself is no longer a criterion for a diagnosis of mental disorder.

Hebephilia: A Postmortem Dissection.

In 2008, the concept of hebephilia, which denotes an erotic preference for "pubescent children," was suggested by Blanchard and his team for inclusion in the DSM-5 (Blanchard et al., 2009). Four years later, the APA's Board of Trustees opted for the status quo and rejected that proposal. This essay sheds light on the reason for this rejection. I consider three important questions related to hebephilia: Does hebephilia exist? Is it a disease? And what would have been the social consequences of including it in the DSM? I argue that if Blanchard failed to convince others that hebephilia should be included in the DSM-5, it is not because he focused too much on the first question and was unable to offer a convincing answer to the second one, but because he made the mistake of dismissing the third one as extraneous. The DSM is not intended to be a pure research manual, and a category like hebephilia cannot be evaluated without taking into account its potential forensic impact. In part or in whole, the decision to include a new diagnostic category in the DSM is, and always should be, a political decision.

Hebephilia as a sexual disorder.

BACKGROUND: The term "hebephilia" describes the sexual preference for minors at an early pubertal body age. For most clinicians the definition of hebephilia is not obvious and not integrated as a separate category in the DSM-5. METHOD: N = 222 self-motivated applicants from the community for the therapy program of the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld in Berlin were assessed concerning their sexual preference towards minors. RESULTS: Approximately two-thirds (n = 153) showed a sexual interest in early pubertal minors (15 % exclusively; 85 % non-exclusively). Approximately 95 % reported having sexually abused children and/or having used child abusive images at least once in their lifetime. Hebephiles reported a significantly higher level of clinically relevant distress and personality characteristics, as well as more offense-supportive attitudes compared to normative samples. CONCLUSION: Hebephilia can be differentiated from pedophilia in terms of sexual interest for the body age of the minor. Associated personal distress, deviant personality characteristics as well as sexual behavior problems suggest that hebephilia can fulfill the criteria of a sexual disorder which should be considered in classification systems (DSM, ICD).

[Pedophilia--a review of literature, casuistics, doubts]. / Pedofilia--przeglad literatury, ilustracja kazuistyczna, dylematy.

The main purpose of this article is presentation of several basic issues related to the phenomenon of child sexual molesters and recognition of pedophilia as a significant social problem. The article, supplemented by casuistic illustration showing adolescents with sexual behavior disorders is giving rise to the following question: do they progress in their inappropriate behaviors to grow into adult molesters or do they stop anywhere along the way of their development? Casuistry, in the intention of the authors, is the background for discussion about prevention of child sexual abuse. This article presents also a review of the current knowledge about child sexual molesters. The topics include: the definition of pedophilia itself, which varies in the literature depending on the types of activities, kinds of victims and the circumstances in which the perpetrator acts, through to the recognition of symptoms of pedophilia as well as its consequences. It includes both intra-familial and extra-familial child sexual abuse and their offenders. The more, that the history of child sexual abuse is associated with numerous long-term physical, psychological, behavioral, interpersonal and social effects on the victim. The examinations made among pedophilic molesters have shown structural and functional temporal-limbic abnormalities, including abnormalities in the amygdala and it is possible that the pedophilic inclinations are secondary to neurodevelopmental perturbations and other neuropsychiatric syndromes.

Is pedophilic sexual preference continuous? A taxometric analysis based on direct and indirect measures.

The present study addressed the question of whether deviant sexual preferences for children can be considered a taxon, utilizing data from a multimethod assessment battery. The test battery comprised direct self-report as well as indirect latency-based measures (Implicit Association Tests, viewing time) of deviant sexual preferences for children. In a mixed sample of adult men (N = 304, including sex offenders against children, sex offenders against adults, and controls who were either nonsexual offenders or nonoffenders), 27% of the offenders convicted for child sexual abuse or child pornography charges were identified as a homogeneous and distinct latent class. Additional taxometric analyses corroborated the notion of a pedophilic subgroup. Individuals in this pedophilic group showed elevated scores on measures of deviant sexual preference for children over adults. The offense histories of the individuals from the pedophilic cluster indicated an increased likelihood of pedophilic preference as assessed by a file-based summary index. We interpret the results as evidence for pedophilic sexual preference as a distinct and taxonic clinical construct.

Perpetrator and victim gender patterns for 21 forms of youth victimization in the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence.

Most interest in violence and gender has focused on certain types of victimization such as sex offenses and relational aggression. This study examined gender patterns across numerous forms of youth victimization. The data are from the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), a nationally representative U.S. sample of 4,549 children ages 1 month to 17 years obtained through a telephone survey of caregivers and youth. For 18 of 21 victimization types, male perpetration was significantly more common than female perpetration. Perpetrator-victim patterns revealed that most forms of physical assault and bullying showed a predominantly male-on-male pattern. All forms of sexual assault, plus kidnapping, showed a predominantly male-on-female pattern. Nonphysical maltreatment showed a mixed pattern, with fairly similar rates across all four gender configurations. Many violence types were more severe when perpetrated by males versus females as indicated by higher injury rates and greater victim fear. Higher order analyses by victimization type indicated, among other findings, that victimization types with more stranger perpetrators had more male perpetrators, victimizations with higher percentages of male-on-female and female-on-male incidents were more likely to be sexual offenses, and higher percentages of female-on-female incidents were associated with verbal victimizations. Results also suggest that males are more likely to aggress in more impersonal contexts compared to females. Gender socialization, physical power, and social power appear to intersect in ways that create gendered patterns of violence. These factors, versus a focus on skills deficits, need more attention in prevention and intervention.

Computerized assessment of pedophilic sexual interest through self-report and viewing time: reliability, validity, and classification accuracy of the affinity program.

Affinity is a computerized assessment tool that combines viewing time and self-report measures of sexual interest. The present study was designed to assess the diagnostic properties of Affinity with respect to sexual interest in prepubescent children. Reliability of both self-report and viewing time components was estimated to be high. The group profile of a sample of pedophilic adult male child molesters (n = 42, all of whom admitted their offenses) differed from the group profiles of male community controls (n = 95) and male nonsexual offenders (n = 27), respectively. More specifically, both ratings and viewing times for images showing small children or prejuvenile children were significantly higher within the child molester sample than in either of the other two groups, attesting to the validity of the measures. Overall classification accuracy, however, was mediocre: A multivariate classification routine yielded 50% sensitivity for child molester status at the cost of 13% false positives. The implications for forensic use of Affinity are discussed.

Hebephilia and the construction of a fictitious diagnosis.

As mass media and the advertising industry sexualize children at earlier ages, DSM-5 is considering a proposal for a new mental disorder involving sexual attraction to adolescents. Despite the fact that most men are sexually aroused by pubescent teens, some clinicians and researchers believe they have identified a new subgroup of chronically impaired men who are compulsively drawn to older children. We discuss the proposal and conclude that it is insufficiently documented and that with such potentially serious medicolegal consequences, inclusion in the new manual is not advised. Clinically, there are insufficient data showing the construct to be reliable and valid. Forensically, a new diagnosis of hebephilia is likely to be used to justify indefinite civil commitment and other onerous punishments.

Pedophilia: a diagnosis in search of a disorder.

This article presents a critical review of the recent controversies concerning the diagnosis of pedophilia in the context of the preparation of the fifth edition of the DSM. The analysis focuses basically on the relationship between pedophilia and the current DSM-IV-TR's definition of mental disorder. Scholars appear not to share numerous basic assumptions ranging from their underlying ideas about what constitutes a mental disorder to the role of psychiatry in modern society, including irreconcilable theories about human sexuality, which interfere with reaching any kind of a consensus as to what the psychiatric status of pedophilia should be. It is questioned if the diagnosis of pedophilia contained in the DSM is more forensic than therapeutic, focusing rather on the dangers inherent in the condition of pedophilia (dangerous dysfunction) than on its negative effects for the subject (harmful dysfunction). The apparent necessity of the diagnosis of pedophilia in the DSM is supported, but the basis for this diagnosis is uncertain.

The latent structure of Multiphasic Sex Inventory-assessed pedophilic interest.

The Multiphasic Sex Inventory (MSI; Nichols & Molinder, 1984) is a self-report measure frequently used in the assessment of sex offenders. Scores on the MSI are often used to assess levels of pedophilic interest. However, the question of whether men with pedophilia represent a unique group distinguished by their sexual interests, or whether they are high-scorers on a continuum of sexual interest in children among men who sexually offend against children remains unanswered. Because no existing evidence points conclusively to pedophilia having either a categorical or continuous latent structure, it is unresolved whether MSI scores should be treated as a continuous measure of severity or whether a cut score should be used to categorize individuals as members of a pedophilic taxon. In the present study, the authors used 3 taxometric procedures to analyze the latent structure of pedophilic interest in a sample of 371 convicted child sex offenders. The results converged to indicate that pedophilic interest (as measured by the MSI) is dimensional. The implications of these findings for the assessment of pedophilic interest are discussed.