OK. Child sex abuse is a serious societal problem, and certainly people think pedophiles are the ones who perpetrate most of it. Do you find it unusual that you had never considered the question before? If you had assumed without consideration that all pedophiles were child molesters, then it seems there was a significant rationality increase with very little effort or time expended.
Not that unusual. There are probably a lot of topics that I haven’t had the first few obvious thoughts on. I didn’t assume all pedophiles were child molesters, I just didn’t have an opinion on it. It wouldn’t be a rationality increase, just a correctness increase. Rationality increases are meta.
Child sex abuse is a serious societal problem, and certainly people think pedophiles are the ones who perpetrate most of it.
Wait a minute, are you saying that people are wrong to think that pedophiles are the ones who perpertrate most child sex abuse? I buy the claim that most people with pedophilic tendencies do not abuse children, but it does not follow from this that most child sex abusers are not pedophiles.
Wait a minute, are you saying that people are wrong to think that pedophiles are the ones who perpertrate most child sex abuse? I buy the claim that most people with pedophilic tendencies do not abuse children, but it does not follow from this that most child sex abusers are not pedophiles.
It certainly doesn’t follow in that way. Using the technical definition ‘person who has a primary or exclusive sexual preference for children’ rather than the colloquial ‘child rapist’ does open up the possibility. In particular it means considering all the people who sexually abuse children either because they are dicks (general abusers) who have a modicum of sexual interest and people who are ‘bisexual’ in that direction, desiring both adults and and children. The requirement that there be a preference rather than mere presence of sexual attraction makes the requirements strict. I’m honestly not familiar with the statistics on which types are most prevalent among child sexual abusers… it hasn’t come up as an important metric to investigate.
I buy the claim that most people with pedophilic tendencies do not abuse children, but it does not follow from this that most child sex abusers are not pedophiles.
I agree it does not follow, but as an independent matter, it may well be mostly true. If I had to guess, I’d say 50%. I’ve seen figures ranging from 20% to 80%. It depends partly on whether you are including sex offenses against post-pubescent minors (and there’s a lot more sex offenses against them than prepubescents).
They can test this by hooking up sex offenders to a gauge that measures penis volume in response to pictures of naked children and pictures of naked adults. If you define a pedophile as someone with a stronger arousal to children than adults, then a lot of abuse is perpetrated by non-pedophiles.
One reason is that there are a lot fewer pedophiles than non-pedophiles. Then if an antisocial man (in the sense of not knowing or not caring about the welfare of children, or of putting the blame for his actions on other people, etc.) has a child available who can be manipulated into sexual activity, he sometimes will. A great many men have some physical attraction to prepubescents -- 50 percent or more.
Very little father-daughter incest is committed by pedophiles, i believe. For one thing, if the man were an exclusive pedophile, he wouldn’t be married and have a daughter in the first place.
They can test this by hooking up sex offenders to a gauge that measures penis volume in response to pictures of naked children and pictures of naked adults.
Is this legal somewhere or are you saying this just happens?
A great many men have some physical attraction to prepubescents -- 50 percent or more.
I’d never considered the question before, but as soon as I read the title, I agreed with it.
OK. Child sex abuse is a serious societal problem, and certainly people think pedophiles are the ones who perpetrate most of it. Do you find it unusual that you had never considered the question before? If you had assumed without consideration that all pedophiles were child molesters, then it seems there was a significant rationality increase with very little effort or time expended.
Not that unusual. There are probably a lot of topics that I haven’t had the first few obvious thoughts on. I didn’t assume all pedophiles were child molesters, I just didn’t have an opinion on it. It wouldn’t be a rationality increase, just a correctness increase. Rationality increases are meta.
Wait a minute, are you saying that people are wrong to think that pedophiles are the ones who perpertrate most child sex abuse? I buy the claim that most people with pedophilic tendencies do not abuse children, but it does not follow from this that most child sex abusers are not pedophiles.
It certainly doesn’t follow in that way. Using the technical definition ‘person who has a primary or exclusive sexual preference for children’ rather than the colloquial ‘child rapist’ does open up the possibility. In particular it means considering all the people who sexually abuse children either because they are dicks (general abusers) who have a modicum of sexual interest and people who are ‘bisexual’ in that direction, desiring both adults and and children. The requirement that there be a preference rather than mere presence of sexual attraction makes the requirements strict. I’m honestly not familiar with the statistics on which types are most prevalent among child sexual abusers… it hasn’t come up as an important metric to investigate.
I agree it does not follow, but as an independent matter, it may well be mostly true. If I had to guess, I’d say 50%. I’ve seen figures ranging from 20% to 80%. It depends partly on whether you are including sex offenses against post-pubescent minors (and there’s a lot more sex offenses against them than prepubescents).
They can test this by hooking up sex offenders to a gauge that measures penis volume in response to pictures of naked children and pictures of naked adults. If you define a pedophile as someone with a stronger arousal to children than adults, then a lot of abuse is perpetrated by non-pedophiles.
One reason is that there are a lot fewer pedophiles than non-pedophiles. Then if an antisocial man (in the sense of not knowing or not caring about the welfare of children, or of putting the blame for his actions on other people, etc.) has a child available who can be manipulated into sexual activity, he sometimes will. A great many men have some physical attraction to prepubescents -- 50 percent or more.
Very little father-daughter incest is committed by pedophiles, i believe. For one thing, if the man were an exclusive pedophile, he wouldn’t be married and have a daughter in the first place.
Is this legal somewhere or are you saying this just happens?
Source?
Penile plethysmography happens a lot for convicted sex offenders, and has also been used with lots of volunteers.
Sources: http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/97-048_article.html
Sarah Goode addresses the subject, citing several studies in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Addressing-sexual-Attraction-Children/dp/0415446260