Pedophilia: Causes And Typologies
...child
sexual abuse. Child molesters can not even find refuge in prisons where
rapists and murderers are commonplace. These offenders are shunned in every
aspect of our society, yet there is no consensus as to the causes of this
behavior.
Sexual abuse of children is not new, and has not always been socially
taboo. The ancient Greeks and Romans used children for sexual
gratification(Langevin, 1983). In Greece, it was commonplace for adolescent
males to be forced into sexual relationships with mature males. This behavior
was normal and not objected to by the child's parents nor the Greek
government(Langevin, 1983). The Romans encouraged adolescent boys and girls not
to protest being sold into prostitution. The Roman government even went so far
as to declare a public holiday honoring young prostitutes(Kahr, 1991).
Sex with children in the modern era is alive and well, the power of an
older person is so great that their young victims often never tell of the
horrors that they have endured. There is also a pedophile enhancement movement,
with confessed pedophiles insisting that their behavior is not wrong or immoral.
Organizations dedicated to the social acceptance of sex with children are not
new, yet have had a large upstart in membership since the early 1970's(Charon,
1979).
Because of the extreme sensitivity of the subject, research in this
field is quite underdeveloped. Researchers have even had trouble in agreeing
what to call the phenomenon. Much research on the victims has dubbed the act as
child sexual abuse, most research on the offenders has labeled it as child
molesting or pedophilia. The term pedophilia has some utility since it suggests
a predisposition for the act separate from the act itself. The ambiguity of
this term however, is what causes confusion. Pedophilia can mean child sexual
abuse ranging from an arousal to children with no or...
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