Women with Sexual Interest in Children – Results from an Online Survey Among a Non-Forensic Female Sample

Abstract

Little research has examined adult women’s sexual interest in children, particularly in non-forensic samples. We aimed to describe characteristics of women with sexual interest in children by recruiting 52 women (mean age: 33.2 years) who have a self-identified sexual interest in children under the age of 14 years into an anonymous online self-report study. Measures of interest referred to general characteristics (e.g., age, education level), general sexuality (e.g., sexual orientation, masturbation), and sexual interest in children (e.g., exclusivity, motivation to change). Results showed that women with sexual interest in children are similar to non-forensic samples of men with sexual interest in children in previous studies and rather differ from women from the general population regarding the investigated characteristics in this study. Our results clearly indicate that women with sexual interest in children need to be taken into account in future research and clinical practice. Treatment programs preventing sexual offenses against children or the consumption of abuse material need to explicitly address females as well.

Acknowledgments

We thank our cooperation partners for supporting the data collection process by spreading and publishing our study links. We finally thank all participants for their willingness to participate in our study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 www.gsa-forum.de, www.kinder-im-herzen.de, www.schicksal-und-herausforderung.de, www.paedoseite.home.blog, www.krumme13.org, www.virped.org.

2 www.gute-frage.net, www.paradisi.de, www.psychologie.gofeminin.de, www.urbia.de.

3 We assumed this to be an abbreviation of “lolicon” which implies pornographic mangas/animes involving young girls.

4 Fetish involving being eaten by or eating someone or something, real or imaginary

5 Fetish involving one partner feeding the other, both to obtain sexual arousal and to encourage weight gain in the fed person

6 Form of roleplaying in which an individual acts or treats another as if they were a different age

7 Fetish involving strong sexual interest in amputees or disabled persons

Additional information

Funding

The study is part of a project that was funded by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (“Unabhängige Kommission zur Aufarbeitung sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs”) in Germany. This inquiry was appointed by the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (“Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend”). The funding body had no role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data.