Sexual Desire Among an Online Sample of Men Sexually Attracted to Children

ABSTRACT

Sexual attraction to children occurs in roughly 3 to 9 percent of the population. However, most knowledge about such desires comes from forensic samples, and most studies fail to assess preferred sexual activity and sexual partner. A new multimodal assessment of sexual desire was used to investigate interest in consensual and nonconsensual sex with adults and children in an online sample of men sexually attracted to children (n = 101). Desires were compared across history of sex offending behavior and preferred gender of child victim. Men who have and have not acted on their sexual attractions to children reported similar levels of sexual desire. Men primarily attracted to girls reported greater desire for sex with adults than did men primarily attracted to boys. Results highlight the heterogeneity of men sexually attracted to children as well as possible distinctions across gender of children to whom they are primarily attracted.

KEYWORDS:

• child sexual abusecommunity sample
• measurement
• pedophilia
• risk factors
• sexual offending

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Fred Berlin for allowing use and adaptation of his clinical measure of sexual desire into the Sexual Desire Clinical Scales, a central measure in this research project.

Disclosure of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Renae C. Mitchell

Renae C. Mitchell, MA, earned her master’s in clinical psychology from Towson University and is currently pursuing her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Kansas. Her research interests include human sexuality, sexual violence prevention, and paraphilic disorders.

Alex P. Bravo

Alex P. Bravo, BA, is a graduate student in experimental psychology at Towson University whose research interests include gender and human sexuality.

M. Paz Galupo

M. Paz Galupo, PhD, is professor of psychology and director of the Sexual and Gender Identity Lab at Towson University whose research interests center on the intersections of identity with a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity.