Previous judicial detection and paedophilic sexual interest partially predict psychological distress in a non-forensic sample of help-seeking men feeling inclined to sexually offend against children

ABSTRACT

Little is known about overall psychological distress in paedophiles who are not formally involved with the criminal justice system. Since knowledge in this context could help to optimise intervention efforts, this study aimed to examine the association between distress as measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and preference- and offence-related variables in a sample of N = 455 men self-reporting sexual interest in children, of whom 402 were diagnosed as paedophiles. Results showed that 59% reported clinically relevant levels of distress, with paedophiles being significantly more distressed than teleiophiles. A regression analysis revealed that a paedophilic preference and prior detection were relevant predictors for distress. However, past offending behaviour had no impact and the major part of variance could not be explained. The results suggest that paedophilia is associated with distress, but other factors influence whether a paedophilic man is distressed on a clinically significant level.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• child abusive images
• psychological distress
• psychopathology
• paedophilia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Note that some of the participants felt attracted to early pubertal rather than prepubescent children, and would therefore fulfil the criteria for hebephilia as proposed by Blanchard et al. (2009) according to the DSM-5. The DSM-5 and ICD-10 (World Health Organization [WHO], 1992) differ in diagnostic criteria for paedophilia (DSM-5 refers to prepubertal children [generally age 13 years or younger], whereas ICD-10 refers to prepubertal or early pubertal children). Hence, all participants who described sexual interest in children with a bodily development from Tanner stages 1–3 (prepubertal and early pubertal stage) were diagnosed as paedophiles.

2. Note that according to German law, all minors up to the age of 14 are considered children.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation [Grant I/79763], the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection [Grant IIA6-2512BMJ009], and the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth [Grant IIA6-2509091003].