How pedophilic men think about adult-child sex: effects of child gender and physical maturity

Abstract

To date, very little research has tackled whether pedophilic men's attitude towards adult-child sex depends on characteristics of the adult or the child involved in such acts. This study examines the effect of the child's gender (male vs. female) and physical maturity (pre-pubescent vs. early pubescent) on the moral evaluation of apparently noncoercive adult-child sex in a 2 × 2 factorial online vignette experiment. One hundred eighty-three English-speaking pedophilic men rated their agreement with moral arguments on the Immoral Sex Scale, as well as whether they believed this behavior to be typical for a child. The results revealed considerable inter-individual differences, with about one third showing restrictive moral attitudes. Contrary to our expectations, gender and physical maturity neither affected the perceived morality of the sexual act, nor beliefs about the representativeness of the child's behavior. However, when controlling for confounds, pedophilic men believed that boys were more likely to willingly engage in adult-child sex. Furthermore, participants with stronger liberal attitudes were found to be more likely to defend the sexual act, as were participants with a preferential interest in pre-pubescents. There was no link between attitudes towards adult-child sex and sexual offending, replicating the non-associations reported in previous community surveys.

Neurodevelopmental Differences, Pedohebephilia, and Sexual Offending: Findings from Two Online Surveys

“…A six-item scale introduced by Jahnke and Malón ( 2019 ) was administered to assess pedophilic, hebephilic, and teleiophilic interests by collecting attraction ratings on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (no sexual interest) to 10 (maximum sexual interest) with regard to children of each sex before puberty, adolescents of each sex in early stages of puberty, and sexually mature adult men and women.…”

Pedohebephilia and Perceived Non-coercive Childhood Sexual Experiences: Two Non-matched Case-Control Studies

“…The assessment of self-reported sexual interests was based on six items from Jahnke and Malón (2019) describing male and female individuals at different stages of physical maturation (before puberty, in early-to-mid puberty, after puberty). Participants were asked to rate the degree of sexual attraction to each category (e.g., “Girls before puberty [i.e., girls who show no signs of physical maturity like pubic hair or budding breasts]") on a 10-point, Likert-type scale with response options ranging from 1 ( no sexual attraction ) to 10 ( maximum sexual attraction ).…”

Pedophile, Child Lover, or Minor-Attracted Person? Attitudes Toward Labels Among People Who are Sexually Attracted to Children

“…We assessed sexual interests with a six-item scale by Jahnke and Malón ( 2019 ). Respondents indicated their sexual attraction to descriptions of the physical attributes of female and male people before, during or after puberty.…”