Causes and Treatments of Pedophilia - Essay Example

It is a controversial topic, one of both loathing and one of endearment; victims are marred, offenders gratified. The presence of pedophilia causes society to react, to always be on the defensive. Similarly, such a diseasing, injurious obsession is challenging to society for a number of reasons. For one, pedophilia is not easily detected--it is not visible. Even though the act itself is a physical one, the sexual desire that is present inside of an adult for a child is secreted from the world.

Secondly, those that are afflicted with pedophilia are reluctant to come clean about their lust for children. Accepting responsibility for their actions is as demanding as acknowledging that their addiction to nonconsenting or even consenting children is unethical. Thirdly, monitoring pedophilia is problematical. The difficulty arises because the majority of pedophiles are not registered as sex offenders and have limitless access to children. In addition, children seem to be just as reluctant to confess as the offender.

Due to its insidiousness, pedophilia, arguably, produces great shame in the individual. Why else would most sex offenders choose to hide what they cherish the most from the rest of the world Pedophilia is onerous to everyone involved, children, parents of the children, the offender, and to psychological clinicians. . DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) describes it as atypical sexual disorders typified by "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors generally involvingchildren or other nonconsenting persons that occur over a period of 6 months" (Malin, Paraphilias, 32).

But, even with a clear definition of pedophilia, a precise or a specific answer to its cause remains blurred. It then becomes necessary to look beyond definitional answers and lean more towards the psychology of this particular disorder. Malin notes, some individuals that are laden with incontrollable sexual urges have these impulses as "a result of brain trauma, neoplasms, temporal lobe damage, or epilepsy and may manifest as hyposexuality or hypersexuality, particularly in men" (33). Accordingly, other "psychiatric conditions such as feeble mindedness" attribute to a heightened desire for sexual activity, i.e. "masturbation, or nocturnal pollutions" (33).

These two particular acts, masturbation and nocturnal pollution, give psychologists a foundation when attempting to determine certain causes for pedophilia, especially in seemingly normal persons. In a similar vein, masturbation, nocturnal pollutions, and pedophilia are unique. These are phenomena that seem to be associated with males more so than females, which generates another theory. In his study, Malin found that:such excessive stimulation need not always be intentional. For example, one theory enjoying some degree of acceptance in early psychoanalytic circles was that infants born to hereditary tainted mothers were predisposed to develop a fur fetish by coming into contact with their mother's pubic hair during birth (33).

This, however, is the least likely cause.