Abstract
Pedophilia is serious issue in all over the world and is a treat to everyone. Children are the victims and are highly vulnerable to this issue. Currently the child protection associations in the United States and United Kingdom are active in all over the world and are acting against the pedophilia. The person who acts sexually towards a child is known as perpetrator and he have the disorder of pedophilia. Kids are their victim. The issue was observed in the history in many developed areas of the world including the United States which caused a sense of insecurity for the parents because of their children. Currently the world only recognized only 1-2% people having the pedophilia disorder but it is expected that the number would be very high with respect to the victim’s number. Many people are recognized to be pedophilias but after their counselling it was recognized that they were normal and because of lack of availability of their partners they used to perform their sexual activities over the children. Many governments have laws against the people having pedophilia and they use to follow the ways to get pleasure from the children.
Introduction
The concern about the children’s care and protection is raised so rapidly, everyone is considering all the concerning issues very seriously> among a number of issues including child labor, child abuse, drugs, and misconducts, pedophilia is also considered as one of the most important issue among many. Pedophilia is a sexual feeling which directs an individual towards the children. It is one of the most unethical and uncommon feeling and leads to the actions which causes a sense of insecurity among the society. The feeling of getting sexually attracted is unintentional and people usually don’t fall into practice. Very uncommonly, rare adults try to do the sexual activity with the kids around. Currently the child protection associations in the United States and United Kingdom are active in all over the world and are acting against the pedophilia. The government of United States have conducted sessions in all over the world. Many governments have laws against the people having pedophilia and they use to follow the ways to get pleasure from the children. This paper is a brief discussion about the child abuse due to pedophilia. The main aim of the overall articulation is to discuss and elaborate the history, significance and effects of pedophilia.
Discussion
The issue is recognized as highly important and hot topic among the news journalists in the current situation of the world. There are many hidden as well as exposed cases of the people with high profiles who are predicted to be having the pedophilia disorder and would have relationships with the young boys. The article have a discussion about the history of the topic since the 19th century and until now. Some definitions are also added which would be helpful in the finalizing the understanding of this issue some important terms used in the paper. Moreover, there is a discussion about the effects of this problem on the society and specifically on the children which was highly important. The presence of this issue in almost all the societies is as certain as the certainty of the human’s sexual desire. The current situation of the world is worst with respect to this issue and it is also added. Furthermore there are some statistics which are recognized to be authentic with respect to the identified cases only. An outnumbered children have faced this issue and are counted in the victim list (Officially 20% of the US citizen children are affected by this issue).
Definitions
The overall concept of pedophilia is related to the psychological and psychiatric disorder in which an adult id found in experiencing an exclusive sexual attraction to the children who are not really sexually oriented. The children who are prepubescent are not allowed to get involve or view even the sexual activities. The pornography is officially made hide from them so that they would not even get any kind of sexual exposure at all. The word pedophilia is mostly used and applied to every kind of sexual interest in kids or an act of child sexual abuse. The person who acts sexually towards a child is known as perpetrator and he have the disorder of pedophilia. The child involved in this activity is usually the victim. The bystander effect could be explained as the apathy or a social psychological phenomenon in which the perpetrator tries to bully or sexual attempt on the child and the others offer help to the victim to get back to normal. In the bystander effect or the bystander apathy, if the number of bystanders are less comparatively to the other group then the help is rarely found and silence is adapted.
It is usual that the people are not in the favor of pedophilia and they are more likely to avoid these kind of activities as well as protect the children from the people having pedophilia. Sociopathy is considered as a term used when the people avoid pedophilia emotion and the individual having such attentions. Sociopathy is a term used for the antisocial behavior of the people towards the archetype people. Here archetype individuals are the people having pedophilia and are specifically differentiated from the normal community because of their disorder (Burns & Swerdlow, 2003). They are supposed to be a cause of danger for the children and adolescents. The psychologists, psychiatrists and other relevant field experts, researchers and analyzers have discussed this issue in a number of ways through which it can be predicted and evaluated that this issue have got a great importance in the modern world where globalization, feminism, social work, gender complications and age factor is highly discussed and practiced.
History
Initially pedophilia is believed to be a concept available since the start of the human history. Formally it was named and studied thoroughly in the nineteenth century. In the very first times, it was named as pedophilia erotica and officially was used in the books newspapers and journals in 1896 by Richard Von Karfft-Ebing. There were an outnumbered authors after the publishing have also discussed and anticipated Richard’s diagnostic gesture. It was highly appreciated and for the first time in the history, people with the pedophilia disorder were supposed to be treated with the specific methods. In the psychopathia Sexualis article, the section of discussion about the pedophilia was discussed in the title, “Violation of Individuals under the Age of Fourteen”. This is the very first publication about the concept of pedophilia. In this article, the author have discussed as well as enlightened the forensic psychiatry aspects of adolescent’s sexual offenders. The discussion was very general to the Richard also expressed number of different topologies of sexual offense and divided them among different and collective psychopathological as well as non-psychopathological origins. Furthermore the hypothesis contained different apparent factors that could be responsible for the sexual abuse of children.
There were a number of different cause of pedophilia. He have discussed the pedophilia in women and the abuse of boys by men as extremely rare but the men abusing sexually the female children was higher respectively (Seto et al., 2006). He furthermore have explained that the men who have neurological disorder and they used to abuse sexually the male kids could not be counted as the true pedophilia. In this scenario, the victims of the men are grown and mostly are above the age of fourteen or fifteen (elder adolescents or young adults).
An Austrian Neurologist, Sigmund Fred have briefly explained this topic in his book “Three Essays on the theory of Sexuality”. The book was published in 1905. He have explained the concept of pedophilia as when an individual is weak or his desire is not fulfilled and id now becoming uncontrollable. He is unable to find any appropriate object to fulfill his desire properly which forces him to find an inappropriate and accessible sources in which the young girls become most vulnerable pieces for him. These cases are very rare in all over the world as pr the author stated that this disorder is only in very few people.
In 1908, Swiss psychiatrist and neuroanatomist named Auguste Forel have explained pedophilia by referring it as Pederosis, the sexual appeal for children. His work was quite similar to Richard’s work. He have described and identified the people with organic brain conditions as well as the exclusive sexual desire for the children. Although his main discussion was similar to Richard’s work but he didn’t agreed with his point of non-changeability and ingrained forever (Burns & Swerdlow, 2003).
Later on from that time to until now the psychology have studied a lot about this topic but since the topic was highly offended by the readers and very less demand of the study was observed so the literature is very low in that period of time. Also the actions of the people about the feminism and globalization were extremely on the peak which resulted in the rare consideration of this topic as well.
Factors to ignite the issue
It is common and inhuman to do the sexual attempts on children. Almost no society have accepted this fact because of the social reasons. In the modern world to protect the children from the sexual abuse, the laws of age of consent are made which are implemented as well as enforced with keen detail and precision. No individual is allowed to show his sexual desire. The issue was observed in the history in many developed areas of the world including the United States which caused a sense of insecurity for the parents because of their children (Seto, 2008). The government have made laws in which the parents are supported to protect the children and they are given allowances for giving supervision to their children and many other similar approaches. Also the individuals who are suspected in sexual attempts over the children are also arrested, counselled and rehabilitated.
In United States there are several surveys and discussions are made but still most of them have explained that the pedophilia causes are unknown but since the male desire of sex is certain so, whenever he is not able to find any appropriate object to fulfill his desire, he looks for an inappropriate choice. Most of the records have explained that the individuals who performs sexual attempts on children are mostly psychologically weak and abnormal. Their sexual orientation is not recognized properly. Some of the men would have difficulty to dominate their sexual partners because of equality in the strength (Seto, 2008). For fulfilling their frustration, they try their sexual desire over the children as they are weak and nonthreatening potential partners. This is mostly a reason to explain why many of the pedophilias are males rather than females. Many people are recognized to be pedophilias but after their counselling it was recognized that they were normal and because of lack of availability of their partners they used to perform their sexual activities over the children.
Important statistics
Since there is no proper and recognizable way to calculate the number of people having the pedophilia disorder, it can be estimated by the number of children affected in different parts of the world. In a survey all over the United States, it is estimated that 20% of the children are grown up with the sexual abuse. The attempts are based on looking at the kids with lusty eyes, touching while changing their dresses or making them to sleep.
As per the rules of the society, and the offensive behavior of the community, this issue is highly personal and secretive which results in too less or no confessions about pedophilia The Pope have received a report which counted 2% of the Catholic clergy being pedophiles. Currently there is no meaningful and ethical way to check an individual being diagnosed to have this disorder.
After a clear diagnosis and the proper treatment cases found in all over the world, there is an estimate that only 1% of the human being living on the planet are having pedophilia disorder (Burns & Swerdlow, 2003). This estimate is only for those individuals who are diagnosed with having a disorder which defines a sexual attraction to the children which are even under 10.
This disorder is not restricted to men only. Due to a few women found to having sexual desire towards very young boys were also counted in the people having pedophilia disorder people. 4.2% is the considered number of women. The number drops to 1-2% if the discussion is restricted to under 10 age children.
Effects on society
In all over the world, this psychiatric disorder is considered to be highly dangerous to the children of the community. As the people who have this disorder are a threat to the kids. The parents in the United States have built fear for their children. Pedophilia is normally considered as a controversial topic to discuss while elaborating its effects on the society. The perpetrators of the crime always have a trauma built in their mind that the news about their disorder or the sexual attempts they have made would reach their family, children, spouse or friends. The society always had the negative impact on the recognition of the people having pedophilia disorder. Recently a filmmaker who is now dead had relationships with the young boys, a singer Gary Glitter was also found guilty in abusing very young children in Southeast Asia and lastly a church in the United States was recognized by media as hiding several priests for decades who were pedophile individuals (Burns & Swerdlow, 2003). These three cases have caused the death of all the possible leads in many parts of the world which were leading to a number of facts about the pedophilia and the people involved in these activities.
There are several social-construct explanations which are elaborating the pedophile people’s issues which are causing them to perform their sexual attempts. An articulation by a psychiatrist was found in which there was a discussion about the individuals who perform the sexual activities with the children and their conditions. They don’t find satisfaction unless they attempt to complete their sexual desire by the adolescents of early ages. After they are finished they feel satisfied and makes an illusion in their minds about the dominance and the actions they perform. There are many psychological and psychiatric disorders in which an individual is not beneficial but on the other side is also not dangerous for the society. The people having pedophilia disorder are highly dangerous to the society.
In the extremists’ societies, they are even killed and the issues are dismissed in silence. In the modern world due to the availability of the media and quick sources to viral the news, the perpetrators as well as the victims both keeps silent and the issues are available in the society but behind the doors and the detection is quite impossible. In the United States and United Kingdom, people are aware of the effects on the society because of the pedophilia, so they step forward for the recognition and treatment purpose. Moreover the kids are also provided for the counselling for their protection from any kind of sexual attempts. In Asian countries the problem is not solved neither recognized. There is a public perception and surveys conducted in the southeast and south Asian countries where the pedophilia issue is very highly observed when they were kids (O’Grady, 2001). This issue resulted in the unconscious and unrecognizable situation of the society. The insecurity level increases if an individual is recognized as perpetrator of child abuse.
Current situation
The current situation of the society could be considered as unpredictable and unrecognizable. Currently there are many parts of the world where the child abuse with respect to sexual activities is very high. It is observed that if the society have no response or have not recognized this issues and there is no education available for the children then they would build negative perception towards this issue. It is true that in many parts of the world this issue is not handled nor recognized in a positive way and sometimes there is no response of the society and shut up calls by the adults are given to the children.
Children are developing negative perspectives and effects because of these reactions. They are victims and are not able to explain their issues completely to anyone including their parents. Due to globalization and modernism in the media industry, the education to the parents is provided to educate their children about this issue which resulted in a huge number of children developed the positive reaction towards the pedophilia disordered person (Suchy et al., 2009). They keeps away from him if he touches them in awkward ways. Now because of this help from the developed world media to all over the world have helped the world from saving the children from unwanted sexual exposure. The children who faces the sexual attempts from pedophiles becomes disturbed and mentally upset. They are unable to compete their goals in education as well as other activities which are necessary to keep up the positive growth in their life.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it can be explained that pedophilia is an important issue and should must be handled positively. The children don’t have the sense to recognize the problem they are facing in the very early age but with the passage of time they recognize the awkwardness and the awfulness of this activity which causes unnecessary and unpredictable behavior of kids towards the life. The world is currently working on this issue and the psychiatrists have recognized this issue for the treatment purpose. Initially pedophilia origin in an individual were not recognized and the certain causes are not still found but there are some perception which are discussed above which caused an individual to build the pedophilia disorder. The effects of this disorder are severe and could cause the uncertainty and fear in the society. It is not possible to end up this issue completely but the good counselling of the children as well as the pedophilia disorder people could lead to a good and proper way to handle and end up this issue completely.
References
Seto, M. C. (2008). Pedophilia and sexual offending against children: Theory, assessment, and intervention. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Seto, M. C., Cantor, J. M., & Blanchard, R. (2006). Child pornography offenses are a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia. Journal of abnormal psychology, 115(3), 610.
Burns, J. M., & Swerdlow, R. H. (2003). Right orbitofrontal tumor with pedophilia symptom and constructional apraxia sign. Archives of Neurology, 60(3), 437-440.
Suchy, Y., Whittaker, W. J., Strassberg, D. S., & Eastvold, A. (2009). Facial and prosodic affect recognition among pedophilic and nonpedophilic criminal child molesters. Sexual Abuse, 21(1), 93-110.
O’Grady, R. (2001). Eradicating pedophilia: Toward the humanization of society. Journal of International Affairs, 123-140.
