What makes a paedophile?

Question

Nature or nurture?

Anonimous: learn to read the question. I don't care for opinions that have no relation to the question. You a civil servant or something?

Answer 1

I think the best evidence is that it is a combination of nature and nurture.

If you want to define paedophilia narrowly - that is, a primary sexual attraction to children, then the balance probably tends toward nature. There seem to be individuals whose sexual interest is exclusively toward children and this is something that is evident in early adolescence or even late childhood. Such individuals may or may not have any history of abuse in their backgrounds.

If you define paedophilia more broadly as any sexual act directed by an adult toward a child, the balance sways toward nurture. That's because many sexual offences against children are situational in nature - determined by circumstances and not necessarily representing a primary sexual interest.

By the way, while it is true that many perpetrators of child sexual abuse were themselves sexually abused, most individuals who were sexually abused as children do NOT end up as sexual abusers themselves.

Answer 2

Possibly nature more than nurture. Even if terribly abused it doesn't automaically make you an abuser. That overpowering feeling to abuse or take a peverse interest in young children is not necessarily a consequence of earlier abuse. It can just be something within the individual who may have come from a completely normal and loving home. What drives a person to the base levels of depravity they do is a question that still baffles even the most highly trained experts. If there was an easy answer and a cure, I'm sure we would have heard about it already.

Answer 3

I think nature causes them to be attracted to children, but nurture determines whether or not they act on that attraction.

Most men don't go around raping every female they are attracted to, whether the female is an adult or a child. Something other than attraction is happening to cause a man to commit a horrible, violent act like rape.

I guess in a way I hope it is nurture. If not, that means that some people are just born evil, and nothing can prevent them from doing evil things. That's a scary thought.

Answer 4

I'm guessing nature. Men generally naturally like women, and vice versa... Most evidence suggests homosexuality is nothing to do with the nurture side. Although this doesn't mean they can't be rehab'ed if they try!

Answer 5

I know a lot of people blame paedophilia on past abuse and it certainly is a fact that most paedophiles were abused during their childhoods, however, I believe that, in that we all know that sex with children is wrong, no one in western society could possibly reach adulthood without knowing this, it has to come down to nature, the paedophile makes a choice to continue the pattern of abuse.

Answer 6

the current build up of society, it has all the combinations for an unexplainable act to be considered a problem that we must tackle through the courts...do the judges think the children had a choice..so why treat humans who behave like insensitive animals with fairness,the punishment must fit the crime not the offender.and the law treats it as sick acts not intentional acts by a premeditated individual..who suffers the children who grow to become permenantly damage adults

Answer 7

Definately nature and nurture. Life experiences have a lot to do with it but you do have to have that nature too! Some people may have the life experiences but choose not to go down that road and battle with their thoughts, some choose to give in to them and give up reasoning with themselves.

Answer 8

Emotionally, very immature, biologically, mature, but are unable to obtain sex in the normal way. A combination of nurture, which is a pre-requisite, but nature that causes the drive.

Could men, in particular, demand the right to regular sex, as a human right?

Answer 9

So far, the scientific thought is that it's primarily incidents in the pedphile's life (nurture) that incline them to children. They are often molested themselves. They get stuck in the stage of pre-adolescent sexuality and never mature to wanting people of the same age group.

Answer 10

There is evidence that it runs in families. However, like all mental disorders, it is difficult to determine if it's due to a history of abuse, witnessing of abuse, behavioral conditioning, or genetics. As of yet, they have not been able to isolate a sex offender gene. But they've also found that most sex offenders were not sexually assaulted as children and most children who are sexually assaulted do not sexually assault others. Some offenders have higher rates of sexual abuse in their histories than expected in the general population, the majority were not abused. Among adult sex offenders, approximately 30% have been sexually abused. Some types of offenders, such as those who sexually offend against young boys, have still higher rates of child sexual abuse in their histories