By Patricia Casey
Irish Independent
June 1, 2009
http://www.independent.ie/health/alternative-health/mind-amp-meaning-paedophilia-is-one-area-where-ignorance-is-certainly-not-bliss-1757118.html
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It is difficult to be dispassionate about paedophilia, yet dispassionate we must be if we are to make any progress in extending our very limited knowledge base about this condition.
Some journalists have commented, erroneously, on how much we know about paedophilia. The fact of the matter is we only know how to diagnose the condition and little else.
The debate, in which we in Ireland are now engaged, has focused on several issues, including understanding the causes and on identifying a treatment that will be effective in controlling paedophilia.
Yet, this is likely to yield only fool's gold, since we have little empirical information with which we can make sense of the horrifying information contained in the Ryan Report.
Even the definition of paedophilia is controversial, but that provided by the American Psychiatric Association is the most commonly used, describing it as a disorder characterised by intense sexual urges or actions with pre-pubescent children (less than 13) that last more than six months, or recurrent urges and fantasies about children that cause distress or interpersonal difficulty.
Even this definition is problematic since those who experience sexual fantasies but are not distressed are excluded.
This differs from the legal definition, which refers to minors as pre-pubescent and adolescent minors as below the local age of consent.
Some believe that the older classification should be reinstated, with paedophiles being those who have a primary attraction to children (fixated paedophiles), while child molesters would be described as those who have a primary attraction to adults but under special circumstances abuse children (regressed paedophiles).
These various definitions therefore make for difficulties in calculating the rate of paedophilia in the general population and in comparing studies.
A further problem is that this is not a disorder that is readily admitted in mental health surveys and most studies have used convicted sex offenders as representing the pool from which the base rate is calculated.
One study, not involving known offenders, found that among male undergraduates five per cent admitted to masturbating to fantasies of children while seven per cent stated they would have sex with a child if non-discovery could be assured. Among Catholic clergymen, the John Jay Report from the US found that accusations had been levelled at four per cent of their members.
As to the causes, these are too diverse and non-specific to be meaningful, ranging from regarding it as a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder to viewing it as a form of arrested sexual development.
Other studies focus on supposed hormonal and neurotransmitter changes while recent MRI studies have found changes to brain white matter that separates them from non-sexual criminals.
Abuse
There is also a school of thought that believes it represents a trans-generational cycle of abuse while others dispute this.
Similar differences exist with the role of celibacy. Some draw attention to the likelihood of male priests abusing post-pubescent boys while the disputants point to the similarity in prevalence rates of paedophilia among Protestant, Jewish and Catholic clergy.
Cultural factors such as the sexualisation of women have also been cited.
Finally, treatment is difficult and there is no cure although with psychotherapeutic interventions it may be possible to reduce recidivism. The chemical treatments are in dispute, with some being used to lower testosterone and hence reduce libido.
Arising from these uncertainties and disputes, there are those who argue that paedophilia should no longer be considered a disorder within the psychiatric guidelines. This is deeply unsettling since it would then become virtually impossible to maintain its criminal status and it could easily slip into being regarded as one among the various sexual orientations about which nothing can or should be done. Inevitably child protection would vanish.
Calls for explanations as to why clerics, male and female, behaved as they did are unlikely to be reliable or helpful in our present state of ignorance.
The only certainty is that those against whom complaints of sexual abuse were made should have been fully investigated, and when upheld, the perpetrators should have had no contact with minors.
That aside, we are now in the invidious position of claiming knowledge that is shrouded in ignorance. This is worse than no knowledge at all.
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