Am I a pedophile? & bull; hello healthy

Many people think that a pedophile looks like a ragged old geezer who hides among the bushes to catch his victim when they are not aware of it. However, a pedophile can be a neighbor's office worker, a close friend of yours, a schoolteacher, babysitter, even a member of your own family.

Over the years, child abuse was thought to be a learned adaptive behavior. This means that most likely the perpetrators are people who have received the same sexual assault in their childhood. However, although this may be a determining factor in some cases, the same principles do not apply to those who have purely pedophilia diagnostics.

What is pedophilia?

Pedophilia is a clinical diagnosis of mental disorders. Pedophiles have differences in their brains when compared to normal adults, which makes them sexually attracted to children. In pedophiles, the areas of the brain that process sexual responses are stimulated by children's faces.

Reporting from the Daily Mail, when normal adult men perceive an adult woman to be sexually attractive, they subconsciously lower their tone of voice and alert their attitude, to show strength and masculinity. Meanwhile, when they are dealing with small children, they will raise their tone of voice.

Now, instead of showing the typical response of a normal man when seeing a child, a pedophile's brain triggers a sexual response, such as when seeing an adult woman, instead of a protective and nurturing response like a parent.

The Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) describes pedophilia as sexual fantasies, impulsive desires, or behaviors that involve repeated sexual activity with minors for at least six months. In most cases, a person can be considered a pedophile if he / she is at least 16 years old and at least five years older than the minor. Those with pedophilia have a compulsive tendency to abuse children.

Pedophiles are generally self-isolating, but aggressive when confronted

Some individuals with pedophilia are able to present themselves as psychologically normal members of society during investigations or momentary encounters, even though they have a severe personality disorder behind these outward appearances. People with pedophilia generally experience feelings of inferiority, isolation or loneliness, self-distrust, internal dysphoria, and emotional immaturity.

In addition, pedophiles have difficulty interacting with other adults who are age-appropriate, mainly because of the lack of assertiveness they have, increased levels of passive-aggression, and anger or cruelty. These behavioral characteristics make it difficult for them to deal with painful influences, resulting in overuse of self-defense mechanisms by means of intellectualization, rejection, cognitive distortion (eg, manipulation of facts), and rationalization. Even so, it is possible that people with pedophilia can get married.

Citing a research journal published on Abuse Watch, most child sex offenders are male, although female offenders comprise 0.4% -4% of sex offenders who are criminally convicted. Pedophile women tend to be young (22-23 years), have less life skills, may meet criteria for the presence of psychiatric disorders, especially depression and drug abuse; also meet the criteria of personality disorders (antisocial, borderline, narcissistic, and dependence).

In cases where a female offender is involved in child sexual abuse, there is a good chance that a male pedophile was involved. When male pedophiles are involved, usually more than one child victim.

Studies claim that pedophiles tend to have specific physical disabilities and are left-handed

A recent study by the University of Windsor in Canada shows that pedophiles tend to be left-handed and have minor facial defects, known as Minor Physical Anomalies (MPAs). The results suggest that certain aspects of neurodevelopment can influence a person's risk of predisposition to pedophilia.

Fiona Dyshniku, the lead researcher, and her team recruited 140 adults from the Kurt Freund laboratory of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, to undergo specific physical anomalies and hand dominance (right or left hand). Each participant was assessed for aspects of illegal or dangerous sexual behavior patterns, using forensic and medical reviews, interview sessions about sexual experiences, and testing. phallometric for erotic preferences.

The group of men who were identified as pedophiles were more likely to have minor facial and head defects than the other group of men who were not pedophiles. These facial and head anomalies include separating ear lobe, low or deformed ear shape, wrinkled tongue, curved fifth finger, third toe longer than second finger, large distance between big toe and second finger, and roof of the mouth. that is high or too sloping.

In addition, a number of previous studies have found that people with pedophilia tend to have IQs 10-15 points lower than average. They are also generally 2.3 cm shorter than the average male.

Facial defects tend to develop due to the lining of the main embryonic tissue that forms the main nervous system during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. These facial defects, which are more common among men, are usually caused by prenatal exposure to viruses, alcohol or drugs, complications of pregnancy, or malnutrition.

The findings from this study also revealed that the majority of pedophiles were left-handed, consistent with a number of past studies. Hand dominance is decided very early in life and is a direct result of prenatal cognitive development - 30 to 35 percent of pedophiles are left-handed.