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Non-offending Pedophiles

  • Current Controversies (P Kleinplatz and C Moser, Section Editors)
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Abstract

Non-offending pedophiles are a unique population of individuals who experience sexual interest in children, but despite common misperceptions, have neither had sexual contact with a child nor have accessed illegal child sexual exploitation material. An emerging body of research has examined the prevalence of pedophilic interests, characteristics of non-offending pedophiles, correlates of pedophilic interests, and stigma associated with pedophilia. Treatment programs are beginning to produce findings regarding the effectiveness of treatment in supporting non-offending pedophiles to remain offence-free. The current review spans these areas of research and discusses potential treatment options for working with non-offending pedophiles based on that research base.

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Notes

  1. In this article, we take pedophila to mean a range of possibilities in terms of sexual interest directly toward prepubescent children, rather than rely on a strict diagnostic definition that includes criteria regarding objective temporality, preferentiality of interest, and clinical distress when defining pedophilia (i.e., DSM-5 pedophilic disorder diagnosis). This broad approach is taken in order to accommodate the existent literature that typically does not attempt a diagnostic definition of pedophilia, but rather assesses constructs including “sexual interest in children” or “sexual fantasies involving children.”

  2. Hebephilic interests refers to sexual interest in pubertal children who have begun developing secondary sex characteristics.

  3. Pedohebephilic interests is the superordinate category that includes both pedophilic individuals and hebephilic individuals.

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Acknowledgments

IVM was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, M5S 2S1, Canada

    James M. Cantor

  2. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Ian V. McPhail

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  1. James M. Cantor
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  2. Ian V. McPhail
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Correspondence to James M. Cantor.

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JMC and IVM declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Cantor, J.M., McPhail, I.V. Non-offending Pedophiles. Curr Sex Health Rep 8, 121–128 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-016-0076-z

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