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Emotions and Cognitions Associated with the Stigma of Non-Offending Pedophilia: A Vignette Experiment

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Abstract

Cognitive and affective antecedents of the desire to avoid or punish non-offending pedophilic individuals are not well understood. In this article, we examined the effects of non-offending motivation (internal vs. external) and sexual orientation (pedophilic vs. teleiophilic) on cognitive apprehensions (amorality, dangerousness, abnormality), emotions (fear, anger, disgust), punitive attitudes, and social distance toward a man experiencing a sexually transgressive impulse. A total of 205 U.S.-based MTurk workers were randomly assigned to one of four groups in this 2 × 2 factorial vignette study. As expected, pedophilic orientations and extrinsic non-offending motivations led to stronger negative apprehensions and emotions, as well as higher social distance and punitive attitudes. When controlling for the other emotions, disgust mediated the effect of pedophilic orientation on social distance, while anger and fear mediated the effect of non-offending motivation on punitive attitudes. Disgust, fear, and anger were furthermore differentially associated with perceived amorality, dangerousness, and abnormality. This research helps clarify why desires to punish or avoid non-offending pedophilic men are so strong, even when they never commit sexual crimes.

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Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to Dr. Ralph Massarczyk for his help with the data collection and Brittany Smelquist for her excellent copy-editing.

Funding

This work was supported by internal grant funding from the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Hohe Str. 53, 01187, Dresden, Germany

    Sara Jahnke

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  1. Sara Jahnke
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Correspondence to Sara Jahnke.

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Conflict of interest

The author declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study has been approved by the internal review board of the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany).

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Appendix

Appendix

Vignette 1: Pedophilia, Intrinsic Non-Offending Motivation

While going on a walk, Jim sees a 9- or 10-year old girl, whom he has never met before, walking toward him from the opposite direction. Jim, who is sexually interested in female children, realizes that he finds her very attractive and feels a strong impulse to touch her buttocks and her genital area while she is walking past him. As there are no witnesses, it is unlikely that he would be punished for this action. He does not do it though because he thinks it is wrong and morally unacceptable. As he always behaves like that in similar situations, Jim will never in his life harass another person or commit a sexual crime.

Vignette 2: Pedophilia, Extrinsic Non-Offending Motivation

While going on a walk, Jim sees a 9- or 10-year old girl, whom he has never met before, walking toward him from the opposite direction. Jim, who is sexually interested in female children, realizes that he finds her very attractive and feels a strong impulse to touch her buttocks and her genital area while she is walking past him. As there are no witnesses, it is unlikely that he would be punished for this action. He does not do it though because he is afraid that he could possibly still be identified and punished. As he always behaves like that in similar situations, Jim will never in his life harass another person or commit a sexual crime.

Vignette 3: Teleiophilia, Intrinsic Non-Offending Motivation

While going on a walk, Jim sees a young woman, whom he has never met before, walking toward him from the opposite direction. Jim, who is sexually interested in women, realizes that he finds her very attractive and feels a strong impulse to touch her buttocks and her genital area while she is walking past him. As there are no witnesses, it is unlikely that he would be punished for this action. He does not do it though because he thinks it is wrong and morally unacceptable. As he always behaves like that in similar situations, Jim will never in his life harass another person or commit a sexual crime.

Vignette 4: Teleiophilia, Extrinsic Non-Offending motivation

While going on a walk, Jim sees a young woman, whom he has never met before, walking toward him from the opposite direction. Jim, who is sexually interested in women, realizes that he finds her very attractive and feels a strong impulse to touch her buttocks and her genital area while she is walking past him. As there are no witnesses, it is unlikely that he would be punished for this action. He does not do it though because he is afraid that he could possibly still be identified and punished. As he always behaves like that in similar situations, Jim will never in his life harass another person or commit a sexual crime.

Punitive Attitudes Scale

How do you think that society should deal with people like Jim?

  1. 1.

    People like Jim should be preemptively taken into custody.

  2. 2.

    One should not condemn people like Jim too harshly.

  3. 3.

    People like Jim should be castrated.

  4. 4.

    People like Jim should be sentenced for life as deterrence.

  5. 5.

    People like Jim should be forced to undergo therapy.

  6. 6.

    People like Jim should be chemically castrated.

  7. 7.

    People like Jim should be sentenced to death as deterrence.

Item 2 is reverse-coded.

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Jahnke, S. Emotions and Cognitions Associated with the Stigma of Non-Offending Pedophilia: A Vignette Experiment. Arch Sex Behav 47, 363–373 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1073-7

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