Pedophilia

Submitted by :
Saket Subham
DIVISION B
BBA LLB (2018-2023)
PRN : 18010224103

Foundation of Ethics

Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA

Symbiosis International (Deemed University), PUNE

In
September, 2018

Under the guidance of

Dr. Garima Yadav

Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Law School Noida

 CERTIFICATE

The Case entitled “Pedophilia” submitted to the Symbiosis Law School,

NOIDA for Foundation of Ethics as part of Internal assessment is based on
my original work carried out under the guidance of Dr. Garima Yadav from
July,2018 to August,2018.

The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the research
work has been duly acknowledged.

I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for

plagiarism, if any, detected later on.

Signature of the candidate:

Date:
 ACKNOWLEDEGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Symbiosis Law School,

NOIDA and our project guide Dr. Garima Yadav, for giving the opportunity to
work on this project of ‘Pedophilia’ . It was simply impossible for the me to
work on this project and achieve the results without his guidance, active
support and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge the support
received from my friends and family by the way of sharing their opinions
about the said topic. Also most heartfelt gratitude towards the seniors who
gave the basic guidelines which helped in completing this project well in
time.
 INDEX
1. I
ntroduction
2. R
eview of literature
3. D
iscussion
4. C
onclusion
5. B
ibliography
 Introduction
Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder wherein an adult person experiences
sexual attraction towards children who are prepubescent. Pedophilia has
been defined in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as
involving intense and recurrent sexual urges and fantasies towards
prepubescent children. In general term, pedophilia refers to any sexual
interest in children or act of child sexual abuse. Studies conducted have
shown that the people who suffer from disorder of pedophilia are people who
have low self-esteem , depression or anxiety. Still it hasn’t been clear
whether these are the traits of a person suffering from pedophilia or these
traits are a result of them being identified as a sexual offender. Watching
child pornography is a more reliable instrument to check whether a person is
paedophilic or not rather the him/her molesting a child. Studies have shown
that the persons suffering from paedophilic disorder are obsessive about
collecting, organising and labelling their child pornography. Though many
studies have been conducted on what causes a person to become
paedophilic, the real reason is not yet known. Many reports suggest that
there are one or more neurological characteristics present in a person at the
time or birth which increases the chance of the person being paedophilic.
Another study conducted using MRI found out that male pedophilies have a
lower volume of white matter than the others. The issue of phedophilia has
been of great importance and has been discussed time and now. A number
of prominent Hollywood directors have made movies on the issue of
pedophilia. The Spotlight is a leading movie on the issue of child abuse. The
movie shows how a former priest who worked trying to rehabilitate
pedophile priests and according to his experience half of the priest whom he
had seen and treated over a decade have abused children in some form or
the other even after being in a relationship with an adult.The current status
of law for the offenders of paedophilic persons varies from country to
country. Countries such as United States, Canada, United Kingdom have
recognised pedophilia as a serious crime and have enacted special laws for
the offenders of paedophilic persons. In a landmark decision by a judge of
Zambia, a minor girl was awarded 45 million Zambian Kwacha as
compensation after she brought a case against her teacher for charges of
rape. On the other hand many countries like Yemen, Malaysia do not
recognise pedophilia as a crime and badly any case on chid abuse was
recorded in these countries.Pedophilia is one of the most stigmatised mental
disorders. One study reported high levels of anger, fear and social rejection
towards pedophiles who have not committed a crime. Social attitudes
towards child sexual abuse are extremely negative, with some surveys
ranking it as morally worse than murder. Some researches conducted prior
to 2004 showed that general public was not very well informed about the
issue of pedophilia and a great deal of misunderstanding existed but after a
study conducted in 2004, this myth was broken as a majority of the public
are well informed about the aspects of these subjects.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Ariana Olshan(2014), Examining Pedophilia:Preventive
treatment programs for Pedophlies, Pg: 11-20.

The causes of pedophilia is still and has been a topic of study for years now.
Various studies have found out multiple reasons which act as potential
contributors to pedophilia.The reasons as deducted by the use of functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) found out that the anatomy of the brain
plays a major role in sexual preference for different age groups. Persons
suffering with the disorder of pedophilia have had less of white matter which
was responsible for sexual cue recognition. Another region of the brain called
amygdala attracted the interest of the researching team which exhibits an
abnormal activation profile in pedophilies showing different level of brain
activation in case of pedophiles. Studies also shows unusual hormonal and
neurotransmitter level and pathways. The disorder of pedophilia is found to
be linked with the problems of depression and anxiety. Other disorders
found in the person suffering from pedophilia include drug abuse, bipolar
disorder, anti-social personality disorder. Studies have also concluded that
93% of the person diagnosed with the problem of pedophilia have had one
of these disorders along side. There is a co-relation between pedophilia and
low self-esteem, emotional immaturity and sentiments of isolation. Social
factors such as childhood abuse, early access to social platforms and the
internet including child pornography have also been identified as potential
contributing factor for pedophilia. It is important to acknowledge that all the
person who watch child pornography are suffering from the disorder of
pedophilia.
Maria Hardeberg Bach and Carolin Demuth(2018),
Therapist’s Experiences in Their Work With Sex Offenders
and The People of Pedophilia,Vol:14(2)
Ever since 1980s, awareness and recognition of the problems related to the
sexual abuse of children has grown drastically. Even though this issue has
been ignored for ages, it now has the attention of all the section of the
society as a major issue. There have been a total of 32 international studies
conducted between the years of 2002 and 2009, 13% of the girls and 6% of
the boys have had experienced some form of sexual abuse in their
childhood. The effect of sexual abuse on children is harmful and has long
term effects on them. Studies have revealed that children who had
experienced sexual abuse have other mental health related problems in
comparison to children who haven’t experienced sexual abuse. In response
to these problems and incidents of sexual abuse on children, many a
countries have come up with criminal justice policies as an attempt to
decrease the number of sexual offences against children. Many countries
wherein people who are found guilty of committing a sexual offence against
a child have been forced to meet a psychologist. These psychologist have
reported of the traumatic stress which is associated to their work while
giving counselling to these offenders on the contrary some therapist have
stated that they found satisfaction in the work which they do. Many people
argue that sex offender therapy is difficult because of factors that the
thinking of the clients ( in this case the offenders) is just opposite to the
thinking of the therapist which is very unsurprising. The feedback collected
by the therapist at the end of the therapy revels that the offenders have had
experiences some form of sexual abuse when they themselves were a child.
Based on this the therapists concluded that a large number oh sex offenders
have themselves been the victims of such acts.

DISCUSSION
Though a lot has been done in respect to prevention of child abuse, a lot still
needs to be done. The studies conducted for analysing the reasons for the
disorder of pedophilia, it is clear from various studies as all of concluded that
it has something to do with the neurological characteristics present in a
person. The amount of white matter is related to the occurrence of
pedophilia somehow. The methods of treatment such as psychiatrist
counselling has been effective as the offenders were able to open up about
their disorder and their childhood story of how they were abused. The
therapist concluded that offenders were themselves the victims of these
offences. The studies haven’t yet haven’t been able to conclude whether
symptoms like depression, low self-esteem and anxiety are symptoms of a
person before he becomes a pedophilic or after he is diagnosed with the
disorder of pedophilia. The study also cited that watching and collection of
child pornography is also related to the disorder of pedophilia.The therapists
who work directly with sex offenders have said contradictory facts about
their experience of providing therapy to the offenders. Some said that it
disturbs them mentally to deal with such kinds of people whereas on the
other hand some therapists found it to be satisfying to treat and provide
counselling to these people and feel that they are helping society in some or
the other way. The therapist shared their experiences about the kind of
conversation they have with the clients and the revelations made by them
during the course of treatment.

CONCLUSION
Though a lot has been done to avoid child abuse and provide counselling to
the offenders, still a lot needs to be done. The basic solution to the problem
to pedophilia is by better parenting and providing better environment at
home. As confessed by a lot of offenders, they themselves experienced
sexual offence so better environment at home is a must so as to eradicate
this problem of pedophilia. The researcher also feels that the therapist
providing treatment deserve a better pay and respect alongside more of free
time with family as many of them complained to having disturbing thoughts
and negative feelings after providing counselling to the offenders. Those
therapist who don’t have work satisfaction should be paid more so that they
at least derive some amount of satisfaction. A lot of scientific research is also
needed in the field of pedophilia to understand its causes because it will only
be after the causes are completely understood, better treatment can be
provided. The laws for criminalising the offence of sexual offence must be
made more strict to make the act of child abuse punishable as many
countries like Yemen haven’t even recognised the issue of child abuse or
pedophilia. Major countries need to provide more funds to the scientists and
researchers so that they are able to put in more efforts to understand the
causes of pedophilia. The researcher believes that the government should
take more initiatives to make its people aware about pedophilia and child
abuse. Counselling centres need to be established so that children who have
had been sexually exploited come up without any fear and share report the
matter to the concerned authorities as 26% of the cases are not reported
and if proper counselling is not provided to the children, it leads to
depression and other major mental problems. The society must be made
more aware about these issues withstanding its importance and the
seriousness of the matter. It will be the combined efforts of government,
society and family that the issue of pedophilia will cease to exist.

BIBLOGRAPHY
1. B
ach, M. and Demuth, C. (2018). Therapists’ Experiences in Their Work
With Sex Offenders and People With Pedophilia. Eur J Psychol, pp.498-
514.
2. 2.
Olshan, A. (2014). Examining Pedophilia- Preventative Treatment
Programs for Pedophiles. International Centre for Missing &
Exploited Children (ICMEC), pp.11-20.
3.