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Minor Attraction: A Queer Criminological Issue

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Abstract

Despite a cultural tendency to sexualize youth, individuals who are primarily attracted to minors are subject to suspicion and stigma across society, extending into criminology and criminal justice. The prevailing assumption is that minor-attracted persons (MAPs) are mentally ill and predatory. However, there exists evidence that minor attraction is a sexual orientation, and the parallels between the treatment of MAPs and LGBT populations are striking. Employing queer criminology’s use of deconstructionist techniques, we address the current state of criminology and criminal justice, which sees MAPs as a suspect population warranting formal control. We then argue for the use of queer criminology as a framework for future research with minor-attracted populations, which could have important implications for criminal justice practice and policy.

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Notes

  1. Other sources document hebephilia and ephebophilia as preferential attractions toward children in the beginning phases of puberty and children in the late stages of puberty, respectively; however, there is much disagreement over which categories fit which attractions, and whether all categories are legitimate (Blanchard et al. 2009; Seto 2008).

  2. This term is used by the MAP-led group B4U-ACT and other organizations that work with this population (B4U-ACT 2016). However, other MAP-led organizations, such as VirPed (“Virtuous Pedophiles”) still use the term “pedophile” to self-identify.

  3. Tweedy (2011) and van Anders (2015) promote the idea that polyamory (the desire to engage in multiple, simultaneous romantic and/or sexual relationships) is a sexual orientation unto itself. Additionally, objectum sexuality (romantic and/or sexual attracted to inanimate objects) has been classified as its own sexual orientation (Marsh 2010).

  4. We are aware that many criminologists are accustomed to referring to the American Psychological Association as the APA, but we are referring to the American Psychiatric Association when we use the APA acronym throughout.

  5. Twenty search categories accounted for 80 percent of all searches, while 35 search categories accounted for 90 percent of all searches, suggesting that in many ways, “most people’s desires are clustered together into a relatively small set of common interests” (Ogas and Gaddam 2011). Common interests, we argue, that are led with eroticized perceptions of young people.

  6. A recent (2016) letter to advice columnist Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) from a minor-attracted adult who had never offended but who had the “desire” to “commit the most heinous of crimes” against young girls expressed concern that he would be reported if he sought help. His letter ended with the question, “How am I to overcome these urges when no matter what I do I am considered guilty?” We find this to be an extremely valid question that is relevant for future research.

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  1. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 W 59th St., New York, NY, 10019, USA

    Allyson Walker

  2. Old Dominion University, 4401 Hampton Blvd., Batten Hall Room 6042, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

    Vanessa R. Panfil

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Correspondence to Allyson Walker.

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Walker, A., Panfil, V.R. Minor Attraction: A Queer Criminological Issue. Crit Crim 25, 37–53 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-016-9342-7

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