Abstract
In this chapter, we ask three questions about pedophilia: (1) Is it immoral to be a pedophile? (2) Is it immoral for pedophiles to seek out sexual contact with children? (3) Is it immoral for pedophiles to satisfy their sexual preferences by using computer-generated graphics, sex dolls, and/or sex robots that mimic children? We argue that (1) it is not immoral to be a pedophile, (2) it is immoral for pedophiles to seek out sexual contact with children because of (and only because of) the expected harm to children, and (3) it is morally permissible for pedophiles to satisfy their sexual preferences in ways that do not involve any real children.
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Notes
- 1.
World Health Organization, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10), Section F65.4.
- 2.
Wesley Stephenson, “How many men are paedophiles?” BBC News Magazine, July 30, 2014, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28526106. Studies indicate, however, that around 5 percent of men, or slightly less than that, are to some extent sexually attracted to children. See John Briere and Marsha Runtz, “University Males’ Sexual Interest in Children: Predicting Potential Indices of ‘Pedophilia’ in a Non-Forensic Sample.” Child Abuse and Neglect 13, no. 1 (1989): 65–75; Kathryn Becker-Blease, Daniel Friend, and Jennifer J. Freyd, “Child Sex Abuse Perpetrators Among Male University Students.” Presentation at 22nd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Hollywood; CA, Nov November 4–7, 2006; Nathaniel McCognathy, “Pedophilia: A Report of the Evidence,” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 32 (1998): 252–265; Michael C. Seto, “Pedophilia.” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 5 (2009): 391–407.
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Noemí Pereda, Georgina Guilera, Maria Forns, and Juana Gómez-Benito, “The Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse in Community and Student Samples: A Meta-analysis,” Clinical Psychology Review 29, no. 4 (2009): 328–338.
- 4.
For an overview see Michael C. Seto, Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children: Theory, Assessment, and Intervention (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2007).
- 5.
Dennis Howitt, Paedophiles and Sexual Offences Against Children (Chichester: Wiley, 1995), Chap. 2.
- 6.
Gail Hornor, “Child sexual abuse: Consequences and implications,” Journal of Pediatric Health Care 24 no. 6 (2010): 358–364.
- 7.
Patrick Zickler, “Childhood Sex Abuse Increases Risk for Drug Dependence in Adult Women,” National Institute of Drug Abuse Notes 17 no. 1 (2002): 5.
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Heather M. Ulrich, Mickey Randolph, and Shawn Acheson, “Child Sexual Abuse: A Replication of the Meta-analytic Examination of Child Sexual Abuse by Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman,” The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice 4, no. 2 (June 2005): 37–51.
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Elliott C. Nelson, et al., “Association between self-reported childhood sexual abuse and adverse psychosocial outcomes: Results from a twin study.” Archives of General Psychiatry 59 (2002): 139–146.
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Steven Beach, et al., “Impact of child sex abuse on adult psychopathology: a genetically and epigenetically informed investigation,” Journal of Family Psychology 27, no. 1 (Feb 2013): 8.
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Robert Ehman, “Adult-Child Sex” in Philosophy and Sex, 2nd ed., edited by Robert Baker and Frederick Elliston (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1984), 435–36.
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Mie F. Nielsen, “When Compassion is Making It Worse: Social Dynamics of Tabooing Victims of Child Sexual Abuse,” Sexuality & Culture 20, No. 2 (June 2016): 386–402.
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Susan A. Clancy, The Trauma Myth (New York: Basic Books, 2011).
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De Bellis, Michael D., Eve G. Spratt, and Stephen R. Hooper, “Neurodevelopmental Biology Associated With Sexual Abuse,” Journal of Child Dexual Abuse 20, No. 5 (2011): 548–587.
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Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman, “A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples,” Psychological Bulletin 124, no. 1 (1998): 22–53.
- 16.
Ulrich, et al., “Child Sexual Abuse,” 37–51.
- 17.
Stephen Kershner, Pedophilia and Adult-Child Sex: A Philosophical Analysis (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2015), 83.
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Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine, and Ara Norenzayan, “The weirdest people in the world?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33, No. 1–2 (June 2010): 61–83.
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Stephanie Dallam et al., “The effects of childhood sexual abuse: A critique of Rind,Tromovitch and Bauserman,” Psychological Bulletin 127, No. 6 (2001): 715–733.
- 20.
David Finkelhor, “What’s Wrong With Sex Between Adults and Children?,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 49, No. 4 (1979): 692–697.
- 21.
For arguments along similar lines, see Kershner, Pedophilia and Adult-Child Sex, Chap. 3 and David Benatar, “Two Views of Sexual Ethics: Promiscuity Pedophilia, and Rape,” Public Affairs Quarterly 16, No. 3 (July 2002): 191–201.
- 22.
Igor Primoratz, “Pedophilia,” Public Affairs Quarterly 13, No. 1 (1999): 99–110.
- 23.
It might also be argued that rights based reasons that are not cashed out in terms of harm could explain the wrongness of adult-child sex. For an argument that this attempt fails, see Kershnar, Pedophilia and Adult-Child Sex, Chap. 3–5.
- 24.
John Danaher, “Robotic Rape and Robotic Child Sexual Abuse: Should they be criminalised?” forthcoming in Criminal Law and Philosophy.
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Richard Green, “Is Pedophilia a Mental Disorder?” Archives of Sexual Behavior 31, No. 6 (2002): 467–471.
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Suzanne Ost, “Children at risk: legal and society perceptions of the potential threat the possession of child pornography poses to society,” Journal of Law and Society 29 (2002): 449.
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David Riegel, “Effects on Boy-Attracted Pedosexual Males of Viewing Boy Erotica,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 33, No. 4 (2004), p. 321–323.
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Dennis Howitt, “Pornography and the paedophile: Is it criminogenic?”, British Journal of Medical Psychology 68, No. 1 (1995): 17.
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Jerome Endrass et al., “The Consumption of Internet Child Pornography and Violent and Sex Offending,” BMC Psychiatry 43, No. 9: 1.
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Milton Diamond, Eva Jozifkova, and Petr Weiss, “Pornography and Sex Crimes in the Czech Republic,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 40, No. 5, 1989 pp. 1037–43.
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Milton Diamond and Ayako Uchiyama, “Pornography, Rape, and Sex Crimes in Japan,” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22, No. 1 (1999):1–22; Milton Diamond, “The effects of pornography: An international perspective,” in James E Elias, et al. (eds.), Pornography 101: Eroticism, sexuality and the first amendment, (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press, 1999): 223–260; for an overview, see Milton Diamond, “Pornography, public acceptance and sex related crime: A review,” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 32 (2009): 304–314.
- 32.
Berl Kutchinsky, “The Effect of Easy Availability of Pornography on the Incidence of Sex Crimes: The Danish Experience,” Journal of Social Issues 29 (1973): 163–181
- 33.
A study of the expansion of the broadband net in Norway, however, shows that there might be a causal connection between access to high speed internet and sexual violence, including sexual abuse of children, possibly as a result of increased consumption of pornography. Manudeep Bhuller, Tarjei Havnes, Edwin Leuven, and Magne Mogstad, “Broadband Internet: An Information Superhighway to Sex Crime?” The Review of Economic Studies 80, No. 4 (October 1, 2013): 1237–1266.
- 34.
Danaher, “Robotic Rape and Robotic Child Sexual Abuse,” forthcoming.
- 35.
James M. Cantor interviewed in Jennifer Sadler, “It will be abhorrent to most, but we need to explore the use of child sex dolls for paedophiles,” International Business Times, Oct 4, 2017. URL = https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/child-sex-dolls-stop-me-attacking-real-children-says-paedophile-1641674 (accessed March 14, 2018).
- 36.
James M. Cantor and Ian V. McPhail, “Non-Offending Pedophiles,” Current Sexual Health Reports 8, No. 3 (2016): 124.
- 37.
Ibid., 123–125.
- 38.
Boris D. Heifets and Robert C. Malenka, “MDMA as a Probe and Treatment for Social Behaviors,” Cell 166, No. 2 (2016): 269–272.
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Moen, O.M., Sterri, A.B. (2018). Pedophilia and Computer-Generated Child Pornography. In: Boonin, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93907-0_29
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