Dr. Andrew Mohanraj

What causes pedophilia, can it be explained?

Paraphillias are abnormal expressions of sexuality. It becomes a problem If a person acts on these fantasies leading to marked distress to one self and threatening to the community at large.  Paraphilias include pedophilia, frotteurism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sexual masochism and tranvestic fetish.  Paraphilic behavior peaks between ages of 15 and 25 and gradually declines. In much older men, the behavior is usually practiced in isolation or with a cooperative partner.

Pedophilia is the most common of paraphilias . Psychoanalytically pedophiles are individuals who have failed to complete the normal sexual development process towards heterosexual adjustment.  This abnormal development results in bizarre behavior providing an outlet sexual and aggressive drives that otherwise would have been channeled into proper sexual behavior. Usually such a person would have had a very aggressive father causing a troubled childhood.  Pedophiles tend to dominate or control their victims to compensate for their powerlessness against their father during their childhood

 People who have pedophilia, are they attracted to an individual or to an age. (EG: If Person A (aged 30) is attracted to Person B (aged 10) would they still be attracted to person B when they grow up? or would they shift their attention to another young individual?

Pedophilia is about dominating and controlling their victims. It is unlikely for person A to be attracted to a 20 year old person B.

Like mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and so on, can pedophilia be treated?

Pedophiles only get caught when their fantasies are acted out. There are many people with similar fantasies but do not act out the fantasies and therefore are no noticed. Once caught they are often brought to the criminal justice system and imprisoned. Prison is an external control and has no element of treatment.

.Drug therapy and psychotherapy has been employed to treat paraphilia. Besides psychotropic medication, drugs that reduce male hormone testosterone levels thereby reduce the drive to behave sexually have been used in the United States. This drugs are injected on a monthly basis into the pedophiles who have been released from prison.

Can pedophiles be attracted to adults, if so would the attraction be as intense as it is to children?

Pedophiles are generally not interested in heterosexual or homosexual relationship with adults. Even if they do have a relationship with an adult partner it will not be as intense as it is with children because children can be controlled and less likely for that to happen with adults.

 

Does the pedophilia attraction of a person depend on their sexual preference? for example could they be attracted to adults who are of the same sex, but children who are of the opposite sex? Or is there no specific pattern? being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation.

Both heterosexuals and homosexuals can be pedophiles. They can be attracted to boys or girls although reported cases tend to highlight male pedophiles molesting young boys.

 

Are there any particular stereotypes revolving around pedophilia which should be eliminated?

Pedophiles who act out their fantasies usually prey on young children by luring the children with money, material comfort and companionship. It is wrong to assume that all homosexual men are pedophiles because pedophilia is really about exercising control which provides a bizarre outlet to for their sexual and aggressive drives and not about a sexual relationship

What are your comments about the recent case where a Malaysian engineer in Singapore sexually assaulted 30 underage boys?

No comments. I do not know much about this case.

Children who have been assaulted as a child often grow up with a lot of trauma, could you, based on past experience maybe, elaborate on the kind of trauma and paranoia they face? And is it at all possible to recover from it?

Sexual abuse in childhood can give rise to significant mental health problems in adulthood.

High rates of depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, interpersonal dysfunction, sexual problems, and suicidality have all been identified to varying degrees among women and men who survive sexual abuse.

The severity of psychological problems faced also depends on the age of the victim, the relationship between the victim and the offender, and the length of time during which the molestation occurred.

The existence of long­-term effects of child sexual abuse may well result because of the influence which this early trauma has on children. The child’s sexuality is not developed in a normal way because in the mind of the child, sex is associated with fear, pain, manipulation and secrecy.

For a majority of the cases I have seen, the path to recovery is completed with short term psychological support and medical intervention.  Some, however continue to re-experience the trauma with symptoms of fear, anxiety, nightmares, phobias, clinging behavior, depression, suicidality,  or substance  abuse . For the second category it can be very challenging to fully recover from the trauma  .

[Note: It must be clear here that child molestation does not always mean that the offender is a pedophile. In fact when a pedophile is involved, the experience may be less traumatic for the victim because the pedophile lures the intended victim through a variety of techniques that are appealing like the offer of money, companionship etc. In the case of non-pedophile child molestation the incident can involve threat or violence.  The perpetrator also could be a married man, a single homosexual or heterosexual]