What Causes Pedophilia?

[Ross]

This is a question that has very recently striked my mind. Why do pedos exist? Growing up and always hearing these sort of cases on the news, I would, like any typical human being, would judge and condemn these pedophiles for their actions. There is no doubt that having sex with a child without consent if you are an adult is a criminal offence. Knowing this obviously prevents most people from doing this act. But I still fail to understand is why such people would carry out acts of pedophilia and rape. From my theory, it could be that these people have had a rough traumatic upbringing, hence it might have induced them to carry out these actions. However I did some research and it said that pedophiles might have been born that way, in which genes might have had a mutation hence have altered the chemistry of the brain (or something like that). If that's merely the case, I find it REALLY FUCKING scary how these people can become pedophiles that way; like as if you were destined to become a pedophile and be looked down upon by society without your control. I myself had a bit of a rough upbringing and I myself may have unconsciously done some bad minor stuff, but not any thing major. Just want to ask your guys view on this question. And also, if these pedos did meditation when they were young, would it have prevented them from doing these sorts of crimes as well as rape, murder etc? 

[ULFBERHT]

From my understanding, it's very difficult to determine how certain genes will express themselves physiologically or psychologically. Sometimes you can have a certain gene that codes for something like a more aggressive behavior, but if the right environmental, psychological, and biological conditions are not met, then that gene might not express, or express in a different way. Humans are very much a product of their environment, but not always in a direct line from A to B.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky had a bit to say about this when he said that "it is impossible to consider biology outside of the context of environment", meaning that the behavior of the human animal is not fully explained by either nature or nurture, but probably a good mix of both.

The most violent criminals and murderers are often the victims of their own attempted murder, sometimes at the hand of their own parents. But not everyone who is abused as a child becomes a violent monster, just like not everyone who takes a sip of wine becomes an alcoholic. There are many factors at play that influence how someone will be in an environment.

To answer your question more directly, I think that we should definitely look into the underlying causes of things of that nature. I think are justice system at this point is too blindly punitive. Instead of trying to solve things at the root, we simply lock people up. Some people need to be locked up, but did you know that a violent criminal's brain often cannot understand their punishment? Because of the environmental experience and the biological development of some people, their brains develop differently from normal and they are not able to use executive reasoning, good judgment, or future- mindedness and are thus violent and impulsive, often because of factors beyond their control. If that plays a serious role in human criminal behavior, we owe it to ourselves to look into it.

If they meditated from a young age, would it have helped? Who's to say? I haven't seen any study that's looked at this. What I have read is that longtime meditators have a greater development of the prefrontal cortex and greater density in the grey matter of the brain. The prefrontal cortex being largely responsible for decision making, judgment, social control, and planning. You could be onto something, but you'd have to identify for certain markers in the genotype that correlate to something like aberrant sexual behavior, and then test those subjects against meditators with the same genotypic profile and see what happens. Even that might not be rigid enough because of all the epigenetic factors I just mentioned.

[FindingPeace]

On 12/01/2017 at 0:31 AM, Ross said:

Why do pedos exist?

I can't help thinking that this is like asking "Why are people gay?"

Reality doesn't care what you think is moral or immoral. All sorts of things happen in reality and there is much of it that doesn't suit the majority of the human population. But it happens nonetheless.

Why are you the way you are? Because you are. Whether people like it or not.

[Rocky]

For similar reasons as to why people are gay, bi, hetro and etc, its a preference that they have no control over choosing. 

Although I have heard that quite a few have come from abusive backgrounds as children themselves, whether that's true  and relevant or not I don't know.

Just to be clear Pedophilia is an uncontrollable preference and not an act and it itself isn't wrong itself. However sexual abuse, child abuse, and child pornography and etc is.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Rocky

[Guest Annetta]

Genetics, child abuse/trauma, social and religious norms in some areas of the world.

On 1/11/2017 at 4:31 PM, Ross said:

I find it REALLY FUCKING scary how these people can become pedophiles that way; like as if you were destined to become a pedophile and be looked down upon by society without your control.

What is so bad is how society views pedophilia; that they tend to sweep it under the rug and it does more damage than good on the victims.  It's considered so wrong that people who are born this way often times can't seek treatment because they'll be labeled as a pedophile and their lives can be ruined.  It's one of the most socially damaging labels you can have.  If someone is a pedophile and people find out, that's all they'll go off of as justification to destroy someone's life, their well-being; they can even be murdered.

On top of that, because society tries to keep it hush hush, treatments are minimal, there is a lot less information about the disorder/orientation/whatever than there should be.  Aside from castration or pharmaceutical intervention, there aren't a lot of options out there.  Even just going to a therapist looking for help as an innocent person can land someone in trouble.  One of the reasons children are abused so much is because of the lack of support/research/understanding/ and social misconceptions.

My dad was a pedo, had to do some research to come to terms with what he did.  Society is still in the 1950's in terms of how we deal with this subject - for victims and pedophiles alike.

[Toby]

It's a really wide topic and not easy to get answers. One thing that is important though is to distinguish between the preference and actual crimes. The media often mixes that up.
Pedophilia = sexual or romantic/emotional preference towards children by adults. There are primary pedophiles and secondary pedophiles (whose primary attraction are adults). The percentage of people that have some attraction to children (not primary) are actually very high. I don't know the numbers but afaik there were studies done on this and I guess the numbers were like 25% or so.
Crimes done to children = rape, sexual abuse, murder, physical abuse and so on. The perpetrator might be a pedophile but often is not. They might easily be a sadist or people who cannot control their impulses or people that use children as a substitute.

The reasons might be genetic conditioning or upbringing or even abuse done to them. It is also important to look at ones society/culture, because e.g. the prophet Mohammed married a ten year old girl or so, greeks abused underage boys and both were considered "normal" in their society. It's insane how much society actually shapes the view on a subject. I consider our society more evolved regarding the view/law that children under 14 are not able to consent having sex with an adult.