Title: Psychopathology and Personality Traits of Pedophiles
Headings: Psychopathology and Personality Traits of Pedophiles
Psychopathology and Personality Traits of Pedophiles
Diagnosis
References:

Content: There are 2 problems inherent with this research pool. For one, convicted or arrested sex offenders might differ considerably from pedophilic individuals who have not acted on their urges or who have acted on them but have not been caught. Second, not everyone who sexually molests a child is actually a pedophile; that is, such a person may not have a persistent sexual attraction to prepubescent children. 5 Despite these difficulties, current research does reveal sufficiently consistent patterns to provide a basic overview of common psychological features associated with pedophilia. Male and female pedophiles
Most sexual offenders against children are male, although female offenders may account for 0.4% to 4% of convicted sexual offenders. 6,7 On the basis of a range of published reports, McConaghy 8 estimates a 10 to 1 ratio of male-to-female child molesters. However, most researchers assume available estimates underrepresent the true number of female pedophiles. 9 Several reasons for this have been proposed, including a societal tendency to dismiss the negative impact of sexual relationships between young boys and adult women as well as women’s greater access to very young children who cannot report their abuse.9 Because of the low number of females in pedophile samples, most of the studies discussed below will be drawn from exclusively male samples. Pedophilia subgroups
The most important diagnostic issue for clinicians who encounter a possible pedophile is the danger the patient may pose to children, although DSM-IV does not directly address this issue.