Neurodevelopmental Differences, Pedohebephilia, and Sexual Offending: Findings from Two Online Surveys

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Sara Jahnke - , University of Bergen (Author)
  • Alexander F. Schmidt - , Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Author)
  • Andrea Klöckner - , TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Jürgen Hoyer - , Chair of Behavioral Psychotherapy, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)

Abstract

The neurodevelopmental theory of pedohebephilia states that sexual interests in children arise from early neurodevelopmental perturbations, as, for example, evidenced by increased non-right-handedness, more childhood head injuries, and reduced intelligence and height. As corroborating evidence largely rests on samples of convicted men, we conducted online surveys among German-speaking (Study 1, N = 199) and English-speaking men (Study 2, N = 632), specifically targeting community members with pedohebephilic or teleiophilic interests. Although we detected theoretically meaningful sexual interest patterns in an embedded viewing time task, we could not detect expected neurodevelopmental differences between teleiophilic and pedohebephilic men in either of the two studies. Strikingly, pedohebephilic men who reported convictions for sexual offenses emerged as shorter and less intelligent than pedohebephilic men without convictions in Study 2. While elucidating possible third variable confounds, results have to be interpreted cautiously because of the methodological problems inherent to non-matched case control designs.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)849-866
Number of pages18
JournalArchives of sexual behavior
Volume51
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 34993718
ORCID /0000-0002-1697-6732/work/172083717

Keywords

Keywords

  • Child sexual abuse, DSM-5, Etiology, Neurobiology, Neurodevelopment, Pedophilia