Adults with Pedophilic Interests in the United States: Current Practices and Suggestions for Future Policy and Research

Abstract

Adults with pedophilic interests are often viewed by the public as a homogenous subgroup based on what we know from those who sexually offend against children. The stigma associated with child sexual abuse may serve to deter such behaviors but may also interfere with the person's stability and willingness to seek assistance in managing pedophilic interests. This article contrasts the sex offender response and prevention efforts typically employed in the U.S. (i.e., containment, registration, and notification policies and public education programs) with treatment programs aimed at preventing child sexual abuse in Germany, Belgium, and Canada. Five major areas are identified that should be further examined with regard to implementing preventative outreach and treatment programs in the U.S.: barriers to outreach and treatment programs, how to expand or reframe current preventative educational programs, implementation of such programs in light of current mandating reporting policies, promising treatment approaches for pedophilic interests among non-offenders, and ethical concerns relevant to preventative psychological interventions.

Characteristics and treatment of internet child pornography offenders

“…Lasher and Stinson () highlight that most prevention campaigns either keep known sex offenders away from potential victims or educate society about how to recognize sexual abuse. However, few campaigns prevent child sexual abuse by treating individuals with pedophilic interests before they offend.…”

“…The literature on treating sexual offenders has grown, but the research on specifically treating ICPOs is still in its early phases and the subject is under-researched (Lasher & Stinson, 2017;Middleton, Elliott, Mandeville-Norden, & Beech, 2006;Quayle & Taylor, 2003;Seto, 2015). Current sexual offender assessment and treatment methods were not developed for ICPOs and therefore have not been validated.…”

“…The Inform Plus program has been empirically tested and has so far shown positive results. The Inform Plus program is a community-based, psychoeducational and risk prevention program for ICPOs (Dervley et al, 2017 Lasher and Stinson (2017) highlight that most prevention campaigns either keep known sex offenders away from potential victims or educate society about how to recognize sexual abuse. However, few campaigns prevent child sexual abuse by treating individuals with pedophilic interests before they offend.…”

“…However, few campaigns prevent child sexual abuse by treating individuals with pedophilic interests before they offend. Lasher and Stinson () also highlight that current prevention programs are created with the assumption that some individuals with pedophilic interests will eventually sexually abuse a child rather than focusing on the fact that change is possible. However, recent initiatives have begun to focus on treating individuals with child pornographic interests who have not been charged, such as the Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) and other self‐help psychoeducational programs.…”

Tratamento Medicamentoso Dos Transtornos Parafílicos

“…Dependendo das comorbidades, outras medicações que também diminuem a libido podem ser importantes, como é o caso de antipsicóticos nos pacientes psicóticos (STAHL, 2013;KHAN et al, 2015), Estabilizadores de humor nos bipolares (KAFKA, 1991;VARELA et al, 2002;SHIAH et al, 2006;CORRETTI et al, 2010;WANG et al, 2014) e naltrexona nos etilistas (RY-BACK, 2004;MÓDOLO, 2014). Essas drogas, juntamente com a psicoterapia, são de grande valia na prevenção de recidivas (LASHER et al, 2017).…”