“It’s Not Something I Chose You Know”: Making Sense of Pedophiles’ Sexual Interest in Children and the Impact on Their Psychosexual Identity

Abstract

Sexual interest in children is one of the most strongly predictive of the known risk factors for sexual reconviction. It is an important aspect of risk assessment to identify the presence of such interest, and an important task for treatment providers to address such a sexual interest where it is present. It has been argued that understanding pedophiles' deviant sexual interest in children can enhance risk assessment, management, and treatment planning. This research study aims to explore the phenomenology of deviant sexual interest in children, the impact it has on pedophilic offenders' identities, and their views on the treatability of that interest. The study used semistructured interviews and repertory grids to make sense of participants' experiences. The results revealed three superordinate themes: "'living' with a deviant sexual interest," "relational sexual self," and "possible and feared sexual self." The analysis unpacks these themes and repertory grid analysis is used to explore a subset of participants' identities in more detail. The results reveal that there needs to be an acceptance from both client and therapist that their sexual interest in children may never go away. Through this acceptance, clients could work on enhancing sexual self-regulation, recognizing their triggers, and so managing their sexual thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Implications for treatment are also discussed.

A prison-model of CoSA: the potential to offer “through the gate” support and accountability

“…The triangulation of these two methods, therefore, increases the understanding of the phenomenon explored in this paper, providing a deeper analysis than one method alone could provide (Howitt, 2010). Indeed, the triangulation of IPA with the repertory grid technique is growing in popularity as a method of rigorous exploration of participants' meaning making (Blagden, Mann, Webster, Lee, & Williams, 2017;Turpin, Dallos, Owen, & Thomas, 2009;Yorke & Dallos, 2015). In addition, Blagden, Winder, Gregson, and Thorne (2014) have demonstrated the successful synthesis of these methods, when used in a forensic setting, with those who have been convicted of sexual offences as participants.…”

Humanizing pedophilia as stigma reduction: A large-scale intervention study

“…The common principle across multiple definitions of pedophilia is that it constitutes a stable sexual preference, independent of arousability/intensity of sexual feeling or gender preference (Blagden, Mann, Williams & Lee, 2018;Seto, 2012). Ahlers and Schaefer (2010) proposed that human sexual preferences should be described using three independent dimensions.…”

“…From a wellbeing perspective, people with sexual interests in children have reported that professionals working with them appear to focus more on risk reduction (e.g., controlling sexual urges), despite them preferring to be supported in relation to the more general psychological wellbeing issues mentioned above (B4U-ACT, 2011). This in turn leads many people with pedophilic sexual interests to be unwilling to come forward to access mental health support because of doubts over whether those professionals offering such services will act in non-judgmental ways (B4U-ACT, 2011; Blagden et al, 2018). Indeed, evidence suggests that the stigma experienced by those who have a dominant sexual interest in children impairs help-seeking behaviors due to both perceived and anticipated rejection (Goode, 2010;Blagden et al, 2018).…”

“…This in turn leads many people with pedophilic sexual interests to be unwilling to come forward to access mental health support because of doubts over whether those professionals offering such services will act in non-judgmental ways (B4U-ACT, 2011; Blagden et al, 2018). Indeed, evidence suggests that the stigma experienced by those who have a dominant sexual interest in children impairs help-seeking behaviors due to both perceived and anticipated rejection (Goode, 2010;Blagden et al, 2018).…”

A Qualitative Exploration of the Experiences of Veterans Who Are Serving Sentences in Custody

“…The purpose of the initial literature review, was to learn about the phenomenon of interest and to identify a gap in what is known about it, but the literature is not subsequently used to inform data collection in a rigid way (Smith, 1999;Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). IPA has previously been used to understand the experiences of men serving a custodial sentence for a sexual offence but who are maintaining their innocence (Blagden, Winder, Thorne & Gregson, 2011), adult males who have committed sexual offences against elderly female victims (Murphy & Winder, 2016), men who have downloaded sexually abusive images of children (Winder & Gough, 2010), male paedophiles who have committed child sexual offences (Blagden, Mann, Webster, Lee & Williams, 2017) and male prisoners who have participated in peer support schemes (Perring & Blagden, 2014).…”