Extent of occurrence
The extent to which pedophilia occurs is not known with any certainty. Some studies have concluded that at least a quarter of all adult men may have some feelings of sexual arousal in connection with children [6]. A study by Hall et al. Of Kent State University, for example, found that 32.5% of their sample — consisting of eighty adult males — exhibited sexual arousal to pedophilic stimuli that equaled or exceeded their arousal to the adult stimuli. Further studies indicate that even men erotically fixated on adult females are generally prone to react sexually when exposed to nude female children. [7]
In 1989 Briere and Runtz conducted a study on 193 male undergraduate students concerning pedophilia. Of the sample, 21% acknowledged sexual attraction to some small children; 9% reported sexual fantasies involving children; 5% admitted masturbating to these fantasies; and 7% conceded some probability of actually having sex with a child if they could avoid detection and punishment.[8]
Treatment
A number of proposed treatment techniques for pedophilia have been developed. Many regard pedophilia as highly resistant to psychological interference and have dismissed as ineffective most “reparative strategies,” which may be analogous to homosexual reparative therapy.[11] Others, such as Dr. Fred Berlin, believe pedophilia can “indeed be successfully treated,” if only the medical community would give it more attention.[5]
Treatment strategies for pedophilia include a “12 step support system”, parallel to addiction therapy, though such a system is generally regarded as the least efficacious method of treatment. Anti-androgenic medications such as Depo Provera may be used to lower testosterone levels, and are often used in conjunction with other approaches.
More favoured is cognitive-behavioral therapy, in which the subject is taught to associate “pedophilic behavior” with various unpleasantries. Usually, this is done by telling the pedophile to fantasize of “deviant sexual activity”, and then, once aroused, they are given instructions to imagine the assumed legal and social consequences of such an action. Other programs induce an association of illegal behavior with pain by means of more controversial aversion therapy, in which the pedophile is sent an electric shock while fantasizing. [12] These methods are rarely used on pedophiles who have not offended.