Paedophilia rooted on genes or trauma

PETALING JAYA: Paedophilia can be caused by many factors, including hormone imbalance and physical or psychological trauma during childhood, according to experts.

“Some say it is genetics but evidence on it is still not clear,” said consultant psychiatrist Dr Abdul Kadir Abu Bakar.

“In some cases, paedophilia is related to a head injury as a child, reduced activity in the hypothalamus, low testosterone levels or childhood abuse, which is often the most common reason.”

He said people needed to know that paedophiles and non-paedophile child molesters were different.

“Child molesters are usually the ones who sexually abuse children in times of stress and will continue to do so at an older age, where most of their victims are familial.

“As for paedophiles, they start at a very early age, and have a broad range of victims who are usually non-familial,” he said, adding that paedophiles strictly choose victims who are children who have not developed secondary sexual characteristics.

He said those who were fond of and frequently use child pornography were more “predictive paedophiles” and they did not have specific sexual preferences because they were simply attracted to children who are not developed sexually.

Consultant psychologist Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj said the core was actually “paraphilia”, which is an abnormal expression of sexuality and often only becomes a problem when a person acts on these fantasies.

“Paraphiliac behaviour such as paedophilia peaks between the ages of 15 and 25 and gradually declines. In much older men, the behaviour is usual­ly practised in isolation with a cooperative partner.”

He said paedophiles were individuals who failed to complete the normal sexual development process towards heterosexual adjustment.

“Usually such a person would have had a very aggressive father causing a troubled childhood. Paedophiles tend to dominate or control their victims to compensate for their powerlessness against their fathers during their childhood,” he said.

Dr Andrew stressed that paedophiles only get caught when they acted out their fantasies, adding that there were many people with similar fantasies but do not act them out.