Sexual child abuse happens a lot in the Netherlands. Digits about the number of sexual child abuses are not reliable because there is always something like underreporting. The public prosecution of the Netherlands have to deal with 2.050 en 2.350 sexual child abuses each year (Department of Justice, 2003). The perpetrators of sexual child abuse are not always paedophiles. Exact numbers about the paedophiles in the Netherlands are unknown, but the professional pedo hunter Yvonne van Herdum says that 2% of the Dutch population is a paedophile (van Herdum, in Stop Child Sex, 2008).
There is a lot of confusion between the terms paedophilia and pedo sexuality. Paedophiles are the people who have a sexual interest and preference for children younger than 12 years. Paedosexuals are people who actually have sexual contact with children younger than 12 years. Paedosexuals are not always paedophiles. According to biologists paedophilia occurs in the brains (Swaab, 2010), while sociologists say that paedophilia is learned by past events in their lives (Frenken, 2002) Paedophiles who actually show paedosexual behaviour are dangerous for our society. Sexual child abuse has effects on the child and his/her future. Children are our future. To reduce the amount of sexual child abuse by paedophiles it is important to look at the different statements about paedophilia. I am doing research to the question: What kind of different statements exists about paedophilia?
To answer this question, I will do a literature study on paedophilia. Firstly I will introduce the term paedophilia and I will describe which different types of paedophilia do exist. Subsequently paedophilia will be viewed from two different disciplines, namely the biological-psychological and sociological discipline. I will use a case study where I will focus on two societies in the world to explain the situation there. It is an interdisciplinary research, because paedophilia needs to be explained by different disciplines.
Paedophilia
One of the statements why adults sexual abuse children is paedophilia. The term paedophilia comes from the Greek, ‘paedo’ means child en ‘philia’ means friendship. The term paedophilia refers to the sexual desire for children under the age of 12. Paedophiles do not always express their desires. When paedophiles are going to express their desires and have sexual contact with children they become paedosexuals. A paedophile is not always a paedosexual and the other way around even so (Mulder, 2012).
We distinguish different types of paedophilia, namely the paedophile/ ephebophile type, situational type and antisocial type. There can also be a combination of these different types. The paedopfile/ephebophile type has a strong preference for children. The second type, the situational type is the type that address to children after a failed relationship. At least the antisocial type, here is sexual abuse only a part of general deviant behaviour and personality patterns. Each treatment depends on the type of paedophilia. There is no general treatment form. The treatment depends on the person (Frenken, 1997).
The Brains
Viewed from the latent psychological discipline paedophilia is seen as a mental disorder. Paedophilia is a so-called psychological disorder. There are several conditions, which must be satisfied to call someone a paedophile (American Psychiatric Association, 1995).
From a study on the brains of paedophiles revealed that the brains of paedophiles work differently than the brains of people who are not paedophiles. German scientists have found that paedophiles have lower concentration of nerve cells in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria terminalis, hypothalamus, and amygdala in the brains compared to non-paedophiles. The researchers analyzed the brains of convicted paedophiles with an MRI and compared with the brains of adults without a history of paedophilia. The MRI images showed that paedophiles have less gray matter. This could be an explanation for paedophile feelings, but real evidence does not exist. Is it true that people thereby gain sexual preference for children? (Khamsi, 2007). But the brains are not the only explanation for paedophilia, incidents in youth are also important in this question.