In recent years, the spread of child pornography and images of child sex abuse have been ever-increasing, such that neither law enforcement nor the tech platforms used to distribute this content have been able to keep pace. In response, researchers have been looking more into what drives people to sexually abuse children.

Of course, children are never the causes of childhood sexual abuse—it is always the perpetrator at fault, and researchers aren’t questioning the culpability of abusers in the least. Recent studies into the causes of childhood sexual abuse have dived deeper into the psychology behind abusers’ actions, as well as thrown certain common assumptions of pedophiles into question.

“People don’t choose what arouses them—they discover it,” Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic, told the New York Times. “No one grows up wanting to be a pedophile.”

Studying Pedophelia

The impetus for becoming a pedophile is largely biological, according to the growing consensus of scientific research. For a long time, it was commonly assumed that people become pedophiles if they themselves were sexually abused as children. However, this theory has increasingly less supporting evidence backing it up.

Victims of child sexual abuse have been strongly linked with developing a number of major problems later in life, including issues like substance abuse, depression, persistent traumatic stress, or even criminal aggression. The link between victims of child sex abuse and these issues is far higher than that between these victims and becoming pedophiles themselves.

Another common view of pedophiles was that there was a huge gap between those who committed online offenses (for instance, viewing or gathering images or video of child pornography) versus those who committed physical sex abuse offline. Many believed that it was a small minority of online offenders who also committed physical abuse—somewhere between 5 and 20 percent.

While any amount of child sex abuse is horrific, recent disturbing reports suggest that the percentage may be much higher. One study by psychologists with the Federal Bureau of Prisons put that number at 85 percent after interviewing 155 convicts. Many pointed out that these results might be biased, as the sample group was made up of convicts who themselves had sought out therapy in prison. The prisons bureau pulled the study before it was formally published, but not before it caused a great deal of alarm among therapists, researchers, and law enforcement specialists alike.

Since then, however, more studies have supported the idea that a larger percentage of online offenders may be committing physical abuse as well, and just haven’t admitted it.

In one study, inspectors from several government agencies worked together to interview 127 individuals after they’d been arrested for online child sex offenses. At first, less than 5 percent admitted to having molested at least one child. However, follow up using more in-depth methods (including the use of a polygraph machine) led another 53 percent to admit having committed physical sexual abuse against at least one child, bringing the total to about 60 percent—much closer to the earlier study’s results of 85 percent.

“These were offenders, some of whom had downloaded just a single image, with no known history, from all over the country, interviewed by people from different agencies,” said Dr. Bourke, co-author of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ study, in a phone interview with the New York Times. “They had zero incentive to admit to a previous offense—very much the opposite.”

Filing a Child Sex Abuse Lawsuit

If you or a loved one has been a victim of child sex abuse, you may be able to file a lawsuit and pursue compensation. Lawsuits have been filed against schools, the Boy Scouts, and multitudes of religious organizations.

While filing a lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by sex abuse, it can at least provide some monetary compensation, as well as hold those responsible for your suffering accountable for their actions.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.