Are some men predisposed to pedophilia?

" Does this make all Japanese more prone to pedophilia because they are shorter than Danes?"

You're an idiot (possibly shorter than average?)". "Shorter than average" here means 'Within a population'. No one said we start comparing males of different populations.

-Julie

The anonymous poster above does not seem to be giving a cogent arguement, so it is difficult to refute. However, I do feel his outrage is misplaced and will try to guess what his argument really is based upon so that I may comment.

He seems to feel that corralation can't be causal, so it must not exist. But, corralations don't have to be causal to exist. In this case, something that leads down a developmental pathway towards pedophilia also led to reduced height. He also seems to assume that researchers didn't appreciate that a population can be malnourished, leading to reduced height, using misplaced sarcasm to cast doubt on the results. Personally, I will give the researchers the benefit of the doubt that they were comparing height to a suitable control group with a similar nutritional history.

There are interesting correlations between height and sexuality. For instance, Klinefelter's Syndrome (XXY sex chromosomes) correlates with taller individuals than nominally normal men (XY). In this case the difference is even greater, at about four centimeters. Individuals with Klinefelter's are far more likely to be attracted to other men. On a more subtle sexual minority, Male-to-Female transgendered (MtF) persons are also found to be taller than average. In both cases, this is believed to be caused by delayed onset of puberty allowing greater bone growth before maturation. The delayed puberty is concommitant with incomplete masculinization.

Here I am going to offer a speculative hypothesis. Could it be possible that pedophilia is correlated with hyper or early masculinization? Masculinized brains tend to be sexually attracted to feminine bodies. Feminine bodies and most importantly, faces, also exhibit greater neoteny than do masculine bodies and faces. That is to say, that women look younger, more like children, than do men. A woman's nose, ears, and chin are smaller. The face is clear, devoid of facial hair. The forehead is rounder. Her hair is fuller, softer, and straighter. Her average height is shorter... Doesn't this sound like a child? Can pedophilia be attraction to exagerated feminine traits, but also lacking the attraction to specific *adult* female traits such as breasts and wider hips, etc.?

So, might we not find a correlation with hyper or early masculinization, anomoulous brain lateralization and thus left handedness (male brains are more lateralized than female brains), lower IQ, and shorter stature... all also statistically greater correlated with the development of pedophilia? This seems a possibility to me.

Finally, we don't criminalize pedophilia by itself. Or at least we shouldn't... it is the act of an adult violating the rights of a minor that is the criminal act. No child should ever, ever be so treated. Pity the man who finds that he has pedophilial feelings and understands that he can never act on those feelings. But have NO pity whatsoever for the man who molests a child. Innate feelings or not... it is still wrong to involve a child. Thus, we separate our sense of moral outrage of a man's pedophilial leanings from his behavior.

Still and all... it would be very valuable to understand the etiology of pedophilia so that it might be detected, prevented, or treated before a child is molested. Sarcastically deriding our first tentative steps toward scientific discovery is counter productive.

--Candice H. Brown Elliott