Rose Ruocco
Professor Toohey
ENG 170-31
Research Paper Final Draft
11 December 2023

The History of Pedophiles

A monster is defined as “an inhumanly cruel or wicked person” (Oxford English Dictionary). Pedophiles are some of, if not the most, terrible monsters in our world, not only because of their immediate damage, but because of the everlasting effect their abuse has on their victims. Taking the words straight from a victim, “…it has controlled every aspect of my life. It has damaged me in every possible way. It has destroyed everything in my life that has been of value…’” (Schultz 12). The general history of pedophiles includes the history of their psychology and their place in society, and how, regardless of their time, they fall under the definition of monster.
To discuss pedophiles being monsters, we can look at an account straight from a pedophile himself. Pedophiles are often supported by the idea that they cannot control their feelings, and therefore cannot control the actions they make because of those feelings. Tony, a pedophile interviewed by Pamela D. Schultz, states, “I wasn’t insane-I had control over the things I did. To tell somebody that this is a compulsion is ridiculous. If I don’t want to do something, then I don’t have to do it” (Schultz 60). This just goes to show how pedophiles, specifically ones who act on their thoughts, know their actions are wrong, and take those actions with their own free will. This is what makes them truly monsters.
Charles Rycroft discusses the social definition of “paedophilia” in 1968, stating “…(a) that it is only rarely associated with violence towards the victim, (b) that it is not a perversion in the sense of being the subject’s preferred form of sexual behavior, and (c) that the ‘victim’ is not infrequently a willing one” (Rycroft 110). At this point in time, there was no psychoanalytic research done on pedophiles. From my research, this was one of the earliest layouts of what pedophilia was and how pedophiles were regarded in a societal context. In a scientific context, it wasn’t until 2013 that pedophilia was redefined as a type of disorder in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (“pedophilia”). The origin of pedophilia in a scientific sense is unclear; “Although pedophilic behaviour has long been associated with sexual abuse or neglect experienced during childhood, recent studies have implicated certain alterations of brain structure and function that may be the result of neurodevelopmental problems occurring in utero or in early childhood” (“pedophilia”).
It is important to note that because of this, not every child sexual abuser is technically a pedophile. Tenbergen says,
Concerning sexual offending against children, two groups can be distinguished:
first, those who show no sexual preference disorder, but whom, for various
reasons, sexually abuse children. Reasons include sexually inexperienced
adolescents, mentally retarded persons, and those with antisocial personality
disorders (ASPDs), or perpetrators within general traumatizing family
constellations, which seek surrogate partners in children. (Tenbergen)

This is why I’m specifically discussing pedophiles, and not child sexual abusers in general.
Even so, we can see pedophilia becoming a societal issue throughout the 1900s. Steven Angelides refers to Philip Jenkins, stating “…child molestation panics of the twentieth century have occurred around the 1910s, 1940s, and 1980s…There have been historical periods of relative complacency or indifference to the problem of child sexual abuse, such as the 1920s and 1960s” (Angelides 84). The idea of a panic surrounding pedophiles during earlier time periods suggests that pedophiles have a deeper rooted history in terms of society as opposed to the medical world. Before this, pedophiles weren’t regarded as something unnatural. In fact, “In 1899, the age of sexual consent in some American jurisdictions was 9 years. It has ranged from 7 to 21 years…” (Hill et al.). Pedophiles can be seen all throughout the history of mankind, but were only recently regarded as an issue. The origin of pedophilia in a social sense is also unclear, and does not have a pinpoint starting place; “Sexually abusive behaviours towards children have always existed in any human group, so they cannot be considered as historical incidents, yet they have to be inscribed and interpreted within social and cultural relationships, with different meanings depending on the historical period considered and on the predominant culture” (Schinaia 89).
The discussion around child sexuality was often debated around the late 1900s. Foucault’s History of Sexuality in 1976 talks about the construct of sexuality, and especially child sexuality, from a post-modernist point of view. While Foucault was extremely controversial, and while I personally don’t agree with his analyses, his book did open a door for the conversation surrounding how we understand sexuality throughout history. Shortly after his book was published was when child sexuality became defined in society as we understand it today. Angelides states, “From the Victorian period until the 1980s, children have been represented simultaneously as sexual and innocent. However, from the mid-1980s to the present day, the idea that children can sexually seduce adults or that they are able truly to consent to sex with an adult is pretty much abhorrent” (Angelides 90).
Looking at the numbers, there is a significant difference in supposed cases of child sexual abuse when comparing the late 1900s to more recent years. In 1993, about 150,000 confirmed cases of child sexual abuse was reported in the United States (Finkelhor). Comparing this number with more recent ones, the numbers seem to have dropped. In 2021, about 60,000 victims of child abuse were also sexually abused (“Child Maltreatment…”). However, with the rise of social media and internet chat rooms, pedophiles and groomers have more opportunities than ever to sexually harass and abuse children. It’s estimated that about 500,000 online predators are active everyday (“Children and Grooming…”). Because of this and other factors, many cases of child sexual abuse go unreported. “Only 12% of child sexual abuse is reported to the authorities” (“Statistics…”).
Regardless of the time period and numbers, active pedophiles and child sexual assault needs to be addressed and awareness needs to be raised on the recent sexual harassment against children online. In recent years, many organizations have been established for the purpose of catching and exposing pedophiles. Compared to the history of pedophiles in general, today’s society has been more vocal about pedophiles and the monsters they actually are. Quoting a member of the organization Broken Dreams Awareness, after catching a pedophile through a sting operation, “This guy is a monster…This is the face of a rapist” (00:23:12-00:23:18).
Throughout history, it’s evident that the way pedophiles are regarded in terms of the law, society, and medicine has changed significantly. We can see the development of pedophilia becoming criminalized, and the age of consent changing in the years following. The consideration of pedophilia as a disorder in recent years is also notable. The concept of child sexuality, which has only recently been established as we know it today, has been shifting since Michel Foucault’s analysis. Through all this evidence, it’s clear to see that regardless of the time period and where pedophiles stand in any context, they are still monstrous individuals who have been traumatizing children across the ages. In order to understand how pedophilia is handled in our world today, analyzing this history of pedophiles is not only important, it is necessary.

Works Cited

Angelides, Steven. “Historicizing Affect, Psychoanalyzing History: Pedophilia and the Discourse
of Child Sexuality”. Taylor & Francis. 2003.
Broken Dreams Awareness. “Charlie Britchford”

. 10 April 2022. Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/9X5SkqZQDtvm2cud/?mibextid=00RHnp. 5
December 2023.
“Child Maltreatment & Neglect Statistics”. American SPCC.
https://americanspcc.org/child-maltreatment-statistics/. 5 December 2023.
“Children and Grooming / Online Predators”. Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center.
https://childsafety.losangelescriminallawyer.pro/children-and-grooming-online-predators
html. 5 December 2023.
Finkelhor, David. The Future of Children. “Current Information on the Scope and Nature of
Child Sexual Abuse.” Princeton University. 1994.
Foucault, Michel. History of Sexuality. Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc. 1976.
Hill, R.Y., et al. “The age of sexual consent”. National Library of Medicine, PubMed.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3730628/. 26 November 2023.
Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/. 1 December 2023.
“pedophilia”. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/pedophilia. 26
November 2023.
Rycroft, Charles. The Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1968.
ebook.
Schinaia, Cosimo. On Paedophilia. Taylor & Francis. 2018.
Schultz, Pamela D.. Not Monsters: Analyzing the Stories of Child Molesters. Rowman &
Littlefield. 2005.
“Statistics About Sexual Violence”. National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_stat
stics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf. 5 December 2023.
Tenbergen, Gilian. “The Neurobiology and Psychology of Pedophilia: Recent Advances and
Challenges”. National Library of Medicine. 2015.