There is a strong misconception in this country; as well as many others, that homosexuality equates to pedophilia.  In reality this could not be further from the truth.  Statistics obtained from both the American Medical Association and the American Mental Health Association clearly state that pedophilia is a mental disorder.  Profilers from the Federal Bureau of Investigations have a very different description of the basic characteristics of a pedophile.

 

Pedophiles can be anyone:

 

Pedophiles can be anyone -- old or young, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, non-professional or professional, and of any race. However, pedophiles often demonstrate similar characteristics, but these are merely indicators and it should not be assumed that individuals with these characteristics are pedophiles. But knowledge of these characteristics coupled with questionable behavior can be used as an alert that someone may be a pedophile.

 

Characteristics of a Pedophile:

 

1.       Often the pedophile is male and over 30 years of age.

2.       Single or with few friends in his age group.

3.       If married, the relationship is more "companion" based with no sexual relations.

4.       He is often vague about time gaps in employment which may indicate a loss in employment for questionable reasons or possible past incarceration.

 

Pedophiles Like Child-Like Activities:

 

1.       He is often fascinated with children and child activities appearing to prefer those activities to adult oriented activities.

2.       He will often refer to children in pure or angelic terms using descriptives like innocent, heavenly, divine, pure, and other words that describe children but seem inappropriate and exaggerated.

3.       He has hobbies that are child-like such as collecting popular expensive toys, keeping reptiles or exotic pets, or building plane and car models.

 

Pedophiles Often Prefer Children Close to Puberty:

 

1.       Pedophiles often have a specific age of child they target. Some prefer younger children, some older.

2.       Often his environment or a special room will be decorated in child-like decor and will appeal to the age and sex of the child he is trying to entice.

3.       Many pedophiles often prefer children close to puberty who are sexually inexperienced, but curious about sex.

 

Pedophiles Work Around Children:

 

The pedophile will often be employed in a position that involves daily contact with children. If not employed, he will put himself in a position to do volunteer work with children, often in a supervisory capacity such as sports coaching, contact sport instruction, unsupervised tutoring or a position where he has the opportunity to spend unsupervised time with a child.

 

The Target Child:

 

The pedophile often seeks out shy, handicapped, and withdrawn children, or those who come from troubled homes or under privileged homes. He then showers them with attention, gifts, taunting them with trips to desirable places like amusement parks, zoo's, concerts, the beach and other such places.

  

Manipulation of the Innocent:

 

Pedophiles work to master their manipulative skills and often unleash them on troubled children by first becoming their friend, building the the child's self esteem. They may refer to the child as special or mature, appealing to their need to be heard and understood then entice them with adult type activities that are often sexual in content such as x-rated movies or pictures. They offer them alcohol or drugs to hamper their ability to resist activities or recall events that occurred.

  

Stockholm Syndrome:

 

It is not unusual for the child to develop feelings for the predator and desire their approval and continued acceptance. They will compromise their innate ability to decipher good and bad behavior, ultimately justifying the criminal's bad behavior out of sympathy and concern for the adults welfare. This is often compared to Stockholm Syndrome - when victims become attached emotionally to their captors.

 

The Single Parent:

 

Many times pedophiles will develop a close relationship with a single parent in order to get close to their children. Once inside the home, they have many opportunities to manipulate the children -- using guilt, fear, and love to confuse the child. If the child's parent works, it offers the pedophile the private time needed to abuse the child.

 

Fighting Back:

 

Pedophiles work hard at stalking their targets and will patiently work to develop relationships with them. It is not uncommon for them to be developing a long list of potential victims at any one time. Many of them believe that what they are doing is not wrong and that having sex with a child is actually "healthy" for the child.

Almost all pedophiles have a collection of pornography, which they protect at all costs. Many of them also collect "souvenirs" from their victims. They rarely discard either their porn or collections for any reason.

One factor that works against the pedophile is that eventually the children will grow up and recall the events that occurred. Often pedophiles are not brought to justice until such time occurs and victims are angered by being victimized and want to protect other children from the same consequences.

Laws such as Megan's Law - a federal law passed in 1996 that authorizes local law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living, working or visiting their communities, have helped expose the pedophile and allows parents to better protect their children.

Information complied by American, Canadian and British researchers have concluded that the typical pedophile is a married man between the ages of 32 and 52.  He is usually someone who has children or grandchildren; he is well known within his community and often seen as a “pillar of society.”  The typical pedophile makes a distinct separation in his mind between the “love” he feels for his wife and the “feelings” he has for children.  The common misconception that all homosexuals are pedophiles stems from the statistics that show the greater majority of pedophiles appear to be more attracted to pubescent boys rather than girls.  This is an attraction that has no yet been fully researched.

The following is an excerpt from a statistical report provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigations:

“According to FBI statistics, over 18,000 people were murdered in 1997.”

 

“In 1998, 33,622 children age four and under died in the U.S.  Of those 2,689 died in accidents and 721 were murdered, which were the two leading causes of dead.”

 

"1,009,970 children are "maltreated" every year, 906,075 of them by natural mothers,"

 

"Between 1976 and 1994 an estimated 37,000 children were murdered."  This is a little over 2,000 per year."

 

"Over three children die each day from child abuse (1,211 per year). Since 1985, the number of  reported child abuse fatalities has increased over 38%. Over 50% of the children were less than one year of age at the time of death. These figures most likely represent the lowest estimate of the problem."

 

"Children under 18 account for 11% of all murder victims in the US in 1994. Nearly half of these 2,660 child victims were between 15 and 17

In a single year, 3,012 children and teens were killed by gunfire in the United States.

 

"2000 children per year are killed by drunk drivers" 

 

In 1994, the year Megan Kanka was murdered, there were only 9 other similar murders in the entire U.S.  A child being killed by a crazed pedophile is probably the least common cause of death among children, yet no greater focus has ever been placed on a single cause of death of children than sexually related causes.  There are more children killed in car air-bag accidents, than by sexual predators.  Never have so many suffered so much for the actions of so few.  Do drunk drivers have to register, so everyone will know to avoid them?  Is a drunk driver likely to drive drunk again?