Pedophiles Have Different Brain Wiring

People give no chance to pedophiles, as they are a threat to the future generation. Pedophilia is clearly the most detested sexual deviation. And convicted pedophiles have high recidivism rates. Pedophiles seem to choose children because they are weaker and more malleable than adults.

Researchers tried to explain pedophilia through a combination of genes and environmental factors, pointing that pedophiles are very likely to have been victims of violence and sex abuse as children, in a victim-to-perpetrator cycle. Sometimes, the pedophile looks rather to dominate than to establish a "genuine" relationship with a child; these ones feel strongly related with the thought patterns and lives of children, something fueled by a lack of education and self-esteem.

"Emotional congruence" means that a man feels most comfortable and secure when he spends most of the time with children and may even act childish himself. Other pedophiles have such deep-seated sexual anxieties that they cannot develop normal sexuality.

But a new research made at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research shows that pedophiles have impaired brain connections. It was already known that pedophiles have different action patterns in the frontal lobe (a region critical for impulse control) compared with normal men. That was believed to be genetic, as researches encountered higher rates of pedophilia among some "pedophile" family members than among families of non-pedophiles.

The new research employing MRIs and a sophisticated computer analysis technique compared 127 pedophiles and non-sexual criminals. The pedophiles displayed much less "white matter", wiring the different brain area. This finding challenges the conception that pedophilia is triggered by childhood trauma/abuse, connecting it stronger to a brain development issue.

This explains why pedophiles have lower IQs, are 3 times more prone to left-handedness and are even shorter than non-pedophiles.

"There is nothing in this research that says pedophiles shouldn't be held criminally responsible for their actions. Not being able to choose your sexual interests doesn't mean you can't choose what you do." said lead researcher Dr. James Cantor, CAMH Psychologist.