Physical Height in Pedophilic and Hebephilic Sexual Offenders

• NCJ Number: 221003
• Journal: Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2007 Pages: 395-407
• Author(s): James M. Cantor; Michael E. Kuban; Thomas Blak; Philip E. Klassen; Robert Dickey; Ray Blanchard
• Date Published: December 2007
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared the adult heights of men who had committed one or more sexual offenses and who were erotically interested in prepubescent children (pedophilic sexual offenders; n=223), those who were erotically interested in pubescent children (hebephilic sexual offenders; n=615), and those who were erotically interested in adults (teleiophilic sexual offenders; n=187), as well as men who were erotically interested in adults and had no known sexual offenses (teleiophilic nonoffender controls; n=156).

Abstract

The study found that pedophilic and hebephilic sexual offenders were significantly shorter than nonoffender controls, a difference that was statistically significant both before and after covarying age. This finding suggests that whatever conditions are present during the physical development of pedophilic and hebephilic sexual offenders, those conditions are capable of influencing physiological development as strongly as some well-known influences on height, such as men with schizophrenia, male offspring of mothers who were heavy smokers during pregnancy, and men born into families with alcohol problems. These findings are consistent with the authors' previously developed hypothesis that pedophilic and hebephilic men were exposed to some condition during childhood or in utero that affected their brain development in a way that increased their risk of developing deviant erotic age preferences as well as neuroanatomically relevant behavioral deficiencies. Poor nutrition, toxin exposure, and infections are potential factors. All study participants were recruited from the Kurt Freund Laboratory of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario (Canada), which provides evaluations of male patients referred with illegal or clinically significant sexual behaviors or interests. All patients completed a standard questionnaire that included a question regarding patients' height. A trained research assistant reviewed all questionnaires and questioned patients who provided contradictory or obviously erroneous answers to any of the questions, including height. 3 tables and 58 references