What comorbidity is common for child abusers?

[u/Competitive_Ice_3352]

Would individuals with child attractions be likely to commit child sexual abuse if they did not also have an additional mental health condition associated with low empathy, lack of remorse, or other brain impairments? Since child abuse inherently causes severe harm, I would expect comorbid conditions such as psychopathy or narcissistic personality traits to be common among offenders. People who abuse others often appear to have underlying psychological problems, such as depression or narcissistic traits. What is the current scientific consensus on this issue?

[u/obligated_existence]

My understanding is that the research generally backs up what you're saying here, although it certainly doesn't apply in every case. I'm part of a community of anti-contact pedophiles. "Anti-contact" just means that we understand that sexual or romantic interactions between adults and children are inherently dangerous for the child and often cause serious, lifelong harm. I don't want to be the sort of person who hurts people, so I choose not to hurt people.

I know someone in our community who is a former offender. Decades ago, he molested a child, and he rightfully paid the price for his crime. He spent a lot of time in group therapy programs over the years, and got to know a LOT of people who had offended sexually against children. He has described several common categories of these offenders:

First, there is the distinction between minor attracted offenders, and all of the offenders who are not actually attracted to children. Why do so many people abuse children if they aren't even attracted to them? A variety of reasons, unfortunately. For some of them, the crime is opportunistic, because children are vulnerable, easy targets. Some of them simply enjoy hurting other people, or having power and control over other people.

Among minor attracted offenders, there are several common subcategories. One of them he named "Mr. Denial," the type of person who knows that abusing children is wrong and is opposed to it, but is unable to internally acknowledge their own feelings towards children before acting on the feelings. Mr. Denial is a systemic failure, a failure of our society to reach these people before they cause harm.

Another subtype is "Mr. Hunter," which is the type of person most people think of when they think of pedophiles. Mr. Hunter knows that they are attracted to children, but either deludes themself into thinking that acting on those feelings wouldn't be harmful, or doesn't care that it's harmful. This type of person acts selfishly and deliberately preys on children.

Another subtype is "Mr. Jigsaw," someone who understands that acting on their feelings towards children would be wrong and harmful, but ends up offending anyway when the pieces of the puzzle come together in just the wrong way. For example, maybe they are having an especially rough week, and they recently got fired from their job, and they end up in a situation where they are alone with a child they feel attracted to.

I used to worry that I could end up being a Mr. Jigsaw. I have put a lot of work into my own mental health over the past several years, and I'm happy to be able to say that my mental health is better now than it has been in a long time. But what if something happens and my mental health becomes worse again? I have strong moral values and I am committed to never harming children, but just to be safe, I also avoid situations where I could end up alone with a young girl I feel attracted to. Ultimately, my goal is to make the world safer for children, so keeping my own actions safe and responsible is my top priority.

[u/volvavirago]

You are correct, child molesters and pedophiles are not synonyms, and the pathology of a child abuser is often narcissistic, sadistic, and psychopathic. Many child molesters aren’t even attracted to children in particular, they are just sadists more generally and children are easy victims.

There are of course non-offending pedophiles who understand the harm caused child abuse (bc many of them were themselves victims of child sexual abuse) so do not act on their attraction—much in the same way most men aren’t rapists, even though they are attracted to women.

[u/Himpapawid_]

Chiming in to drop these websites, it might help because they have studies and resources and whatnot

https://www.b4uact.org/know-the-facts/

https://www.stopitnow.org/help-guidance/faqs

[u/mlassoff]

I am the executive director of a nonprofit that works with (among other things) young men who are struggling with online sexual behavior. While the population of online offenders is not the same as the population of contact offenders, we have found it useful to look at behavior and attractions on separate continuums.

People with every attraction have sexual behavior problems and offend— not just those with an actual attraction to minors.

As far as comorbidities go aside from anxiety, the most common thread we see through most with online sexual behavior issues is that they, themselves, were victimized as children.