Citation

Cohen LJ, Nikiforov K, Gans S, Poznansky O, McGeoch PG, Weaver C, King EG, Cullen K, Galynker II. Psychiatr. Q. 2002; 73(4): 313-336.

Affiliation

Beth Israel Medical Center, 1st Ave. & 16th St., New York, NY 10003, USA. lcohen@bethisraelny.org

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12418359

Abstract

This paper presents data from a series of preliminary neuropsychiatric studies, including neuropsychological, personality, sexual history, plethysmographic and neuroimaging investigations, on a sample of 22 male, heterosexual, nonexclusive pedophiles and 24 demographically similar healthy controls. A psychobiological model of pedophilia is proposed, positing that early childhood sexual abuse leads to neurodevelopmental abnormalities in the temporal regions mediating sexual arousal and erotic discrimination and the frontal regions mediating the cognitive aspects of sexual desire and behavioral inhibition. In this way, pedophiles develop deviant pedophilic arousal. Subsequently, if there is comorbid personality pathology, specifically sociopathy and cognitive distortions, there will be failure to inhibit pedophilic behavior.

Language: en