Just my 2cents compiled from some previous posts ...
A person with a pedophile orientation engages in learned deviant sexual behavior developed by a series of choices and related experiences and maintained by reinforcing consequences, just as other paraphilia (psychosexual disorder). Pedophilia is not a mental problem --- it is evil, a matter of choices and related value judgments. A pedophile orientation is LEARNED, not genetic, not a disease, not a condition of birth, etc. DSM-IV-TR includes many diagnostic categories that have nothing to do with mental disorders --- they are learned patterns of behavior subject to the basic principles of learning. Contrary to popular belief, emotions and desires are subject to the same principles of learning as overt behavior ... and the objects of desire and the focus and intensity of emotions change as a result of choices and behavior, including in the domain of the imagination. What you think about does make a difference. Real learning goes on in the domain of the imagination and you strengthen or weaken desires and emotions based on related thoughts. Paraphilia are cognitively and behaviorally cultivated by the individual ... some are relatively harmless (fetish for high heel shoes), some arent (pedophilia).
Technically, pedophilia involves sexual attraction to prepubescent children (generally younger than 14) by a person who is at least 16 years old and 5 years older than the victims (for females, typical preference is 8 to 10 year old). The sexual interest of the pedophile may be exclusively in children (exclusive type) or may also include adults (nonexclusive type). The pedophile may be attracted to females, males, or both. In addition to these differences, pedophiles differ according to intelligence, personality types, developmental histories, etc. I have found most to be more or less narcissistic, more or less otherwise antisocial, and more or less socially sophisticated. Some are simpleminded, socially immature, obvious, and direct. Others are intelligent, socially sophisticated, subtle and well-controlled. They may act completely alone or associate with and network with like-minded individuals.
In many cases, people who have the cognitive-behavioral-motivational characteristics of pedophiles (e.g., some serial killers) will go to great extremes to establish access to potential victims. Cognitively, they are constantly thinking about their potential prey and are reinforced by the successive approximations they accomplish with respect to gaining access (e.g., building a trusting relationship with the child, parents, community organizations). The PROCESS of gaining and maintaining access to the prey is as important and as reinforcing as any actual sexual OUTCOME (e.g., the hunter enjoys more than just the kill). In fact, except for necrophilia, the kill (murder and/or orgasm) is the end of pleasure and the beginning of punishment (work, such as cleaning up the mess, avoiding detection, getting rid of the body, etc).
Secrecy is a key part of any pedophiles or (serial killers) psychological make-up. They must constantly lead two lives for their own survival. Much like an undercover agent, they must conceal their true motives. Unlike undercover agents, their cognitive-behavioral resources (time, energy, attention, etc.) are invested in deviant sexual activity, both in fantasy and overt behavior. The pedophile (and serial sexual sadist) enjoys and cultivates their deviant, self-serving fantasy life while using their overt behavior and life situation as a necessary cover.
Some pedophiles go to the victims and other have the victims come to them. They may gain access to their prey of choice simply by riding around until they spot a potential victim. However, others create conditions for victims to come to them in the course of their daily lives: through employment (school bus driver, school janitor, group home worker), volunteer activities (sports coach, scouts), religious activities (priest, Sunday school teacher), or organize fun activities for the neighborhood children, or just hang around schools, playgrounds, arcades, teen centers, bus stations, shopping malls, etc.
The pedophiles deviant thoughts and successful deceptions combine to establish very real physiological attractions, a powerful learning process of cognitive conditioning (repeatedly stimulated by thoughts and shaped by fetish objects and pictures and reinforced by power and control and sexual arousal). SECRET pleasure that becomes increasingly powerful and expansive --- and there is a related willingness to run ever higher levels of risk. In fact, the perception of risk changes as the successes continue. The more practice, the less anxiety. Like any pattern of criminal conduct, the novelty wears off and the rewards must be increased.
Successful deceptions may be as reinforcing as any other form of power and control. The successful pedophile (and sexual sadist) will increasingly act out their fantasies until stopped by external events. Successful pedophiles become masters of dissimulation (acting other than the way they actually feel ... to disguise intentions). Each phase of development involves antisocial conditioning ... the person is acting against what they know is right, moral, and legal, thus actively and increasingly desensitizing themselves to social values and restraints. It systematically becomes their lifestyle and they may be willing to murder for their own survival. They are narcissistic masters of self-justification, truly self-made men.
Just my opinions,
Russell
