Paedophilia and the misrecognition of desire

The hegemonic domain for the propagation of paedophilia research has been the field of psychopathology. I argue that this field has profoundly 'misrecognised' paedophilia. In outlining this, I propose that the study of abnormal psychology must engage psychoanalytic, feminist, and deconstructive critiques of identity, and that it must resist the temptation to affix an ontological essence to the 'paedophile'. I conclude with the suggestion that only when research methodologies take seriously the question of the prevalence of intergenerational sexual desire in the general population can we even begin to understand paedophilia. [...]

Surveying non-offending populations might also enable us to examine the factors that inhibit adults from acting on various urges and fantasies. This would seem to be a particularly pressing task in view of Briere and Runtz's (1989) findings. Of their college male sample, not only did 21 percent disclose some level of sexual attraction to children and 9 percent confess to having fantasies of sex with a child (with over half this latter group having masturbated to such fantasies), but disturbingly, 7 percent admitted that they might consider having sex with a child if they could escape detection. As the authors of the study (1989:71) conclude, given the socially repellent nature of such confessions, it is highly probable that actual rates are greater. [...]

This is by no means an attempt to normalise intergenerational sex - although on the other hand it is not an attempt to demonise all of its manifestations either. Rather, it is an attempt to foreground the reality of desire's perversity and the theoretical lines of inquiry opened up thereafter.

The subject of intergenerational sexual desire is an enduringly controversial one. However, as a society we must not let volatile and emotive issues of sexuality compromise our attempts to improve knowledge about ourselves; and we must also not let them stand in the way of our ability to acknowledge and to own our imperfections and failings. For only when we do this will we honestly be able to learn how best to ensure that our social and intersubjective relations do not produce abusive outcomes for our children and ourselves.

source: Article 'Paedophilia and the Misrecognition of Desire' by Steven Angelides (Research Fellow in the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne); www.transformationsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Angelides_Transformations08.pdf; Transformations, Issue No. 08; 2004