Brain and Behavior

Brain and Behavior

Introduction

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder that takes place in a person who is aged 16 years or above. Such person is characterized by the presence of sexual interest in the prepubescent children. This means that such people are have a sexual desire towards children who are 11 years of age, or below that. For the diagnosis of pedophilia, he person should be at least 5 years older than the child that he might be attracted towards because of his sexual desires. Such individuals are interested in what others call child abuse. The desire or act may be an actual one, or may e a fantasy on the part of the pedophilic person (Tost, Vollmert & Braus, 2004). A lot of research has taken place on this problem and the people who are suffering from this disease. This disease is generally found to exist in men, however, there also are cases of the disease been found in women. There is no known cure for pedophilia. There are, however, therapies that are found to have been helpful in reducing the chances of the person indulging in child abuse. It has been found in a number of researches that pedophilia is correlated to many other mental and personality disorders. There are also a number of typologies that have been developed to categorize the people suffering from pedophilia in accordance with their motivations and behaviors. Some researchers have also termed pedophilia as a disease that is similar to eh disorder of sexual preference. This is found to be similar to homosexual or heterosexual orientation, as this disease is found to take place during puberty. The disease is also found to be stable over time (Schiffer et al. 2007). Pedophilia can, however, not be excluded from the group of mental disorders as the pedophiles can cause harm to others by their actions, motives and behaviors. Research has also been done on the differences between the brain functions of pedophiliac and non-pedophiliac people. This research paper aims at discussing the differences that exist between the pedophiliac and non-pedophiliac persons.

Discussion

Sexual abuse is not tolerated in any part of the world. The reason behind the sexual urges of pedophiles is not yet known clearly, however, a lot of research has been done to find out the reasons behind such behavior exhibited by the pedophiles. A number of researches in the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein worked in the sexual department to find the brain functioning of the pedophiles. MRT was used by the researchers that allowed the researchers and the doctors to look into the brain of the pedophiles and study it.

Ponseti examined that using MRT in the research helped the researchers in identifying the major differences in the brain and the functioning of brain between the pedophiles and the non-pedophiles. This helped in understanding in detail the processes of the brain of a pedophile and comparing it to the brain and the functioning of the brain of the non-pedophile (Handy, ...