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The Puzzle of Male Chronophilias

DOI:10.1007/s10508-016-0799-y
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Michael C Seto at University of Ottawa
Michael C Seto
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In this article, I return to the idea that pedophilia, a sexual interest in prepubescent children, can be considered a sexual orientation for age, in conjunction with the much more widely acknowledged and discussed sexual orientation for gender. Here, I broaden the scope to consider other chronophilias, referring to paraphilias for age/maturity categories other than young sexually mature adults. The puzzle of chronophilias includes questions about etiology and course, how chronophilias are related to each other, and what they can tell us about how human (male) sexuality is organized. In this article, I briefly review research on nepiophilia (infant/toddlers), pedophilia (prepubescent children), hebephilia (pubescent children), ephebophilia (postpubescent, sexually maturing adolescents), teleiophilia (young sexually mature adults, typically 20s and 30s), mesophilia (middle-aged adults, typically 40s and 50s), and gerontophilia (elderly adults, typically 60s and older) in the context of a multidimensional sexual orientations framework. Relevant research, limitations, and testable hypotheses for future work are identified.
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TARGET ARTICLE
The Puzzle of Male Chronophilias
Michael C. Seto
1
Received: 16 December 2015 / Revised: 15 June 2016 / Accepted: 22 June 2016 / Published online: 22 August 2016
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract In this article, I return to the idea that pedophilia, a
sexual interest in prepubescent children, can be considered a
sexual orientation for age, in conjunction with the much more
widely acknowledged and discussed sexual orientation for gen-
der. Here, I broaden the scope to consider other chronophilias,
referring to paraphilias for age/maturity categories other than
young sexually mature adults. The puzzle of chronophilias
includes questions about etiology and course, how chronophilias
are related to each other, and what they can tell us about how
human (male) sexuality is organized. In this article, I briefly review
research on nepiophilia (infant/toddlers), pedophilia (prepubescent
children), hebephilia (pubescent children), ephebophilia (post-
pubescent, sexually maturing adolescents), teleiophilia (young
sexually mature adults, typically 20s and 30s), mesophilia (mid-
dle-aged adults, typically 40s and 50s), and gerontophilia (elderly
adults, typically 60s and older) in the context of a multidimen-
sional sexual orientations framework. Relevant research, limita-
tions, and testable hypotheses for future work are identified.
Keywords Age preferences Chronophilias Paraphilias
Sexual orientation
Introduction
Sexual orientation is usually used to refer to one’s attractions to
individuals of the opposite and/or same sex, or both. Indeed, the
American Psychological Association specifically defines sexual
orientation in this way (http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/
sexuality-definitions.pdf), which is also consistent with the
Oxford Dictionary definition of the term as well as common
usage (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/
sexual-orientation):
Sexual orientation refers to the sex of those to whom one is
sexually and romantically attracted. Categories of sexual ori-
entation typically have included attraction to members of
one’sownsex(gaymenorlesbians),attractiontomembers
of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members
of both sexes (bisexuals) (American Psychological Asso-
ciation, 2011).
In this article, I more broadly define sexual orientation as a
stable tendency to preferentially orient—in terms of attention,
interest, attraction, and genital arousal—to particular classes of
sexual stimuli (see also Chivers, 2015; Sell, 1997). If we accept
this broader definition, then we can imagine that individuals
actually have multiple sexual orientations rather than a single sex-
ual orientation, corresponding to their sexual preferences along a
variety of different dimensions, including age. This article focuses
on variation across age categories.
1
Money (1986) coined the term
chronophilia to refer to paraphilias (variations from teleiophilia,
the species-typical age orientation to sexually mature adults)
regarding different age (maturity) categories; thus, this article
focuses on thepuzzles posed by chronophilias, including ques-
tions about etiology and course, how chronophilias are related
to each other, and what they can reveal about the organization
of human sexuality.
2
&Michael C. Seto
michael.seto@theroyal.ca
1
Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, Ottawa, ON K1Z 7K4,
Canada
1
I use the term age throughout this article, but, as I discuss later, I am
actually referring to sexual and physical maturity stages. Age is a useful
but not perfect proxy for maturity stage.
2
I am interested in both male and female sexuality, but so little is known
about variations in age preferences among females that this review
necessarily focuses on male chronophilias.
123
Arch Sex Behav (2017) 46:3–22
DOI 10.1007/s10508-016-0799-y
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Although sexual attractions to children can act as a motivating factor for abuse perpetration [21], many individuals who experience such attractions will never commit any sexual offences [7•]. Estimates suggest that roughly 25-50% of incarcerated individuals who commit child sexual abuse offenses are primarily or exclusively motivated by attractions to children, which serves as further data to cast doubt over a simplistic association between attractions to children and the committing of sexual abuse [22]. ...
... In more recent work related to the deliberative nature of fantasizing (as per the DPM-SF), Willis and Bartels reported how concordance between fantasizing and fantasy-related behavioral enactment was contingent upon several factors, with the plausibility of enacting the corresponding fantasy behavior being a dominant concern [61]. For those with attractions to children, the illegality of acting on one's sexual attractions (and associated fantasies) can act as an external/ situational inhibitor of engaging in this behavior (thus making it less plausible), with this being further compounded by potential internal inhibitors or a lack of offending facilitators, such as low antisociality [21,62]. However, people within this group have the same needs for sexual satisfaction as anybody else [41], and as such FSM may provide a viable outlet for their sexual fantasies as they pursue a sense of fulfillment in this domain. ...
... The motivation-facilitation model of sexual offending posits that sexual offending occurs when both motivating and facilitating factors are present in an individual and their environment [21]. Suggested motivational factors include paraphilias (e.g., sexual preference disorders such as pedohebephilia), high sex drive (e.g., hypersexuality or sexual compulsivity), and mating effort (i.e., urge to seek out novel sexual stimuli and/or partners). ...
Fantasy Sexual Material Use by People with Attractions to Children
Article
Full-text available
Purpose of Review With the Internet allowing consumers easy access to fantasy and fictional sexual materials (FSM), it is becoming increasingly important to understand the context of their use among specific populations. Of particular, social, clinical, and legal interest is FSM use by people who are attracted to children and whether this may have a risk-enhancing or protective impact on their likelihood of committing a contact or non-contact sexual offence. Recent Findings There is a lack of data currently available in relation to the use of FSM by those with sexual attractions to children. Evidence from allied areas appears to show no meaningful associations between FSM use and sexual aggression. Summary We propose a novel research program and some initial research questions that provide a theoretical framework for more evidence-based inquiry on FSM use by people who experience attractions to children.
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... In contrast to other recent empirical reviews of eye-tracking research [2,6], the aim of this review is to substantiate how current conceptual models of sexual information processingmainly, the sexual information processing model developed by Spiering and Everaerd [7]-support the use of attentional paradigms that use eye-tracking as a useful indirect measure of typical sexual preferences such as androphilia (referring to teleiophilic androphilia or attraction to men) and gynephilia (teleiophilic gynephilia or attraction to women) and atypical preferences such as pedophilia (attraction to prepubescent children) and perhaps other chronophilias (age-based sexual preferences) [8]. These models include constructs-automatic and controlled processes, early and late attention, implicit and explicit memory, first fixation and duration of fixations-that help explain the relationship between sexual preferences and eye movements. ...
... It has recently been proposed that sexual preferences can also be categorized according to age, or chronophilias [8]. Chronophilia categories include nepiophilia (babies and children up to two years old), pedophilia (prepubescent, typically between 3 and 10 years old), hebephilia (pubescent, typically between 11 and 14 years old), ephebophilia (teenagers, typically between 15 and 17 years old) teleiophilia (sexually mature young adults, typically between 18 and 30 years old), mesophilia (middle-aged adults, between 31 and 59) and gerontophilia (elderly adults, typically over 60 years old) [8]. ...
... It has recently been proposed that sexual preferences can also be categorized according to age, or chronophilias [8]. Chronophilia categories include nepiophilia (babies and children up to two years old), pedophilia (prepubescent, typically between 3 and 10 years old), hebephilia (pubescent, typically between 11 and 14 years old), ephebophilia (teenagers, typically between 15 and 17 years old) teleiophilia (sexually mature young adults, typically between 18 and 30 years old), mesophilia (middle-aged adults, between 31 and 59) and gerontophilia (elderly adults, typically over 60 years old) [8]. Teleiophilia is the species-typical sexual preference for sexually mature adults. ...
What can the eyes tell us about atypical sexual preferences as a function of sex and age? Linking eye movements with child-related chronophilias
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2023
Visual attention plays a central role in current theories of sexual information processing and is key to informing the use of eye-tracking techniques in the study of typical sexual preferences and more recently, in the study of atypical preferences such as pedophilia (prepubescent children) and hebephilia (pubescent children). The aim of this theoretical-empirical review is to connect the concepts of a visual attention-based model of sexual arousal processing with eye movements as indicators of atypical sexual interests, to substantiate the use of eye-tracking as a useful indirect measure of sexual preferences according to sex and age of the stimuli. Implications for research are discussed in terms of recognizing the value, scope and limitations of eye-tracking in the study of pedophilia and other chronophilias in males and females, and the generation of new hypotheses using this type of indirect measure of human sexual response. Lay summary Eye tracking has recently been applied as a technique to measure indicators of atypical sexual interests such as pedohebephilia. This review seeks to outline the theoretical-empirical rationale to support the responsible use of the technique and to delineate its current impact and scope in understanding pedophilia, hebephilia, and other chronophilias.
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... In females, the only representative study of Bártová et al. (2021) found 0.4% of 5,021 women reporting any sexual interest in prepubescent children and 0% a genuine sexual preference. Seto (2017) argued that the sexual interest in prepubescent children can be considered a sexual orientation for age and proposes other chronophilias, such as hebephilia (i.e., sexual interest in early pubescent children, typically at ages 10 to 15 (Eckert-Lind et al., 2020;Kahl et al., 2007)). Stephens et al. (2017), however, found substantial overlap between indicators of pedophilia and hebephilia, including self-report, sexual behavior, and sexual arousal supporting the idea of pedohebephilia. ...
... "Hypersexuality" or an increase of sexual behavioral outlets thereby has been found to be a frequent feature of the paraphilias in general and in individuals with pedohebephilia specifically (Gerwinn et al., 2018;Kafka & Hennen, 2002). The correlations with factors of the STABLE-2007 associated with deviant sexuality (convergent validity) but not with antisociality (divergent validity) thus corroborate the relevance of the VRT as a diagnostic tool for the motivating sexual preference rather than facilitating antisociality (Seto, 2017). ...
The Viewing Reaction Time as a Diagnostic Tool of Pedohebephilia in the Dunkelfeld
Article
Full-text available
Diagnosing pedohebephilia is fraught with obstacles given the tabooed nature of this sexual preference. The viewing reaction time effect (VRT) provides a non-intrusive indirect measure of sexual interest in minors. In forensic populations, the ability of the difference between the latencies while viewing child and adult sexual stimuli (VRT index) to discern child sexual offenders from a range of control groups has been ascertained meta-analytically. Given that the effect has been studied almost exclusively in forensic samples, its dependence or independence on prior overt (deviant) sexual behavior remains unclear. The present study sought to examine the relationship of prior sexual and non-sexual behaviors with the VRT in a sample of 282 self-referring, help-seeking men with and without pedohebephilia with and without a history of prior child sexual offenses (CSO) or a use of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) recruited outside a forensic context. We found that (1) the clinical diagnosis of pedohebephilia but not prior CSO or CSAM showed a significant association with the VRT index; (2) the discriminatory ability of the VRT index did not differ significantly between samples with and without a history of prior overt sexual behavior with children; (3) the VRT index correlated positively with a behavioral marker of pedohebephilia in a subsample of individuals with prior judicially detected or undetected overt sexual behavior with children; and (4) in the same subsample, the VRT index correlated positively with markers of sexual interests in minors or hypersexuality but not of antisociality. Equivalence testing failed to refute a potential effect of prior sexual behavior on the VRT index. Our study showed that the VRT may provide an unintrusive diagnostic tool for pedohebephilia. The effect of prior overt sexual behavior with children needs further examination.
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... The critical review refers to research that is inconclusive. Seto (2016) notes he relies on retrospective self-report (which is not the most reliable source) and he does not make firm conclusions about the changeability of pedophilia, but, rather, admits that conclusive evidence is lacking. We believe there is no consensus at all in the field. ...
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  • Aug 2023
The B4U-ACT Quarterly Review (B4QR) offers critical summaries of the latest publications concerning minor attracted people. The reviews are written by a team composed of MAP-research specialists (often PhD students) as well as MAPs themselves. This third issue of the third volume is a special Technology edition. Most the six articles reviewed explore the link between modern technologies and attraction to minors.
View
... We expected mean ages of onset to be during early adolescence, with the onset of strong sexual arousal capacity. This prediction is consistent with the idea that these paraphilic sexual interests are sexual orientations (Imhoff et al., 2017;Seto, 2012Seto, , 2017. ...
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Some men sexually attracted to types of persons (e.g., women) or things (e.g., animals) also have internalized sexual attractions: sexual arousal by the idea of being the type of person or thing to whom they are attracted. Consequently, some of these men develop erotic target identity inversions, in which they imitate, yearn to be, or identify as an instance of their erotic target. Erotic Target Identity Inversion Theory predicts that for every external erotic target to which men are attracted, a subset of men will develop an internalized sexual attraction, which may cause an erotic target identity inversion. We examined these predictions in Internet surveys of three samples of men with paraphilic sexual interests: 322 men attracted to amputees, 1501 men attracted to animals, and 402 men attracted to severely obese persons. All samples included substantial minorities of men reporting internalized sexual attractions and erotic target identity inversions specific to their external sexual attractions (e.g., men attracted to amputees who are also aroused by the fantasy of being amputees and wish to become amputees). The correlation between degree of each internalized sexual attraction and degree of its corresponding erotic target identity inversion was approximately 1.0 after correction for attenuation. In each sample, participants’ specific internalized sexual attraction was positively correlated with autogynephilia, likely the most common internalized sexual attraction in men. Erotic Target Identity Inversion Theory can potentially explain a variety of otherwise puzzling phenomena, including transgender identity among female-attracted natal males and men seeking amputations of healthy limbs.
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... [14] The prevalence pf paraphilic behaviors were slightly higher in urban than rural and this may due to urban has more access to technology and this agree with Fisico and Harkins, who stated that technology facilitated both paraphilic behavior and sexual violence. [18] Also, urban areas are more crowded than rural areas . ...
Prevalence of paraphilic interests among adults in Egypt
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Full-text available
  • May 2023
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... Het kijken naar porno met een parafiele inhoud kan een van die gedragsindicatoren zijn [44]. Zekerheid geeft dat echter niet; er is bij voorbeeld bij lang niet iedereen die naar kindermisbruikmateriaal kijkt sprake van pedo filie [45]. Of patiënten bereid zijn dergelijk gedrag te rapporteren hangt vaak mede af van de vraag of geheimhouding binnen de therapeutische setting geborgd kan blijven of dat melding maken verplicht is. ...
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Internet sex offenders.
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Stability of Self-Reported Arousal to Sexual Fantasies Involving Children in a Clinical Sample of Pedophiles and Hebephiles
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In forensic research, there is a controversial discussion concerning the changeability or stability of pedophilia. Seto (2012) conceptualized pedophilia as a sexual age orientation characterized by an early onset, correlations with sexual and romantic behavior, and stability over time. However, empirical data are sparse and are mostly based on samples of detected offenders. The present study examined self-reported arousal to sexual fantasies involving children in a clinical sample of pedo-/hebephiles. In Study 1, retrospective self-reports on the age of onset and duration of sexual interest in minors were examined. In Study 2, the stability and variability of self-reported arousal to sexual fantasies involving children were evaluated prospectively. Non-prosecuted self-identifying pedo-/hebephilic men seeking professional help were recruited within the Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld. Between 2005 and 2013, 494 participants completed the intake assessment. Self-reported data were collected via questionnaire focusing on sexual arousal to fantasies during masturbation involving prepubescent and/or early pubescent minors. Subsequent assessments of sexual arousal were obtained for 121 of the participants. The average time between the first and last assessment was approximately 29 months. Spearman's correlation coefficients examined the between-group rank-order and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests examined the within-individual mean-level stability. The majority of subjects reported an early onset of their pedo-/hebephilic sexual arousal. The rank-order stability was medium to high. Over the investigated period, the majority of subjects showed no or only minimal decrease or increase of self-reported sexual arousal. These results suggested that sexual arousal to fantasies involving prepubescent and/or early pubescent children is stable. Furthermore, the results support the conceptualization of pedo-/hebephilia as a sexual age orientation in men.
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