o   Review article looking at potential treatment options for working with non-offending paedophiles based on research à could we ask participants on the questionnaire whether they’re aware of any treatment for paedophiles?

§  E.g. the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld 

§  E.g. the ‘Help Wanted’ program in USA (a prevention-focused project)

§  ‘Preliminary evidence suggests that treatment can prevent the majority of these men from pursuing sexual contact or online sexual material involving children’ but ‘the understanding of how treatment helps these individuals is currently lacking’ -  could we someone expand on this?

o   Talks about statistics - gender differences in prevalence rates could be involved in questionnaire?

o   Talks about pedohebephilic interests (refers to sexual interest in children after puberty when they have begun developing secondary sex characteristic) - should this be included in the questionnaire? 

o   (Im)mutability of paedophilia - referring to the treatment of paedophiles, perhaps we could ask on questionnaire if people believe (non-offending) paedophiles can be changed?

§  Whereas a majority of participants reported that they would consider seeking professional support (52%), only 36% believed a professional would understand their problems.

o   Conducted two studies to estimate the prevalence and strength of public stigma against PWP compared with stigma against other groups with a mental illness that arguably cause greater or similar societal costs

§  PWP = defined as persons with a dominant sexual interest in children

§  Study 1 = PWP against alcohol abusers

§  Study 2 = PWP against sexual sadists and people with aspects from antisocial personality disorder

This study also used descriptions rather than labels for those considered paedophiles – people who are dominantly sexually interested in children (as a description of PWP) à should we also do this?

o   PWP were a group that the public strongly reacted to with negative emotions, social distance, and stigmatizing assumptions, even when contrasted with people who abused alcohol, sexual sadists, or people with antisocial tendencies in their personality.

o   In this study, women reported slightly more fear and anger towards PWP. This gender difference might be explained by the fact that women consistently report higher fear of crimes and a higher perceived vulnerability to be victimized.

o   Though prevalent in all age groups, public stigma towards PWP seems to be particularly pronounced among younger people à could we replicate this?

o   Two groups: one labelled with ‘paedophile’ and the other labelled ‘sexual interest in (prepubescent) children’ - could we design a questionnaire involving this kind of scenario?

o   Found high degrees of punitive attitudes towards either label, but more so when they were considered a ‘paedophile’ – this has positive and negative outcomes however… It can lead to even harsher endorsement of punishment towards paedophiles, but this effect is dampened by the fact that clinically relevant labels (i.e. ‘paedophile’) exculpate (showing that someone is not guilty of wrongdoing) by reducing perceptions of intentionality

o   Stigmatisation of paedophilia is widespread – tested participants aged 17-72

o   This study suggests that the terms ‘pedophile’, ‘pedophilic’, and ‘pedophilia’ may have a more negative connotation that the more descriptive label sexual interest in children

o   ‘Holding punitive attitudes toward people with paedophilia appears to be a fully socially accepted or even desirable act’

o   Suggests future research should highlight the consequences of stigma against paedophilia and the willingness of stigma targets to undergo treatment.