Ray Blanchard

Child pornography offenses are a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia

This study investigated whether being charged with a child pornography offense is a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia, as represented by an index of phallometrically assessed sexual arousal to children. The sample of 685 male patients was referred between 1995 and 2004 for a sexological assessment of their sexual interests and behavior. As a group, child pornography offenders showed greater sexual arousal to children than to adults and differed from groups of sex offenders against children, sex offenders against adults, and general sexology patients. The results suggest child pornography offending is a stronger diagnostic indicator of pedophilia than is sexually offending against child victims. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Gender and sexual orientation differences in sexual response to sexual activities versus gender of actors in sexual films.

In this study, the authors investigated the hypothesis that womens sexual orientation and sexual responses in the laboratory correlate less highly than do mens because women respond primarily to the sexual activities performed by actors, whereas men respond primarily to the gender of the actors. The participants were 20 homosexual women, 27 heterosexual women, 17 homosexual men, and 27 heterosexual men. The videotaped stimuli included men and women engaging in same-sex intercourse, solitary masturbation, or nude exercise (no sexual activity); human male-female copulation; and animal (bonobo chimpanzee or Pan paniscus) copulation. Genital and subjective sexual arousal were continuously recorded. The genital responses of both sexes were weakest to nude exercise and strongest to intercourse. As predicted, however, actor gender was more important for men than for women, and the level of sexual activity was more important for women than for men. Consistent with this result, women responded genitally to bonobo copulation, whereas men did not. An unexpected result was that homosexual women responded more to nude female targets exercising and masturbating than to nude male targets, whereas heterosexual women responded about the same to both sexes at each activity level.

Phallometric Diagnosis of Pedophilia.

We investigated the sensitivity of our phallometric test for pedophilia (and hebephilia). An initial sample of subjects included 47 men accused of sexual offenses against minors and 26 control subjects-men accused of offenses against adult women (exhibitionism, rape, or sexually sadistic activity). A second sample included 107 offenders against minors and 30 control subjects. In both samples, the offenders against minors were further classified according to the targets of their sexual offenses (girls, boys, or both) and according to the extent to which they admitted an erotic preference for the immature physique. Computerized diagnostic rules were developed with the first sample and cross-validated with the second. The sensitivity of the test in detecting pedophilia or hebephilia in complete nonadmitters is probably greater than or equal to 55% but is certainly less than 100%. Its specificity appears to be over 95%.

The concept of autogynephilia and the typology of male gender dysphoria.

This study tested the hypothesis that all gender-dysphoric males who are not sexually aroused by men (homosexual) are instead sexually aroused by the thought or image of themselves as women (autogynephilic). Subjects were 212 adult male-to-female transsexuals. These were divided into four groups; one homosexual and three nonhomosexual. The three nonhomosexual groups were heterosexual, bisexual, and analloerotic (unattracted to male or female partners, but not necessarily devoid of all erotic behavior). A Core Autogynephilia Scale was developed to assess a subjects propensity to be sexually aroused by the fantasy of being a woman. The four transsexual groups were compared on this measure (and on several others), using Newman-Keuls multiple-range tests at p less than .05. As predicted, all three nonhomosexual groups were more likely than the homosexual group to report sexual stimulation by cross-gender fantasy. This finding supports the hypothesis that the major types of nonhomosexual gender dysphoria constitute variant forms of one underlying disorder, which may be characterized as autogynephilic gender dysphoria.

The classification and labeling of nonhomosexual gender dysphorias

This report suggests systematic strategies for the descriptive classification of nonhomosexual gender identity disorders, based on clinical observations and research findings. The classification of biological males is considered first. A review of cross-gender taxonomies shows that previous observers have identified and labeled a homosexual type far more consistently than any other category of male gender dysphoric. It is suggested that the apparent difficulty in differentiating reliably among the nonhomosexual types results from the sharing of many overlapping characteristics by the various groups. This is supported by a review of informal, mostly clinical, observations and by the findings of three studies designed to test the hypothesis that the nonhomosexual gender dysphorias, together with transvestism, constitute a family of related disorders in men. It is concluded that the main varieties of nonhomosexual gender dysphoria are more similar to each other than any of them is to the homosexual type. Two recommendations, based on the foregoing review, are offered for the classification of male gender dysphorics in research studies. When the number of subjects is small, they may be classified simply as homosexual or nonhomosexual. When the number is larger, the nonhomosexual cases may be classified as heterosexual, bisexual, or analloerotic (unattracted to male or female partners, but not necessarily devoid of sexual drive or activities).

Pedophilia, hebephilia, and the DSM-V.

The term pedophilia denotes the erotic preference for prepubescent children. The term hebephilia has been proposed to denote the erotic preference for pubescent children (roughly, ages 11 or 12–14), but it has not become widely used. The present study sought to validate the concept of hebephilia by examining the agreement between self-reported sexual interests and objectively recorded penile responses in the laboratory. The participants were 881 men who were referred for clinical assessment because of paraphilic, criminal, or otherwise problematic sexual behavior. Within-group comparisons showed that men who verbally reported maximum sexual attraction to pubescent children had greater penile responses to depictions of pubescent children than to depictions of younger or older persons. Between-groups comparisons showed that penile responding distinguished such men from those who reported maximum attraction to prepubescent children and from those who reported maximum attraction to fully grown persons. These results indicated that hebephilia exists as a discriminable erotic age-preference. The authors recommend various ways in which the DSM might be altered to accommodate the present findings. One possibility would be to replace the diagnosis of Pedophilia with Pedohebephilia and allow the clinician to specify one of three subtypes: Sexually Attracted to Children Younger than 11 (Pedophilic Type), Sexually Attracted to Children Age 11–14 (Hebephilic Type), or Sexually Attracted to Both (Pedohebephilic Type). We further recommend that the DSM-V encourage users to record the typical age of children who most attract the patient sexually as well as the gender of children who most attract the patient sexually.

Quantitative Reanalysis of Aggregate Data on IQ in Sexual Offenders

General intelligence has been the most commonly studied neuropsychological characteristic of sexual offenders for over 70 years. Results, however, have been highly inconsistent. To assess whether sexual offenders score lower in IQ than nonsexual offenders and to explore which sexual offense characteristics relate to IQ, the authors reanalyzed all reports providing sufficient information. Data spanned 236 samples, comprising 25,146 sexual offenders and controls. The literature contained sufficient information to permit comparison of adult versus juvenile sexual offenders, offenders targeting children versus adults, offenders targeting their own versus unrelated children, and offenders targeting boys versus girls. Results confirm the association between IQ and sexual offending and suggest that previous discrepancies are attributable to how many pedophilic individuals were in each sample.

Heterosexual and homosexual gender dysphoria

This study investigated why more males than females complain of dissatisfaction with their anatomical sex (gender dysphoria). New referrals to a university gender identity clinic were dichotomously classified as heterosexual or homosexual. There were 73 heterosexual and 52 homosexual males; 1 heterosexual and 71 homosexual females. The average heterosexual male was 8 years older at inception than the homosexual groups. The heterosexual males reported that their first cross-gender wishes occurred around the time they first cross-dressed, whereas the homosexual groups reported that cross-gender wishes preceded cross-dressing by 3–4 years. Some history of fetishistic arousal was acknowledged by over 80% of the heterosexual males, compared to fewer than 10% of homosexual males and no homosexual females. The results suggest that males are not differentially susceptible to gender dysphoria per se, but rather that they are differentially susceptible to one of the predisposing conditions, namely, fetishistic transvestism.

Typology of male-to-female transsexualism

This study tested a prediction derived from the hypothesis that asexual and bisexual transsexualism are actually subtypes of heterosexual transsexualism. Two questionnaire scales measuring erotic attraction to males and females were administered to 163 male-to-female transsexuals. A cluster analysis of their scores divided the subjects into four groups: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual. Fisher Exact tests were used to compare the frequency with which subjects in the four clusters reported a history of erotic arousal in association with cross-dressing. As predicted, there were no differences among the asexual, bisexual, and heterosexual transsexuals, and all three groups included a much higher proportion of fetishistic cases than the homosexual group (p ≤.0001, two-tailed). These findings support the view that male transsexuals may be divided into two basic types: heterosexual and homosexual.

Fraternal birth order and the maternal immune hypothesis of male homosexuality.

In men, sexual orientation correlates with an individuals number of older brothers, each additional older brother increasing the odds of homosexuality by approximately 33%. It has been hypothesized that this fraternal birth order effect reflects the progressive immunization of some mothers to Y-linked minor histocompatibility antigens (H-Y antigens) by each succeeding male fetus and the concomitantly increasing effects of such maternal immunization on the future sexual orientation of each succeeding male fetus. According to this hypothesis, anti-H-Y antibodies produced by the mother pass through the placental barrier to the fetus and affect aspects of sexual differentiation in the fetal brain. This explanation is consistent with a variety of evidence, including the apparent irrelevance of older sisters to the sexual orientation of later born males, the probable involvement of H-Y antigen in the development of sex-typical traits, and the detrimental effects of immunization of female mice to H-Y antigen on the reproductive performance of subsequent male offspring. The maternal immune hypothesis might also explain the recent finding that heterosexual males with older brothers weigh less at birth than heterosexual males with older sisters and homosexual males with older brothers weigh even less than heterosexual males with older brothers.