Pedophiles: Mental retardation, maternal age, and sexual orientation

Intellectual functioning, parental age, and sexual orientation in 991 male sexual offenders were investigated. Sources of data included semistructured interviews, clinical charts, phallometric tests, and self-administered que stionnaires. The results suggest two main conclusions: (i) Among pedophiles in general, erotic preference moves away from adult women along two dimens ions: age and sex. The extent of this movement is greater, along both dimen sions, for pedophiles with lower levels of intellectual functioning. (ii) H igh maternal age (or some factor it represents) increases the likelihood of exclusive sexual interest in boys. Intellectual deficiency (or some factor it represents) decreases the likelihood of exclusive sexual interest in gi rls. These two factors summate, so that a pedophile with both factors is mo re likely to be sexually interested in boys than a pedophile with only one.