It is essential for children to learn about safety and protection, they are forced to trust adults because they view their parents and teachers to be more experienced. Kids are aware of the crimes that happen, and they know in most cases it is committed by adults, but they lose sight of the fact that dangerous situations can be any and everywhere. Companies and educational institutions should promote awareness of the topic of pedophilia.
Pedophilia is when a person gets attracted to pre-pubescent children who are thirteen years of age or younger. What are the characteristics of such kind of individuals? These are the traits to look out for in a person according to the (DSM-5) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
The individual is a minimum of sixteen years old, and his/her preferred target should be five years younger.
The frequent occurrence of sexual thoughts and urges are so strong that if not acted upon it affects work, relationships and day to day life.
An individual who is attracted to pre-pubescent children will indulge extensively in child pornography.
A person who has suffered childhood sexual abuse is likely to indulge in pedophilia and someone who has witnessed these sexual behaviors on children is likely to get influenced.
In most cases, pedophiles are short, left-handed and have low IQ’s compared to the general population.
It is important to know that anyone can be a pedophile and is not subjected to a particular category. A pedophile can be rich, poor, educated, uneducated, and of any cultural background.
Ways to identify a pedophile:
It is a human tendency to trust people, but pedophiles can be anywhere, it is difficult to spot them because they appear friendly and trustworthy. It is essential for adults to be wary of a new person entering their lives, and this should happen with the intention of safeguarding children. How to spot a pedophile? Here are some behavioral characteristics that could indicate he/she is a pedophile.
They are mostly male who is thirty years and above
Watch out for individuals with mood or personality disorder, that could stem from frustration of not being indecently close to a child.
They have few friends who are around the same age group as them
They are more interested in children, and they yearn to witness adult-like behavior in kids just to interact with them more.
If they are married there is little interest in sexual relations and they prefer to have more of a casual relationship with spouse.
They generally do not perform well at the workplace, because they are unable to control sexual urges towards children.
A powerful way to be able to recognize a pedophile is through their interests which most of the time is different from non-pedophiles. They live in a world centered on what a kid likes and what would make them happy. Watch out for these interests.
They visit places where there are more child activities because they are fascinated with what kids do. They are barely interested in doing adult activities like shopping, bowling, taking a walk and so on.
They like to invest in kid stuff such as toys, cars and so on
They like praising children and use adult terms to describe them such as divine, heavenly and mature. They fantasize with the innocent characteristics of kids to an extent that it seems too good to be true.
Their rooms will be decorated in a child-like manner so that it appeals to kids.
There are people who are really fond of kids, and their approach is more to understand the child and make him/her feel comfortable and secure. However, with pedophiles the intention is different, it is more to entice kids to satisfy sexual feelings. They will first try to speak to and understand kids in a friendly manner similar to that of non-pedophiles, and gradually their true characteristics emerge. They start bonding with kids and take them to nearby places like the park, museum, mall or zoo and slowly try to make sexual advances and because minors cannot consent the offense is now rape.
As mentioned earlier, it is difficult to detect a pedophile instantly, he/she may appear helpful and friendly and the signs cannot be noticed. However, in the case of a pedophile, the behavior of being close to children is repetitive. You will find them lingering more often close to places packed with kids such as schools, parks and so on. In most cases it is someone parents know or it could even be a relative.
The issue of pedophilia has to be tackled:
There should be workshops on pedophilia in educational institutions, workplace, and welfare organizations and it should be conducted in a manner where the issue is taken up seriously.
There should be more counseling centers where there is a focus on prevention of child sexual abuse and safety precautions.
If a family member is a pedophile, the teacher, and the school counselor should help the child and speak to his/her family and ensure that the kid is safe and the incident should never happen again.
Parents and trusted elders should accompany children wherever they go. This is absolutely required for the safety of kids.
Affected children need lots of affection and support.
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