Vol. 11, No. 3, 2005 Page 6
New research replicates an earlier finding that pedophiles have a substantially increased rate of non-right-handedness, which can be an indication of disrupted neurological development.
In the new study, James Cantor et al. evaluated 404 adult men undergoing assessment for illegal or aberrant sexual behaviors or interests. The researchers found that scores of right-handedness correlated negatively with physiological responses to stimuli depicting children and positively with reactions to stimuli depicting adults, consistent with an earlier study by the researchers (see related article, Crime Times, 2004, Vol. 10, No. 3, Page 2). When the researchers combined the subjects from both studies, they found that "the odds of non-right-handedness in men offending predominantly against prepubescent children were approximately two-fold higher than that in men offending predominantly against adults and three-fold higher after eliminating those men with intrafamilial (i.e., incest) offenses." The researchers say their findings suggest a "neurological component" to the development of pedophilia.
"Handedness in pedophilia and hebephilia," J. M. Cantor, P. E. Klassen, R. Dickey, B. K. Christensen, M. E. Kuban, T. Blak, N. S. Williams, and R. Blanchard, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 34, No. 4, Aug. 2005, 447-59. Address: James Cantor, Law and Mental Health Program, Ctr. for Addiction and Mental Health, 250 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8.