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Research: A "cure" for pedophilia?

2026-06-01T09:19:41Z

Thorn: /* Psychological wellbeing for MAPs */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Attempts to "treat" pedophilia are ineffectual and in many cases harmful. It's important to point out that pedophilia is the ''direction'' of one's sexuality, not the intensity of one's sexual interest. While there are drugs that can reduce sexual desire, reorientation is not possible.
__NOTOC__
==Treatment==
===Efficacy===
*'''Stelzmann, D., Jahnke, S., & Kuhle, L. F. (2022). [https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9356 Media Coverage of Pedophilia and Its Impact on Help-Seeking Persons with Pedophilia in Germany - A Focus Group Study.] ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'' 19 (15), DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19159356'''
*:“Both sexual preferences for prepubescent (pedophilia) and pubescent (hebephilia) children are only considered pathological if the sexual attraction to children resulted in previous sexual offending against children, or causes significant distress and/or interpersonal difficulties (pedophilic disorder or unspecified paraphilic disorder [10]). Currently, there is little evidence showing that the sexual attraction to children can be “cured” in the sense that it can be converted into a sexual attraction to adults (teleiophilia; overview see [23]). Therefore, preventive treatment often focuses on behavioral control and/or the reduction of psychological distress.”

*'''[[Fred Berlin|Berlin, Fred S.]] (2000). "[http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=174135 Treatments to Change Sexual Orientation]," ''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 157, p. 838.'''
*:"It may be no easier for a person with pedophilia to change his or her sexual orientation than it is for a homosexual or heterosexual individual to do so."

*'''[[Dennis Howitt|Howitt, D.]] (1995). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/howitt_trtmnt.htm The Treatment of Paedophiles]," in ''Paedophiles and Sexual Offences Against Children'', pp. 189-192.'''
*:"Many of the early behaviour therapy treatments for paedophilia emerged from attempts to make homosexuals "normal" or, at least, stop "doing their thing". [...] As we will see, there is a degree of uncertainty about the effectiveness of even the best researched therapies for paedophiles. There are a number of reasons for this. Many of the therapies have not been subject to specific empirical evaluation of any sort; some have been tried with only a few clients. Often the criteria of therapeutic success have fallen well short of evidence of a decline in recidivism in offending, obviously one of the most important criteria. Research that includes a control or an alternatively treated group is in the minority of the evaluations. With a situation like this, claims of therapeutic success may sometimes be wishful thinking on the part of the clinician, the client or both."

*'''Van-Zessen, G. (1990). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/van_zessen.htm A model for group counseling with male pedophiles]," ''Journal of Homosexuality'', 20(1-2), 189-198.'''
*:"The majority of the reported studies have roots in behavior therapy. The early behavioral approaches were aimed at reducing the deviant sexual arousal by aversion therapy (Quinsey et al., 1976). The attraction to children is viewed as purely sexual (Howells, 1979). In its simplest form, the child is the stimulus that elicits sexual excitement in the adult (Quinsey et al., 1975). All other motivations and meanings of pedophile attraction are ignored. [...] In an overview of the literature concerning homosexual conversion therapies, James (1978) concluded that the majority of studies were unsuccessful in changing sexual orientation. It is likely that the same holds for pedophile conversion therapy."

*'''Seto, M. (2009). "Pedophilia," ''Annual Review of Clinical Psychology'', 5, 391-407.'''
*:"There is no evidence to suggest that pedophilia can be changed. [...] Across the following interventions, the underlying assumption is that pedophilia is a stable sexual preference that is unlikely to change, just as there is little, if any, evidence that heterosexual or homosexual orientation can be changed. Recent etiological research on neurodevelopmental correlates of pedophilia—including cognitive functioning, non-right-handedness, and structural volume differences—suggests that pedophilia is influenced by prenatal factors and thus is unlikely to respond to interventions delivered when the individual is an adult (e.g., Cantor et al. 2008)."

*'''Quinsey, V. L. (2008). "Seeking Enlightenment on the Dark Side of Psychology," ''Trauma, Violence, & Abuse'', 9(2), 72-83.'''
*:"Sexual age and gender preferences do not appear to be learned and malleable (e.g., our attempts to increase sexual arousal of normal subjects to slides of women through Pavlovian conditioning by pairing the slides with highly arousing videotapes were vitiated by habituation; Lalumière & Quinsey, 1998). Although sexual age and gender preferences can be measured with phallometric technology (for reviews of the assessment and treatment literature on sexual offenders against children, see Camilleri & Quinsey, in press; Quinsey & Lalumière, 2001) and responses to deviant categories can be reduced with standard conditioning techniques, these alterations now appear not to involve the preferences themselves but only their measurement. Fifty years after Kinsey et al. (1953) wrote the passage quoted at the beginning of this section, it appears that the role of learning in the development of sexual age and gender preferences is limited or nonexistent (for a review, see Quinsey, 2003)."

*'''Berlin, Fred S., Saleh, Fabian M., and Malin, H. Martin (2009). "Mental Illness and Sex Offending," in ''Sex Offenders'', p. 124. Oxford University Press US.'''
*:"In the past, efforts to "recondition" homosexuality were a clear failure. The same would appear to be true of methods intended to "recondition" paraphilic conditions such as pedophilia."

*'''Camilleri, Joseph A., and Quinsey, Vernon L. (2008). "Pedophilia: Assessment and Treatment," in D. Richard Laws and William T. O'Donohue (eds.), ''Sexual Deviance, Second Edition''.'''
*:"The greatest problems with conditioning approaches (and other approaches described later) are (1) that changing actual preferences (as opposed to indices that reflect them) has been quite difficult (Furby, Weinrott, & Blackshaw, 1989; Lalumière & Quinsey, 1998); and (2) no studies have shown long-term changes in sexual preference or behavior after treatment (Laws, 2001; Quinsey & Earls, 1990). [p. 193] [...] Despite the strong relationship between neurobiological variables in sexual behavior and treatment, reducing general arousal does not alter sexual preference. Researchers found that men with phallometrically measured deviant sexual interests had the same preferences after hormonal treatment (Bancroft, Tennent, Loucas, & Cass, 1974; Cooper, Sandhu, Losztyn, & Cernovsky, 1992). [...] It appears as though treatment for paraphilias works by decreasing sexual interest in general, suggesting that medical treatments do not "cure" the sexual preference but mask it by reducing sexual desire. [p. 200]"

*'''12/11/06 deposition of Michael B. First, M.D., in In Re the Detention of William Davenport AKA William Cummings, Franklin County, Washington, No. 99-2-50349-2.'''
*:"I was the editor of the DSM-IV-TR. DSM-IV-TR was published in the year 2000. I was also the editor of the text and criteria of its immediate predecessor, which was the DSM-IV. [p. 9] [...] If you're attracted to children at age 13 you’re going to be attracted to children at age 70. [...] The fact that that's your focus of arousal remains constant. [...] The percentage of time you think about that would decline. [...] The time you spend masturbating thinking about that will go down, and the actual paraphilic behaviors go down, but the core of the paraphilia is present for life. There's no evidence, even when you have successful treatment of an individual paraphilia, which actually treating is the intensity of the paraphilia, not the arousal pattern. I don't believe there’s strong evidence that you could actually get someone who is attracted to children to lose [his or her] attraction. [p. 230]"

*'''American Psychiatric Association (2013). ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (Fifth ed.), p. 698.'''
*:"Adult males with pedophilic disorder may indicate that they become aware of strong or preferential sexual interest in children around the time of puberty — the same time frame in which males who later prefer physically mature partners became aware of their sexual interest in women or men. [...] Pedophilia per se appears to be a lifelong condition."

*'''Seto, Michael (2012). "Is Pedophilia a Sexual Orientation?", ''Archives of Sexual Behaviour'', 41, p. 233.'''
*:"Pedophilia is viewed by many researchers and clinicians as having a lifelong course. For some individuals, at least, it is discovered in early adolescence and sexual interest in children can be detected in adolescence (Seto, Lalumiere, & Blanchard, 2000; Seto, Murphy, Page, & Ennis, 2003); once identified, pedophilia can predict detected sexual behavior involving children up to 40 years later (Hanson, Steffy, & Gauthier, 1993). Changes in sexual arousal to children can be made using behavioral conditioning techniques, but follow-up studies have not shown evidence that this change generalizes outside the laboratory or persists over the longer-term."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "Multiple studies (see Table 4) reported that participants had sought or wanted to seek help with the goal of changing their attraction to children. However, as time went on, many came to realize that their attractions were enduring and redirected their goals towards managing them and finding ways to live productive and meaningful lives"

*'''Gillespie, S. (2022). [https://www.proquest.com/openview/ba920465eed71c360408571550ba3f4b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Sexual Fantasies and Self-Regulation in a Community Sample of People with Sexual Fantasies and/or Interest Involving Minors] [Ph.D. Thesis]'''
::"One approach to addressing deviant sexual fantasies in sex offense-specific treatment involves pairing unpleasant sensations or thoughts with the undesired fantasy (Vanhoeck et al., 2011). Opponents of sexual re-orientation and “gay conversion” therapies have denounced these types of aversive approaches to changing sexual arousal patterns, and they have been labeled abusive (Serovich et al., 2008). Other approaches addressing deviant sexual interests involve masturbatory/orgasmic conditioning aimed at inducing or reducing arousal to certain stimuli. There is not strong empirical evidence that these treatments are effective (Vanhoeck et al., 2011). It is concerning that these treatments persist in spite of lack of robust empirical support for the efficacy of these treatments alongside a myriad of ethical, therapeutic alliance, and safety concerns (Vanhoeck et al., 2011). There are also concerns that treatments which use or induce shame, worry, and punishment could have an impact on factors involved in sexual selfregulation, potentially leading to an increase in risk of sexual re-offense. For example, negative affect has been associated with deviant sexual fantasies and sexual offending, so it is questionable if clinicians treating sexual offenders should engage or recommend negative affect as an intervention toward desistance of sexual offending (Blagden et al., 2017). Using punishment and worry for thought-control have been linked to an increase in unwanted thoughts (Wells & Davies, 1994). Nagtegaal and colleagues (2006) found that for their sample of individuals with aggressive fantasies, tendency to try and suppress the thoughts was positively correlated with aggressive behavior. "

===Harm===
*'''[[Frans Gieles|Gieles, Frans]] (2001). "[http://www.helping-people.info/lecture.htm Helping people with pedophilic feelings]." Lecture at the 15th World Congress of Sexology, Paris, June 2001.'''
*:"I have met clients who started this kind of treatment [to 'cure' their pedophilia] as a warm lively person and who have been changed into 'a stiff wooden doll' after it."

*'''Fog, Agner (1992). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/fog_eng.htm Paraphilias and Therapy]," ''Nordisk Sexologi'', 10(4), pp. 236-242.'''
*:Fog interviews a pedophile: "My sexual feelings for boys went away partially for about a year, and then at the end of the year I started waking up screaming and hollering with nightmares, and I would see a pitful of snakes and they were just everywhere and I would be screaming to get away from them. [...] 'Were your feelings towards boys reduced by the therapy?' They were reduced in the sense that my penis did not show the difference, but I still enjoyed being a teacher because I could be close to boys. I really don't think that feelings for boys or whoever we have feelings for has all that much to do with how much erection you have, but this is what they were reducing it to. [...] rather than destroy my feelings towards boys they destroyed me as an individual, it destroyed my security."

*'''Camilleri, Joseph A., and Quinsey, Vernon L. (2008). "Pedophilia: Assessment and Treatment," in D. Richard Laws and William T. O'Donohue (eds.), ''Sexual Deviance, Second Edition'', p. 200.'''
*:"Drawbacks unique to medical treatments for pedophilia include side effects and noncompliance. Commonly cited side effects include hypertension, hyperglycemia, feminization, depression, and headaches (Hill et al., 2003; Saleh & Guidry, 2003)."

*'''Johnston, Lucy, Hudson, Stephen M., and Ward, Tony (1997). "The suppression of sexual thoughts by child molesters: A preliminary investigation," ''Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment'', 9(4), 303-319. '''
*:"Ironically, attempted suppression may actually result in a worse situation compared to no attempts being made. The hyperaccessibility of formerly undesired thoughts has been documented in a number of studies. Once suppressed, unwanted thoughts have been shown to return and dominate mental life (Macrae et al., 1994; Wegner, 1989; Wegner & Gold, 1995). Once inhibitory mechanisms are relaxed this rebound effect may be pernicious, promoting the execution of maladaptive behaviors, such as binge eating. (Herman & Polivy, 1993) and, potentially, sexual offenses (Johnston, Ward, & Hudson, 1997). [...] However, prior suppression resulted in slower latencies for both the sex-related and the child-related words for the preferential child molesters than either the situational child molesters or the nonsexual offenders, who did not differ from one another. Thought suppression did, then, have greater subsequent effects on the preferential child molesters, as predicted. For some offender types at least, suppression results in greater accessibility of sex-related thoughts. Such rebound effects lead one to question the utility of thought suppression as a therapy technique."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "Participants from studies classified as clinical, forensic, or mixed, reported on experiences with chemical treatments such as androgen deprivation therapy (Boons et al., 2021) or gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists (Landgren et al., 2020). In these cases, positive experiences were largely reported to be the calming effects of the chemicals, abstinence from offending, and improved mental health and well-being. The negative experiences included physical side effects, depression, and guilt. Interestingly, within these samples, the inability to become aroused was reported as a positive treatment effect by some and a negative treatment effect by others."

* '''McPhail, I.V. (2020) [https://harvest.usask.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/e555ae2e-7058-4f33-a6ba-cae1a294ab50/content Conceptual and empirical issues in pedohebephilic interest] [dissertation]. ''Saskatoon (SK): University of Saskatchewan'''''
*: "The findings that psychotherapy can help men with higher levels of pedophilic interest change joins a growing body of research suggesting that psychotherapeutic approaches can benefit even those with the most severe symptomatology (Furukawa et al., 2017). In the case of interventions for pedohebephilic interests in men with sexual offense histories, this may be an especially positive development, as the side-effects of long-term anti-androgen use can be debilitating and life threatening (Nota et al., 2019; Turner & Briken, 2018). However, it is important to note that at present, there is little to no information regarding adverse reactions clients have to behavioural treatments for pedophilic interest."
*: "However, across the studies, a large number of men received these specialized interventions for managing arousal to children who may not have experienced a need in this domain [...] Given the potential adverse reactions to aversive interventions, clients are subjected to potentially harmful and distressing treatments that they do not require"
*: Consider this in light of the following: "Approximately half of the analyses supported the conclusion that men who underwent treatment showed levels of arousal to children that were similar to men with no history of sexual offending against children. While this is not unequivocal evidence, [...] it provides some support for the conclusion that offending men do show similar levels of arousal compared to non-offending men."

*'''Turner, D., & Briken, P. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Turner-20/publication/322138557_Treatment_of_Paraphilic_Disorders_in_Sexual_Offenders_or_Men_With_a_Risk_of_Sexual_Offending_With_Luteinizing_Hormone-Releasing_Hormone_Agonists_An_Updated_Systematic_Review/links Treatment of paraphilic disorders in sexual offenders or men with a risk of sexual offending with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists: An updated systematic review.] ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', 15, 77–93. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.11.013. '''
*:"Steroidal antiandrogens and LHRH-agonists have in common that they suppress serum testosterone concentrations via different mechanisms and are thus summarized under the term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)."
*:"Side effects occurring most frequently are fatigue, hot flashes, depressive mood, weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, gynecomastia, loss of erectile function, and a loss in bone mineral density. [...] Although LHRH-agonists seem to be the most effective drugs in the treatment of paraphilic fantasies and behaviors, they should be reserved for paraphilic patients with the highest risk of sexual offending because of their extensive side effects."
*:"Current studies suggest that LHRH-agonists might be the most effective drugs to decrease paraphilic sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors. This accounts for adult, adolescent, and sexual offenders with a mental retardation. [...] LHRH-agonists should be reserved for most severe cases of (paraphilic) sexual offenders because they frequently lead to a complete decline of all sexual behaviors, thereby inferring with fundamental human rights. This clarifies that LHRHagonists should not be used with the intention of lifelong treatment and the possibility of ending treatment when adequate should be closely monitored."

==Is pedophilia a choice?==
*'''Berlin, Fred S. (2002). "Peer Commentaries on Green (2002) and Schmidt (2002): Pedophilia: When Is a Difference a Disorder?," ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', 31(6), 479-480.'''
*:"It is likely that no one would choose voluntarily to develop a pedophilic sexual orientation. Those with such an orientation have no more decided to have it than have any of us decided as children to be either heterosexual or homosexual. Men with pedophilia get erections when fantasizing about children. Heterosexual men get erections when fantasizing about women. In neither case is that so because the individual in question has somehow decided ahead of time to program his mind to work in such a fashion. Persons with pedophilia have simply not chosen to experience an alternative state of mind."

*'''Fagan, Peter J.; Wise, Thomas N.; Schmidt, Chester W.; and Berlin, Fred S. (2002) "Pedophilia," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 288, 2458-2465.'''
*:"During psychosexual development, no one decides whether to be attracted to women, men, girls, or boys. Rather, individuals discover the types of persons they are sexually attracted to, ie, their sexual orientation."

===Early development===

*'''B4U-Act (2011). [https://www.b4uact.org/research/survey-results/youth-suicidality-and-seeking-care/ "Survey Results"].
*:"Question: Looking back now, how old were you when you first had a preferential attraction to boys or girls younger than yourself, whether or not you realized it at the time? Result: Of 192 respondents answering this question, the most common age of first attraction was 12. Eighty-five percent began to experience the attraction while still minors themselves."

*'''Freund, K. & Kuban, M. (1993). "Toward a testable developmental model of pedophilia: The development of erotic age preference," ''Child Abuse & Neglect'', 17, 315-324.'''
*:"[A] greater proportion of pedophiles than of individuals who prefer physically mature partners remembers curiosity in their own childhood to see nude children without remembering such curiosity in regard to adults. This suggests that in a substantial proportion of pedophiles the occurrence of this paraphilia is predetermined at a very early developmental phase." (From [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8472184 abstract].)

*'''Griesemer, Michael M. (2004). ''Ausmass und Auswirkungen massenmedialer Desinformation zum Stand der Wissenschaften über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch''. [http://www.ipce.info/host/griesemer/griesemer.htm Ipce translation].'''
*:"Rather, we see another astonishing fact: on the same age in pre-puberty, on which the attraction to boys or girls was reported, already the nine years olds of both groups differ. The later pedophiles distinguish themselves from the control group because their objects of attraction are dramatically younger then themselves -- on the average two years younger, while the later non-pedophiles tend to feel attracted to older children -- on average 10.8 years of age.
*:Given the data, as now gathered, one might conclude that pedophilia develops itself already on a pre-pubertal age -- although we don't know how."

== Psychological wellbeing for MAPs ==
:''See also: [[Research:_The_Dangers_of_Stigma#Effects among people attracted to minors|Effects of stigma on MAPs]]''

Attraction does not require treatment, but MAPs often need help in improving their mental well-being. Mental health services and professionals may face the following challenges: high levels of anxiety, depression and other conditions in MAPs, severe [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|stigma]] (for both clients and those who provide compassionate approach), [[Preventionism|preventionism]], attempts at conversion therapy, difficulties in choosing the right therapeutic targets (discrepancies between lay professional beliefs and client's needs), ethics of communication with the client, and mandatory reporting laws. The following excerpts provide information about complications of mental health services as well as evidence-based implications for well-being-focused treatment.

Treatment suggestions derived from the studies include:

<hr>
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
<small>
* treatment facilities’ shift from prevention to well-being focus
* adjusting prevention effort to the real risk or harm of the offence
* acceptance of the attraction, refusal of conversion attempts
* developing self-compassion, shame reduction
* finding ways of acceptable experiencing one's sexuality, usage of artificial means for sexual satisfaction such as AI products or sex dolls
* undermining overly rigid avoidant coping strategies such as thought suppression and identity concealment
* creating positive self view (self identity, including sexual identity)
* disclosure in supportive contexts
* engaging with a supportive network/ community
* focusing on what is important in life to the individual
</small>
</div>
<hr>

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., & Elliot, H. (2020). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-01569-x The internalization of social stigma among minor-attracted persons: Implications for treatment.] Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 49, 1291-1304. doi: 10.1007/s10508-019-01569-x'''
*:'''Harmful mechanism of avoidance strategies''':
*:"We found that increased levels of suppression and lower levels of psychological well-being were associated with lower levels of hope about the future, but higher levels of both shame and guilt about having a sexual interest in minors. Thought suppression [...] did significantly predict higher rates of actively avoiding children. [...] Independently, lower levels of self-reported psychological wellbeing were associated with a desire for more support and higher rates of actively avoiding children."
*:"The internalization of negative social attitudes [...] [is] being posited as a motivation to engage in stress-ameliorating strategies in the form of distancing oneself from the minority identity via concealment (hiding one’s identity from those external to oneself), and suppression (refusing to accept one’s own minority identity)."
*:"Smart and Wegner (2000) describe many cognitive burdens that are associated with the constant suppression of one’s identity. Having to maintain an outward appearance that is different to internal processes can lead to a preoccupation with suppressing (Meyer, 2003), which can lead the individual living an internal “private hell” (Smart & Wegner, 2000, p. 229). This may be especially the case among MAPs [...] [S]uppression could become a totalizing experience in all areas of life with profoundly negative efects on psychological well-being. This is particularly troubling in light of evidence of a potential rebound efect that is associated with suppressing unwanted thoughts. Erskine and Georgiou (2011) described a range of evidence, suggesting that trying not to think about particular things (e.g., memories or actions) may actually increase rumination on those topics and reduce self-regulation processes (see also Abramowitz, Tolin, & Street, 2001). For example, dieters who suppress thoughts of hunger or thirst have been found to eat less in the short term, but binge at a later time (Denzler, Förster, Liberman, & Rozenman, 2010; Erskine, 2008), while the same outcomes are observed among smokers trying to reduce their cigarette consumption (Erskine, Georgiou, & Kvavilashvili, 2010). In the sexual domain, suppressing sexual thoughts has been associated with higher levels of compulsive sexual behaviors in religious groups (Efrati, 2019). [...] That is, [...] thought suppression related to minor attraction could paradoxically increase a propensity to engage with sexual thoughts involving children."
*:'''"Prevention" projects impose negative self-view and are therefore ineffective''':
*:"As reported previously, Grady et al. (2019) found that MAPs who viewed themselves as inherently bad people (they referred to this as shame in relation to sexual attractions) were less likely to seek help from professionals for issues arising from their attractions to minors. [...] Schemes that are designed to prevent or reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse (e.g., Germany’s Dunkelfeld Project) have been evaluated in relation to risk-relevant outcomes and dynamic sexual ofense risk factors (e.g., pro-criminal attitudes, impression management, and delinquent behavior; Beier et al., 2009, 2015), with these not showing particularly the positive results (see Mokros & Banse, 2019). While this lack of “treatment success” may call into question the validity of such schemes, it may be that these schemes emerge as being much more successful if broader psychosocial constructs related to well-being were also assessed. Further, the risk-based framing of such schemes (i.e., “prevention projects”) implicitly assumes that MAPs need to be “prevented” from offending (Lievesley & Harper, 2019), rather than “supported” though their psychosocial experiences of being attracted to minors (Grady et al., 2019; Jahnke, 2018b; Jahnke et al., 2015b). [...] [T]hose wishing to distance themselves from such a label do not reach out to access services that could lead to signifcant well-being improvements (Lievesley & Harper, 2019)."
*:"That is, the emphasis of treatment should be less related to “risk reduction” and more related to promoting MAPs’ social and psychological well-being, with forensic risk reduction becoming a by-product of this broader aim. [...] Instead of taking a deficits-focused view of the problem at hand (i.e., adopting a risk-focused lens), acceptance-based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999; Hayes & Wilson, 1994) work with the idea that peoples’ difficulties occur when they attempt to avoid and suppress painful feelings (Hayes, 1994), and represent a more positive psychological approach to dealing with distress. As such, we recommend that treatment approaches tackle the negative self-image experienced by many MAPs by encouraging them to view their sexual interests as a core part of their identities (acceptance), but also support them to live crime-free lives (commitment)."

*'''McKillop, N. and Price, S. (2023) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nadine-Mckillop/publication/370159588_The_Potential_for_Anti-Stigma_Interventions_to_Change_Public_Attitudes_Toward_Minor-Attracted_Persons_A_Replication_and_Extension_of_Jara_and_Jeglic%27s_Study/links/64b081da95bbbe0 "The Potential for Anti-Stigma Interventions to Change Public Attitudes Toward Minor-Attracted Persons: A Replication and Extension of Jara and Jeglic’s Study"]. ''Journal of Child Sexual Abuse'', DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2023.2204864'''
*:"Although many MAPs conceal and suppress their attraction and urges to act out their sexual desires (Jara & Jeglic, 2021; Levensen et al., 2017; Lievesley et al., 2020), Lievesley et al. (2020) caution that suppression – without professional treatment and appropriate supports – may increase the likelihood of future CSA behaviors. Certainly, Elchuk and collegues (2022) found that, while disclosure itself did not reduce psychological distress for MAPs, psychological and emotional wellbeing was improved when disclosure was met with support highlighting the potential value in engaging with support networks and services to improve outcomes".

*'''Lievesley, R & Harper, C.A. (2022) [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1080/13552600.2021.1883754 "Applying desistance principles to improve wellbeing and prevent child sexual abuse among minor-attracted persons"] ''Journal of Sexual Aggression'', 28:1, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/13552600.2021.1883754'''
*:"In accordance with theoretical insights into the motivations of individuals who sexual offend (e.g. Hall & Hirschman, 1991; Ward & Beech, 2006; Ward & Siegert, 2002), a focus on mental health treatment, shame reduction, and psychosocial wellbeing has the potential to prevent offending from taking place without treatment services being explicitly labeled as prevention. They would also be more in keeping with MAPs’ own self-identified treatment targets (B4U-ACT, 2011; Levenson & Grady, 2019)."

*'''Clayton, J., Hocken, K., and Blagden, N. (2022) [https://threequayspublishing.com/product/a-compassionate-intervention-for-individuals-with-problematic-sexual-interests-group-and-individual-outcomes-in-the-uk/ A compassionate intervention for individuals with problematic sexual interests: Group and individual outcomes in the UK.] ''Abuse: An International Impact Journal'', doi: 10.37576/abuse.2022.035'''
*:"The present paper discusses one of the first free community-based therapeutic interventions (The Aurora Project) in the UK, for individuals who are distressed by their sexual thoughts and behaviour and/or concerned they are a potential risk to others. The clinical approach to working with this population takes a compassion-focused stance. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in self-esteem and social safeness, as well as a reduction in internalised shame."

*'''Bekkers, L. M. J., Leukfeldt, E. R., & Holt, T. J. (2023). [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10790632231154882 Online Communities for Child-Attracted Persons as Informal Mental Health Care: Exploring Self-Reported Wellbeing Outcomes.] ''Sexual Abuse'', 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10790632231154882'''
*:“Online support communities are gaining attention among child-attracted persons (CAPs). Though research has largely focused on the negative consequences these environments create for potential offending, they may also provide a beneficial alternative to more formal treatment settings. [...] [B]y means of informal social control, bonds of trust and social relational education, the network aims to regulate the behavior and enhance the wellbeing of its marginalized participants. Key outcomes include a decreased sense of loneliness and better coping with stigma, to the point that participants experience less suicidal thoughts.”

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., Swaby, H. and Woodward, E. (2022) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2149437 Identifying and working with appropriate treatment targets with people who are sexually attracted to children]. ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy''. DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2149437'''
*: "The importance of addressing mental health issues is best highlighted by looking at the prevalence of suicidal ideation and intention among MAPs, with around 40% admitting to experiencing chronic suicidal ideation (Cohen, Ndukwe, Yaseen, & Galynker, 2018; Cohen et al., 2020). Research has also shown how MAPs experience high rates of anxiety, depression, and self-hatred (e.g., Jahnke et al., 2015; Lievesley et al., 2020; Stevens & Wood, 2019). Thought suppression is common among MAPs, with this taking many forms, including the active avoidance of children and potential reminders of minor attraction (Lievesley et al., 2020) or through problematic levels of substance use (Stevens & Wood, 2019; Walker, 2021). Such behavior often leads MAPs to become socially isolated and lacking in emotional and social supports (Elchuk, McPhail, & Olver, 2022; Jahnke et al., 2015)."
*:"this finding suggests that the most pressing problems that MAPs believe are present in their lives relate to the emotional responses that they experience in relation to their sexual attractions, and not in relation to their (lack of) potential propensities to act on these".
*: "we have also identified one potential treatment-related construct—self-compassion [...] with decreased self-compassion being associated with a greater need to address mental health and stigma-related concerns, increased sexual frustration, and a desire to change one’s sexual attraction patterns."
*:"The observation that lower levels of self-compassion were associated with an increased desire to control or change one’s attractions to children is perhaps indicative of the internalization of stigma (see Jahnke et al., 2015; Lievesley et al., 2020). [...] low levels of self-compassion might lead to unattainable treatment targets, and thus self-compassion and self-acceptance may be an important treatment aim when working with MAPs."

*'''Schaefer, A., Wittenberg, A., Galynker, I. and Cohen, L.J. (2022) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2126808?journalCode=usmt20 Qualitative Analysis of Minor Attracted Persons’ Subjective Experience: Implications for Treatment.] ''Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.'' DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2126808'''
*:"This qualitative study examined community-based MAPs’ responses to narrative questions about their experiences and what they want society to understand, using an iterative thematic analysis. Notable responses from the participants included: 1) sexual attraction does not equal action; 2) minor attraction is immutable; 3) stigma leads to psychological burden; 4) therapy should aim to reduce distress, not change sexual feelings; and 5) sexual behavior can be controlled and remain within legal parameters."

*'''Mundy, C. (2022). [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjhs.2022-0006 10 years later: Revisiting Seto’s (2012) conceptualization of orientation to sexual maturity among pedohebephilic persons.] ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.'' DOI:10.3138/cjhs.2022-0006'''
*:"As noted by researchers and clinicians in this area, there are clear clinical implications associated with a shift in the conceptualization of sexual attraction to children. [...] Despite resistance to such conceptualizations, the findings indicate that orientation to sexual maturity closely mirrors the developmental trajectory of gender sexual orientation, as outlined in Seto’s seminal paper."
*:excerpted from [https://www.b4uact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/B4QR-Winter-2023-3-1.pdf#page=17 B4QR]:
*:"Mundy explains that the conceptualization of attraction to minors as a sexual orientation is not of purely theoretical interest but can have important implications for treatment approaches.[...] Mundy cites studies showing that attraction to minors should be approached through acceptance and strengths-based practices that inculcate resilience and self-efficacy, as attempts to reduce or eliminate attraction to minors have not proven effective or beneficial to minor-attracted people."

*'''Roche, K., Stephens, S., Moss, S., and Seto, M. (2022). [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjhs.2022-0007 Online forum use in child attracted persons.] ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality'' 31 (3). DOI:10.3138/cjhs.2022-0007'''
*:"Social support for child-attracted persons (CAPs) may be important for increasing well-being, thereby reducing the risk of committing child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, in-person social support may be difficult to obtain because of stigma. CAPs may instead turn to online forums for people who are sexually attracted to children. [...] Most CAPs said that they initially sought out forums to avoid feeling alone in their attraction; the quality of offline support was rated as moderate. Emotional support and informational support were the most frequently endorsed forms of social support.

*'''Desbuleux, J.C. and Fuss, J. (2023) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2023.2199727 "The Self-Reported Sexual Real-World Consequences of Sex Doll Use"] ''The Journal of Sex Research'', DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2023.2199727'''
*:Interestingly, pedo-hebephilic users reported a greater reduction of sexual compulsivity compared to teleiophilic participants following doll use. Additionally, pedo-hebephilic participants more often reported acting out of illegal sexual fantasies with their dolls and a loss of interest in (sexual) intimacy with real children through doll use in the qualitative data. These self-reported data challenge the view that doll use is dangerously affecting human sexuality and instead suggest that dolls may be used as a sexual outlet for potentially dangerous and illegal (sexual) fantasies.

* '''Blagden, N. J., Mann, R., Webster, S., Lee, R., & Williams, F. (2018). [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1177/1079063217697132 “It’s not something I chose you know”: Making sense of pedophiles’ sexual interest in children and the impact on their psychosexual identity.] ''Sexual Abuse'', 30(6), 728–754. Doi: 10.1177/1079063217697132'''
*:"[I]t appears important to provide a treatment environment that allows for open and honest discussion about the nature of pedophilic sexual interest and '''does not focus on attempting to change the sexual interest''' (see Seto, 2012)."
*:"[T]reatment with such populations may benefit from [...] '''focusing on what is important to the individual''', for example, meaningful adult relationships and friendships, stable and satisfying employment, or something constructive to occupy their time."
*:"Finally, given the impact living with a deviant sexual interest had on participants’ identities, treatment may want to consider '''the latitude''' it gives to clients '''in creating/shaping constructive self and sexual identities'''. Indeed, a coherent narrative identity is crucially important for rehabilitation (Ward & Marshall, 2007). [...] [T]here is a connection between the identity conflict that participants experienced and risk factors for acting on their interest through the sexual abuse of children, such as social isolation, impaired intimacy with other adults, and the recognition of being a member of a highly stigmatized group."

* '''Williams, D. J., Thomas, J. N., & Prior, E. E. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/s10612-015-9270-y Moving Full-Speed Ahead in the Wrong Direction? A Critical Examination of US Sex-Offender Policy from a Positive Sexuality Model.] ''Critical Criminology'', 23(3), 277–294. doi:10.1007/s10612-015-9270-y'''
*:"Professionals should recognize that offenders and offending behaviors vary extensively, and therefore efforts to rehabilitate should be adjusted to acknowledge this diversity of expression and criminality. Understanding that sexual needs and interests are a part of an overall healthy lifestyle (WHO 2006) and finding ways to account for them in a sex-positive and socially appropriate manner could be especially beneficial in preventing and reducing sexual crimes."

* '''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A., Woodward, E. et al. (2023) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-023-01435-7 Fantasy Sexual Material Use by People with Attractions to Children]. ''Curr Psychiatry Rep'' 25, 395–404. doi:10.1007/s11920-023-01435-7'''
*: "Among other primary human goods [...] the strengths-based Good Lives Model of offender rehabilitation notes “sexual satisfaction” to be something that all people strive for in life[41, 42]. “Fantasy thinking” (an unrestricted form of mental experiences, in this case of a sexual nature) is thought to encourage arousal, excitement, and a feeling of possibility, feeding into the achievement of sexual satisfaction [43, 44]."
*: "[P]eople within this group have the same needs for sexual satisfaction as anybody else [41], and as such FSM [fictional sexual materials] may provide a viable outlet for their sexual fantasies as they pursue a sense of fulfillment in this domain."
*: "[C]hild-like sex doll owners were less likely to express a proclivity for sexual abuse than a comparison group of non-owners who were attracted to children and also demonstrated lower levels of sexual preoccupation."
*: "Rather than heightening arousal, FSM could act as a safe sexual outlet that allows for a feeling of release and sense of catharsis [84], which could reduce a motivation to seek out real children as a sexual partner."
*: "[E]ffective treatment engagement involves the alignment of treatment content to service user needs, considering sexual fulfillment and satisfaction as an important treatment need might be an increasingly pressing issue as support services for this population grow in number."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "The results of the current review also stand in contrast to the perspectives of practitioners in regard to treatment. [...] Similarly, Lievesley et al. (2023) found that practitioners valued controlling behavior much more highly than pedohebephiles did."
*:"The finding that, at least in community settings, few participants appear to have an interest in prevention goals, such as learning how to control or reduce their sexual attraction to children, therefore poses practical and ethical challenges for treatment providers. One way to balance the goals of offense prevention and individual wellbeing could be the use of the Good-lives-model, which seeks to encourage individuals to pursue meaningful and prosocial life goals (Willis & Ward, 2013), rather than deficit-oriented approaches like relapse prevention. However, it stands to reason that there should be more services with a stronger or even exclusive commitment to well-being goals, given that there are pedohebephiles with low risks of sexual offending."
*:"Creating a compassionate and non-shaming therapeutic environment is especially important to pedohebephiles in order for them to share openly their experiences, and the impact their sexual attraction has had on them (Hocken &Taylor, 2021). One form of therapy which appears particularly well suited to this client group is Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) (Hocken & Taylor, 2021). [...] Within CFT, the relationships individuals have with themselves, especially in the forms of shame and self-criticism—highly relevant to pedohebephiles—underpin a wide range of mental health problems (Gilbert, 2014). There is emergent evidence that compassion-based interventions can reduce shame and help pedohebephilic individuals towards meaningful clinical change (Clayton et al., 2022)."

*'''McPhail, I.V. (2024) “The Subjective Experience of Individuals with Pedohebephilic Interest”, ''Current Sexual Health Reports'' 16, DOI: 10.1007/s11930-023-00381-y'''
*:"[M]aking a disclosure to family and friends that is not followed by support is associated with higher loneliness, poorer relationship quality, greater psychological distress, and higher suicidality and in some cases is associated with worse outcomes than concealment [85••]. [...] These findings suggest that individuals with pedohebephilic interests are acutely aware of the risks of disclosure and are, to varying degrees, judicious and skilled at finding those in their lives that will be supportive following a disclosure. For a population that experiences such elevated levels of loneliness and suicidality, this skill is likely central to well-being and, in some instances, lifesaving."
*:"Acceptance of pedohebephilia can be a double-edged process: coming to terms with the nature and stability of sexual interests can be a painful process involving grieving, fear, anger, and self-stigma, and yet is helpful for coping with and managing sexual attractions to children in daily life [25, 93, 94, 97]."

*'''Elchuk DL, McPhail IV, Olver ME. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Mcphail/publication/350158068_Stigma-Related_Stress_Complex_Correlates_of_Disclosure_Mental_Health_and_Loneliness_in_Minor_Attracted_People/links/605b801792851cd8ce65cf5a/Stigma-Related-Stress-Complex-Correlates-of Stigma-related stress, complex correlates of disclosure, mental health, and loneliness in minor-attracted people. Stigma Health.] 2022;7:100–12. doi:10.1037/sah0000317'''
*:"The stigma towards MAPs is found to be greater than stigma towards other groups (e.g., sexual minorities, those with mental illness; Boysen et al., 2020; Lehmann et al., 2020) and research examining a community-based sample of MAPs found high proportions of suicidal ideation with intense stigma being the most significant risk factor (Cohen et al., 2019). As such, we anticipate internalized pedonegativity to be a stigma-related stressor present to varying degrees in MAPs."
*:"As anticipated by our hypothesis and previous research (Jahnke, 2018), MAPs experiencing internalized pedonegativity reported greater levels of loneliness, psychological distress, and suicidality; loneliness only partially mediated the relationship between internalized pedonegativity and mental health concerns. These results indicate that internalized pedonegativity may be a driver of decreased wellbeing for MAPs and highlight the need clinical services to focus on addressing internalized pedonegativity."
*:" Assessing for the presence of internalized pedonegativity may inform the kinds of interventions provided to these clients (e.g., compassion-focused interventions; cognitive reframing)."
Internalized Pedonegativity Scale Items:
<hr>
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
<small>
*Attraction to children is a natural expression of sexuality in humans.
*I wish I were only attracted to adults.
*When I’m sexually attracted to a child, I do not mind if someone else knows how I feel.
*Most problems that MAPs have come from their status as an oppressed minority, not from their sexual or romantic attraction to children per se.
*Life as an MAP is not as fulfilling as life as a non-MAP.
*I am glad to be an MAP.
*Whenever I think a lot about being an MAP, I feel critical about myself.
*I am confident that my pedophilia does not make me inferior.
*Whenever I think a lot about being an MAP, I feel depressed.
*If it were possible, I would accept the opportunity to be attracted to adults.
*I wish I could become more sexually attracted and romantically attracted to adults.
*If there were a pill that could change my minor attraction, I would take it.
*I would not give up being an MAP even if I could.
*Attraction to children is deviant.
*It would not bother me if I had children who were MAPs.
*Being an MAP is a satisfactory and acceptable way of life for me.
*If I were attracted to adults, I would probably be happier.
*Most MAPs end up lonely and isolated.
*For the most part, I do not care who knows I am an MAP.
*I have no regrets about being an MAP.
*I have tried to stop being attracted to children in general.
*I would like to get professional help in order to change my attraction to children to attraction to adults
</small>
</div>
<hr>

*'''Stephens, S., Jahnke, S., & Davidson, M. (2024). [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024 Delphi Recommendations for Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexual Interest in Children in Non-Mandated Community Settings.] ''The Journal of Sex Research'', 1–14. doi:10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024'''
*:"This study sought to reach an international expert consensus regarding the diagnosis and treatment of adults with a sexual interest in children in cases where treatment is non-mandated. [...] Consensus was reached for 48 practice guidelines, particularly for recommendations that relate to general clinical practice, such as assessing for other mental health conditions. There was more contention for the inclusion of forensic practices. The present recommendations can serve as a set of tentative guidelines that may guide assessment and treatment of sexual interest in children in non-mandated settings." Although the full article is not yet available for free, you can see the level of consensus on the various recommendations in the article's [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024?scroll=top supplementary material].

*'''McPhail, I. V., Stephens, S., & Heasman, A. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Mcphail/publication/328676586_Legal_and_Ethical_Issues_in_Treating_Clients_with_Pedohebephilic_Interests/links/5bdb76e592851c6b27a056a5/Legal-and-Ethical-Issues-in-Treating-Clients-With-Pedohebephilic-Interests.pdf Legal and ethical issues in treating clients with pedohebephilic interests.] ''Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne'', 59(4), 369.'''
*:"Individuals with a sexual interest in children who have not committed a sexual offence are a client population that are currently underserved by psychologists. In the context of accessing and providing mental health services, mandatory reporting laws represent a key issue for clients and psychologists. For clients, mandatory reporting requirements creates a double-bind: they wish to access psychotherapy for a myriad of psychological concerns, yet they fear the implications of psychologists’ mandated reporting requirements if they disclose their sexual interest. Psychologists treating non-offending clients with sexual interests in children face several overlapping and competing ethical and legal obligations created by mandatory reporting laws. To examine these complexities, the present paper reviews and discusses legislation in Canada, complaints to provincial professional colleges, and case law related to mandatory reporting requirements. We additionally review principles and standards in the Canadian Psychological Association’s Code of Ethics (4th edition) to inform service provision with these clients. Recommendations for practice are provided based on this discussion and practice case vignettes are given to facilitate ethical decision-making."

*'''Levitan, Julia et al. (2024). [https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2385909 Minor-Attracted Men's Lived Experiences of Romantic Attraction], ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy'''''.
*:"The results of this study have implications for the clinical treatment of help-seeking MAPs. Broadly, findings suggest that healthcare professionals should consider screening for romantic as well as sexual attraction to minors if relevant to case conceptualization or treatment, and this assessment could inform their treatment plan accordingly. Our results point to specific areas of clinical intervention that may be of interest. Examples include: Providing evidence-based psychoeducation about the romantic component of attraction to minors; collaborative brainstorming of strategies to avoid unsafe or unethical situations with loved minors, including efforts to prevent child sexual offenses; or offering cognitive and behavioral strategies to alleviate distressing emotions and clinical symptoms related to limitations to attraction and relationship development with loved minors (e.g., increasing self-compassion, , exploring methods of navigating the stigma of “forbidden and hidden” romantic attractions, providing guidance and support through mourning the possibility of a legitimate romantic relationship with loved minors). Help-seeking MAPs have heterogeneous treatment needs, so service-users’ goals should be collaboratively determined (Lievesley et al., 2022)."

* '''Murphy, R. (2024) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14680173241240973 A pilot study: Exploring suicidal ideation among non-offending adults with sexual attraction to minors, through their online forum posts] ''Journal of Social Work'' DOI:10.1177/14680173241240973'''
*:"Surveys indicate that one in three people living with child sexual attraction experience chronic suicidal ideation (Cohen et al., 2018; Stevens & Wood, 2019)."
*:'''list of suicidality triggers:'''
*: "The feelings of shame and guilt that members expressed at this emerging sense of identity were a significant trigger toward suicidality. [...] Members indicated that the guilt was fueled by the harboring of this secret, and feeling that they were creating a false narrative to the people around them. [...] The most frequently highlighted trigger toward suicidality was that of disclosure, or of being “outed.” [...] The degree of internalized critical thinking about self-identifying as a pedophile influenced the intensity of suicidality. [...] For those who had attempted to rid themselves of the attraction, and had subsequently found that it could not be “cured,” this realization could act as a further trigger point. [...] For those who had acted in some way on their thoughts, the regret and shame of this further triggered suicidality. [...] Media and social media could increase expressed suicidality in this regard, as members noted the stigma and hatred directed toward people with pedophilia and internalized this further. [...] Many members referenced using alcohol as a means of escaping the reality of their situation, and it was identified that suicidal thoughts were often acted upon after alcohol intake. [...] Despite relationships and disclosure being a risk factor, this was also identified as a protective factor, with the key difference between the risk and protective elements of disclosure, being the response received. [...] Unhelpful professionals were considered those who presented as judgemental, hostile, who were uneasy about pedophilia and who may make reports to authorities despite no offence being committed. Unsuccessful engagements with professionals were reported to negatively affect members’ sense of self and sense of hope and to increase feelings of suicidality."

*'''Nematy, A., Flynn, S., & McCarthy-Jones, S. (2024) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10790632241268465 Perspectives, Treatment Goals, and Approaches of Prevention-Specialist Mental Health Professionals in Working With Clients Attracted to Children]. ''Sexual Abuse'', DOI: 10.1177/10790632241268465'''
*:'''considering pedophilia as an unchangeable condition has therapeutic value'''
*:"Considering pedophilia as a sexual orientation implies that treatment might be more effective when it prioritizes developing self-regulation skills rather than attempting to alter sexual preference (Seto, 2012). Accordingly, accepting minor-attraction is a pivotal step in effectively managing its behavioral manifestation. This acceptance serves as a crucial foundation for clients, enabling them to process suppressed feelings, integrate their atypical sexuality into their sense of self, alleviate the internalized shame, and enhance their capacity to manage their desires responsibly (Beier et al., 2009; Cantor, 2018; Lievesley et al., 2018; Walton & Hocken, 2021).[...] Cantor (2018) points out that if clients are informed that their pedophilic desire will cease, they may underestimate it and not attempt to develop skills for managing their sexual desire or avoid certain situations, hoping that it will disappear."
*:"Some authors suggest that deliberate control of thoughts may have a rebound effect (Hooper & Mchugh, 2013; Wegner, 1994). An experiment conducted by Johnston et al. (1997) revealed that in individuals who committed CSA, the accessibility of child-related thoughts increased after an instructed suppression period. Suppression and avoidance are generally considered maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and risk factors for depression, anxiety, and maladaptive behaviors such as substance misuse (Aldao et al., 2010). A study on individuals attracted to children found that thought suppression is associated with higher levels of guilt and shame about sexual attraction, lower levels of hope about the future, and lower levels of subjective psychological well-being (Lievesley et al., 2020). Individuals attracted to children reported that thought suppression had been detrimental and conflicted with their therapeutic progress (Dymond & Duff, 2020). They also reported attempts to change pedophilia as unhelpful (Schaefer et al., 2023) and described their sexual attraction as enduring (Walton & Duff, 2017)."
*:'''sex dolls are useful'''
*:"While still limited, available empirical evidence does not support the idea that sex dolls have escalating effects. Instead, doll ownership is linked to reduced levels of sexual preoccupation and self-reported arousal in hypothetical abuse scenarios (Harper & Lievesley, 2022). Moreover, doll owners show a lower tendency toward sexual aggression (Harper & Lievesley, 2023). In a mixed-method study, minor-attracted doll owners report less sexual preoccupation compared to teleiophilic doll owners. The qualitative accounts of doll owners indicate they channeled their sexual fantasies toward their dolls while reporting a decline in interest in real children through doll use (Desbuleux & Fuss, 2023)."
*:'''prevention approach doesn't work in therapy'''
*:"[S]trategies such as confiscating a client’s device or mandating disclosure to the family (which can lead to severe consequences) appear to be similar to surveillance and supervision rather than therapy, in which the client’s autonomy and self-determination must be at the heart of the practice (Cottone & Tarvydas, 2016)."
*:"While the prevention of child sexual abuse is undoubtedly a legitimate goal, the risk-management approach has been criticized for perpetuating social and self-stigma around minor attraction, which implies that individuals attracted to children are inevitably destined to offend unless preventive measures are taken (Jahnke, 2018; Lievesley & Harper, 2021). Some clients may perceive such efforts as incongruent with their needs and expectations, leading them to avoid seeking support to distance themselves from suspicions of being treated as potential offenders (Cacciatori, 2017; Grady et al., 2019; Lievesley & Harper, 2021)."
*:"[A] recent study found no significant difference among clients in a well-known prevention project (Dunkelfeld) compared to a control group on a waiting list in dynamic sexual offense risk factors such as sexual dysregulation, offense-supportive attitudes, recent behaviors related to CSA and CSAM consumption (Mokros & Banse, 2019). Considering the insufficient effectiveness of such risk paradigm approaches, it has been suggested that greater attention should be paid to other factors, including the psychological effects of living with minor attraction and stigma-related stressors (e.g., loneliness, low self-esteem, self-stigma, and shame) (Jahnke, 2018; Lievesley et al., 2020) and clients' overall well-being (Grady et al., 2019). This consideration also encompasses preventive elements since enhanced psychological well-being is associated with a reduced risk of sexual offending (Ward & Stewart, 2003; Yates, 2016)."

* '''from part of John O'Connor's masters in psychotherapy - Exploration of an Ethical Dilemma'''
*:“This essay attempted to illustrate how strict adherence to mandatory reporting laws may have a paradoxical effect of increased risk for both children and clients. [...] As such there is a rationale for choosing to remain with the client and deciding not to report.”
*:“Choosing not to burden the MAP client [who have never offended] with reporting, and continuing therapy with them is an ethically responsible and necessary practice (Heasman & Foreman, 2019), which contributes to the wider public health goal of first-time abuse prevention (Culling, 2018) and demonstrates the greater ethical utility (Baron, 2006; Jahnke, 2018; Heasman & Foreman, 2019; Beier et al., 2021).”
*::full references:
*::Baron, J. (2006). Against bioethics (pp. 1-236). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
*::Beier, K. M., Gieseler, H., Ulrich, H., Scherner, G., & Schlinzig, E. (2021). The Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD). Pedophilia, Hebephilia and Sexual Offending against Children: The Berlin Dissexuality Therapy (BEDIT), 43-56. 
*::Culling, H. (2018). Informing the prevention of child sexual abuse: comparing convicted offenders and minor-attracted persons. 
*::Heasman A, Foreman T. (2019) Bioethical Issues and Secondary Prevention for Nonoffending Individuals with Pedophilia. Camb Q Healthc Ethics.
*::Jahnke, S. (2018). The stigma of pedophilia. European Psychologist.

* '''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A. & Woodward, E. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x Toward a Holistic Approach to Treatment and Support for People with Attractions to Children]. Curr Sex Health Rep 17, 7 (2025).'''
*:"Evidence supports the need for a broader focus on treatment goals, such as improving psychological wellbeing, developing healthy coping strategies, and reducing internalized stigma. [...] Although specific child protection frameworks are important, a purely prevention-focused approach to treatment can reinforce stigma and limits the development of services that prioritize therapeutic engagement and alignment with service user needs."

*'''Lievesley, R , Swaby, H , Stevenson, J & Harper, C. (2024) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2402320#abstract “Not offending is easy. The double life, the secrets, the loneliness are the hardest parts I needed help with”: understanding the treatment needs of people with attractions to children] ''Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy'', DOI:10.1080/0092623X.2024.2402320'''
*: "[S]eeking support for sexual frustration outside of the child sexual abuse context, in addition to broader mental health treatment needs acknowledged in a range of studies, is a desired feature of treatment among this population. [...] This is consistent with positive psychological models of well-being and forensic risk reduction, which cite the achievement of sexual satisfaction (and thus elimination of sexual frustration) as a universal primary human good that feeds into a healthy self-identity (Ward & Marshall, 2004)."
:: "[P]articipants were clear that services with an explicit and specific aim of reducing sexual risk (e.g., Stop It Now!, or programs linked to the Troubled Desire initiative) were unlikely to appeal to them."

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A. & Woodward, E. (2025) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x Toward a Holistic Approach to Treatment and Support for People with Attractions to Children]. Curr Sex Health Rep 17, 7. doi:10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x'''
::"Recent work has identified four specific treatment targets among people with attractions to children. These are: (1) mental health concerns, (2) dealing with stigma, (3) controlling or changing sexual attractions to children, and (4) the alleviation of sexual frustration."
::"[...]state factors facilitating sexual offending include low mood and maladaptive coping strategies, such as substance misuse. As such, the addressing of mental health related concerns can play a key role in the prevention of child sexual abuse, even in the absence of a specific prevention framing to support services."
::"Both internalized and societal stigma can severely impact an individual’s self-esteem, social relationships, and willingness to seek help. [...] The lack of accessible, non-judgmental support further compounds internal conflict and can lead to worsening mental health outcomes, including depression and suicidal ideation. Alongside this, people can begin to internalize social attitudes and begin to see offending as an inevitability as a result of their attractions. Within the criminological literature this is referred to as a Golem effect, whereby people behave in a manner consistent with social expectations."
::"Unaddressed sexual frustration can contribute to significant psychological strain, maladaptive coping strategies, or risky behaviors, making it a critical area for therapeutic intervention. From a prevention perspective, we know that blockages to sexual expression and paraphilic sexual interests are implicated in all major models of sexual offending, with this being compounded among people with sexual attractions with no legal outlet."
::"Efforts to directly alter attractions have not demonstrated consistent success, and researchers caution against such approaches due to ethical and practical concerns related to procedures that evoke images consistent with sexual orientation conversion therapy."

*'''Konrad A, Heid LM, Scheuermann H, Beier KM, Amelung T. (2025) [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463191/full Acceptance of sexual attraction and its link to psychological distress and sexual offending among pedohebephilic clients: results from a preliminary analysis.] Front Psychol. 2025 Jan 27;15:1463191. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463191.'''
::"Psychological distress was significantly and negatively associated with acceptance (p < 0.001), i.e., as psychological distress increased, acceptance of one’s sexual inclination decreased. In our main and sensitivity analyses, recent general offending behavior was not significantly associated with acceptance (p = 0.625)"

*'''Lea H. Studer, A. Scott Aylwin (2006) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allan-Aylwin/publication/7017556_Pedophilia_The_problem_with_diagnosis_and_limitations_of_CBT_in_treatment/links/59fb86ba458515d070616604/Pedophilia-The-problem-with-diagnosis-and-limitations-of-CBT-in-treatment.pdf Pedophilia: The problem with diagnosis and limitations of CBT in treatment.]'''
::"First, there is little reason to include pedophilia among the mental disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). [...] Secondly,the typical CBT-based relapse prevention treatment for pedophilia, which represents current best practice, is reviewed. It is suggested that this, as a stand alone therapy, is suboptimal. CBT components are necessary but not sufficient for comprehensive therapy. It is imperative that process issues are given primacy in treatment programs. The common factors literature makes it clear that the therapeutic relationship is at least as potent a factor promoting change as the system or techniques that clinicians employ."

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., Awan, A., and Bishop, A. (2025) "[https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2025.2522664 Beyond Pro- and Anti-Contact: Understanding the Ideologies of People Attracted to Children]" ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy'', 51(6)'''
::"A sense of self-acceptance in the sample was associated with lower levels of internalized stigma and an increased belief that children both desire and initiate sexual activity with other people. In the sexual domain, higher levels of masturbation were observed alongside a greater belief in the controllability of participants’ sexual desires among those with higher levels of self-acceptance."
::"[T]hose scoring low on self-acceptance reported needing relatively high levels of support across all treatment domains, which may be indicative of this particular ideological factor being of importance in treatment planning"
::"Among the group labeled “Radicals” [high self-acceptance and high permissibility of sex with minors], there were relatively low levels of self-reported needs for treatment, which might indicate that this group does not often appear in clinical settings. In analyzing their data, though, there was a firm rejection of treatment that was designed to control or change their attractions, with sexual frustration needs being less important than receiving support with mental health and social stigma. This was also the case for those labeled “Comfortable-Virtuous” [high self-acceptance and low permissibility], and as such it makes sense to perhaps move away from seeing the clusters as entirely separate groups with specific or unique treatment needs"
::"[T]hose who scored highly on the permissibility dimension were less likely to report needing support with sexual frustration. This may be due to these participants feeling less shame about expressing their sexuality, and a greater level of willingness among them to engage with sexual fantasy and fictional sexual materials (FSM; Lievesley, Harper, Woodward et al., 2023; Woodward et al. 2024)."
::"When permissibility perceptions were high, self-reported proclivities for offending were increased for both CSEM and contact offenses." But "adopting an explicitly abuse prevention approach is known to be detrimental to the likelihood of service uptake among people who are attracted to children (Levenson & Grady, 2019; Lievesley et al., 2025; Lievesley & Harper, 2022). [...] In contexts where the client has explicitly excluded risk management as a treatment target, placing emphasis on the client’s beliefs regarding the permissibility of sexual contact with children could hinder the development of a trusting and authentic therapeutic relationship."

*'''Gillespie, S. (2022). [https://www.proquest.com/openview/ba920465eed71c360408571550ba3f4b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Sexual Fantasies and Self-Regulation in a Community Sample of People with Sexual Fantasies and/or Interest Involving Minors] [Ph.D. Thesis]'''
::"Results indicate that acceptance-based mindfulness approaches were positively associated with wellbeing and self-efficacy. Elaboration approaches (e.g. intentional fantasizing, pairing fantasies with masturbation), which were the most used and valued strategies for respondents, were positively associated with self-efficacy."

::"These results align with previous research that found that intentional fantasizing and pairing fantasies with masturbation was not correlated with sexual offending (Bailey et al., 2016; Houtepen et al., 2016)[...] The results of this study indicate that sexual fantasizing involving minors is associated with self-efficacy, which aligns with other research supporting the potential for positive or protective effects of sexual fantasizing by providing sexual outlet that does not involve victimizing children (Houtepen et al., 2016; Jones et al., 2021; Walker, 2017). Further, the lack of association between elaboration and potentially negative outcomes for sexual self-regulation in the present study calls into question the heavy treatment focus on changing/controlling sexual fantasies by any (including ethically questionable and potentially harmful) means necessary."

::"Bartels and Gannon (2011) found a positive association between deviant sexual fantasy and negative affect, providing support for offenders’ use of sexual fantasies as coping. [...] The authors also state that, “the motivation of the offender (avoidant vs. approach) dictates how sexual fantasy may affect behavior” (p. 559). Vanhoeck and colleagues (2011) recommend distinguishing deviant sexual fantasies (which require management strategies) from other sexual fantasies, the difference between them depending not on the content of the fantasy but its link to sexual offending behavior. "

== See also ==
* [[Preventionism]]
==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on Pedophilia and Hebephilia characteristics contains some useful information re efficacy and effects of treatments.

{{Template:EGLPHC}}

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]]

Research: A "cure" for pedophilia?

2026-06-01T09:12:57Z

Thorn:

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Attempts to "treat" pedophilia are ineffectual and in many cases harmful. It's important to point out that pedophilia is the ''direction'' of one's sexuality, not the intensity of one's sexual interest. While there are drugs that can reduce sexual desire, reorientation is not possible.
__NOTOC__
==Treatment==
===Efficacy===
*'''Stelzmann, D., Jahnke, S., & Kuhle, L. F. (2022). [https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9356 Media Coverage of Pedophilia and Its Impact on Help-Seeking Persons with Pedophilia in Germany - A Focus Group Study.] ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'' 19 (15), DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19159356'''
*:“Both sexual preferences for prepubescent (pedophilia) and pubescent (hebephilia) children are only considered pathological if the sexual attraction to children resulted in previous sexual offending against children, or causes significant distress and/or interpersonal difficulties (pedophilic disorder or unspecified paraphilic disorder [10]). Currently, there is little evidence showing that the sexual attraction to children can be “cured” in the sense that it can be converted into a sexual attraction to adults (teleiophilia; overview see [23]). Therefore, preventive treatment often focuses on behavioral control and/or the reduction of psychological distress.”

*'''[[Fred Berlin|Berlin, Fred S.]] (2000). "[http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=174135 Treatments to Change Sexual Orientation]," ''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 157, p. 838.'''
*:"It may be no easier for a person with pedophilia to change his or her sexual orientation than it is for a homosexual or heterosexual individual to do so."

*'''[[Dennis Howitt|Howitt, D.]] (1995). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/howitt_trtmnt.htm The Treatment of Paedophiles]," in ''Paedophiles and Sexual Offences Against Children'', pp. 189-192.'''
*:"Many of the early behaviour therapy treatments for paedophilia emerged from attempts to make homosexuals "normal" or, at least, stop "doing their thing". [...] As we will see, there is a degree of uncertainty about the effectiveness of even the best researched therapies for paedophiles. There are a number of reasons for this. Many of the therapies have not been subject to specific empirical evaluation of any sort; some have been tried with only a few clients. Often the criteria of therapeutic success have fallen well short of evidence of a decline in recidivism in offending, obviously one of the most important criteria. Research that includes a control or an alternatively treated group is in the minority of the evaluations. With a situation like this, claims of therapeutic success may sometimes be wishful thinking on the part of the clinician, the client or both."

*'''Van-Zessen, G. (1990). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/van_zessen.htm A model for group counseling with male pedophiles]," ''Journal of Homosexuality'', 20(1-2), 189-198.'''
*:"The majority of the reported studies have roots in behavior therapy. The early behavioral approaches were aimed at reducing the deviant sexual arousal by aversion therapy (Quinsey et al., 1976). The attraction to children is viewed as purely sexual (Howells, 1979). In its simplest form, the child is the stimulus that elicits sexual excitement in the adult (Quinsey et al., 1975). All other motivations and meanings of pedophile attraction are ignored. [...] In an overview of the literature concerning homosexual conversion therapies, James (1978) concluded that the majority of studies were unsuccessful in changing sexual orientation. It is likely that the same holds for pedophile conversion therapy."

*'''Seto, M. (2009). "Pedophilia," ''Annual Review of Clinical Psychology'', 5, 391-407.'''
*:"There is no evidence to suggest that pedophilia can be changed. [...] Across the following interventions, the underlying assumption is that pedophilia is a stable sexual preference that is unlikely to change, just as there is little, if any, evidence that heterosexual or homosexual orientation can be changed. Recent etiological research on neurodevelopmental correlates of pedophilia—including cognitive functioning, non-right-handedness, and structural volume differences—suggests that pedophilia is influenced by prenatal factors and thus is unlikely to respond to interventions delivered when the individual is an adult (e.g., Cantor et al. 2008)."

*'''Quinsey, V. L. (2008). "Seeking Enlightenment on the Dark Side of Psychology," ''Trauma, Violence, & Abuse'', 9(2), 72-83.'''
*:"Sexual age and gender preferences do not appear to be learned and malleable (e.g., our attempts to increase sexual arousal of normal subjects to slides of women through Pavlovian conditioning by pairing the slides with highly arousing videotapes were vitiated by habituation; Lalumière & Quinsey, 1998). Although sexual age and gender preferences can be measured with phallometric technology (for reviews of the assessment and treatment literature on sexual offenders against children, see Camilleri & Quinsey, in press; Quinsey & Lalumière, 2001) and responses to deviant categories can be reduced with standard conditioning techniques, these alterations now appear not to involve the preferences themselves but only their measurement. Fifty years after Kinsey et al. (1953) wrote the passage quoted at the beginning of this section, it appears that the role of learning in the development of sexual age and gender preferences is limited or nonexistent (for a review, see Quinsey, 2003)."

*'''Berlin, Fred S., Saleh, Fabian M., and Malin, H. Martin (2009). "Mental Illness and Sex Offending," in ''Sex Offenders'', p. 124. Oxford University Press US.'''
*:"In the past, efforts to "recondition" homosexuality were a clear failure. The same would appear to be true of methods intended to "recondition" paraphilic conditions such as pedophilia."

*'''Camilleri, Joseph A., and Quinsey, Vernon L. (2008). "Pedophilia: Assessment and Treatment," in D. Richard Laws and William T. O'Donohue (eds.), ''Sexual Deviance, Second Edition''.'''
*:"The greatest problems with conditioning approaches (and other approaches described later) are (1) that changing actual preferences (as opposed to indices that reflect them) has been quite difficult (Furby, Weinrott, & Blackshaw, 1989; Lalumière & Quinsey, 1998); and (2) no studies have shown long-term changes in sexual preference or behavior after treatment (Laws, 2001; Quinsey & Earls, 1990). [p. 193] [...] Despite the strong relationship between neurobiological variables in sexual behavior and treatment, reducing general arousal does not alter sexual preference. Researchers found that men with phallometrically measured deviant sexual interests had the same preferences after hormonal treatment (Bancroft, Tennent, Loucas, & Cass, 1974; Cooper, Sandhu, Losztyn, & Cernovsky, 1992). [...] It appears as though treatment for paraphilias works by decreasing sexual interest in general, suggesting that medical treatments do not "cure" the sexual preference but mask it by reducing sexual desire. [p. 200]"

*'''12/11/06 deposition of Michael B. First, M.D., in In Re the Detention of William Davenport AKA William Cummings, Franklin County, Washington, No. 99-2-50349-2.'''
*:"I was the editor of the DSM-IV-TR. DSM-IV-TR was published in the year 2000. I was also the editor of the text and criteria of its immediate predecessor, which was the DSM-IV. [p. 9] [...] If you're attracted to children at age 13 you’re going to be attracted to children at age 70. [...] The fact that that's your focus of arousal remains constant. [...] The percentage of time you think about that would decline. [...] The time you spend masturbating thinking about that will go down, and the actual paraphilic behaviors go down, but the core of the paraphilia is present for life. There's no evidence, even when you have successful treatment of an individual paraphilia, which actually treating is the intensity of the paraphilia, not the arousal pattern. I don't believe there’s strong evidence that you could actually get someone who is attracted to children to lose [his or her] attraction. [p. 230]"

*'''American Psychiatric Association (2013). ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (Fifth ed.), p. 698.'''
*:"Adult males with pedophilic disorder may indicate that they become aware of strong or preferential sexual interest in children around the time of puberty — the same time frame in which males who later prefer physically mature partners became aware of their sexual interest in women or men. [...] Pedophilia per se appears to be a lifelong condition."

*'''Seto, Michael (2012). "Is Pedophilia a Sexual Orientation?", ''Archives of Sexual Behaviour'', 41, p. 233.'''
*:"Pedophilia is viewed by many researchers and clinicians as having a lifelong course. For some individuals, at least, it is discovered in early adolescence and sexual interest in children can be detected in adolescence (Seto, Lalumiere, & Blanchard, 2000; Seto, Murphy, Page, & Ennis, 2003); once identified, pedophilia can predict detected sexual behavior involving children up to 40 years later (Hanson, Steffy, & Gauthier, 1993). Changes in sexual arousal to children can be made using behavioral conditioning techniques, but follow-up studies have not shown evidence that this change generalizes outside the laboratory or persists over the longer-term."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "Multiple studies (see Table 4) reported that participants had sought or wanted to seek help with the goal of changing their attraction to children. However, as time went on, many came to realize that their attractions were enduring and redirected their goals towards managing them and finding ways to live productive and meaningful lives"

*'''Gillespie, S. (2022). [https://www.proquest.com/openview/ba920465eed71c360408571550ba3f4b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Sexual Fantasies and Self-Regulation in a Community Sample of People with Sexual Fantasies and/or Interest Involving Minors] [Ph.D. Thesis]'''
::"One approach to addressing deviant sexual fantasies in sex offense-specific treatment involves pairing unpleasant sensations or thoughts with the undesired fantasy (Vanhoeck et al., 2011). Opponents of sexual re-orientation and “gay conversion” therapies have denounced these types of aversive approaches to changing sexual arousal patterns, and they have been labeled abusive (Serovich et al., 2008). Other approaches addressing deviant sexual interests involve masturbatory/orgasmic conditioning aimed at inducing or reducing arousal to certain stimuli. There is not strong empirical evidence that these treatments are effective (Vanhoeck et al., 2011). It is concerning that these treatments persist in spite of lack of robust empirical support for the efficacy of these treatments alongside a myriad of ethical, therapeutic alliance, and safety concerns (Vanhoeck et al., 2011). There are also concerns that treatments which use or induce shame, worry, and punishment could have an impact on factors involved in sexual selfregulation, potentially leading to an increase in risk of sexual re-offense. For example, negative affect has been associated with deviant sexual fantasies and sexual offending, so it is questionable if clinicians treating sexual offenders should engage or recommend negative affect as an intervention toward desistance of sexual offending (Blagden et al., 2017). Using punishment and worry for thought-control have been linked to an increase in unwanted thoughts (Wells & Davies, 1994). Nagtegaal and colleagues (2006) found that for their sample of individuals with aggressive fantasies, tendency to try and suppress the thoughts was positively correlated with aggressive behavior. "

===Harm===
*'''[[Frans Gieles|Gieles, Frans]] (2001). "[http://www.helping-people.info/lecture.htm Helping people with pedophilic feelings]." Lecture at the 15th World Congress of Sexology, Paris, June 2001.'''
*:"I have met clients who started this kind of treatment [to 'cure' their pedophilia] as a warm lively person and who have been changed into 'a stiff wooden doll' after it."

*'''Fog, Agner (1992). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/fog_eng.htm Paraphilias and Therapy]," ''Nordisk Sexologi'', 10(4), pp. 236-242.'''
*:Fog interviews a pedophile: "My sexual feelings for boys went away partially for about a year, and then at the end of the year I started waking up screaming and hollering with nightmares, and I would see a pitful of snakes and they were just everywhere and I would be screaming to get away from them. [...] 'Were your feelings towards boys reduced by the therapy?' They were reduced in the sense that my penis did not show the difference, but I still enjoyed being a teacher because I could be close to boys. I really don't think that feelings for boys or whoever we have feelings for has all that much to do with how much erection you have, but this is what they were reducing it to. [...] rather than destroy my feelings towards boys they destroyed me as an individual, it destroyed my security."

*'''Camilleri, Joseph A., and Quinsey, Vernon L. (2008). "Pedophilia: Assessment and Treatment," in D. Richard Laws and William T. O'Donohue (eds.), ''Sexual Deviance, Second Edition'', p. 200.'''
*:"Drawbacks unique to medical treatments for pedophilia include side effects and noncompliance. Commonly cited side effects include hypertension, hyperglycemia, feminization, depression, and headaches (Hill et al., 2003; Saleh & Guidry, 2003)."

*'''Johnston, Lucy, Hudson, Stephen M., and Ward, Tony (1997). "The suppression of sexual thoughts by child molesters: A preliminary investigation," ''Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment'', 9(4), 303-319. '''
*:"Ironically, attempted suppression may actually result in a worse situation compared to no attempts being made. The hyperaccessibility of formerly undesired thoughts has been documented in a number of studies. Once suppressed, unwanted thoughts have been shown to return and dominate mental life (Macrae et al., 1994; Wegner, 1989; Wegner & Gold, 1995). Once inhibitory mechanisms are relaxed this rebound effect may be pernicious, promoting the execution of maladaptive behaviors, such as binge eating. (Herman & Polivy, 1993) and, potentially, sexual offenses (Johnston, Ward, & Hudson, 1997). [...] However, prior suppression resulted in slower latencies for both the sex-related and the child-related words for the preferential child molesters than either the situational child molesters or the nonsexual offenders, who did not differ from one another. Thought suppression did, then, have greater subsequent effects on the preferential child molesters, as predicted. For some offender types at least, suppression results in greater accessibility of sex-related thoughts. Such rebound effects lead one to question the utility of thought suppression as a therapy technique."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "Participants from studies classified as clinical, forensic, or mixed, reported on experiences with chemical treatments such as androgen deprivation therapy (Boons et al., 2021) or gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists (Landgren et al., 2020). In these cases, positive experiences were largely reported to be the calming effects of the chemicals, abstinence from offending, and improved mental health and well-being. The negative experiences included physical side effects, depression, and guilt. Interestingly, within these samples, the inability to become aroused was reported as a positive treatment effect by some and a negative treatment effect by others."

* '''McPhail, I.V. (2020) [https://harvest.usask.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/e555ae2e-7058-4f33-a6ba-cae1a294ab50/content Conceptual and empirical issues in pedohebephilic interest] [dissertation]. ''Saskatoon (SK): University of Saskatchewan'''''
*: "The findings that psychotherapy can help men with higher levels of pedophilic interest change joins a growing body of research suggesting that psychotherapeutic approaches can benefit even those with the most severe symptomatology (Furukawa et al., 2017). In the case of interventions for pedohebephilic interests in men with sexual offense histories, this may be an especially positive development, as the side-effects of long-term anti-androgen use can be debilitating and life threatening (Nota et al., 2019; Turner & Briken, 2018). However, it is important to note that at present, there is little to no information regarding adverse reactions clients have to behavioural treatments for pedophilic interest."
*: "However, across the studies, a large number of men received these specialized interventions for managing arousal to children who may not have experienced a need in this domain [...] Given the potential adverse reactions to aversive interventions, clients are subjected to potentially harmful and distressing treatments that they do not require"
*: Consider this in light of the following: "Approximately half of the analyses supported the conclusion that men who underwent treatment showed levels of arousal to children that were similar to men with no history of sexual offending against children. While this is not unequivocal evidence, [...] it provides some support for the conclusion that offending men do show similar levels of arousal compared to non-offending men."

*'''Turner, D., & Briken, P. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Turner-20/publication/322138557_Treatment_of_Paraphilic_Disorders_in_Sexual_Offenders_or_Men_With_a_Risk_of_Sexual_Offending_With_Luteinizing_Hormone-Releasing_Hormone_Agonists_An_Updated_Systematic_Review/links Treatment of paraphilic disorders in sexual offenders or men with a risk of sexual offending with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists: An updated systematic review.] ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', 15, 77–93. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.11.013. '''
*:"Steroidal antiandrogens and LHRH-agonists have in common that they suppress serum testosterone concentrations via different mechanisms and are thus summarized under the term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)."
*:"Side effects occurring most frequently are fatigue, hot flashes, depressive mood, weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, gynecomastia, loss of erectile function, and a loss in bone mineral density. [...] Although LHRH-agonists seem to be the most effective drugs in the treatment of paraphilic fantasies and behaviors, they should be reserved for paraphilic patients with the highest risk of sexual offending because of their extensive side effects."
*:"Current studies suggest that LHRH-agonists might be the most effective drugs to decrease paraphilic sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors. This accounts for adult, adolescent, and sexual offenders with a mental retardation. [...] LHRH-agonists should be reserved for most severe cases of (paraphilic) sexual offenders because they frequently lead to a complete decline of all sexual behaviors, thereby inferring with fundamental human rights. This clarifies that LHRHagonists should not be used with the intention of lifelong treatment and the possibility of ending treatment when adequate should be closely monitored."

==Is pedophilia a choice?==
*'''Berlin, Fred S. (2002). "Peer Commentaries on Green (2002) and Schmidt (2002): Pedophilia: When Is a Difference a Disorder?," ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', 31(6), 479-480.'''
*:"It is likely that no one would choose voluntarily to develop a pedophilic sexual orientation. Those with such an orientation have no more decided to have it than have any of us decided as children to be either heterosexual or homosexual. Men with pedophilia get erections when fantasizing about children. Heterosexual men get erections when fantasizing about women. In neither case is that so because the individual in question has somehow decided ahead of time to program his mind to work in such a fashion. Persons with pedophilia have simply not chosen to experience an alternative state of mind."

*'''Fagan, Peter J.; Wise, Thomas N.; Schmidt, Chester W.; and Berlin, Fred S. (2002) "Pedophilia," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 288, 2458-2465.'''
*:"During psychosexual development, no one decides whether to be attracted to women, men, girls, or boys. Rather, individuals discover the types of persons they are sexually attracted to, ie, their sexual orientation."

===Early development===

*'''B4U-Act (2011). [https://www.b4uact.org/research/survey-results/youth-suicidality-and-seeking-care/ "Survey Results"].
*:"Question: Looking back now, how old were you when you first had a preferential attraction to boys or girls younger than yourself, whether or not you realized it at the time? Result: Of 192 respondents answering this question, the most common age of first attraction was 12. Eighty-five percent began to experience the attraction while still minors themselves."

*'''Freund, K. & Kuban, M. (1993). "Toward a testable developmental model of pedophilia: The development of erotic age preference," ''Child Abuse & Neglect'', 17, 315-324.'''
*:"[A] greater proportion of pedophiles than of individuals who prefer physically mature partners remembers curiosity in their own childhood to see nude children without remembering such curiosity in regard to adults. This suggests that in a substantial proportion of pedophiles the occurrence of this paraphilia is predetermined at a very early developmental phase." (From [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8472184 abstract].)

*'''Griesemer, Michael M. (2004). ''Ausmass und Auswirkungen massenmedialer Desinformation zum Stand der Wissenschaften über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch''. [http://www.ipce.info/host/griesemer/griesemer.htm Ipce translation].'''
*:"Rather, we see another astonishing fact: on the same age in pre-puberty, on which the attraction to boys or girls was reported, already the nine years olds of both groups differ. The later pedophiles distinguish themselves from the control group because their objects of attraction are dramatically younger then themselves -- on the average two years younger, while the later non-pedophiles tend to feel attracted to older children -- on average 10.8 years of age.
*:Given the data, as now gathered, one might conclude that pedophilia develops itself already on a pre-pubertal age -- although we don't know how."

== Psychological wellbeing for MAPs ==
:''See also: [[Research:_The_Dangers_of_Stigma#Effects among people attracted to minors|Effects of stigma on MAPs]]''

Attraction does not require treatment, but MAPs often need help in improving their mental well-being. Mental health services and professionals may face the following challenges: high levels of anxiety, depression and other conditions in MAPs, severe [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|stigma]] (for both clients and those who provide compassionate approach), [[Preventionism|preventionism]], attempts at conversion therapy, difficulties in choosing the right therapeutic targets (discrepancies between lay professional beliefs and client's needs), ethics of communication with the client, and mandatory reporting laws. The following excerpts provide information about complications of mental health services as well as evidence-based implications for well-being-focused treatment.

Treatment suggestions derived from the studies include:

<hr>
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
<small>
* treatment facilities’ shift from prevention to well-being focus
* adjusting prevention effort to the real risk or harm of the offence
* acceptance of the attraction, refusal of conversion attempts
* developing self-compassion, shame reduction
* finding ways of acceptable experiencing one's sexuality, usage of artificial means for sexual satisfaction such as AI products or sex dolls
* undermining overly rigid avoidant coping strategies such as thought suppression and identity concealment
* creating positive self view (self identity, including sexual identity)
* disclosure in supportive contexts
* engaging with a supportive network/ community
* focusing on what is important in life to the individual
</small>
</div>
<hr>

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., & Elliot, H. (2020). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-01569-x The internalization of social stigma among minor-attracted persons: Implications for treatment.] Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 49, 1291-1304. doi: 10.1007/s10508-019-01569-x'''
*:'''Harmful mechanism of avoidance strategies''':
*:"We found that increased levels of suppression and lower levels of psychological well-being were associated with lower levels of hope about the future, but higher levels of both shame and guilt about having a sexual interest in minors. Thought suppression [...] did significantly predict higher rates of actively avoiding children. [...] Independently, lower levels of self-reported psychological wellbeing were associated with a desire for more support and higher rates of actively avoiding children."
*:"The internalization of negative social attitudes [...] [is] being posited as a motivation to engage in stress-ameliorating strategies in the form of distancing oneself from the minority identity via concealment (hiding one’s identity from those external to oneself), and suppression (refusing to accept one’s own minority identity)."
*:"Smart and Wegner (2000) describe many cognitive burdens that are associated with the constant suppression of one’s identity. Having to maintain an outward appearance that is different to internal processes can lead to a preoccupation with suppressing (Meyer, 2003), which can lead the individual living an internal “private hell” (Smart & Wegner, 2000, p. 229). This may be especially the case among MAPs [...] [S]uppression could become a totalizing experience in all areas of life with profoundly negative efects on psychological well-being. This is particularly troubling in light of evidence of a potential rebound efect that is associated with suppressing unwanted thoughts. Erskine and Georgiou (2011) described a range of evidence, suggesting that trying not to think about particular things (e.g., memories or actions) may actually increase rumination on those topics and reduce self-regulation processes (see also Abramowitz, Tolin, & Street, 2001). For example, dieters who suppress thoughts of hunger or thirst have been found to eat less in the short term, but binge at a later time (Denzler, Förster, Liberman, & Rozenman, 2010; Erskine, 2008), while the same outcomes are observed among smokers trying to reduce their cigarette consumption (Erskine, Georgiou, & Kvavilashvili, 2010). In the sexual domain, suppressing sexual thoughts has been associated with higher levels of compulsive sexual behaviors in religious groups (Efrati, 2019). [...] That is, [...] thought suppression related to minor attraction could paradoxically increase a propensity to engage with sexual thoughts involving children."
*:'''"Prevention" projects impose negative self-view and are therefore ineffective''':
*:"As reported previously, Grady et al. (2019) found that MAPs who viewed themselves as inherently bad people (they referred to this as shame in relation to sexual attractions) were less likely to seek help from professionals for issues arising from their attractions to minors. [...] Schemes that are designed to prevent or reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse (e.g., Germany’s Dunkelfeld Project) have been evaluated in relation to risk-relevant outcomes and dynamic sexual ofense risk factors (e.g., pro-criminal attitudes, impression management, and delinquent behavior; Beier et al., 2009, 2015), with these not showing particularly the positive results (see Mokros & Banse, 2019). While this lack of “treatment success” may call into question the validity of such schemes, it may be that these schemes emerge as being much more successful if broader psychosocial constructs related to well-being were also assessed. Further, the risk-based framing of such schemes (i.e., “prevention projects”) implicitly assumes that MAPs need to be “prevented” from offending (Lievesley & Harper, 2019), rather than “supported” though their psychosocial experiences of being attracted to minors (Grady et al., 2019; Jahnke, 2018b; Jahnke et al., 2015b). [...] [T]hose wishing to distance themselves from such a label do not reach out to access services that could lead to signifcant well-being improvements (Lievesley & Harper, 2019)."
*:"That is, the emphasis of treatment should be less related to “risk reduction” and more related to promoting MAPs’ social and psychological well-being, with forensic risk reduction becoming a by-product of this broader aim. [...] Instead of taking a deficits-focused view of the problem at hand (i.e., adopting a risk-focused lens), acceptance-based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999; Hayes & Wilson, 1994) work with the idea that peoples’ difficulties occur when they attempt to avoid and suppress painful feelings (Hayes, 1994), and represent a more positive psychological approach to dealing with distress. As such, we recommend that treatment approaches tackle the negative self-image experienced by many MAPs by encouraging them to view their sexual interests as a core part of their identities (acceptance), but also support them to live crime-free lives (commitment)."

*'''McKillop, N. and Price, S. (2023) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nadine-Mckillop/publication/370159588_The_Potential_for_Anti-Stigma_Interventions_to_Change_Public_Attitudes_Toward_Minor-Attracted_Persons_A_Replication_and_Extension_of_Jara_and_Jeglic%27s_Study/links/64b081da95bbbe0 "The Potential for Anti-Stigma Interventions to Change Public Attitudes Toward Minor-Attracted Persons: A Replication and Extension of Jara and Jeglic’s Study"]. ''Journal of Child Sexual Abuse'', DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2023.2204864'''
*:"Although many MAPs conceal and suppress their attraction and urges to act out their sexual desires (Jara & Jeglic, 2021; Levensen et al., 2017; Lievesley et al., 2020), Lievesley et al. (2020) caution that suppression – without professional treatment and appropriate supports – may increase the likelihood of future CSA behaviors. Certainly, Elchuk and collegues (2022) found that, while disclosure itself did not reduce psychological distress for MAPs, psychological and emotional wellbeing was improved when disclosure was met with support highlighting the potential value in engaging with support networks and services to improve outcomes".

*'''Lievesley, R & Harper, C.A. (2022) [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1080/13552600.2021.1883754 "Applying desistance principles to improve wellbeing and prevent child sexual abuse among minor-attracted persons"] ''Journal of Sexual Aggression'', 28:1, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/13552600.2021.1883754'''
*:"In accordance with theoretical insights into the motivations of individuals who sexual offend (e.g. Hall & Hirschman, 1991; Ward & Beech, 2006; Ward & Siegert, 2002), a focus on mental health treatment, shame reduction, and psychosocial wellbeing has the potential to prevent offending from taking place without treatment services being explicitly labeled as prevention. They would also be more in keeping with MAPs’ own self-identified treatment targets (B4U-ACT, 2011; Levenson & Grady, 2019)."

*'''Clayton, J., Hocken, K., and Blagden, N. (2022) [https://threequayspublishing.com/product/a-compassionate-intervention-for-individuals-with-problematic-sexual-interests-group-and-individual-outcomes-in-the-uk/ A compassionate intervention for individuals with problematic sexual interests: Group and individual outcomes in the UK.] ''Abuse: An International Impact Journal'', doi: 10.37576/abuse.2022.035'''
*:"The present paper discusses one of the first free community-based therapeutic interventions (The Aurora Project) in the UK, for individuals who are distressed by their sexual thoughts and behaviour and/or concerned they are a potential risk to others. The clinical approach to working with this population takes a compassion-focused stance. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in self-esteem and social safeness, as well as a reduction in internalised shame."

*'''Bekkers, L. M. J., Leukfeldt, E. R., & Holt, T. J. (2023). [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10790632231154882 Online Communities for Child-Attracted Persons as Informal Mental Health Care: Exploring Self-Reported Wellbeing Outcomes.] ''Sexual Abuse'', 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10790632231154882'''
*:“Online support communities are gaining attention among child-attracted persons (CAPs). Though research has largely focused on the negative consequences these environments create for potential offending, they may also provide a beneficial alternative to more formal treatment settings. [...] [B]y means of informal social control, bonds of trust and social relational education, the network aims to regulate the behavior and enhance the wellbeing of its marginalized participants. Key outcomes include a decreased sense of loneliness and better coping with stigma, to the point that participants experience less suicidal thoughts.”

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., Swaby, H. and Woodward, E. (2022) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2149437 Identifying and working with appropriate treatment targets with people who are sexually attracted to children]. ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy''. DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2149437'''
*: "The importance of addressing mental health issues is best highlighted by looking at the prevalence of suicidal ideation and intention among MAPs, with around 40% admitting to experiencing chronic suicidal ideation (Cohen, Ndukwe, Yaseen, & Galynker, 2018; Cohen et al., 2020). Research has also shown how MAPs experience high rates of anxiety, depression, and self-hatred (e.g., Jahnke et al., 2015; Lievesley et al., 2020; Stevens & Wood, 2019). Thought suppression is common among MAPs, with this taking many forms, including the active avoidance of children and potential reminders of minor attraction (Lievesley et al., 2020) or through problematic levels of substance use (Stevens & Wood, 2019; Walker, 2021). Such behavior often leads MAPs to become socially isolated and lacking in emotional and social supports (Elchuk, McPhail, & Olver, 2022; Jahnke et al., 2015)."
*:"this finding suggests that the most pressing problems that MAPs believe are present in their lives relate to the emotional responses that they experience in relation to their sexual attractions, and not in relation to their (lack of) potential propensities to act on these".
*: "we have also identified one potential treatment-related construct—self-compassion [...] with decreased self-compassion being associated with a greater need to address mental health and stigma-related concerns, increased sexual frustration, and a desire to change one’s sexual attraction patterns."
*:"The observation that lower levels of self-compassion were associated with an increased desire to control or change one’s attractions to children is perhaps indicative of the internalization of stigma (see Jahnke et al., 2015; Lievesley et al., 2020). [...] low levels of self-compassion might lead to unattainable treatment targets, and thus self-compassion and self-acceptance may be an important treatment aim when working with MAPs."

*'''Schaefer, A., Wittenberg, A., Galynker, I. and Cohen, L.J. (2022) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2126808?journalCode=usmt20 Qualitative Analysis of Minor Attracted Persons’ Subjective Experience: Implications for Treatment.] ''Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.'' DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2126808'''
*:"This qualitative study examined community-based MAPs’ responses to narrative questions about their experiences and what they want society to understand, using an iterative thematic analysis. Notable responses from the participants included: 1) sexual attraction does not equal action; 2) minor attraction is immutable; 3) stigma leads to psychological burden; 4) therapy should aim to reduce distress, not change sexual feelings; and 5) sexual behavior can be controlled and remain within legal parameters."

*'''Mundy, C. (2022). [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjhs.2022-0006 10 years later: Revisiting Seto’s (2012) conceptualization of orientation to sexual maturity among pedohebephilic persons.] ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.'' DOI:10.3138/cjhs.2022-0006'''
*:"As noted by researchers and clinicians in this area, there are clear clinical implications associated with a shift in the conceptualization of sexual attraction to children. [...] Despite resistance to such conceptualizations, the findings indicate that orientation to sexual maturity closely mirrors the developmental trajectory of gender sexual orientation, as outlined in Seto’s seminal paper."
*:excerpted from [https://www.b4uact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/B4QR-Winter-2023-3-1.pdf#page=17 B4QR]:
*:"Mundy explains that the conceptualization of attraction to minors as a sexual orientation is not of purely theoretical interest but can have important implications for treatment approaches.[...] Mundy cites studies showing that attraction to minors should be approached through acceptance and strengths-based practices that inculcate resilience and self-efficacy, as attempts to reduce or eliminate attraction to minors have not proven effective or beneficial to minor-attracted people."

*'''Roche, K., Stephens, S., Moss, S., and Seto, M. (2022). [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjhs.2022-0007 Online forum use in child attracted persons.] ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality'' 31 (3). DOI:10.3138/cjhs.2022-0007'''
*:"Social support for child-attracted persons (CAPs) may be important for increasing well-being, thereby reducing the risk of committing child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, in-person social support may be difficult to obtain because of stigma. CAPs may instead turn to online forums for people who are sexually attracted to children. [...] Most CAPs said that they initially sought out forums to avoid feeling alone in their attraction; the quality of offline support was rated as moderate. Emotional support and informational support were the most frequently endorsed forms of social support.

*'''Desbuleux, J.C. and Fuss, J. (2023) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2023.2199727 "The Self-Reported Sexual Real-World Consequences of Sex Doll Use"] ''The Journal of Sex Research'', DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2023.2199727'''
*:Interestingly, pedo-hebephilic users reported a greater reduction of sexual compulsivity compared to teleiophilic participants following doll use. Additionally, pedo-hebephilic participants more often reported acting out of illegal sexual fantasies with their dolls and a loss of interest in (sexual) intimacy with real children through doll use in the qualitative data. These self-reported data challenge the view that doll use is dangerously affecting human sexuality and instead suggest that dolls may be used as a sexual outlet for potentially dangerous and illegal (sexual) fantasies.

* '''Blagden, N. J., Mann, R., Webster, S., Lee, R., & Williams, F. (2018). [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1177/1079063217697132 “It’s not something I chose you know”: Making sense of pedophiles’ sexual interest in children and the impact on their psychosexual identity.] ''Sexual Abuse'', 30(6), 728–754. Doi: 10.1177/1079063217697132'''
*:"[I]t appears important to provide a treatment environment that allows for open and honest discussion about the nature of pedophilic sexual interest and '''does not focus on attempting to change the sexual interest''' (see Seto, 2012)."
*:"[T]reatment with such populations may benefit from [...] '''focusing on what is important to the individual''', for example, meaningful adult relationships and friendships, stable and satisfying employment, or something constructive to occupy their time."
*:"Finally, given the impact living with a deviant sexual interest had on participants’ identities, treatment may want to consider '''the latitude''' it gives to clients '''in creating/shaping constructive self and sexual identities'''. Indeed, a coherent narrative identity is crucially important for rehabilitation (Ward & Marshall, 2007). [...] [T]here is a connection between the identity conflict that participants experienced and risk factors for acting on their interest through the sexual abuse of children, such as social isolation, impaired intimacy with other adults, and the recognition of being a member of a highly stigmatized group."

* '''Williams, D. J., Thomas, J. N., & Prior, E. E. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/s10612-015-9270-y Moving Full-Speed Ahead in the Wrong Direction? A Critical Examination of US Sex-Offender Policy from a Positive Sexuality Model.] ''Critical Criminology'', 23(3), 277–294. doi:10.1007/s10612-015-9270-y'''
*:"Professionals should recognize that offenders and offending behaviors vary extensively, and therefore efforts to rehabilitate should be adjusted to acknowledge this diversity of expression and criminality. Understanding that sexual needs and interests are a part of an overall healthy lifestyle (WHO 2006) and finding ways to account for them in a sex-positive and socially appropriate manner could be especially beneficial in preventing and reducing sexual crimes."

* '''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A., Woodward, E. et al. (2023) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-023-01435-7 Fantasy Sexual Material Use by People with Attractions to Children]. ''Curr Psychiatry Rep'' 25, 395–404. doi:10.1007/s11920-023-01435-7'''
*: "Among other primary human goods [...] the strengths-based Good Lives Model of offender rehabilitation notes “sexual satisfaction” to be something that all people strive for in life[41, 42]. “Fantasy thinking” (an unrestricted form of mental experiences, in this case of a sexual nature) is thought to encourage arousal, excitement, and a feeling of possibility, feeding into the achievement of sexual satisfaction [43, 44]."
*: "[P]eople within this group have the same needs for sexual satisfaction as anybody else [41], and as such FSM [fictional sexual materials] may provide a viable outlet for their sexual fantasies as they pursue a sense of fulfillment in this domain."
*: "[C]hild-like sex doll owners were less likely to express a proclivity for sexual abuse than a comparison group of non-owners who were attracted to children and also demonstrated lower levels of sexual preoccupation."
*: "Rather than heightening arousal, FSM could act as a safe sexual outlet that allows for a feeling of release and sense of catharsis [84], which could reduce a motivation to seek out real children as a sexual partner."
*: "[E]ffective treatment engagement involves the alignment of treatment content to service user needs, considering sexual fulfillment and satisfaction as an important treatment need might be an increasingly pressing issue as support services for this population grow in number."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "The results of the current review also stand in contrast to the perspectives of practitioners in regard to treatment. [...] Similarly, Lievesley et al. (2023) found that practitioners valued controlling behavior much more highly than pedohebephiles did."
*:"The finding that, at least in community settings, few participants appear to have an interest in prevention goals, such as learning how to control or reduce their sexual attraction to children, therefore poses practical and ethical challenges for treatment providers. One way to balance the goals of offense prevention and individual wellbeing could be the use of the Good-lives-model, which seeks to encourage individuals to pursue meaningful and prosocial life goals (Willis & Ward, 2013), rather than deficit-oriented approaches like relapse prevention. However, it stands to reason that there should be more services with a stronger or even exclusive commitment to well-being goals, given that there are pedohebephiles with low risks of sexual offending."
*:"Creating a compassionate and non-shaming therapeutic environment is especially important to pedohebephiles in order for them to share openly their experiences, and the impact their sexual attraction has had on them (Hocken &Taylor, 2021). One form of therapy which appears particularly well suited to this client group is Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) (Hocken & Taylor, 2021). [...] Within CFT, the relationships individuals have with themselves, especially in the forms of shame and self-criticism—highly relevant to pedohebephiles—underpin a wide range of mental health problems (Gilbert, 2014). There is emergent evidence that compassion-based interventions can reduce shame and help pedohebephilic individuals towards meaningful clinical change (Clayton et al., 2022)."

*'''McPhail, I.V. (2024) “The Subjective Experience of Individuals with Pedohebephilic Interest”, ''Current Sexual Health Reports'' 16, DOI: 10.1007/s11930-023-00381-y'''
*:"[M]aking a disclosure to family and friends that is not followed by support is associated with higher loneliness, poorer relationship quality, greater psychological distress, and higher suicidality and in some cases is associated with worse outcomes than concealment [85••]. [...] These findings suggest that individuals with pedohebephilic interests are acutely aware of the risks of disclosure and are, to varying degrees, judicious and skilled at finding those in their lives that will be supportive following a disclosure. For a population that experiences such elevated levels of loneliness and suicidality, this skill is likely central to well-being and, in some instances, lifesaving."
*:"Acceptance of pedohebephilia can be a double-edged process: coming to terms with the nature and stability of sexual interests can be a painful process involving grieving, fear, anger, and self-stigma, and yet is helpful for coping with and managing sexual attractions to children in daily life [25, 93, 94, 97]."

*'''Elchuk DL, McPhail IV, Olver ME. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Mcphail/publication/350158068_Stigma-Related_Stress_Complex_Correlates_of_Disclosure_Mental_Health_and_Loneliness_in_Minor_Attracted_People/links/605b801792851cd8ce65cf5a/Stigma-Related-Stress-Complex-Correlates-of Stigma-related stress, complex correlates of disclosure, mental health, and loneliness in minor-attracted people. Stigma Health.] 2022;7:100–12. doi:10.1037/sah0000317'''
*:"The stigma towards MAPs is found to be greater than stigma towards other groups (e.g., sexual minorities, those with mental illness; Boysen et al., 2020; Lehmann et al., 2020) and research examining a community-based sample of MAPs found high proportions of suicidal ideation with intense stigma being the most significant risk factor (Cohen et al., 2019). As such, we anticipate internalized pedonegativity to be a stigma-related stressor present to varying degrees in MAPs."
*:"As anticipated by our hypothesis and previous research (Jahnke, 2018), MAPs experiencing internalized pedonegativity reported greater levels of loneliness, psychological distress, and suicidality; loneliness only partially mediated the relationship between internalized pedonegativity and mental health concerns. These results indicate that internalized pedonegativity may be a driver of decreased wellbeing for MAPs and highlight the need clinical services to focus on addressing internalized pedonegativity."
*:" Assessing for the presence of internalized pedonegativity may inform the kinds of interventions provided to these clients (e.g., compassion-focused interventions; cognitive reframing)."
Internalized Pedonegativity Scale Items:
<hr>
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
<small>
*Attraction to children is a natural expression of sexuality in humans.
*I wish I were only attracted to adults.
*When I’m sexually attracted to a child, I do not mind if someone else knows how I feel.
*Most problems that MAPs have come from their status as an oppressed minority, not from their sexual or romantic attraction to children per se.
*Life as an MAP is not as fulfilling as life as a non-MAP.
*I am glad to be an MAP.
*Whenever I think a lot about being an MAP, I feel critical about myself.
*I am confident that my pedophilia does not make me inferior.
*Whenever I think a lot about being an MAP, I feel depressed.
*If it were possible, I would accept the opportunity to be attracted to adults.
*I wish I could become more sexually attracted and romantically attracted to adults.
*If there were a pill that could change my minor attraction, I would take it.
*I would not give up being an MAP even if I could.
*Attraction to children is deviant.
*It would not bother me if I had children who were MAPs.
*Being an MAP is a satisfactory and acceptable way of life for me.
*If I were attracted to adults, I would probably be happier.
*Most MAPs end up lonely and isolated.
*For the most part, I do not care who knows I am an MAP.
*I have no regrets about being an MAP.
*I have tried to stop being attracted to children in general.
*I would like to get professional help in order to change my attraction to children to attraction to adults
</small>
</div>
<hr>

*'''Stephens, S., Jahnke, S., & Davidson, M. (2024). [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024 Delphi Recommendations for Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexual Interest in Children in Non-Mandated Community Settings.] ''The Journal of Sex Research'', 1–14. doi:10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024'''
*:"This study sought to reach an international expert consensus regarding the diagnosis and treatment of adults with a sexual interest in children in cases where treatment is non-mandated. [...] Consensus was reached for 48 practice guidelines, particularly for recommendations that relate to general clinical practice, such as assessing for other mental health conditions. There was more contention for the inclusion of forensic practices. The present recommendations can serve as a set of tentative guidelines that may guide assessment and treatment of sexual interest in children in non-mandated settings." Although the full article is not yet available for free, you can see the level of consensus on the various recommendations in the article's [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024?scroll=top supplementary material].

*'''McPhail, I. V., Stephens, S., & Heasman, A. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Mcphail/publication/328676586_Legal_and_Ethical_Issues_in_Treating_Clients_with_Pedohebephilic_Interests/links/5bdb76e592851c6b27a056a5/Legal-and-Ethical-Issues-in-Treating-Clients-With-Pedohebephilic-Interests.pdf Legal and ethical issues in treating clients with pedohebephilic interests.] ''Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne'', 59(4), 369.'''
*:"Individuals with a sexual interest in children who have not committed a sexual offence are a client population that are currently underserved by psychologists. In the context of accessing and providing mental health services, mandatory reporting laws represent a key issue for clients and psychologists. For clients, mandatory reporting requirements creates a double-bind: they wish to access psychotherapy for a myriad of psychological concerns, yet they fear the implications of psychologists’ mandated reporting requirements if they disclose their sexual interest. Psychologists treating non-offending clients with sexual interests in children face several overlapping and competing ethical and legal obligations created by mandatory reporting laws. To examine these complexities, the present paper reviews and discusses legislation in Canada, complaints to provincial professional colleges, and case law related to mandatory reporting requirements. We additionally review principles and standards in the Canadian Psychological Association’s Code of Ethics (4th edition) to inform service provision with these clients. Recommendations for practice are provided based on this discussion and practice case vignettes are given to facilitate ethical decision-making."

*'''Levitan, Julia et al. (2024). [https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2385909 Minor-Attracted Men's Lived Experiences of Romantic Attraction], ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy'''''.
*:"The results of this study have implications for the clinical treatment of help-seeking MAPs. Broadly, findings suggest that healthcare professionals should consider screening for romantic as well as sexual attraction to minors if relevant to case conceptualization or treatment, and this assessment could inform their treatment plan accordingly. Our results point to specific areas of clinical intervention that may be of interest. Examples include: Providing evidence-based psychoeducation about the romantic component of attraction to minors; collaborative brainstorming of strategies to avoid unsafe or unethical situations with loved minors, including efforts to prevent child sexual offenses; or offering cognitive and behavioral strategies to alleviate distressing emotions and clinical symptoms related to limitations to attraction and relationship development with loved minors (e.g., increasing self-compassion, , exploring methods of navigating the stigma of “forbidden and hidden” romantic attractions, providing guidance and support through mourning the possibility of a legitimate romantic relationship with loved minors). Help-seeking MAPs have heterogeneous treatment needs, so service-users’ goals should be collaboratively determined (Lievesley et al., 2022)."

* '''Murphy, R. (2024) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14680173241240973 A pilot study: Exploring suicidal ideation among non-offending adults with sexual attraction to minors, through their online forum posts] ''Journal of Social Work'' DOI:10.1177/14680173241240973'''
*:"Surveys indicate that one in three people living with child sexual attraction experience chronic suicidal ideation (Cohen et al., 2018; Stevens & Wood, 2019)."
*:'''list of suicidality triggers:'''
*: "The feelings of shame and guilt that members expressed at this emerging sense of identity were a significant trigger toward suicidality. [...] Members indicated that the guilt was fueled by the harboring of this secret, and feeling that they were creating a false narrative to the people around them. [...] The most frequently highlighted trigger toward suicidality was that of disclosure, or of being “outed.” [...] The degree of internalized critical thinking about self-identifying as a pedophile influenced the intensity of suicidality. [...] For those who had attempted to rid themselves of the attraction, and had subsequently found that it could not be “cured,” this realization could act as a further trigger point. [...] For those who had acted in some way on their thoughts, the regret and shame of this further triggered suicidality. [...] Media and social media could increase expressed suicidality in this regard, as members noted the stigma and hatred directed toward people with pedophilia and internalized this further. [...] Many members referenced using alcohol as a means of escaping the reality of their situation, and it was identified that suicidal thoughts were often acted upon after alcohol intake. [...] Despite relationships and disclosure being a risk factor, this was also identified as a protective factor, with the key difference between the risk and protective elements of disclosure, being the response received. [...] Unhelpful professionals were considered those who presented as judgemental, hostile, who were uneasy about pedophilia and who may make reports to authorities despite no offence being committed. Unsuccessful engagements with professionals were reported to negatively affect members’ sense of self and sense of hope and to increase feelings of suicidality."

*'''Nematy, A., Flynn, S., & McCarthy-Jones, S. (2024) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10790632241268465 Perspectives, Treatment Goals, and Approaches of Prevention-Specialist Mental Health Professionals in Working With Clients Attracted to Children]. ''Sexual Abuse'', DOI: 10.1177/10790632241268465'''
*:'''considering pedophilia as an unchangeable condition has therapeutic value'''
*:"Considering pedophilia as a sexual orientation implies that treatment might be more effective when it prioritizes developing self-regulation skills rather than attempting to alter sexual preference (Seto, 2012). Accordingly, accepting minor-attraction is a pivotal step in effectively managing its behavioral manifestation. This acceptance serves as a crucial foundation for clients, enabling them to process suppressed feelings, integrate their atypical sexuality into their sense of self, alleviate the internalized shame, and enhance their capacity to manage their desires responsibly (Beier et al., 2009; Cantor, 2018; Lievesley et al., 2018; Walton & Hocken, 2021).[...] Cantor (2018) points out that if clients are informed that their pedophilic desire will cease, they may underestimate it and not attempt to develop skills for managing their sexual desire or avoid certain situations, hoping that it will disappear."
*:"Some authors suggest that deliberate control of thoughts may have a rebound effect (Hooper & Mchugh, 2013; Wegner, 1994). An experiment conducted by Johnston et al. (1997) revealed that in individuals who committed CSA, the accessibility of child-related thoughts increased after an instructed suppression period. Suppression and avoidance are generally considered maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and risk factors for depression, anxiety, and maladaptive behaviors such as substance misuse (Aldao et al., 2010). A study on individuals attracted to children found that thought suppression is associated with higher levels of guilt and shame about sexual attraction, lower levels of hope about the future, and lower levels of subjective psychological well-being (Lievesley et al., 2020). Individuals attracted to children reported that thought suppression had been detrimental and conflicted with their therapeutic progress (Dymond & Duff, 2020). They also reported attempts to change pedophilia as unhelpful (Schaefer et al., 2023) and described their sexual attraction as enduring (Walton & Duff, 2017)."
*:'''sex dolls are useful'''
*:"While still limited, available empirical evidence does not support the idea that sex dolls have escalating effects. Instead, doll ownership is linked to reduced levels of sexual preoccupation and self-reported arousal in hypothetical abuse scenarios (Harper & Lievesley, 2022). Moreover, doll owners show a lower tendency toward sexual aggression (Harper & Lievesley, 2023). In a mixed-method study, minor-attracted doll owners report less sexual preoccupation compared to teleiophilic doll owners. The qualitative accounts of doll owners indicate they channeled their sexual fantasies toward their dolls while reporting a decline in interest in real children through doll use (Desbuleux & Fuss, 2023)."
*:'''prevention approach doesn't work in therapy'''
*:"[S]trategies such as confiscating a client’s device or mandating disclosure to the family (which can lead to severe consequences) appear to be similar to surveillance and supervision rather than therapy, in which the client’s autonomy and self-determination must be at the heart of the practice (Cottone & Tarvydas, 2016)."
*:"While the prevention of child sexual abuse is undoubtedly a legitimate goal, the risk-management approach has been criticized for perpetuating social and self-stigma around minor attraction, which implies that individuals attracted to children are inevitably destined to offend unless preventive measures are taken (Jahnke, 2018; Lievesley & Harper, 2021). Some clients may perceive such efforts as incongruent with their needs and expectations, leading them to avoid seeking support to distance themselves from suspicions of being treated as potential offenders (Cacciatori, 2017; Grady et al., 2019; Lievesley & Harper, 2021)."
*:"[A] recent study found no significant difference among clients in a well-known prevention project (Dunkelfeld) compared to a control group on a waiting list in dynamic sexual offense risk factors such as sexual dysregulation, offense-supportive attitudes, recent behaviors related to CSA and CSAM consumption (Mokros & Banse, 2019). Considering the insufficient effectiveness of such risk paradigm approaches, it has been suggested that greater attention should be paid to other factors, including the psychological effects of living with minor attraction and stigma-related stressors (e.g., loneliness, low self-esteem, self-stigma, and shame) (Jahnke, 2018; Lievesley et al., 2020) and clients' overall well-being (Grady et al., 2019). This consideration also encompasses preventive elements since enhanced psychological well-being is associated with a reduced risk of sexual offending (Ward & Stewart, 2003; Yates, 2016)."

* '''from part of John O'Connor's masters in psychotherapy - Exploration of an Ethical Dilemma'''
*:“This essay attempted to illustrate how strict adherence to mandatory reporting laws may have a paradoxical effect of increased risk for both children and clients. [...] As such there is a rationale for choosing to remain with the client and deciding not to report.”
*:“Choosing not to burden the MAP client [who have never offended] with reporting, and continuing therapy with them is an ethically responsible and necessary practice (Heasman & Foreman, 2019), which contributes to the wider public health goal of first-time abuse prevention (Culling, 2018) and demonstrates the greater ethical utility (Baron, 2006; Jahnke, 2018; Heasman & Foreman, 2019; Beier et al., 2021).”
*::full references:
*::Baron, J. (2006). Against bioethics (pp. 1-236). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
*::Beier, K. M., Gieseler, H., Ulrich, H., Scherner, G., & Schlinzig, E. (2021). The Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD). Pedophilia, Hebephilia and Sexual Offending against Children: The Berlin Dissexuality Therapy (BEDIT), 43-56. 
*::Culling, H. (2018). Informing the prevention of child sexual abuse: comparing convicted offenders and minor-attracted persons. 
*::Heasman A, Foreman T. (2019) Bioethical Issues and Secondary Prevention for Nonoffending Individuals with Pedophilia. Camb Q Healthc Ethics.
*::Jahnke, S. (2018). The stigma of pedophilia. European Psychologist.

* '''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A. & Woodward, E. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x Toward a Holistic Approach to Treatment and Support for People with Attractions to Children]. Curr Sex Health Rep 17, 7 (2025).'''
*:"Evidence supports the need for a broader focus on treatment goals, such as improving psychological wellbeing, developing healthy coping strategies, and reducing internalized stigma. [...] Although specific child protection frameworks are important, a purely prevention-focused approach to treatment can reinforce stigma and limits the development of services that prioritize therapeutic engagement and alignment with service user needs."

*'''Lievesley, R , Swaby, H , Stevenson, J & Harper, C. (2024) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2402320#abstract “Not offending is easy. The double life, the secrets, the loneliness are the hardest parts I needed help with”: understanding the treatment needs of people with attractions to children] ''Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy'', DOI:10.1080/0092623X.2024.2402320'''
*: "[S]eeking support for sexual frustration outside of the child sexual abuse context, in addition to broader mental health treatment needs acknowledged in a range of studies, is a desired feature of treatment among this population. [...] This is consistent with positive psychological models of well-being and forensic risk reduction, which cite the achievement of sexual satisfaction (and thus elimination of sexual frustration) as a universal primary human good that feeds into a healthy self-identity (Ward & Marshall, 2004)."
:: "[P]articipants were clear that services with an explicit and specific aim of reducing sexual risk (e.g., Stop It Now!, or programs linked to the Troubled Desire initiative) were unlikely to appeal to them."

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A. & Woodward, E. (2025) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x Toward a Holistic Approach to Treatment and Support for People with Attractions to Children]. Curr Sex Health Rep 17, 7. doi:10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x'''
::"Recent work has identified four specific treatment targets among people with attractions to children. These are: (1) mental health concerns, (2) dealing with stigma, (3) controlling or changing sexual attractions to children, and (4) the alleviation of sexual frustration."
::"[...]state factors facilitating sexual offending include low mood and maladaptive coping strategies, such as substance misuse. As such, the addressing of mental health related concerns can play a key role in the prevention of child sexual abuse, even in the absence of a specific prevention framing to support services."
::"Both internalized and societal stigma can severely impact an individual’s self-esteem, social relationships, and willingness to seek help. [...] The lack of accessible, non-judgmental support further compounds internal conflict and can lead to worsening mental health outcomes, including depression and suicidal ideation. Alongside this, people can begin to internalize social attitudes and begin to see offending as an inevitability as a result of their attractions. Within the criminological literature this is referred to as a Golem effect, whereby people behave in a manner consistent with social expectations."
::"Unaddressed sexual frustration can contribute to significant psychological strain, maladaptive coping strategies, or risky behaviors, making it a critical area for therapeutic intervention. From a prevention perspective, we know that blockages to sexual expression and paraphilic sexual interests are implicated in all major models of sexual offending, with this being compounded among people with sexual attractions with no legal outlet."
::"Efforts to directly alter attractions have not demonstrated consistent success, and researchers caution against such approaches due to ethical and practical concerns related to procedures that evoke images consistent with sexual orientation conversion therapy."

*'''Konrad A, Heid LM, Scheuermann H, Beier KM, Amelung T. (2025) [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463191/full Acceptance of sexual attraction and its link to psychological distress and sexual offending among pedohebephilic clients: results from a preliminary analysis.] Front Psychol. 2025 Jan 27;15:1463191. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463191.'''
::"Psychological distress was significantly and negatively associated with acceptance (p < 0.001), i.e., as psychological distress increased, acceptance of one’s sexual inclination decreased. In our main and sensitivity analyses, recent general offending behavior was not significantly associated with acceptance (p = 0.625)"

*'''Lea H. Studer, A. Scott Aylwin (2006) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allan-Aylwin/publication/7017556_Pedophilia_The_problem_with_diagnosis_and_limitations_of_CBT_in_treatment/links/59fb86ba458515d070616604/Pedophilia-The-problem-with-diagnosis-and-limitations-of-CBT-in-treatment.pdf Pedophilia: The problem with diagnosis and limitations of CBT in treatment.]'''
::"First, there is little reason to include pedophilia among the mental disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). [...] Secondly,the typical CBT-based relapse prevention treatment for pedophilia, which represents current best practice, is reviewed. It is suggested that this, as a stand alone therapy, is suboptimal. CBT components are necessary but not sufficient for comprehensive therapy. It is imperative that process issues are given primacy in treatment programs. The common factors literature makes it clear that the therapeutic relationship is at least as potent a factor promoting change as the system or techniques that clinicians employ."

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., Awan, A., and Bishop, A. (2025) "[https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2025.2522664 Beyond Pro- and Anti-Contact: Understanding the Ideologies of People Attracted to Children]" ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy'', 51(6)'''
::"A sense of self-acceptance in the sample was associated with lower levels of internalized stigma and an increased belief that children both desire and initiate sexual activity with other people. In the sexual domain, higher levels of masturbation were observed alongside a greater belief in the controllability of participants’ sexual desires among those with higher levels of self-acceptance."
::"[T]hose scoring low on self-acceptance reported needing relatively high levels of support across all treatment domains, which may be indicative of this particular ideological factor being of importance in treatment planning"
::"Among the group labeled “Radicals” [high self-acceptance and high permissibility of sex with minors], there were relatively low levels of self-reported needs for treatment, which might indicate that this group does not often appear in clinical settings. In analyzing their data, though, there was a firm rejection of treatment that was designed to control or change their attractions, with sexual frustration needs being less important than receiving support with mental health and social stigma. This was also the case for those labeled “Comfortable-Virtuous” [high self-acceptance and low permissibility], and as such it makes sense to perhaps move away from seeing the clusters as entirely separate groups with specific or unique treatment needs"
::"[T]hose who scored highly on the permissibility dimension were less likely to report needing support with sexual frustration. This may be due to these participants feeling less shame about expressing their sexuality, and a greater level of willingness among them to engage with sexual fantasy and fictional sexual materials (FSM; Lievesley, Harper, Woodward et al., 2023; Woodward et al. 2024)."
::"When permissibility perceptions were high, self-reported proclivities for offending were increased for both CSEM and contact offenses." But "adopting an explicitly abuse prevention approach is known to be detrimental to the likelihood of service uptake among people who are attracted to children (Levenson & Grady, 2019; Lievesley et al., 2025; Lievesley & Harper, 2022). [...] In contexts where the client has explicitly excluded risk management as a treatment target, placing emphasis on the client’s beliefs regarding the permissibility of sexual contact with children could hinder the development of a trusting and authentic therapeutic relationship."

*'''Gillespie, S. (2022). [https://www.proquest.com/openview/ba920465eed71c360408571550ba3f4b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Sexual Fantasies and Self-Regulation in a Community Sample of People with Sexual Fantasies and/or Interest Involving Minors] [Ph.D. Thesis]'''
::"Results indicate that acceptance-based mindfulness approaches were positively associated with wellbeing and self-efficacy. Elaboration approaches (e.g. intentional fantasizing, pairing fantasies with masturbation), which were the most used and valued strategies for respondents, were positively associated with self-efficacy."

::"These results align with previous research that found that intentional fantasizing and pairing fantasies with masturbation was not correlated with sexual offending (Bailey et al., 2016; Houtepen et al., 2016)[...] The results of this study indicate that sexual fantasizing involving minors is associated with self-efficacy, which aligns with other research supporting the potential for positive or protective effects of sexual fantasizing by providing sexual outlet that does not involve victimizing children (Houtepen et al., 2016; Jones et al., 2021; Walker, 2017). Further, the lack of association between elaboration and potentially negative outcomes for sexual self-regulation in the present study calls into question the heavy treatment focus on changing/controlling sexual fantasies by any (including ethically questionable and potentially harmful) means necessary."

== See also ==
* [[Preventionism]]
==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on Pedophilia and Hebephilia characteristics contains some useful information re efficacy and effects of treatments.

{{Template:EGLPHC}}

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]]

Research: A "cure" for pedophilia?

2026-06-01T08:22:40Z

Thorn: /* Psychological wellbeing for MAPs */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Attempts to "treat" pedophilia are ineffectual and in many cases harmful. It's important to point out that pedophilia is the ''direction'' of one's sexuality, not the intensity of one's sexual interest. While there are drugs that can reduce sexual desire, reorientation is not possible.
__NOTOC__
==Treatment==
===Efficacy===
*'''Stelzmann, D., Jahnke, S., & Kuhle, L. F. (2022). [https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9356 Media Coverage of Pedophilia and Its Impact on Help-Seeking Persons with Pedophilia in Germany - A Focus Group Study.] ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'' 19 (15), DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19159356'''
*:“Both sexual preferences for prepubescent (pedophilia) and pubescent (hebephilia) children are only considered pathological if the sexual attraction to children resulted in previous sexual offending against children, or causes significant distress and/or interpersonal difficulties (pedophilic disorder or unspecified paraphilic disorder [10]). Currently, there is little evidence showing that the sexual attraction to children can be “cured” in the sense that it can be converted into a sexual attraction to adults (teleiophilia; overview see [23]). Therefore, preventive treatment often focuses on behavioral control and/or the reduction of psychological distress.”

*'''[[Fred Berlin|Berlin, Fred S.]] (2000). "[http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=174135 Treatments to Change Sexual Orientation]," ''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 157, p. 838.'''
*:"It may be no easier for a person with pedophilia to change his or her sexual orientation than it is for a homosexual or heterosexual individual to do so."

*'''[[Dennis Howitt|Howitt, D.]] (1995). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/howitt_trtmnt.htm The Treatment of Paedophiles]," in ''Paedophiles and Sexual Offences Against Children'', pp. 189-192.'''
*:"Many of the early behaviour therapy treatments for paedophilia emerged from attempts to make homosexuals "normal" or, at least, stop "doing their thing". [...] As we will see, there is a degree of uncertainty about the effectiveness of even the best researched therapies for paedophiles. There are a number of reasons for this. Many of the therapies have not been subject to specific empirical evaluation of any sort; some have been tried with only a few clients. Often the criteria of therapeutic success have fallen well short of evidence of a decline in recidivism in offending, obviously one of the most important criteria. Research that includes a control or an alternatively treated group is in the minority of the evaluations. With a situation like this, claims of therapeutic success may sometimes be wishful thinking on the part of the clinician, the client or both."

*'''Van-Zessen, G. (1990). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/van_zessen.htm A model for group counseling with male pedophiles]," ''Journal of Homosexuality'', 20(1-2), 189-198.'''
*:"The majority of the reported studies have roots in behavior therapy. The early behavioral approaches were aimed at reducing the deviant sexual arousal by aversion therapy (Quinsey et al., 1976). The attraction to children is viewed as purely sexual (Howells, 1979). In its simplest form, the child is the stimulus that elicits sexual excitement in the adult (Quinsey et al., 1975). All other motivations and meanings of pedophile attraction are ignored. [...] In an overview of the literature concerning homosexual conversion therapies, James (1978) concluded that the majority of studies were unsuccessful in changing sexual orientation. It is likely that the same holds for pedophile conversion therapy."

*'''Seto, M. (2009). "Pedophilia," ''Annual Review of Clinical Psychology'', 5, 391-407.'''
*:"There is no evidence to suggest that pedophilia can be changed. [...] Across the following interventions, the underlying assumption is that pedophilia is a stable sexual preference that is unlikely to change, just as there is little, if any, evidence that heterosexual or homosexual orientation can be changed. Recent etiological research on neurodevelopmental correlates of pedophilia—including cognitive functioning, non-right-handedness, and structural volume differences—suggests that pedophilia is influenced by prenatal factors and thus is unlikely to respond to interventions delivered when the individual is an adult (e.g., Cantor et al. 2008)."

*'''Quinsey, V. L. (2008). "Seeking Enlightenment on the Dark Side of Psychology," ''Trauma, Violence, & Abuse'', 9(2), 72-83.'''
*:"Sexual age and gender preferences do not appear to be learned and malleable (e.g., our attempts to increase sexual arousal of normal subjects to slides of women through Pavlovian conditioning by pairing the slides with highly arousing videotapes were vitiated by habituation; Lalumière & Quinsey, 1998). Although sexual age and gender preferences can be measured with phallometric technology (for reviews of the assessment and treatment literature on sexual offenders against children, see Camilleri & Quinsey, in press; Quinsey & Lalumière, 2001) and responses to deviant categories can be reduced with standard conditioning techniques, these alterations now appear not to involve the preferences themselves but only their measurement. Fifty years after Kinsey et al. (1953) wrote the passage quoted at the beginning of this section, it appears that the role of learning in the development of sexual age and gender preferences is limited or nonexistent (for a review, see Quinsey, 2003)."

*'''Berlin, Fred S., Saleh, Fabian M., and Malin, H. Martin (2009). "Mental Illness and Sex Offending," in ''Sex Offenders'', p. 124. Oxford University Press US.'''
*:"In the past, efforts to "recondition" homosexuality were a clear failure. The same would appear to be true of methods intended to "recondition" paraphilic conditions such as pedophilia."

*'''Camilleri, Joseph A., and Quinsey, Vernon L. (2008). "Pedophilia: Assessment and Treatment," in D. Richard Laws and William T. O'Donohue (eds.), ''Sexual Deviance, Second Edition''.'''
*:"The greatest problems with conditioning approaches (and other approaches described later) are (1) that changing actual preferences (as opposed to indices that reflect them) has been quite difficult (Furby, Weinrott, & Blackshaw, 1989; Lalumière & Quinsey, 1998); and (2) no studies have shown long-term changes in sexual preference or behavior after treatment (Laws, 2001; Quinsey & Earls, 1990). [p. 193] [...] Despite the strong relationship between neurobiological variables in sexual behavior and treatment, reducing general arousal does not alter sexual preference. Researchers found that men with phallometrically measured deviant sexual interests had the same preferences after hormonal treatment (Bancroft, Tennent, Loucas, & Cass, 1974; Cooper, Sandhu, Losztyn, & Cernovsky, 1992). [...] It appears as though treatment for paraphilias works by decreasing sexual interest in general, suggesting that medical treatments do not "cure" the sexual preference but mask it by reducing sexual desire. [p. 200]"

*'''12/11/06 deposition of Michael B. First, M.D., in In Re the Detention of William Davenport AKA William Cummings, Franklin County, Washington, No. 99-2-50349-2.'''
*:"I was the editor of the DSM-IV-TR. DSM-IV-TR was published in the year 2000. I was also the editor of the text and criteria of its immediate predecessor, which was the DSM-IV. [p. 9] [...] If you're attracted to children at age 13 you’re going to be attracted to children at age 70. [...] The fact that that's your focus of arousal remains constant. [...] The percentage of time you think about that would decline. [...] The time you spend masturbating thinking about that will go down, and the actual paraphilic behaviors go down, but the core of the paraphilia is present for life. There's no evidence, even when you have successful treatment of an individual paraphilia, which actually treating is the intensity of the paraphilia, not the arousal pattern. I don't believe there’s strong evidence that you could actually get someone who is attracted to children to lose [his or her] attraction. [p. 230]"

*'''American Psychiatric Association (2013). ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (Fifth ed.), p. 698.'''
*:"Adult males with pedophilic disorder may indicate that they become aware of strong or preferential sexual interest in children around the time of puberty — the same time frame in which males who later prefer physically mature partners became aware of their sexual interest in women or men. [...] Pedophilia per se appears to be a lifelong condition."

*'''Seto, Michael (2012). "Is Pedophilia a Sexual Orientation?", ''Archives of Sexual Behaviour'', 41, p. 233.'''
*:"Pedophilia is viewed by many researchers and clinicians as having a lifelong course. For some individuals, at least, it is discovered in early adolescence and sexual interest in children can be detected in adolescence (Seto, Lalumiere, & Blanchard, 2000; Seto, Murphy, Page, & Ennis, 2003); once identified, pedophilia can predict detected sexual behavior involving children up to 40 years later (Hanson, Steffy, & Gauthier, 1993). Changes in sexual arousal to children can be made using behavioral conditioning techniques, but follow-up studies have not shown evidence that this change generalizes outside the laboratory or persists over the longer-term."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "Multiple studies (see Table 4) reported that participants had sought or wanted to seek help with the goal of changing their attraction to children. However, as time went on, many came to realize that their attractions were enduring and redirected their goals towards managing them and finding ways to live productive and meaningful lives"

===Harm===
*'''[[Frans Gieles|Gieles, Frans]] (2001). "[http://www.helping-people.info/lecture.htm Helping people with pedophilic feelings]." Lecture at the 15th World Congress of Sexology, Paris, June 2001.'''
*:"I have met clients who started this kind of treatment [to 'cure' their pedophilia] as a warm lively person and who have been changed into 'a stiff wooden doll' after it."

*'''Fog, Agner (1992). "[http://www.helping-people.info/articles/fog_eng.htm Paraphilias and Therapy]," ''Nordisk Sexologi'', 10(4), pp. 236-242.'''
*:Fog interviews a pedophile: "My sexual feelings for boys went away partially for about a year, and then at the end of the year I started waking up screaming and hollering with nightmares, and I would see a pitful of snakes and they were just everywhere and I would be screaming to get away from them. [...] 'Were your feelings towards boys reduced by the therapy?' They were reduced in the sense that my penis did not show the difference, but I still enjoyed being a teacher because I could be close to boys. I really don't think that feelings for boys or whoever we have feelings for has all that much to do with how much erection you have, but this is what they were reducing it to. [...] rather than destroy my feelings towards boys they destroyed me as an individual, it destroyed my security."

*'''Camilleri, Joseph A., and Quinsey, Vernon L. (2008). "Pedophilia: Assessment and Treatment," in D. Richard Laws and William T. O'Donohue (eds.), ''Sexual Deviance, Second Edition'', p. 200.'''
*:"Drawbacks unique to medical treatments for pedophilia include side effects and noncompliance. Commonly cited side effects include hypertension, hyperglycemia, feminization, depression, and headaches (Hill et al., 2003; Saleh & Guidry, 2003)."

*'''Johnston, Lucy, Hudson, Stephen M., and Ward, Tony (1997). "The suppression of sexual thoughts by child molesters: A preliminary investigation," ''Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment'', 9(4), 303-319. '''
*:"Ironically, attempted suppression may actually result in a worse situation compared to no attempts being made. The hyperaccessibility of formerly undesired thoughts has been documented in a number of studies. Once suppressed, unwanted thoughts have been shown to return and dominate mental life (Macrae et al., 1994; Wegner, 1989; Wegner & Gold, 1995). Once inhibitory mechanisms are relaxed this rebound effect may be pernicious, promoting the execution of maladaptive behaviors, such as binge eating. (Herman & Polivy, 1993) and, potentially, sexual offenses (Johnston, Ward, & Hudson, 1997). [...] However, prior suppression resulted in slower latencies for both the sex-related and the child-related words for the preferential child molesters than either the situational child molesters or the nonsexual offenders, who did not differ from one another. Thought suppression did, then, have greater subsequent effects on the preferential child molesters, as predicted. For some offender types at least, suppression results in greater accessibility of sex-related thoughts. Such rebound effects lead one to question the utility of thought suppression as a therapy technique."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "Participants from studies classified as clinical, forensic, or mixed, reported on experiences with chemical treatments such as androgen deprivation therapy (Boons et al., 2021) or gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists (Landgren et al., 2020). In these cases, positive experiences were largely reported to be the calming effects of the chemicals, abstinence from offending, and improved mental health and well-being. The negative experiences included physical side effects, depression, and guilt. Interestingly, within these samples, the inability to become aroused was reported as a positive treatment effect by some and a negative treatment effect by others."

* '''McPhail, I.V. (2020) [https://harvest.usask.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/e555ae2e-7058-4f33-a6ba-cae1a294ab50/content Conceptual and empirical issues in pedohebephilic interest] [dissertation]. ''Saskatoon (SK): University of Saskatchewan'''''
*: "The findings that psychotherapy can help men with higher levels of pedophilic interest change joins a growing body of research suggesting that psychotherapeutic approaches can benefit even those with the most severe symptomatology (Furukawa et al., 2017). In the case of interventions for pedohebephilic interests in men with sexual offense histories, this may be an especially positive development, as the side-effects of long-term anti-androgen use can be debilitating and life threatening (Nota et al., 2019; Turner & Briken, 2018). However, it is important to note that at present, there is little to no information regarding adverse reactions clients have to behavioural treatments for pedophilic interest."
*: "However, across the studies, a large number of men received these specialized interventions for managing arousal to children who may not have experienced a need in this domain [...] Given the potential adverse reactions to aversive interventions, clients are subjected to potentially harmful and distressing treatments that they do not require"
*: Consider this in light of the following: "Approximately half of the analyses supported the conclusion that men who underwent treatment showed levels of arousal to children that were similar to men with no history of sexual offending against children. While this is not unequivocal evidence, [...] it provides some support for the conclusion that offending men do show similar levels of arousal compared to non-offending men."

*'''Turner, D., & Briken, P. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Turner-20/publication/322138557_Treatment_of_Paraphilic_Disorders_in_Sexual_Offenders_or_Men_With_a_Risk_of_Sexual_Offending_With_Luteinizing_Hormone-Releasing_Hormone_Agonists_An_Updated_Systematic_Review/links Treatment of paraphilic disorders in sexual offenders or men with a risk of sexual offending with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists: An updated systematic review.] ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', 15, 77–93. doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.11.013. '''
*:"Steroidal antiandrogens and LHRH-agonists have in common that they suppress serum testosterone concentrations via different mechanisms and are thus summarized under the term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)."
*:"Side effects occurring most frequently are fatigue, hot flashes, depressive mood, weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, gynecomastia, loss of erectile function, and a loss in bone mineral density. [...] Although LHRH-agonists seem to be the most effective drugs in the treatment of paraphilic fantasies and behaviors, they should be reserved for paraphilic patients with the highest risk of sexual offending because of their extensive side effects."
*:"Current studies suggest that LHRH-agonists might be the most effective drugs to decrease paraphilic sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors. This accounts for adult, adolescent, and sexual offenders with a mental retardation. [...] LHRH-agonists should be reserved for most severe cases of (paraphilic) sexual offenders because they frequently lead to a complete decline of all sexual behaviors, thereby inferring with fundamental human rights. This clarifies that LHRHagonists should not be used with the intention of lifelong treatment and the possibility of ending treatment when adequate should be closely monitored."

==Is pedophilia a choice?==
*'''Berlin, Fred S. (2002). "Peer Commentaries on Green (2002) and Schmidt (2002): Pedophilia: When Is a Difference a Disorder?," ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', 31(6), 479-480.'''
*:"It is likely that no one would choose voluntarily to develop a pedophilic sexual orientation. Those with such an orientation have no more decided to have it than have any of us decided as children to be either heterosexual or homosexual. Men with pedophilia get erections when fantasizing about children. Heterosexual men get erections when fantasizing about women. In neither case is that so because the individual in question has somehow decided ahead of time to program his mind to work in such a fashion. Persons with pedophilia have simply not chosen to experience an alternative state of mind."

*'''Fagan, Peter J.; Wise, Thomas N.; Schmidt, Chester W.; and Berlin, Fred S. (2002) "Pedophilia," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 288, 2458-2465.'''
*:"During psychosexual development, no one decides whether to be attracted to women, men, girls, or boys. Rather, individuals discover the types of persons they are sexually attracted to, ie, their sexual orientation."

===Early development===

*'''B4U-Act (2011). [https://www.b4uact.org/research/survey-results/youth-suicidality-and-seeking-care/ "Survey Results"].
*:"Question: Looking back now, how old were you when you first had a preferential attraction to boys or girls younger than yourself, whether or not you realized it at the time? Result: Of 192 respondents answering this question, the most common age of first attraction was 12. Eighty-five percent began to experience the attraction while still minors themselves."

*'''Freund, K. & Kuban, M. (1993). "Toward a testable developmental model of pedophilia: The development of erotic age preference," ''Child Abuse & Neglect'', 17, 315-324.'''
*:"[A] greater proportion of pedophiles than of individuals who prefer physically mature partners remembers curiosity in their own childhood to see nude children without remembering such curiosity in regard to adults. This suggests that in a substantial proportion of pedophiles the occurrence of this paraphilia is predetermined at a very early developmental phase." (From [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8472184 abstract].)

*'''Griesemer, Michael M. (2004). ''Ausmass und Auswirkungen massenmedialer Desinformation zum Stand der Wissenschaften über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch''. [http://www.ipce.info/host/griesemer/griesemer.htm Ipce translation].'''
*:"Rather, we see another astonishing fact: on the same age in pre-puberty, on which the attraction to boys or girls was reported, already the nine years olds of both groups differ. The later pedophiles distinguish themselves from the control group because their objects of attraction are dramatically younger then themselves -- on the average two years younger, while the later non-pedophiles tend to feel attracted to older children -- on average 10.8 years of age.
*:Given the data, as now gathered, one might conclude that pedophilia develops itself already on a pre-pubertal age -- although we don't know how."

== Psychological wellbeing for MAPs ==
:''See also: [[Research:_The_Dangers_of_Stigma#Effects among people attracted to minors|Effects of stigma on MAPs]]''

Attraction does not require treatment, but MAPs often need help in improving their mental well-being. Mental health services and professionals may face the following challenges: high levels of anxiety, depression and other conditions in MAPs, severe [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|stigma]] (for both clients and those who provide compassionate approach), [[Preventionism|preventionism]], attempts at conversion therapy, difficulties in choosing the right therapeutic targets (discrepancies between lay professional beliefs and client's needs), ethics of communication with the client, and mandatory reporting laws. The following excerpts provide information about complications of mental health services as well as evidence-based implications for well-being-focused treatment.

Treatment suggestions derived from the studies include:

<hr>
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
<small>
* treatment facilities’ shift from prevention to well-being focus
* adjusting prevention effort to the real risk or harm of the offence
* acceptance of the attraction, refusal of conversion attempts
* developing self-compassion, shame reduction
* finding ways of acceptable experiencing one's sexuality, usage of artificial means for sexual satisfaction such as AI products or sex dolls
* undermining overly rigid avoidant coping strategies such as thought suppression and identity concealment
* creating positive self view (self identity, including sexual identity)
* disclosure in supportive contexts
* engaging with a supportive network/ community
* focusing on what is important in life to the individual
</small>
</div>
<hr>

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., & Elliot, H. (2020). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-01569-x The internalization of social stigma among minor-attracted persons: Implications for treatment.] Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 49, 1291-1304. doi: 10.1007/s10508-019-01569-x'''
*:'''Harmful mechanism of avoidance strategies''':
*:"We found that increased levels of suppression and lower levels of psychological well-being were associated with lower levels of hope about the future, but higher levels of both shame and guilt about having a sexual interest in minors. Thought suppression [...] did significantly predict higher rates of actively avoiding children. [...] Independently, lower levels of self-reported psychological wellbeing were associated with a desire for more support and higher rates of actively avoiding children."
*:"The internalization of negative social attitudes [...] [is] being posited as a motivation to engage in stress-ameliorating strategies in the form of distancing oneself from the minority identity via concealment (hiding one’s identity from those external to oneself), and suppression (refusing to accept one’s own minority identity)."
*:"Smart and Wegner (2000) describe many cognitive burdens that are associated with the constant suppression of one’s identity. Having to maintain an outward appearance that is different to internal processes can lead to a preoccupation with suppressing (Meyer, 2003), which can lead the individual living an internal “private hell” (Smart & Wegner, 2000, p. 229). This may be especially the case among MAPs [...] [S]uppression could become a totalizing experience in all areas of life with profoundly negative efects on psychological well-being. This is particularly troubling in light of evidence of a potential rebound efect that is associated with suppressing unwanted thoughts. Erskine and Georgiou (2011) described a range of evidence, suggesting that trying not to think about particular things (e.g., memories or actions) may actually increase rumination on those topics and reduce self-regulation processes (see also Abramowitz, Tolin, & Street, 2001). For example, dieters who suppress thoughts of hunger or thirst have been found to eat less in the short term, but binge at a later time (Denzler, Förster, Liberman, & Rozenman, 2010; Erskine, 2008), while the same outcomes are observed among smokers trying to reduce their cigarette consumption (Erskine, Georgiou, & Kvavilashvili, 2010). In the sexual domain, suppressing sexual thoughts has been associated with higher levels of compulsive sexual behaviors in religious groups (Efrati, 2019). [...] That is, [...] thought suppression related to minor attraction could paradoxically increase a propensity to engage with sexual thoughts involving children."
*:'''"Prevention" projects impose negative self-view and are therefore ineffective''':
*:"As reported previously, Grady et al. (2019) found that MAPs who viewed themselves as inherently bad people (they referred to this as shame in relation to sexual attractions) were less likely to seek help from professionals for issues arising from their attractions to minors. [...] Schemes that are designed to prevent or reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse (e.g., Germany’s Dunkelfeld Project) have been evaluated in relation to risk-relevant outcomes and dynamic sexual ofense risk factors (e.g., pro-criminal attitudes, impression management, and delinquent behavior; Beier et al., 2009, 2015), with these not showing particularly the positive results (see Mokros & Banse, 2019). While this lack of “treatment success” may call into question the validity of such schemes, it may be that these schemes emerge as being much more successful if broader psychosocial constructs related to well-being were also assessed. Further, the risk-based framing of such schemes (i.e., “prevention projects”) implicitly assumes that MAPs need to be “prevented” from offending (Lievesley & Harper, 2019), rather than “supported” though their psychosocial experiences of being attracted to minors (Grady et al., 2019; Jahnke, 2018b; Jahnke et al., 2015b). [...] [T]hose wishing to distance themselves from such a label do not reach out to access services that could lead to signifcant well-being improvements (Lievesley & Harper, 2019)."
*:"That is, the emphasis of treatment should be less related to “risk reduction” and more related to promoting MAPs’ social and psychological well-being, with forensic risk reduction becoming a by-product of this broader aim. [...] Instead of taking a deficits-focused view of the problem at hand (i.e., adopting a risk-focused lens), acceptance-based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999; Hayes & Wilson, 1994) work with the idea that peoples’ difficulties occur when they attempt to avoid and suppress painful feelings (Hayes, 1994), and represent a more positive psychological approach to dealing with distress. As such, we recommend that treatment approaches tackle the negative self-image experienced by many MAPs by encouraging them to view their sexual interests as a core part of their identities (acceptance), but also support them to live crime-free lives (commitment)."

*'''McKillop, N. and Price, S. (2023) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nadine-Mckillop/publication/370159588_The_Potential_for_Anti-Stigma_Interventions_to_Change_Public_Attitudes_Toward_Minor-Attracted_Persons_A_Replication_and_Extension_of_Jara_and_Jeglic%27s_Study/links/64b081da95bbbe0 "The Potential for Anti-Stigma Interventions to Change Public Attitudes Toward Minor-Attracted Persons: A Replication and Extension of Jara and Jeglic’s Study"]. ''Journal of Child Sexual Abuse'', DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2023.2204864'''
*:"Although many MAPs conceal and suppress their attraction and urges to act out their sexual desires (Jara & Jeglic, 2021; Levensen et al., 2017; Lievesley et al., 2020), Lievesley et al. (2020) caution that suppression – without professional treatment and appropriate supports – may increase the likelihood of future CSA behaviors. Certainly, Elchuk and collegues (2022) found that, while disclosure itself did not reduce psychological distress for MAPs, psychological and emotional wellbeing was improved when disclosure was met with support highlighting the potential value in engaging with support networks and services to improve outcomes".

*'''Lievesley, R & Harper, C.A. (2022) [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1080/13552600.2021.1883754 "Applying desistance principles to improve wellbeing and prevent child sexual abuse among minor-attracted persons"] ''Journal of Sexual Aggression'', 28:1, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/13552600.2021.1883754'''
*:"In accordance with theoretical insights into the motivations of individuals who sexual offend (e.g. Hall & Hirschman, 1991; Ward & Beech, 2006; Ward & Siegert, 2002), a focus on mental health treatment, shame reduction, and psychosocial wellbeing has the potential to prevent offending from taking place without treatment services being explicitly labeled as prevention. They would also be more in keeping with MAPs’ own self-identified treatment targets (B4U-ACT, 2011; Levenson & Grady, 2019)."

*'''Clayton, J., Hocken, K., and Blagden, N. (2022) [https://threequayspublishing.com/product/a-compassionate-intervention-for-individuals-with-problematic-sexual-interests-group-and-individual-outcomes-in-the-uk/ A compassionate intervention for individuals with problematic sexual interests: Group and individual outcomes in the UK.] ''Abuse: An International Impact Journal'', doi: 10.37576/abuse.2022.035'''
*:"The present paper discusses one of the first free community-based therapeutic interventions (The Aurora Project) in the UK, for individuals who are distressed by their sexual thoughts and behaviour and/or concerned they are a potential risk to others. The clinical approach to working with this population takes a compassion-focused stance. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in self-esteem and social safeness, as well as a reduction in internalised shame."

*'''Bekkers, L. M. J., Leukfeldt, E. R., & Holt, T. J. (2023). [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10790632231154882 Online Communities for Child-Attracted Persons as Informal Mental Health Care: Exploring Self-Reported Wellbeing Outcomes.] ''Sexual Abuse'', 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10790632231154882'''
*:“Online support communities are gaining attention among child-attracted persons (CAPs). Though research has largely focused on the negative consequences these environments create for potential offending, they may also provide a beneficial alternative to more formal treatment settings. [...] [B]y means of informal social control, bonds of trust and social relational education, the network aims to regulate the behavior and enhance the wellbeing of its marginalized participants. Key outcomes include a decreased sense of loneliness and better coping with stigma, to the point that participants experience less suicidal thoughts.”

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., Swaby, H. and Woodward, E. (2022) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2149437 Identifying and working with appropriate treatment targets with people who are sexually attracted to children]. ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy''. DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2149437'''
*: "The importance of addressing mental health issues is best highlighted by looking at the prevalence of suicidal ideation and intention among MAPs, with around 40% admitting to experiencing chronic suicidal ideation (Cohen, Ndukwe, Yaseen, & Galynker, 2018; Cohen et al., 2020). Research has also shown how MAPs experience high rates of anxiety, depression, and self-hatred (e.g., Jahnke et al., 2015; Lievesley et al., 2020; Stevens & Wood, 2019). Thought suppression is common among MAPs, with this taking many forms, including the active avoidance of children and potential reminders of minor attraction (Lievesley et al., 2020) or through problematic levels of substance use (Stevens & Wood, 2019; Walker, 2021). Such behavior often leads MAPs to become socially isolated and lacking in emotional and social supports (Elchuk, McPhail, & Olver, 2022; Jahnke et al., 2015)."
*:"this finding suggests that the most pressing problems that MAPs believe are present in their lives relate to the emotional responses that they experience in relation to their sexual attractions, and not in relation to their (lack of) potential propensities to act on these".
*: "we have also identified one potential treatment-related construct—self-compassion [...] with decreased self-compassion being associated with a greater need to address mental health and stigma-related concerns, increased sexual frustration, and a desire to change one’s sexual attraction patterns."
*:"The observation that lower levels of self-compassion were associated with an increased desire to control or change one’s attractions to children is perhaps indicative of the internalization of stigma (see Jahnke et al., 2015; Lievesley et al., 2020). [...] low levels of self-compassion might lead to unattainable treatment targets, and thus self-compassion and self-acceptance may be an important treatment aim when working with MAPs."

*'''Schaefer, A., Wittenberg, A., Galynker, I. and Cohen, L.J. (2022) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2126808?journalCode=usmt20 Qualitative Analysis of Minor Attracted Persons’ Subjective Experience: Implications for Treatment.] ''Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.'' DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2022.2126808'''
*:"This qualitative study examined community-based MAPs’ responses to narrative questions about their experiences and what they want society to understand, using an iterative thematic analysis. Notable responses from the participants included: 1) sexual attraction does not equal action; 2) minor attraction is immutable; 3) stigma leads to psychological burden; 4) therapy should aim to reduce distress, not change sexual feelings; and 5) sexual behavior can be controlled and remain within legal parameters."

*'''Mundy, C. (2022). [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjhs.2022-0006 10 years later: Revisiting Seto’s (2012) conceptualization of orientation to sexual maturity among pedohebephilic persons.] ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.'' DOI:10.3138/cjhs.2022-0006'''
*:"As noted by researchers and clinicians in this area, there are clear clinical implications associated with a shift in the conceptualization of sexual attraction to children. [...] Despite resistance to such conceptualizations, the findings indicate that orientation to sexual maturity closely mirrors the developmental trajectory of gender sexual orientation, as outlined in Seto’s seminal paper."
*:excerpted from [https://www.b4uact.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/B4QR-Winter-2023-3-1.pdf#page=17 B4QR]:
*:"Mundy explains that the conceptualization of attraction to minors as a sexual orientation is not of purely theoretical interest but can have important implications for treatment approaches.[...] Mundy cites studies showing that attraction to minors should be approached through acceptance and strengths-based practices that inculcate resilience and self-efficacy, as attempts to reduce or eliminate attraction to minors have not proven effective or beneficial to minor-attracted people."

*'''Roche, K., Stephens, S., Moss, S., and Seto, M. (2022). [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjhs.2022-0007 Online forum use in child attracted persons.] ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality'' 31 (3). DOI:10.3138/cjhs.2022-0007'''
*:"Social support for child-attracted persons (CAPs) may be important for increasing well-being, thereby reducing the risk of committing child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, in-person social support may be difficult to obtain because of stigma. CAPs may instead turn to online forums for people who are sexually attracted to children. [...] Most CAPs said that they initially sought out forums to avoid feeling alone in their attraction; the quality of offline support was rated as moderate. Emotional support and informational support were the most frequently endorsed forms of social support.

*'''Desbuleux, J.C. and Fuss, J. (2023) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2023.2199727 "The Self-Reported Sexual Real-World Consequences of Sex Doll Use"] ''The Journal of Sex Research'', DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2023.2199727'''
*:Interestingly, pedo-hebephilic users reported a greater reduction of sexual compulsivity compared to teleiophilic participants following doll use. Additionally, pedo-hebephilic participants more often reported acting out of illegal sexual fantasies with their dolls and a loss of interest in (sexual) intimacy with real children through doll use in the qualitative data. These self-reported data challenge the view that doll use is dangerously affecting human sexuality and instead suggest that dolls may be used as a sexual outlet for potentially dangerous and illegal (sexual) fantasies.

* '''Blagden, N. J., Mann, R., Webster, S., Lee, R., & Williams, F. (2018). [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1177/1079063217697132 “It’s not something I chose you know”: Making sense of pedophiles’ sexual interest in children and the impact on their psychosexual identity.] ''Sexual Abuse'', 30(6), 728–754. Doi: 10.1177/1079063217697132'''
*:"[I]t appears important to provide a treatment environment that allows for open and honest discussion about the nature of pedophilic sexual interest and '''does not focus on attempting to change the sexual interest''' (see Seto, 2012)."
*:"[T]reatment with such populations may benefit from [...] '''focusing on what is important to the individual''', for example, meaningful adult relationships and friendships, stable and satisfying employment, or something constructive to occupy their time."
*:"Finally, given the impact living with a deviant sexual interest had on participants’ identities, treatment may want to consider '''the latitude''' it gives to clients '''in creating/shaping constructive self and sexual identities'''. Indeed, a coherent narrative identity is crucially important for rehabilitation (Ward & Marshall, 2007). [...] [T]here is a connection between the identity conflict that participants experienced and risk factors for acting on their interest through the sexual abuse of children, such as social isolation, impaired intimacy with other adults, and the recognition of being a member of a highly stigmatized group."

* '''Williams, D. J., Thomas, J. N., & Prior, E. E. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/s10612-015-9270-y Moving Full-Speed Ahead in the Wrong Direction? A Critical Examination of US Sex-Offender Policy from a Positive Sexuality Model.] ''Critical Criminology'', 23(3), 277–294. doi:10.1007/s10612-015-9270-y'''
*:"Professionals should recognize that offenders and offending behaviors vary extensively, and therefore efforts to rehabilitate should be adjusted to acknowledge this diversity of expression and criminality. Understanding that sexual needs and interests are a part of an overall healthy lifestyle (WHO 2006) and finding ways to account for them in a sex-positive and socially appropriate manner could be especially beneficial in preventing and reducing sexual crimes."

* '''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A., Woodward, E. et al. (2023) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-023-01435-7 Fantasy Sexual Material Use by People with Attractions to Children]. ''Curr Psychiatry Rep'' 25, 395–404. doi:10.1007/s11920-023-01435-7'''
*: "Among other primary human goods [...] the strengths-based Good Lives Model of offender rehabilitation notes “sexual satisfaction” to be something that all people strive for in life[41, 42]. “Fantasy thinking” (an unrestricted form of mental experiences, in this case of a sexual nature) is thought to encourage arousal, excitement, and a feeling of possibility, feeding into the achievement of sexual satisfaction [43, 44]."
*: "[P]eople within this group have the same needs for sexual satisfaction as anybody else [41], and as such FSM [fictional sexual materials] may provide a viable outlet for their sexual fantasies as they pursue a sense of fulfillment in this domain."
*: "[C]hild-like sex doll owners were less likely to express a proclivity for sexual abuse than a comparison group of non-owners who were attracted to children and also demonstrated lower levels of sexual preoccupation."
*: "Rather than heightening arousal, FSM could act as a safe sexual outlet that allows for a feeling of release and sense of catharsis [84], which could reduce a motivation to seek out real children as a sexual partner."
*: "[E]ffective treatment engagement involves the alignment of treatment content to service user needs, considering sexual fulfillment and satisfaction as an important treatment need might be an increasingly pressing issue as support services for this population grow in number."

*'''Chronos, Agatha & Jahnke, Sara & Blagden, Nicholas. (2024). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0 The Treatment Needs and Experiences of Pedohebephiles: A Systematic Review.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior''. 1-18. 10.1007/s10508-024-02943-0.'''
*: "The results of the current review also stand in contrast to the perspectives of practitioners in regard to treatment. [...] Similarly, Lievesley et al. (2023) found that practitioners valued controlling behavior much more highly than pedohebephiles did."
*:"The finding that, at least in community settings, few participants appear to have an interest in prevention goals, such as learning how to control or reduce their sexual attraction to children, therefore poses practical and ethical challenges for treatment providers. One way to balance the goals of offense prevention and individual wellbeing could be the use of the Good-lives-model, which seeks to encourage individuals to pursue meaningful and prosocial life goals (Willis & Ward, 2013), rather than deficit-oriented approaches like relapse prevention. However, it stands to reason that there should be more services with a stronger or even exclusive commitment to well-being goals, given that there are pedohebephiles with low risks of sexual offending."
*:"Creating a compassionate and non-shaming therapeutic environment is especially important to pedohebephiles in order for them to share openly their experiences, and the impact their sexual attraction has had on them (Hocken &Taylor, 2021). One form of therapy which appears particularly well suited to this client group is Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) (Hocken & Taylor, 2021). [...] Within CFT, the relationships individuals have with themselves, especially in the forms of shame and self-criticism—highly relevant to pedohebephiles—underpin a wide range of mental health problems (Gilbert, 2014). There is emergent evidence that compassion-based interventions can reduce shame and help pedohebephilic individuals towards meaningful clinical change (Clayton et al., 2022)."

*'''McPhail, I.V. (2024) “The Subjective Experience of Individuals with Pedohebephilic Interest”, ''Current Sexual Health Reports'' 16, DOI: 10.1007/s11930-023-00381-y'''
*:"[M]aking a disclosure to family and friends that is not followed by support is associated with higher loneliness, poorer relationship quality, greater psychological distress, and higher suicidality and in some cases is associated with worse outcomes than concealment [85••]. [...] These findings suggest that individuals with pedohebephilic interests are acutely aware of the risks of disclosure and are, to varying degrees, judicious and skilled at finding those in their lives that will be supportive following a disclosure. For a population that experiences such elevated levels of loneliness and suicidality, this skill is likely central to well-being and, in some instances, lifesaving."
*:"Acceptance of pedohebephilia can be a double-edged process: coming to terms with the nature and stability of sexual interests can be a painful process involving grieving, fear, anger, and self-stigma, and yet is helpful for coping with and managing sexual attractions to children in daily life [25, 93, 94, 97]."

*'''Elchuk DL, McPhail IV, Olver ME. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Mcphail/publication/350158068_Stigma-Related_Stress_Complex_Correlates_of_Disclosure_Mental_Health_and_Loneliness_in_Minor_Attracted_People/links/605b801792851cd8ce65cf5a/Stigma-Related-Stress-Complex-Correlates-of Stigma-related stress, complex correlates of disclosure, mental health, and loneliness in minor-attracted people. Stigma Health.] 2022;7:100–12. doi:10.1037/sah0000317'''
*:"The stigma towards MAPs is found to be greater than stigma towards other groups (e.g., sexual minorities, those with mental illness; Boysen et al., 2020; Lehmann et al., 2020) and research examining a community-based sample of MAPs found high proportions of suicidal ideation with intense stigma being the most significant risk factor (Cohen et al., 2019). As such, we anticipate internalized pedonegativity to be a stigma-related stressor present to varying degrees in MAPs."
*:"As anticipated by our hypothesis and previous research (Jahnke, 2018), MAPs experiencing internalized pedonegativity reported greater levels of loneliness, psychological distress, and suicidality; loneliness only partially mediated the relationship between internalized pedonegativity and mental health concerns. These results indicate that internalized pedonegativity may be a driver of decreased wellbeing for MAPs and highlight the need clinical services to focus on addressing internalized pedonegativity."
*:" Assessing for the presence of internalized pedonegativity may inform the kinds of interventions provided to these clients (e.g., compassion-focused interventions; cognitive reframing)."
Internalized Pedonegativity Scale Items:
<hr>
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
<small>
*Attraction to children is a natural expression of sexuality in humans.
*I wish I were only attracted to adults.
*When I’m sexually attracted to a child, I do not mind if someone else knows how I feel.
*Most problems that MAPs have come from their status as an oppressed minority, not from their sexual or romantic attraction to children per se.
*Life as an MAP is not as fulfilling as life as a non-MAP.
*I am glad to be an MAP.
*Whenever I think a lot about being an MAP, I feel critical about myself.
*I am confident that my pedophilia does not make me inferior.
*Whenever I think a lot about being an MAP, I feel depressed.
*If it were possible, I would accept the opportunity to be attracted to adults.
*I wish I could become more sexually attracted and romantically attracted to adults.
*If there were a pill that could change my minor attraction, I would take it.
*I would not give up being an MAP even if I could.
*Attraction to children is deviant.
*It would not bother me if I had children who were MAPs.
*Being an MAP is a satisfactory and acceptable way of life for me.
*If I were attracted to adults, I would probably be happier.
*Most MAPs end up lonely and isolated.
*For the most part, I do not care who knows I am an MAP.
*I have no regrets about being an MAP.
*I have tried to stop being attracted to children in general.
*I would like to get professional help in order to change my attraction to children to attraction to adults
</small>
</div>
<hr>

*'''Stephens, S., Jahnke, S., & Davidson, M. (2024). [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024 Delphi Recommendations for Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexual Interest in Children in Non-Mandated Community Settings.] ''The Journal of Sex Research'', 1–14. doi:10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024'''
*:"This study sought to reach an international expert consensus regarding the diagnosis and treatment of adults with a sexual interest in children in cases where treatment is non-mandated. [...] Consensus was reached for 48 practice guidelines, particularly for recommendations that relate to general clinical practice, such as assessing for other mental health conditions. There was more contention for the inclusion of forensic practices. The present recommendations can serve as a set of tentative guidelines that may guide assessment and treatment of sexual interest in children in non-mandated settings." Although the full article is not yet available for free, you can see the level of consensus on the various recommendations in the article's [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.1080/00224499.2024.2403024?scroll=top supplementary material].

*'''McPhail, I. V., Stephens, S., & Heasman, A. (2018). [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian-Mcphail/publication/328676586_Legal_and_Ethical_Issues_in_Treating_Clients_with_Pedohebephilic_Interests/links/5bdb76e592851c6b27a056a5/Legal-and-Ethical-Issues-in-Treating-Clients-With-Pedohebephilic-Interests.pdf Legal and ethical issues in treating clients with pedohebephilic interests.] ''Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne'', 59(4), 369.'''
*:"Individuals with a sexual interest in children who have not committed a sexual offence are a client population that are currently underserved by psychologists. In the context of accessing and providing mental health services, mandatory reporting laws represent a key issue for clients and psychologists. For clients, mandatory reporting requirements creates a double-bind: they wish to access psychotherapy for a myriad of psychological concerns, yet they fear the implications of psychologists’ mandated reporting requirements if they disclose their sexual interest. Psychologists treating non-offending clients with sexual interests in children face several overlapping and competing ethical and legal obligations created by mandatory reporting laws. To examine these complexities, the present paper reviews and discusses legislation in Canada, complaints to provincial professional colleges, and case law related to mandatory reporting requirements. We additionally review principles and standards in the Canadian Psychological Association’s Code of Ethics (4th edition) to inform service provision with these clients. Recommendations for practice are provided based on this discussion and practice case vignettes are given to facilitate ethical decision-making."

*'''Levitan, Julia et al. (2024). [https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2385909 Minor-Attracted Men's Lived Experiences of Romantic Attraction], ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy'''''.
*:"The results of this study have implications for the clinical treatment of help-seeking MAPs. Broadly, findings suggest that healthcare professionals should consider screening for romantic as well as sexual attraction to minors if relevant to case conceptualization or treatment, and this assessment could inform their treatment plan accordingly. Our results point to specific areas of clinical intervention that may be of interest. Examples include: Providing evidence-based psychoeducation about the romantic component of attraction to minors; collaborative brainstorming of strategies to avoid unsafe or unethical situations with loved minors, including efforts to prevent child sexual offenses; or offering cognitive and behavioral strategies to alleviate distressing emotions and clinical symptoms related to limitations to attraction and relationship development with loved minors (e.g., increasing self-compassion, , exploring methods of navigating the stigma of “forbidden and hidden” romantic attractions, providing guidance and support through mourning the possibility of a legitimate romantic relationship with loved minors). Help-seeking MAPs have heterogeneous treatment needs, so service-users’ goals should be collaboratively determined (Lievesley et al., 2022)."

* '''Murphy, R. (2024) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14680173241240973 A pilot study: Exploring suicidal ideation among non-offending adults with sexual attraction to minors, through their online forum posts] ''Journal of Social Work'' DOI:10.1177/14680173241240973'''
*:"Surveys indicate that one in three people living with child sexual attraction experience chronic suicidal ideation (Cohen et al., 2018; Stevens & Wood, 2019)."
*:'''list of suicidality triggers:'''
*: "The feelings of shame and guilt that members expressed at this emerging sense of identity were a significant trigger toward suicidality. [...] Members indicated that the guilt was fueled by the harboring of this secret, and feeling that they were creating a false narrative to the people around them. [...] The most frequently highlighted trigger toward suicidality was that of disclosure, or of being “outed.” [...] The degree of internalized critical thinking about self-identifying as a pedophile influenced the intensity of suicidality. [...] For those who had attempted to rid themselves of the attraction, and had subsequently found that it could not be “cured,” this realization could act as a further trigger point. [...] For those who had acted in some way on their thoughts, the regret and shame of this further triggered suicidality. [...] Media and social media could increase expressed suicidality in this regard, as members noted the stigma and hatred directed toward people with pedophilia and internalized this further. [...] Many members referenced using alcohol as a means of escaping the reality of their situation, and it was identified that suicidal thoughts were often acted upon after alcohol intake. [...] Despite relationships and disclosure being a risk factor, this was also identified as a protective factor, with the key difference between the risk and protective elements of disclosure, being the response received. [...] Unhelpful professionals were considered those who presented as judgemental, hostile, who were uneasy about pedophilia and who may make reports to authorities despite no offence being committed. Unsuccessful engagements with professionals were reported to negatively affect members’ sense of self and sense of hope and to increase feelings of suicidality."

*'''Nematy, A., Flynn, S., & McCarthy-Jones, S. (2024) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10790632241268465 Perspectives, Treatment Goals, and Approaches of Prevention-Specialist Mental Health Professionals in Working With Clients Attracted to Children]. ''Sexual Abuse'', DOI: 10.1177/10790632241268465'''
*:'''considering pedophilia as an unchangeable condition has therapeutic value'''
*:"Considering pedophilia as a sexual orientation implies that treatment might be more effective when it prioritizes developing self-regulation skills rather than attempting to alter sexual preference (Seto, 2012). Accordingly, accepting minor-attraction is a pivotal step in effectively managing its behavioral manifestation. This acceptance serves as a crucial foundation for clients, enabling them to process suppressed feelings, integrate their atypical sexuality into their sense of self, alleviate the internalized shame, and enhance their capacity to manage their desires responsibly (Beier et al., 2009; Cantor, 2018; Lievesley et al., 2018; Walton & Hocken, 2021).[...] Cantor (2018) points out that if clients are informed that their pedophilic desire will cease, they may underestimate it and not attempt to develop skills for managing their sexual desire or avoid certain situations, hoping that it will disappear."
*:"Some authors suggest that deliberate control of thoughts may have a rebound effect (Hooper & Mchugh, 2013; Wegner, 1994). An experiment conducted by Johnston et al. (1997) revealed that in individuals who committed CSA, the accessibility of child-related thoughts increased after an instructed suppression period. Suppression and avoidance are generally considered maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and risk factors for depression, anxiety, and maladaptive behaviors such as substance misuse (Aldao et al., 2010). A study on individuals attracted to children found that thought suppression is associated with higher levels of guilt and shame about sexual attraction, lower levels of hope about the future, and lower levels of subjective psychological well-being (Lievesley et al., 2020). Individuals attracted to children reported that thought suppression had been detrimental and conflicted with their therapeutic progress (Dymond & Duff, 2020). They also reported attempts to change pedophilia as unhelpful (Schaefer et al., 2023) and described their sexual attraction as enduring (Walton & Duff, 2017)."
*:'''sex dolls are useful'''
*:"While still limited, available empirical evidence does not support the idea that sex dolls have escalating effects. Instead, doll ownership is linked to reduced levels of sexual preoccupation and self-reported arousal in hypothetical abuse scenarios (Harper & Lievesley, 2022). Moreover, doll owners show a lower tendency toward sexual aggression (Harper & Lievesley, 2023). In a mixed-method study, minor-attracted doll owners report less sexual preoccupation compared to teleiophilic doll owners. The qualitative accounts of doll owners indicate they channeled their sexual fantasies toward their dolls while reporting a decline in interest in real children through doll use (Desbuleux & Fuss, 2023)."
*:'''prevention approach doesn't work in therapy'''
*:"[S]trategies such as confiscating a client’s device or mandating disclosure to the family (which can lead to severe consequences) appear to be similar to surveillance and supervision rather than therapy, in which the client’s autonomy and self-determination must be at the heart of the practice (Cottone & Tarvydas, 2016)."
*:"While the prevention of child sexual abuse is undoubtedly a legitimate goal, the risk-management approach has been criticized for perpetuating social and self-stigma around minor attraction, which implies that individuals attracted to children are inevitably destined to offend unless preventive measures are taken (Jahnke, 2018; Lievesley & Harper, 2021). Some clients may perceive such efforts as incongruent with their needs and expectations, leading them to avoid seeking support to distance themselves from suspicions of being treated as potential offenders (Cacciatori, 2017; Grady et al., 2019; Lievesley & Harper, 2021)."
*:"[A] recent study found no significant difference among clients in a well-known prevention project (Dunkelfeld) compared to a control group on a waiting list in dynamic sexual offense risk factors such as sexual dysregulation, offense-supportive attitudes, recent behaviors related to CSA and CSAM consumption (Mokros & Banse, 2019). Considering the insufficient effectiveness of such risk paradigm approaches, it has been suggested that greater attention should be paid to other factors, including the psychological effects of living with minor attraction and stigma-related stressors (e.g., loneliness, low self-esteem, self-stigma, and shame) (Jahnke, 2018; Lievesley et al., 2020) and clients' overall well-being (Grady et al., 2019). This consideration also encompasses preventive elements since enhanced psychological well-being is associated with a reduced risk of sexual offending (Ward & Stewart, 2003; Yates, 2016)."

* '''from part of John O'Connor's masters in psychotherapy - Exploration of an Ethical Dilemma'''
*:“This essay attempted to illustrate how strict adherence to mandatory reporting laws may have a paradoxical effect of increased risk for both children and clients. [...] As such there is a rationale for choosing to remain with the client and deciding not to report.”
*:“Choosing not to burden the MAP client [who have never offended] with reporting, and continuing therapy with them is an ethically responsible and necessary practice (Heasman & Foreman, 2019), which contributes to the wider public health goal of first-time abuse prevention (Culling, 2018) and demonstrates the greater ethical utility (Baron, 2006; Jahnke, 2018; Heasman & Foreman, 2019; Beier et al., 2021).”
*::full references:
*::Baron, J. (2006). Against bioethics (pp. 1-236). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
*::Beier, K. M., Gieseler, H., Ulrich, H., Scherner, G., & Schlinzig, E. (2021). The Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD). Pedophilia, Hebephilia and Sexual Offending against Children: The Berlin Dissexuality Therapy (BEDIT), 43-56. 
*::Culling, H. (2018). Informing the prevention of child sexual abuse: comparing convicted offenders and minor-attracted persons. 
*::Heasman A, Foreman T. (2019) Bioethical Issues and Secondary Prevention for Nonoffending Individuals with Pedophilia. Camb Q Healthc Ethics.
*::Jahnke, S. (2018). The stigma of pedophilia. European Psychologist.

* '''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A. & Woodward, E. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x Toward a Holistic Approach to Treatment and Support for People with Attractions to Children]. Curr Sex Health Rep 17, 7 (2025).'''
*:"Evidence supports the need for a broader focus on treatment goals, such as improving psychological wellbeing, developing healthy coping strategies, and reducing internalized stigma. [...] Although specific child protection frameworks are important, a purely prevention-focused approach to treatment can reinforce stigma and limits the development of services that prioritize therapeutic engagement and alignment with service user needs."

*'''Lievesley, R , Swaby, H , Stevenson, J & Harper, C. (2024) [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2402320#abstract “Not offending is easy. The double life, the secrets, the loneliness are the hardest parts I needed help with”: understanding the treatment needs of people with attractions to children] ''Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy'', DOI:10.1080/0092623X.2024.2402320'''
*: "[S]eeking support for sexual frustration outside of the child sexual abuse context, in addition to broader mental health treatment needs acknowledged in a range of studies, is a desired feature of treatment among this population. [...] This is consistent with positive psychological models of well-being and forensic risk reduction, which cite the achievement of sexual satisfaction (and thus elimination of sexual frustration) as a universal primary human good that feeds into a healthy self-identity (Ward & Marshall, 2004)."
:: "[P]articipants were clear that services with an explicit and specific aim of reducing sexual risk (e.g., Stop It Now!, or programs linked to the Troubled Desire initiative) were unlikely to appeal to them."

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C.A. & Woodward, E. (2025) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x Toward a Holistic Approach to Treatment and Support for People with Attractions to Children]. Curr Sex Health Rep 17, 7. doi:10.1007/s11930-025-00403-x'''
::"Recent work has identified four specific treatment targets among people with attractions to children. These are: (1) mental health concerns, (2) dealing with stigma, (3) controlling or changing sexual attractions to children, and (4) the alleviation of sexual frustration."
::"[...]state factors facilitating sexual offending include low mood and maladaptive coping strategies, such as substance misuse. As such, the addressing of mental health related concerns can play a key role in the prevention of child sexual abuse, even in the absence of a specific prevention framing to support services."
::"Both internalized and societal stigma can severely impact an individual’s self-esteem, social relationships, and willingness to seek help. [...] The lack of accessible, non-judgmental support further compounds internal conflict and can lead to worsening mental health outcomes, including depression and suicidal ideation. Alongside this, people can begin to internalize social attitudes and begin to see offending as an inevitability as a result of their attractions. Within the criminological literature this is referred to as a Golem effect, whereby people behave in a manner consistent with social expectations."
::"Unaddressed sexual frustration can contribute to significant psychological strain, maladaptive coping strategies, or risky behaviors, making it a critical area for therapeutic intervention. From a prevention perspective, we know that blockages to sexual expression and paraphilic sexual interests are implicated in all major models of sexual offending, with this being compounded among people with sexual attractions with no legal outlet."
::"Efforts to directly alter attractions have not demonstrated consistent success, and researchers caution against such approaches due to ethical and practical concerns related to procedures that evoke images consistent with sexual orientation conversion therapy."

*'''Konrad A, Heid LM, Scheuermann H, Beier KM, Amelung T. (2025) [https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463191/full Acceptance of sexual attraction and its link to psychological distress and sexual offending among pedohebephilic clients: results from a preliminary analysis.] Front Psychol. 2025 Jan 27;15:1463191. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463191.'''
::"Psychological distress was significantly and negatively associated with acceptance (p < 0.001), i.e., as psychological distress increased, acceptance of one’s sexual inclination decreased. In our main and sensitivity analyses, recent general offending behavior was not significantly associated with acceptance (p = 0.625)"

*'''Lea H. Studer, A. Scott Aylwin (2006) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allan-Aylwin/publication/7017556_Pedophilia_The_problem_with_diagnosis_and_limitations_of_CBT_in_treatment/links/59fb86ba458515d070616604/Pedophilia-The-problem-with-diagnosis-and-limitations-of-CBT-in-treatment.pdf Pedophilia: The problem with diagnosis and limitations of CBT in treatment.]'''
::"First, there is little reason to include pedophilia among the mental disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). [...] Secondly,the typical CBT-based relapse prevention treatment for pedophilia, which represents current best practice, is reviewed. It is suggested that this, as a stand alone therapy, is suboptimal. CBT components are necessary but not sufficient for comprehensive therapy. It is imperative that process issues are given primacy in treatment programs. The common factors literature makes it clear that the therapeutic relationship is at least as potent a factor promoting change as the system or techniques that clinicians employ."

*'''Lievesley, R., Harper, C. A., Awan, A., and Bishop, A. (2025) "[https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2025.2522664 Beyond Pro- and Anti-Contact: Understanding the Ideologies of People Attracted to Children]" ''Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy'', 51(6)'''
::"A sense of self-acceptance in the sample was associated with lower levels of internalized stigma and an increased belief that children both desire and initiate sexual activity with other people. In the sexual domain, higher levels of masturbation were observed alongside a greater belief in the controllability of participants’ sexual desires among those with higher levels of self-acceptance."
::"[T]hose scoring low on self-acceptance reported needing relatively high levels of support across all treatment domains, which may be indicative of this particular ideological factor being of importance in treatment planning"
::"Among the group labeled “Radicals” [high self-acceptance and high permissibility of sex with minors], there were relatively low levels of self-reported needs for treatment, which might indicate that this group does not often appear in clinical settings. In analyzing their data, though, there was a firm rejection of treatment that was designed to control or change their attractions, with sexual frustration needs being less important than receiving support with mental health and social stigma. This was also the case for those labeled “Comfortable-Virtuous” [high self-acceptance and low permissibility], and as such it makes sense to perhaps move away from seeing the clusters as entirely separate groups with specific or unique treatment needs"
::"[T]hose who scored highly on the permissibility dimension were less likely to report needing support with sexual frustration. This may be due to these participants feeling less shame about expressing their sexuality, and a greater level of willingness among them to engage with sexual fantasy and fictional sexual materials (FSM; Lievesley, Harper, Woodward et al., 2023; Woodward et al. 2024)."
::"When permissibility perceptions were high, self-reported proclivities for offending were increased for both CSEM and contact offenses." But "adopting an explicitly abuse prevention approach is known to be detrimental to the likelihood of service uptake among people who are attracted to children (Levenson & Grady, 2019; Lievesley et al., 2025; Lievesley & Harper, 2022). [...] In contexts where the client has explicitly excluded risk management as a treatment target, placing emphasis on the client’s beliefs regarding the permissibility of sexual contact with children could hinder the development of a trusting and authentic therapeutic relationship."

*'''Gillespie, S. (2022). [https://www.proquest.com/openview/ba920465eed71c360408571550ba3f4b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y Sexual Fantasies and Self-Regulation in a Community Sample of People with Sexual Fantasies and/or Interest Involving Minors] [Ph.D. Thesis]'''
::"Results indicate that acceptance-based mindfulness approaches were positively associated with wellbeing and self-efficacy. Elaboration approaches (e.g. intentional fantasizing, pairing fantasies with masturbation), which were the most used and valued strategies for respondents, were positively associated with self-efficacy."

::"These results align with previous research that found that intentional fantasizing and pairing fantasies with masturbation was not correlated with sexual offending (Bailey et al., 2016; Houtepen et al., 2016)[...] The results of this study indicate that sexual fantasizing involving minors is associated with self-efficacy, which aligns with other research supporting the potential for positive or protective effects of sexual fantasizing by providing sexual outlet that does not involve victimizing children (Houtepen et al., 2016; Jones et al., 2021; Walker, 2017). Further, the lack of association between elaboration and potentially negative outcomes for sexual self-regulation in the present study calls into question the heavy treatment focus on changing/controlling sexual fantasies by any (including ethically questionable and potentially harmful) means necessary."

== See also ==
* [[Preventionism]]
==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on Pedophilia and Hebephilia characteristics contains some useful information re efficacy and effects of treatments.

{{Template:EGLPHC}}

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]]

Research: Cognitive ability

2026-05-06T15:55:42Z

Thorn: /* Adaptive immaturity */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
:''[https://x.com/garwboy/status/1778137144747274433 Popular X Thread]''
The often-repeated ageist/ableist myth<ref>[https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html Slate: Updated take on the 25y/o brain myth]</ref> of brain development ending at the ages of 18 or 25 started circulating in the late 00s and early 10s,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain Brain research advances help elucidate teen behavior]</ref> but the samples were never followed up beyond the age of 25.<ref>[https://www.iflscience.com/does-the-brain-really-mature-at-the-age-of-25-68979 Does The Brain Really Mature At The Age Of 25?]</ref> Historically, similar arguments have been made against Women<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0079-6123(08)64447-7 Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain A Historical Perspective]</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-history-of-female-brain-studies-reveal-a-lot-11584895362 The History of Female Brain Studies Reveal a Lot - WSJ]</ref><ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-female-brain-why-damaging-myths-about-women-and-science-keep-coming-back-in-new-forms-129310 The ‘female’ brain: why damaging myths about women and science keep coming back in new forms]</ref> (the gender differences while moderate, probably ''exceed'' any teen-adult variations<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.001 The Trouble with Sex Differences]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.026 Dump the “dimorphism”: Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size]</ref>) and Black people.<ref>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49594/1000050402_ftp.pdf SOME RACIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE NEGRO BRAIN]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143281/ Goldstein HW, Yusko KP, Scherbaum CA, Larson EC. Reducing Black-White Racial Differences on Intelligence Tests Used in Hiring for Public Safety Jobs. J Intell. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040062. PMID: 37103247; PMCID: PMC10143281.]</ref> Such alleged "racial peculiarities" are ignored by modern-day authoritarians, who prefer to ideologically mobilize "brain science" in a more selective manner.

Further brain imaging investigations have put "adulthood" (when so defined) at least as late as the 30s, with one study bizarrely concluding that the brain stays in the same "phase" between 9 and the early 30s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059 BBC - People don't become 'adults' until their 30s, say scientists], [https://www.aol.com/articles/adolescence-lasts-30s-study-shows-101116917.html Adolescence lasts until 30s]</ref> Ultimately, no set age for the end of brain "development" and beginning of "deterioration" has ever been established, as this is an impossible task and riddled with subjective factors. ''Neuroplasticity'' (and adaptive interpretation thereof) is a massive pitfall here, and in teenagers, it is generally over-claimed. Plasticity is also a troublesome argument for [[Ageism|ageists]] to maintain, as they also hold that critical thinking (known to promote plasticity) is considerably degraded in teens.

In summary, it can be said that the perceived incompetence of the modern minor is exaggerated and culture-bound, owing somewhat to the highly lucrative "[[Adolescence|troubled teen]]" industry and the advocacy science surrounding it.

==A little background==

This myth began its ascent to folklore after a 2005 US Supreme Court decision preventing teenage offenders from being executed. In their brief, the American Psychological Association successfully,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/roper.pdf APA's Roper Amicus]</ref> (but fallaciously and contrary to their own earlier Teen Abortion amicus<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/hodgson.pdf Hodgson (Teen Abortion) Amicus]</ref>) argued that the teen temperament is ''uniquely'' malleable and subject to change. The amicus cites behavioral studies and observations that '''lack valid comparisons and experimental controls''', otherwise identifying '''trends that are culture-bound''' or contradicted by other studies cited by Robert Epstein (for example) in this article. Generalizations are wrongly made from physiological data to competences, and then further leaps of faith are made to behaviors and "policy implications".<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00767-3 Nature: Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet]</ref><ref>[https://studyfinds.org/scientists-admit-controversial-conflict-that-casts-doubt-on-studies-using-fmri-brain-scans/ Scientists Admit Controversial Conflict Casts Doubt On Studies Using Brain Scans]</ref><ref>[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12189784/fmri-studies-explained There’s a lot of junk fMRI research out there. Here’s what top neuroscientists want you to know - Vox]</ref><ref>[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/controversial-science-of-brain-imaging/ Controversial science of brain imaging - Scientific American]</ref> This common fallacy of relevance and the resulting chain of hollow claims (about young people), is typical of advocacy science. One legal scholar even coined the term "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" to describe it.<ref>[https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=faculty_scholarship Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note]</ref>

Well known data surrounding the high recidivism and reoffending rates of youth offenders also contradicts the "unique plasticity" or [[Research: Who offends and how often?|"second chance" narrative]] (sources in linked article). So like many MAP-adjacent topics, the source of the myth is a classical case of "bad science following good (or at least political) intentions". Since this Supreme Court decision, some less reputable brain scientists have cottoned on to the trend, sometimes making spurious claims that contradict their own experimental findings - one supposes, in an attempt to curry favor. The MacArthur Foundation, who manage a $7.0bn endowment, are one example of a private foundation who plowed considerable finance into a now-discontinued program - adding to the now increasingly outdated and discredited "teen brain" body of research.<ref>[https://www.macfound.org/networks/research-network-on-adolescent-development-juvenil MacArthur Foundation: Research Network on Adolescent Development]</ref>

Our [[Debate_Guide:_Teen_brain|Teen Brain debate guide]] offers rebuttals to these myths; use it together with the following sources:

==Basic Physiology/brain volumes==

Total brain volume ''and'' Gray Matter volume appears to reach a peak at the start of, or during puberty<ref>Cabana T, Jolicoeur P, and Michaud J (1993) Prenatal and postnatal growth and allometry of stature, head circumference, and brain weight in Quebec children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.5:93–99.</ref><ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447489v3.full.pdf Brain charts for the human lifespan - Bethlehem et al (2022)]</ref>, declining thereafter. White matter, which has a less critical function in cognition, takes until the mid-40s to peak in volume. It is clear that some parts of the brain develop into and beyond early adulthood, while others might regress somewhat. This is a normal process of aging, since brain development and cognitive capacity are highly elastic and dependent upon one's environment.

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*: "In the neurodevelopmental literature, a given neural measurement is typically interpreted as mature when it matches (to a sufficient degree) an “adult” reference. [...] However, structural development continues to progress for a surprisingly long time. One especially large study showed that for several brain regions, structural growth curves had not plateaued even by the age of 30, the oldest age in their sample (Tamnes et al., 2010; see Figure 1B). [...] Other work focused on structural brain measures through adulthood show progressive volumetric changes from ages 15–90 that never “level off” and instead changed constantly throughout the adult phase of life (Walhovd et al., 2005). [...] it is unclear whether there is even a steady set-point at all."
*:"[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20829489/ Dosenbach et al., 2010] used data-driven classification algorithms to compute an estimated “brain age” of individual subjects 7 to 30 years of age based on widespread intrinsic connectivity patterns within and between brain networks [...] However, these data also illustrate the challenges of applying general patterns of neurodevelopment from group-based to individual inference, as there is substantial variance in brain network connectivity that is unrelated to age. For example, some 8-year-old brains exhibited a greater “maturation index” than some 25 year old brains."

*'''Giedd, J. et al (1999). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12807832_Brain_Development_during_Childhood_and_Adolescence_A_Longitudinal_MRI_Study Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study]," ''Nature Neuroscience'', 2(10):861-3.'''
*:"Pediatric neuroimaging studies, up to now exclusively cross sectional, identify linear decreases in cortical gray matter and increases in white matter across ages 4 to 20. In this large-scale longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study, we confirmed linear increases in white matter, but demonstrated nonlinear changes in cortical gray matter, with a preadolescent increase followed by a postadolescent decrease. These changes in cortical gray matter were regionally specific, with developmental curves for the frontal and parietal lobe peaking at about age 12 and for the temporal lobe at about age 16, whereas cortical gray matter continued to increase in the occipital lobe through age 20. The subjects for this study were healthy boys and girls participating in an ongoing longitudinal pediatric brain-MRI project at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. [...] This MRI study demonstrates a preadolescent increase in cortical gray matter; this phenomenon was previously obscured, probably by the lack of longitudinal data, as even in an analysis of the 145 cross-section-al data points in our sample, the largest to date, we could not detect nonlinearity in these developmental curves".

*'''Bartzokis, G. et al., (2001). "[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11343525/ Age-related changes in frontal and temporal lobe volumes in men: a magnetic resonance imaging study]," ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'', Aug; 58(8):774.'''
*:"'''Methods:''' Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated. '''Results:''' Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined. '''Conclusions:''' The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood."

*'''Del Giudice, M, (2014). "[https://marcodgdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/delgiudice_2014_middle-childhood_synthesis_cdp.pdf Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis]", ''Child Development Perspectives'', Volume 8, Number 4, Pages 193–200.'''
*:Del Giudice has age 6-8 as the peak for gray matter (see tables). This paper also goes into detail about development in middle-childhood, most importantly the onsent of '''adrenarche'''<ref>Gilbert Herdt and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf ''The Magical Age of 10''], in ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000. </ref> between 6-8 years of age, giving rise to sexual differentiation in behavior - including sexual curiosity and attraction. It could be argued that as a developmental milestone, this age is as important, if not more so than the start of puberty, as determined by thelarche or gonardarche.
*:"By age 6, the brain has almost reached its maximum size and receives a decreasing share of the body’s glucose after the consumption peak of early childhood (see Figure 1; Giedd & Rapoport, 2010; Kuzawa et al., in press). However, brain development proceeds at a sustained pace, with intensive synaptogenesis in cortical areas (gray matter) and rapid maturation of axonal connections (white matter; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008). [...] The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: Children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Mousley, A., Bethlehem, R. A. I., Yeh, F. C., & Astle, D. E. (2025). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12647875/ Topological turning points across the human lifespan.] ''Nature communications'', 16(1), 10055. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8'''
::"[W]e identified four major topological turning points across the lifespan – around nine, 32, 66, and 83 years old."
::“The second lifespan epoch, ages nine to 32, indicates that the trajectory of topological development remains consistent across this period. While adolescence begins with puberty, the end of adolescence is less clear, with older definitions ending before 20 and more recent definitions extending into the mid-20s. The transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than a purely biological shift. Our findings suggest that in Western countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and United States of America), adolescent topological development extends to around 32 years old, before brain networks begin a new trajectory of topological development.”

==Competence==

It's widely believed that minors differ fundamentally in their cognitive and decision-making abilities from adults. In addition, legal definitions are often conflated with the actual capacities of individuals, leading to a belief in a clear boundary between competent and incompetent ages. Many studies refute this view, supporting the concept of [[Evolving capacity|evolving capacity]].

*'''Kidd, C (2025) in ''The Conversation''. [https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438 Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research]'''
*:"More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it."

*'''Johnson SB, Blum RW, Giedd JN. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/ Adolescent maturity and the brain: the promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy.] J Adolesc Health. 2009 Sep;45(3):216-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.'''
*:"As of yet, however, neuroimaging studies do not allow a chronologic cut-point for behavioral or cognitive maturity at either the individual or population level. The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.[...] In sum, neuroimaging modalities involve an element of subjectivity, just as behavioral science modalities do. A concern is that high-profile media exposures may leave the mistaken impression that fMRI, in particular, is an infallible mind-reading technique that can be used to establish guilt or innocence, infer “true intentions,” detect lies, or establish competency to drive, vote, or [[consent]] to marriage.[...] Although scientists may be reticent to apply their research to policy, in some cases, policy makers are doing it for them."
*:"Ultimately, the goal is to be able to articulate the conditions under which adolescents’ competence, or demonstrated maturity, is most vulnerable and most resilient. Resilience, it seems, is often overlooked in contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and brain development. Indeed, the focus on pathologic conditions, deficits, reduced capacity, and age-based risks overshadows the enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the unique strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that help to reinforce and perpetuate opportunities for adolescents to thrive in this stage of development, not just survive."

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*:"A key principle that guides determinations about psychological maturity in adolescence and young adulthood is the degree to which contextual factors shape an individual’s behavior. For instance, an adolescent and an adult could achieve an identical level of performance on a cognitive task under certain conditions—say, when free of distraction and when the situation has low emotional arousal. However, if the context is shifted slightly by embedding reward cues in the cognitive task, adolescents’ performance disproportionally shifts compared to adults (e.g., Somerville et al., 2011). [...] A prime example of context-sensitive policy is graduated driving laws. They initially constrain new drivers to highly regulated conditions (e.g., during the day, without peers in the car) and slowly broaden the range of driving contexts as new drivers gain experience."
*:"one consequence of this framework would be the need to abandon the goal of identifying a single age-of-brain maturity. Rather, there would be a suite of maturity points that reflect different neural systems and different associated behaviors. For example, an individual could reach an age of “baseline cognitive maturity”—the capacity to engage in goal-directed behavior under neutral, non-distracted circumstances, substantially earlier than an age of “cognitive-emotional maturity”—the capacity to maintain goal-directed behavior in the face of competing emotional cues."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2010). chapter "Adultness" in''"Teen 2.0"'', 148-157.'''
*:"After reviewing the relevant scientific literature, interviewing many adults, and consulting with three other psychologists and two psychiatrists with expertise in adult development issues, we concluded that there are fourteen different skill-sets or "competencies" [love, sex, leadership, problem solving, physical abilities, verbal and math, interpersonal skills, responsibility, managing high-risk behaviors, work, education, personal care, self-management, and citizenship] that distinguish adults from non-adults. [...] For three of the competencies--love, leadership and problem solving--we did find statistically significant differences between the mean scores of teens and adults, with adults outscoring the teens. But the absolute differences were small. [...] On two other scales--work and self-management--the differences between the adult scores and teen scores were marginally significant (at the .05 level), again in the adults' favor, but the absolute differences were less than 4 percent. On the other nine scales, we found no significant differences at all between the adult and teen scores. [...] fifty five of the adults in our sample were college graduates--more than double the rate of college graduates in the United States."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2007). "[http://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf The Myth of the Teen Brain]," ''Scientific American Mind'', April/May, 57-63.'''
*:"Visual acuity, for example, peaks around the time of puberty. "Incidental memory"—the kind of memory that occurs automatically, without any mnemonic effort, peaks at about age 12 and declines through life. [...] In the 1940s pioneering intelligence researchers J. C. Raven and David Wechsler, relying on radically different kinds of intelligence tests, each showed that raw scores on intelligence tests peak between ages 13 and 15 and decline after that throughout life. Although verbal expertise and some forms of judgment can remain strong throughout life, the extraordinary cognitive abilities of teens, and especially their ability to learn new things rapidly, is beyond question. And whereas brain size is not necessarily a good indication of processing ability, it is notable that recent scanning data collected by Eric Courchesne and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, show that brain volume peaks at about age 14."
*:"A variety of research in several fields suggests that teen turmoil is caused by cultural factors, not by a faulty brain. [...] Anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures experience no turmoil whatsoever and that teen problems begin to appear only after Western schooling, movies and television are introduced. [...] Teens have the potential to perform in exemplary ways, the author says, but we hold them back by infantilizing them and trapping them in the frivolous world of teen culture."
*:"Studies of intelligence, perception and memory show that teens are in many ways superior to adults. [...] When we treat teens like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:(Intro) "Adolescents are qualitatively and categorically distinct from children. There is no empirical support, however, for a state of rationality or maturity common to most adults, rately seen in adolescents. Even young adolescents often show forms and levels of rationality beyond the competence of many adults, and adults of all ages often fall short of rational standards met by many adolescents [...] it is not surprising to find that in most societies for most of human history there was no such thing as adolescence, at least as we understand it (Epstein, 2007; Grotevant, 1998; Hine, 1999)."
*:"Postchildhood developmental changes in thinking are not tied to age and do not culminate in a state of maturity. Although it seems likely that many individuals show progress beyond childhood in the quality of their problem solving, decision making, judgment, and planning (Cauffman & Woolard, 2005; Steinberg & Scott, 2003), the deployment and progress of thinking in adolescence and beyond is highly variable, depending on specific interests, activities, and circumstances (Fischer, Stein, & Heikkinen, 2009). No theorist or researcher has ever identified a form or level of thinking routine among adults that is rarely seen in adolescents. Adolescent thinking often develops but not through a fixed sequence and not toward a universal state of maturity [...] It seems almost irresistible for adults to see themselves as having achieved a state of maturity that adolescents (and even younger adults) have not yet reached, but brain research provides no evidence to support the postulation of advanced states of maturity attained by the most or all adults but few adolescents. Many people continue to develop long beyond childhood, and their brains reflect those changes, but beyond age 12, there is no natural and universal state of maturity waiting to be achieved."
*:"Developmental changes beyond age 12 to 14 are much too stable and individualized, it appears to me, for a developmental panel, even if it included brain experts, to succeed in distinguishing age groups on the basis of their age development. Second, there is the reductionist fallacy. Brain data seem more scientific than behavioral data, but they are not, nor do they provide us with ultimate explanations, even if psychology can in principle be reduced to biology, a dubious proposition, we are a very long way from achieving such a reduction."
*:Editor: Moshman [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360 then published an article in HuffPo, that explains his position].

*'''Waber, D.P., et al. (2007). "The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development: Performance of a Population Based Sample of Healthy Children Aged 6 to 18 Years on a Neuropsychological Battery," ''Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society'', 13(5), 729-746.'''
*:"Perhaps most intriguing are the age-related trajectories for raw score performance. For most tasks, proficiency improved dramatically between 6 and 10 years of age, leveling off during early adolescence (approximately 10 to 12 years of age), suggesting that for many neurocognitive tasks, children approach adult levels of performance at that age. For a few measures, scores increased linearly throughout the age range. These were tasks that assessed basic information processing, such as Coding, Digit Span, and Spatial Span. Still others were associated with a non-linear component during adolescence. Some showed a flattening of the curve followed by another period of acceleration, suggesting another spurt in mid-adolescence. Verbal learning actually reversed direction with performance declining in later adolescence."

*'''Adler, N.E., & Matthews, K. (1994). "Health Psychology: Why do Some People Get Sick and Some Stay Well?," ''Annual Review of Psychology'', 45, 229-259.'''
*:"However, empirical tests show that adolescents are no less rational than adults. Applications of rational models to adolescent decision-making show that adolescents are consistent in their reasoning and behavior after the salient set of beliefs is assessed (Adler et al 1990). Quadrel et al (1993) demonstrated that adolescents are no more biased in their estimates of vulnerability to adverse health outcomes than are their parents."

*'''Weithorn, L. A. & Campbell, S. B. (1982). "The competency of children and adolescents to make informed treatment decisions," ''Child Development'', 53(6), 1589-1598.
*:"In general, minors aged fourteen were found to demonstrate a level of competence equivalent to that of adults. [...] The ages of eighteen or twenty-one as the "cutoffs" below which individuals are presumed to be incompetent to make determinations about their own welfare do not reflect the psychological capabilities of most adolescents."

*'''Offer, D. (1987). "In defense of adolescents," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 257, 3407-3408.'''
*:Mike Males [https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003554/http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ch2-psyc.htm describes] this study: "Northwestern University psychiatrist Daniel Offer, the nation’s leading researcher on adolescents, studied 30,000 teenagers and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. He and his colleagues found 85% to 90% of teens held attitudes and risk perceptions similar to that of their parents, were not alienated, did think about the future, were coping well with their lives, and did not display psychological disturbances. "Decision making for adults is no different than decision making among teenagers,” Offer reported in 1987 in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

*'''Offer, D., and Schonert Reichl, K.A. (1992). "Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research," ''Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry'', 31, 1003 1014.'''
*:"[T]he effects of pubertal hormones are neither potent nor pervasive (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). [...] Adolescence does not occur in a vacuum and is significantly affected by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. A recent investigation by Enright et al. (1987) illustrates this point. This study was based on the careful reading of 89 articles in the ''Journal of Genetic Psychology'' for the past 100 years. The articles were rated for their conceptions about the nature of adolescence. Enright et al. demonstrated ideological bias in approaches to understanding adolescent psychology, specifically in relation to economic conditions. Specifically, in times of economic depression, theories emerged in the literature that portrayed adolescents as "immature, psychologically unstable, and in need of prolonged participation in the education system" (p. 553). In contrast, during wartime, the psychological competence of adolescents was accentuated. The authors point out, "The field of adolescent psychology is not free from the societal influences that impinge upon legislators, educators, and parents in shaping American adolescents" (p. 554)."

*'''Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). "Adolescent (in)vulnerability," ''American Psychologist'', 48, 102-116.'''
*:"Three groups of subjects were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Subjects were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance."

*'''Hershovitz, S. (2022). [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/kids-philosophy-questions/629650/ "Why Kids Make the Best Philosophers,"] ''The Atlantic''.'''
*:"According to Piaget, Sarah should have been in the preoperational stage of development, so called because kids in it can’t yet use logic. But Sarah’s logic was exquisite—far more compelling than the cosmological argument. Whatever you make of an infinite regress of causes, it’s hard to imagine an infinite regress of cats. Matthews decided to study kids and their capacity for philosophical thought, introducing many people to the idea that kids are serious thinkers. Over decades of conversations with children, he found that “spontaneous excursions into philosophy” were common from the ages of 3 to 7. And he was struck by the subtle ways in which kids reasoned, as well as the frequency with which they surfaced philosophical questions. [...] Developmental psychologists are catching on to kids’ capabilities. Nowadays, most of them reject the idea that kids’ minds improve as they age. In The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik writes, “Children aren’t just defective adults, primitive grownups gradually attaining our perfection and complexity.” Their minds are different, but “equally complex and powerful.” Child development, she says, is “more like a metamorphosis, like caterpillars becoming butterflies, than like simple growth—though it may seem that children are the vibrant, wandering butterflies who transform into caterpillars inching along the grown-up path.”."

*'''Siegel, D. J. (2014). [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain "Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain,"] ''Psychology Today''.'''
*:Editor: Dr Siegel appears to believe in some of the myths surrounding the adolescent brain. He points to Synaptic Pruning, which has been suggested as one explanation for the fall in gray matter during the teen years, but his inference is not of much help to ageists who seek to withhold responsibilities from young people: "The classic “use it or lose it” principle applies to adolescence—those circuits that are actively engaged may remain, those underutilized may be subject to systematic destruction. And so for an adolescent, this means that if you want to learn a foreign language well, play a musical instrument, or be proficient at a sport, engaging in those activities before and during adolescence would be a good idea. We move from open potential in childhood to specialization during and following adolescence."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In biological terms, middle childhood corresponds to human juvenility — a stage in which the individual is still sexually immature, but no longer dependent on parents for survival. In social mammals and primates, juvenility is a phase of intense learning — often accomplished through play — in which youngsters practice adult behavioral patterns and acquire essential social and foraging skills."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is marked by a simultaneous increase in perceptual abilities (including a transition from local to global visual processing), motor control (including the emergence of adult-like walking), and complex reasoning skills (Bjorklund, 2011; Poirel et al., 2011; Weisner, 1996)."
*:"However, children at this age are not just learning and playing. Cross-culturally, middle childhood is the time when children are expected to start helping with domestic tasks—such as caring for younger siblings, collecting food and water, tending animals, and helping adults prepare food (Bogin, 1997; Lancy & Grove, 2011; Scalise Sugiyama, 2011; Weisner, 1996). In favorable ecologies, juveniles can contribute substantially to family subsistence (Kramer, 2011). Thanks to marked increases in spatial cognition (reflected in the emerging ability to understand maps) and navigational skills, children become able to memorize complex routes and find their way without adult supervision (Bjorklund, 2011; Piccardi, Leonzi, D’Amico, Marano, & Guariglia, 2014)."
*:"On a broader social level, cross-cultural evidence shows that juveniles start “getting noticed” by adults—that is, they begin to be viewed fully as people with their own individuality, personality, and social responsibility (Lancy & Grove, 2011)."
*:"While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."

*'''Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=sswa_facpubs Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective.] ''Human Nature'', 22, 281-302.'''
*:"Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or assignment of specific chores or duties.[...] There is also an acknowledgement at the exit from middle childhood, of near–adult levels of competence — as a herdsman or hunter or as gardener or infant-caretaker."
*:"In Jean Piaget’s influential theory of human cognitive development, the period from 5 to 7 years is marked by a major transition from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking (Piaget 1963). From a historical standpoint there is a great deal of evidence that this age range also marked a major transition in children’s social standing, in particular that a 7 year-old could be held legally and morally accountable for his/her actions (White 1991: 13)."
*:"The last point we would make is that the various markers of the onset of middle childhood we have enumerated all seem to be tied to a shift in cognitive functioning. There is an evident sensitivity to the expectations and needs of others—critical in child-minding and errand running. The child displays other indicators of “sense,” including lengthened attention span, greater language facility, and persistence in completing tasks. He or she is a willing student. The manifold signs of awareness of appropriate behavior vis-à-vis sex and gender go along with increased complexity in peer relations and rule-governed play. On the other hand, the exit from middle childhood is signaled more by markers of physical maturity—including secondary sexual characteristics, a growth spurt, voice change, increased sexuality, and augmented strength and endurance."

* '''Wang, F., Tong, Y., & Danovitch, J. (2019). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333302913_Who_do_I_believe_Children's_epistemic_trust_in_internet_teacher_and_peer_informants Who do I believe? Children’s epistemic trust in internet, teacher, and peer informants]. ''Cognitive Development'', 50, 248–260. Doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.05.006'''
::"Taken together, our findings suggest that school age children can reason about the reliability of information sources from different categories and that their judgments are sensitive to the type of information being sought. Just as children can be skeptical when making judgments about the reliability of different people (see Mills, 2013), children’s belief in information from the internet is not immutable. "

===Informed consent===

Children's decision-making ability has recently come under scrutiny, with [[consent]] to clinical research,<ref>[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13636 Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects (2023)]</ref> gender transition and vaccination efforts the most common contemporary themes so far. In a paper that repeated some of the myths re. development of older teens, it was nevertheless held that for children over the age of 11.2 need not be assessed individually for their ability to give consent to take part in clinical research.

*'''Hein, M. et al, (2015). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/s12910-015-0067-z Informed consent instead of assent is appropriate in children from the age of twelve]," ''BMC Medical Ethics'', 2015, 16:76.'''
*:"Children between 9.6 and 11.2 years were in the change-over period, an individual assessment of competence might be applicable in this age group. Children of 11.2 years and above can generally be considered decision-making competent, and although they need a supportive context, no individual assessment is needed."

=== Child's competence in law ===
* '''Lauren Eade (2001) [https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NewcLawRw/2001/16.pdf Legal Incapacity, Autonomy, and Children's Rights], ''Newcastle Law Review 5'', ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130420133701/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/Legal%20Incapacity,%20Autonomy,%20and%20Children's%20Rights.pdf a copy])'''
*:Doli incapax [age of criminal responsibility] and age of consent laws are representative of the two ways in which the law's presumption of children's incapacity denies autonomy even to the actually competent child. One denies autonomy and the fundamental stage of formation of intent; the other refuses to acknowledge the validity of a child's intent in particular areas. Both are devoid of scientific basis. Both are motivated by questionable control motives as well as a desire to protect. And both conceptualise the child in a manner inherently incompatible with the child as rights-holder.
*:But incapacity does not have to be an "all or nothing" issue. There is no reason why incapacity in some areas should deny capacity and autonomy in others, or why a child cannot be protected as well as allowed rights appropriate to his or her level of development. These are only irreconcilable propositions in the current model that presumptively ascribes incapacity to all children. If the law were to abandon its over-protective prejudices and engage with each child individually, judging his or her actual competence, these unjust consequences would be avoided. Immature children could retain the protection of incapacity. Specifically or generally autonomous children could gain recognition of their rights. And the law could at last acknowledge the fundamental fact that each and every child is a distinctly different human being.

==Risk Taking/Impulsivity/Prefrontal Physiology==

The oft-repeated myth of the human brain maturing fully at 25, is simplistic and outdated. If impulse control were dependent upon prefrontal volume, we would see no such thing as the quiet, studious preschooler - as all preschoolers have a tiny prefrontal cortex. As the previous studies suggest, the brains of teenagers are already losing gray matter and raw processing power is already declining by that age. Further studies are now informing us that functions of the prefrontal cortex are borrowed from other parts of the brain in teens, and ''raw'' levels of impulse-control are equal to or greater than that of adults. However, teens and young adults in particular, might be slightly less discriminatory, and less likely to use cognitive control when facing tasks within a negative emotional context. While this might manifest in poorer performance ''within an experimental context'', it is likely to be an ''adaptive'' (possibly pro-reproductive) trait that is net beneficial to socialization/competence building during youth, or otherwise experimental evidence of inadequate socialization. Further, there is no sound evidence to support the idea that the amygdala is the brain's "fear center"<ref>[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/05/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 Visser et al: Robust BOLD responses to faces but not to conditioned threat: challenging the amygdala’s reputation in human fear and extinction learning]</ref> - so any differences in teens' amygdala response can not be traced to function, let alone be ascribed to a mental deficiency. One would also have to account for the fact that when compared to adults, smaller childrens' level of amygdala activation is similar to that of adults, unlike teens. With respect to risk-taking sexual behavior, younger teens are no less careful than older adolescents, however, there are ethnic/cultural differences which prohibitionists appear to ignore.

*'''Kolk, S.M., Rakic, P. (2022). [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9 Development of prefrontal cortex.] ''Neuropsychopharmacol''. 47, 41–57. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9'''
*:"The constantly developing cognitive and executive capabilities occur parallel to the neurophysiological changes within the PFC and its connected areas and seem to reach a plateau in teenagers (around 12 years in human, around P50 in rodents)"

*'''Steinberg, L., (2008). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396566/ A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking]," ''Developmental Review'', Volume 28, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 78-106.'''
*:"Among the widely-held beliefs about adolescent risk-taking that have not been supported empirically are (a) that adolescents are irrational or deficient in their information processing, or that they reason about risk in fundamentally different ways than adults; (b) that adolescents do not perceive risks where adults do, or are more likely to believe that they are invulnerable; and (c) that adolescents are less risk-averse than adults. None of these assertions is correct: The logical reasoning and basic information-processing abilities of 16-year-olds are comparable to those of adults; adolescents are no worse than adults at perceiving risk or estimating their vulnerability to it (and, like adults, overestimate the dangerousness associated with various risky behaviors); and increasing the salience of the risks associated with making a poor or potentially dangerous decision has comparable effects on adolescents and adults (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996; see also Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008, this issue). Indeed, most studies find few, if any, age differences in individuals’ evaluations of the risks inherent in a wide range of dangerous behaviors (e.g., driving while drunk, having unprotected sex), in their judgments about the seriousness of the consequences that might result from risky behavior, or in the ways that they evaluate the relative costs and benefits of these activities (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993). In sum, adolescents’ greater involvement than adults in risk-taking does not stem from ignorance, irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or faulty calculations (Reyna & Farley, 2006)."

*'''Casey, B., (2013). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413480170 The Teenage Brain: Self Control]," ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'', Volume: 22 issue: 2, page(s): 82-87.'''
*:"Adolescence, by definition, involves new demands on the individual as she or he moves from dependence on the family unit to relative independence. This developmental period is not specific to humans, as evidenced by the increases in novelty seeking, interactions with peers, and fighting with parents observed in other species (see Romeo, 2013; Spear, 2013; both in this issue). These behaviors are thought to have evolved to serve adaptive functions related to successful mating and obtainment of resources necessary for survival (Spear & Varlinskaya, 2010). [...] To suggest that this period of development is one of no brakes or steering wheel (Bell & McBride, 2010) is to greatly oversimplify it. [...] Self-control—in this case, suppressing a compelling action—showed a different developmental pattern in the context of emotional information than in its absence, especially for males (Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 1 (also see Fig. 1 in Hare et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2011), when no emotional information is present, not only do many adolescents perform as well as adults, some perform even better. However, when decisions are required in the heat of the moment (i.e., in the presence of emotional cues; Fig. 2a), performance falters (Fig. 2b). Specifically, adolescents have difficulty suppressing a response to appetitive social cues relative to neutral ones. [...] Recently, a number of human imaging studies have attempted to evaluate this model and test for unique patterns of brain activity in adolescents during stereotypical risky behavior in the context of incentives (Chein, Albert, O’Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011; J. R. Cohen et al., 2010; Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010; Van Leijenhorst et al., 2010). This work has challenged the view that diminished self-control in adolescents is due to a less mature prefrontal cortex that leads to less successful exertion of regulatory control on behavior (Bell & McBride, 2010). [...] Indeed, if the objective of adolescence is to gain independence from the family unit, then providing opportunities for adolescents to engage in new responsibilities is essential. Without opportunities and experiences to help optimally shape the adolescent’s brain and behavior, the objectives of this developmental phase will not easily be met."

*'''Mills, K. L., Goddings, A.-L., Clasen, L. S., Giedd, J. N., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2014). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1159/000362328 The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence.] ''Developmental Neuroscience'', 36(3-4), 147–160.'''
*:"The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures."

*'''Bronski, J. (2021). "[https://ebin.pub/an-empirical-introduction-to-youth-1021810221.html?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_ZtS5lbHN8gICwu73uzc4rKtEXTq8Eq1ePjCjJ1OA30A-1635246299-0-gqNtZGzNA2WjcnBszQhl An Empirical Introduction to Youth]"'''
*:"The 2010 study looked at, among many, a white matter tract called the “uncinate fasciculus [which] … is a large fiber track connecting three key regions involved in emotion regulation: [the] amygdala, lateral and medial prefrontal cortex”136. This connection, which considering the evidence is safely considered to be done with all meaningful structural development by the end of puberty (which is likely to be before the age of fifteen), is exactly what some scientists claim causes a functional difference in teens. Specifically, they claim, among other things, that in teens the amygdala struggles to communicate with the frontal lobe, leading to lower inhibition of primal amygdalic functions. There is no evidence for this claim, since we have seen that the uncinated fasciculus, the main track connecting the amygdala and the frontal lobe, is mature at the end of puberty. So far we have seen that gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain, is accumulated until puberty, when it begins to be pruned. This pruning will continue into old age; there is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to loss of gray matter. We have also seen that the accumulation of white matter reaches its peak rate at the age of one year, and continues at decreasing rates until the age of approximately 45, in the prefrontal cortex and elsewhere in the brain. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the accumulation of white matter. Finally, in direct contrast to the unscientific claim that “Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part … Teens process information with the amygdala,” teens do in fact have working prefrontal cortexes, and the connections between that part of the brain and the amygdala are mature by the end of puberty. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the connection between the hindbrain and the forebrain, or the extent to which one “thinks” with either part of the brain. How do we now judge the statement that “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so?” Poorly. The proposition is clearly unsupported by the data regarding structural changes in the brain. Based on what we have reviewed, the claim seems totally arbitrary. Let us be charitable and look for other evidence that (Landouceur et al. 2012) might comment on this view. Perhaps the function of the brain only reaches mature levels at the age of 25. Development of Organ Function Function is what matters. For whatever reason, teen-brain neuroscientists love to obscure the debate on the maturity of the “teen brain” by making claims about its supposed structural immaturities. As we have seen, the actual evidence for these immaturities is sparse at best. Many claims of structural and functional immaturity rest on young, physically immature participants, which are grouped with older teens. Claims are then extended to all teenagers and hyperbolized in the news cycle. For instance, Dr. Giedd, who co-authored the 2004 gray matter study, has gone on the news and made claims about the immaturity of the brain “through adolescence.” The definition of adolescence is, of course, slippery. His data shows structural maturity by the age of 14 or 15, which he vaguely refers to as “late adolescence.” The WHO then defines adolescence as occurring during the ages 10-19. Many in the news refer to the age of 25 as the specific age at which the brain reaches maturity. How this came about has already been hinted at: earlier, a source was reviewed which showed that myelination of the frontal lobes continues until the mid-forties. One scientist, BJ Casey, ran an experiment which only featured participants up to the age of 24-25, and found that myelination continued to the highest age featured in the study. Out of this came the claim that the brain is still developing until the age of 25. In reality, further data shows that by this metric, the brain develops until 45! Dr. Frances Jensen wrote a whole book on this misleading claim, saying in a promotion article published in Time, The myelination process starts from the back of the brain and works its way to the front. That means the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decisionmaking, planning and self-control, is the last part to mature. It’s not that teens don’t have frontal- lobe capabilities but rather that their signals are not getting to the back of the brain fast enough to regulate their emotions. It’s why risk-taking and impulsive behavior are more common among teens and young adults. “This is why peer pressure rules at this time of life,” says Jensen. “It’s why my teenage boys would come home without their textbook and realize at 8 p.m. that they have a test the next day. They don’t have the fully developed capacity to think ahead at this time.” She also claims in her book that the teenage brain is “only 80% developed,” without a source."

*'''Romer, D. (2010). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445337/ Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention]," ''Developmental Psychobiology'', 52(3): 263–276.'''
*:"A review of the evidence for the hypothesis that limitations in brain development during adolescence restrict the ability to control impulsivity suggests that any such limitations are subtle at best. Instead, it is argued that lack of experience with novel adult behavior poses a much greater risk to adolescents than structural deficits in brain maturation [...] The evidence we have reviewed suggests that adolescent risk taking is not a universal phenomenon and that individual differences related to at least three types of impulsivity underlie such behavior in adolescents. Furthermore, at least two forms of impulsivity are associated with weak executive function as assessed by working memory and response inhibition tasks. However, sensation seeking does not appear to be inversely related to either of these executive functions and may actually be somewhat positively related to working memory ability."

*'''Romer, D. et al, (2017). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007 Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context]," ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience'', Volume 27, Pages 19-34.'''
*:Editor: For more on Romer's interpretation, see his article in [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/impulsive-teen-brain-not-based-science-180967027/ ''Smithsonian Magazine''].
*:"In conclusion, we have presented an alternative model of adolescent brain development that emphasizes the accumulation of experience as adolescents age and transition to adulthood, with concomitant changes in judgment and decision making (see Table 1 for a summary of differences between the Life-span Wisdom Model and Imbalance Models). The model explains much of the apparent increase in adolescent risk taking as an adaptive need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviors. The risk-taking that reflects lack of control or excessive sensitivity to immediate rewards is primarily an individual difference that characterizes some persons from an early age that can persist well into adulthood. At the same time, the adolescent brain is supremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities to take advantage of the experience gained. The result is a brain with integrated circuits encompassing executive function (i.e., cognitive control and inhibition), as well as verbatim and gist memory networks, which can be called upon to negotiate both novel and familiar situations. The preservation of robust gist thinking maintains wise decision making during later adulthood when cognitive control capacities diminish. We believe this approach is more aligned with the scientific evidence, including results that challenge stereotypes about the adolescent brain."

*'''Khurana, A., Romer, D., Betancourt, L. M., Brodsky, N. L., Giannetta, J. M., & Hurt, H. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/cdev.12383 Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, Even After Controlling for Parental Influences.] ''Child Development'', 86(4), 1125–1141. '''
*:"Of those who had initiated sexual activity by T3 (n = 91), nearly one in every four adolescents (27.5%) reported not using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Significant age differences were observed in the rates of sexual initiation, with older adolescents more likely to have initiated intercourse (t = 5.14, p < .001). No age differences were observed in condom use among those who had initiated sexual intercourse. Similarly, we noted no gender differences in the rates of sexual initiation or condom use in our sample. In terms of racial-ethnic variations, Black and Hispanic youth were more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse at T2 and T3, as compared to non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Native American youth. Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (46.2%) youth also had relatively higher rates of condom nonuse as compared to White youth (18.7%) in the nonvirgin subsample at T3."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:"There is no evidence that adolescents are uniquely egocentric or even much different from adults in this regard; on the contrary, research has shown age differences to be minimal or nonexistent (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Quadrel et al., 1993; Smetana & Villalobos, 2009). As fo the specific assertion that adolescents see themselves as invulnerable, it appears instead that adolescents routinely, and often drastically, overestimate their actual vulnerability (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). [...] risk taking is not always bad, and adolescents are not uniquely prone to it. People of all ages take risks of all sorts, including foolish and dangerous risks; there is no empirical basis for the common assumption that risk taking is a special phenomenon of adolescence. On the contrary, direct comparisons of adolescents and adults show minimal age differences (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993). Sociological data indicate that when covariates such as poverty are controlled, adolescents are no more prone to risk taking than adults, who in fact take plenty of dubious risks (Males, 2009, 2010)."

*'''Males, M. (2009). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/0743558408326913 Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable?]" ''Journal of Adolescent Research'', 24(1), 3–20. '''
*:"Far from justifying antiprecocity measures, emerging brain science, viewed in social contexts, indicates the dangers of efforts to restrict youth and to banish them from adult behaviors and public spaces. Preliminary analyses of brain physiology suggest that “taking risks is precisely the experience that develops the pre frontal cortex . . . you don’t learn what you need for adulthood by being excluded from it until you can demonstrate that you have got the right circuits” (Sercombe, in press). Viewed as a system, American social and health policies built on age-segregating measures may well be contributors to the extraordinarily high-risk behaviors prevailing among American youths and adults well into middle age compared with their counterparts in peer nations. There may be a price to pay in the adaptability of larger society as well. If brain science is to be credited with biodeterminist findings, neuroscannings and cognitive tests reveal developments in the middle-aged brain that make worry over teenage brains look silly. Significant losses in key memory and learning genes (Lu et al, 2004), mental fluidity (Schaie & Willis, 2008), and measurable losses in IQ show up in middle age and accelerate in senior years. Although some research indicates that myelinization (the pruning and selection of certain cerebral nerve fibers for myelin sheathing) aids adult brains in handling familiar situations more efficiently, it also renders them less able to address new challenges than more flexibly circuited younger brains."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM (2009) Adolescent Engagement in Dangerous Behaviors Is Associated with Increased White Matter Maturity of Frontal Cortex. ''PLoS ONE'' 4(8): e6773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006773'''
::"The direction of correlation suggests that rather than having immature cortices, adolescents who engage in dangerous activities have frontal white matter tracts that are more adult in form than their more conservative peers."

==Moral reasoning==

*'''Haidt, J. (2001). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20120425122316/http://www.nd.edu/~wcarbona/Haidt%202001.pdf The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment]," ''Psychological Review'', 108, 814-834.'''
*:"Turiel (1983) has shown that young children do not believe [that actions are wrong just because they are punished]. They say that harmful acts, such as hitting and pulling hair, are wrong whether they are punished or not. They even say that such acts would be wrong if adults ordered them to be done."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"Parallel improvements take place in mentalizing (the ability to understand and represent mental states) and moral reasoning, as children become able to consider multiple perspectives and conflicting goals (Jambon & Smetana, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2009)."

== Adaptive immaturity ==
While common belief about brain maturation is that juveniles are just undeveloped adults, there is a counterpoint that, in the course of human evolution, many typically 'juvenile' cognitive traits have become more adaptive than 'adult' ones. So, in some contexts, maturation can be seen as a disadvantage. Here is a concept of adaptive cognitive neoteny in literature.

* '''Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-05606-003?doi=1 The role of immaturity in human development]. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 122(2), 153–169. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.122.2.153'''
::“Some aspects of childhood are not specific preparations for adulthood. Rather, they are designed by evolution to adapt the child to its current environment but not necessarily to a future one.”
::"Several theorists have written of behavioral neoteny as the extended juvenile character of human behavior (Cairns, 1976; Lorenz, 1971; Mason, 1968a, 1968b). Cairns (1976) and Mason (1968a) have postulated, for example, that important aspects of human social behavior such as attachment are influenced by behavioral neoteny (see also Cairns, Gariepy, & Hood, 1990; and Montagu, 1989), and, according to Lorenz, such juvenile characteristics as curiosity are responsible for human’s behavioral flexibility.”

*'''Bufill, E., Agustí, J., & Blesa, R. (2011). [https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.21225 Human neoteny revisited: The case of synaptic plasticity.] ''American Journal of Human Biology'', 23(6), 729–739. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.21225'''
::"In Homo sapiens, brain development is retarded compared with other primates, especially in some association areas. These areas are characterized by the presence of neurons, which remain structurally immature throughout their lifespans and show an increase in the expression of the genes, which deal with metabolism and the activity and synaptic plasticity in adulthood. The retention of juvenile features in some adult neurons in our species has occurred in areas, which are related to episodic memory, planning, and social navigation. [...] which suggests that a neuronal neoteny has occurred in H. sapiens, which allows the human brain to function, to a certain degree, like a juvenile brain during adult life."

*'''Somel, M., et al. (2009). [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0900544106 Transcriptional neoteny in the human brain]. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'', 106(14), 5743–5748. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900544106'''
::"In human evolution, developmental retardation, or neoteny, has been proposed as a possible mechanism that contributed to the rise of many human-specific features, including an increase in brain size and the emergence of human-specific cognitive traits. We analyzed mRNA expression in the prefrontal cortex of humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques to determine whether human-specific neotenic changes are present at the gene expression level. We show that the brain transcriptome is dramatically remodeled during postnatal development and that developmental changes in the human brain are indeed delayed relative to other primates."

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Competences and Development''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLComp}}

==See also==

*Perspectives on [[Ageism|Ageism]] include the similarity between [[Wikipedia:Troubled teen industry|"troubled teen industry"]] literature and [[Wikipedia:Scientific racism|scientific racism]].
*The concept of [[Evolving capacity|Evolving capacity]]

==External links==

*[https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19cP Dr. Howard R. Bernstein - Myth of the Adolescent Brain] (Video link)
*Jane C. Hu, [https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html The Myth of the 25-Year-Old Brain] (''Slate'', Nov 27 2022).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]

Research: Cognitive ability

2026-05-06T13:57:46Z

Thorn: /* Adaptive immaturity */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
:''[https://x.com/garwboy/status/1778137144747274433 Popular X Thread]''
The often-repeated ageist/ableist myth<ref>[https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html Slate: Updated take on the 25y/o brain myth]</ref> of brain development ending at the ages of 18 or 25 started circulating in the late 00s and early 10s,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain Brain research advances help elucidate teen behavior]</ref> but the samples were never followed up beyond the age of 25.<ref>[https://www.iflscience.com/does-the-brain-really-mature-at-the-age-of-25-68979 Does The Brain Really Mature At The Age Of 25?]</ref> Historically, similar arguments have been made against Women<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0079-6123(08)64447-7 Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain A Historical Perspective]</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-history-of-female-brain-studies-reveal-a-lot-11584895362 The History of Female Brain Studies Reveal a Lot - WSJ]</ref><ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-female-brain-why-damaging-myths-about-women-and-science-keep-coming-back-in-new-forms-129310 The ‘female’ brain: why damaging myths about women and science keep coming back in new forms]</ref> (the gender differences while moderate, probably ''exceed'' any teen-adult variations<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.001 The Trouble with Sex Differences]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.026 Dump the “dimorphism”: Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size]</ref>) and Black people.<ref>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49594/1000050402_ftp.pdf SOME RACIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE NEGRO BRAIN]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143281/ Goldstein HW, Yusko KP, Scherbaum CA, Larson EC. Reducing Black-White Racial Differences on Intelligence Tests Used in Hiring for Public Safety Jobs. J Intell. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040062. PMID: 37103247; PMCID: PMC10143281.]</ref> Such alleged "racial peculiarities" are ignored by modern-day authoritarians, who prefer to ideologically mobilize "brain science" in a more selective manner.

Further brain imaging investigations have put "adulthood" (when so defined) at least as late as the 30s, with one study bizarrely concluding that the brain stays in the same "phase" between 9 and the early 30s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059 BBC - People don't become 'adults' until their 30s, say scientists], [https://www.aol.com/articles/adolescence-lasts-30s-study-shows-101116917.html Adolescence lasts until 30s]</ref> Ultimately, no set age for the end of brain "development" and beginning of "deterioration" has ever been established, as this is an impossible task and riddled with subjective factors. ''Neuroplasticity'' (and adaptive interpretation thereof) is a massive pitfall here, and in teenagers, it is generally over-claimed. Plasticity is also a troublesome argument for [[Ageism|ageists]] to maintain, as they also hold that critical thinking (known to promote plasticity) is considerably degraded in teens.

In summary, it can be said that the perceived incompetence of the modern minor is exaggerated and culture-bound, owing somewhat to the highly lucrative "[[Adolescence|troubled teen]]" industry and the advocacy science surrounding it.

==A little background==

This myth began its ascent to folklore after a 2005 US Supreme Court decision preventing teenage offenders from being executed. In their brief, the American Psychological Association successfully,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/roper.pdf APA's Roper Amicus]</ref> (but fallaciously and contrary to their own earlier Teen Abortion amicus<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/hodgson.pdf Hodgson (Teen Abortion) Amicus]</ref>) argued that the teen temperament is ''uniquely'' malleable and subject to change. The amicus cites behavioral studies and observations that '''lack valid comparisons and experimental controls''', otherwise identifying '''trends that are culture-bound''' or contradicted by other studies cited by Robert Epstein (for example) in this article. Generalizations are wrongly made from physiological data to competences, and then further leaps of faith are made to behaviors and "policy implications".<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00767-3 Nature: Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet]</ref><ref>[https://studyfinds.org/scientists-admit-controversial-conflict-that-casts-doubt-on-studies-using-fmri-brain-scans/ Scientists Admit Controversial Conflict Casts Doubt On Studies Using Brain Scans]</ref><ref>[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12189784/fmri-studies-explained There’s a lot of junk fMRI research out there. Here’s what top neuroscientists want you to know - Vox]</ref><ref>[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/controversial-science-of-brain-imaging/ Controversial science of brain imaging - Scientific American]</ref> This common fallacy of relevance and the resulting chain of hollow claims (about young people), is typical of advocacy science. One legal scholar even coined the term "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" to describe it.<ref>[https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=faculty_scholarship Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note]</ref>

Well known data surrounding the high recidivism and reoffending rates of youth offenders also contradicts the "unique plasticity" or [[Research: Who offends and how often?|"second chance" narrative]] (sources in linked article). So like many MAP-adjacent topics, the source of the myth is a classical case of "bad science following good (or at least political) intentions". Since this Supreme Court decision, some less reputable brain scientists have cottoned on to the trend, sometimes making spurious claims that contradict their own experimental findings - one supposes, in an attempt to curry favor. The MacArthur Foundation, who manage a $7.0bn endowment, are one example of a private foundation who plowed considerable finance into a now-discontinued program - adding to the now increasingly outdated and discredited "teen brain" body of research.<ref>[https://www.macfound.org/networks/research-network-on-adolescent-development-juvenil MacArthur Foundation: Research Network on Adolescent Development]</ref>

Our [[Debate_Guide:_Teen_brain|Teen Brain debate guide]] offers rebuttals to these myths; use it together with the following sources:

==Basic Physiology/brain volumes==

Total brain volume ''and'' Gray Matter volume appears to reach a peak at the start of, or during puberty<ref>Cabana T, Jolicoeur P, and Michaud J (1993) Prenatal and postnatal growth and allometry of stature, head circumference, and brain weight in Quebec children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.5:93–99.</ref><ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447489v3.full.pdf Brain charts for the human lifespan - Bethlehem et al (2022)]</ref>, declining thereafter. White matter, which has a less critical function in cognition, takes until the mid-40s to peak in volume. It is clear that some parts of the brain develop into and beyond early adulthood, while others might regress somewhat. This is a normal process of aging, since brain development and cognitive capacity are highly elastic and dependent upon one's environment.

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*: "In the neurodevelopmental literature, a given neural measurement is typically interpreted as mature when it matches (to a sufficient degree) an “adult” reference. [...] However, structural development continues to progress for a surprisingly long time. One especially large study showed that for several brain regions, structural growth curves had not plateaued even by the age of 30, the oldest age in their sample (Tamnes et al., 2010; see Figure 1B). [...] Other work focused on structural brain measures through adulthood show progressive volumetric changes from ages 15–90 that never “level off” and instead changed constantly throughout the adult phase of life (Walhovd et al., 2005). [...] it is unclear whether there is even a steady set-point at all."
*:"[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20829489/ Dosenbach et al., 2010] used data-driven classification algorithms to compute an estimated “brain age” of individual subjects 7 to 30 years of age based on widespread intrinsic connectivity patterns within and between brain networks [...] However, these data also illustrate the challenges of applying general patterns of neurodevelopment from group-based to individual inference, as there is substantial variance in brain network connectivity that is unrelated to age. For example, some 8-year-old brains exhibited a greater “maturation index” than some 25 year old brains."

*'''Giedd, J. et al (1999). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12807832_Brain_Development_during_Childhood_and_Adolescence_A_Longitudinal_MRI_Study Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study]," ''Nature Neuroscience'', 2(10):861-3.'''
*:"Pediatric neuroimaging studies, up to now exclusively cross sectional, identify linear decreases in cortical gray matter and increases in white matter across ages 4 to 20. In this large-scale longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study, we confirmed linear increases in white matter, but demonstrated nonlinear changes in cortical gray matter, with a preadolescent increase followed by a postadolescent decrease. These changes in cortical gray matter were regionally specific, with developmental curves for the frontal and parietal lobe peaking at about age 12 and for the temporal lobe at about age 16, whereas cortical gray matter continued to increase in the occipital lobe through age 20. The subjects for this study were healthy boys and girls participating in an ongoing longitudinal pediatric brain-MRI project at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. [...] This MRI study demonstrates a preadolescent increase in cortical gray matter; this phenomenon was previously obscured, probably by the lack of longitudinal data, as even in an analysis of the 145 cross-section-al data points in our sample, the largest to date, we could not detect nonlinearity in these developmental curves".

*'''Bartzokis, G. et al., (2001). "[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11343525/ Age-related changes in frontal and temporal lobe volumes in men: a magnetic resonance imaging study]," ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'', Aug; 58(8):774.'''
*:"'''Methods:''' Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated. '''Results:''' Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined. '''Conclusions:''' The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood."

*'''Del Giudice, M, (2014). "[https://marcodgdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/delgiudice_2014_middle-childhood_synthesis_cdp.pdf Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis]", ''Child Development Perspectives'', Volume 8, Number 4, Pages 193–200.'''
*:Del Giudice has age 6-8 as the peak for gray matter (see tables). This paper also goes into detail about development in middle-childhood, most importantly the onsent of '''adrenarche'''<ref>Gilbert Herdt and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf ''The Magical Age of 10''], in ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000. </ref> between 6-8 years of age, giving rise to sexual differentiation in behavior - including sexual curiosity and attraction. It could be argued that as a developmental milestone, this age is as important, if not more so than the start of puberty, as determined by thelarche or gonardarche.
*:"By age 6, the brain has almost reached its maximum size and receives a decreasing share of the body’s glucose after the consumption peak of early childhood (see Figure 1; Giedd & Rapoport, 2010; Kuzawa et al., in press). However, brain development proceeds at a sustained pace, with intensive synaptogenesis in cortical areas (gray matter) and rapid maturation of axonal connections (white matter; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008). [...] The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: Children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Mousley, A., Bethlehem, R. A. I., Yeh, F. C., & Astle, D. E. (2025). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12647875/ Topological turning points across the human lifespan.] ''Nature communications'', 16(1), 10055. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8'''
::"[W]e identified four major topological turning points across the lifespan – around nine, 32, 66, and 83 years old."
::“The second lifespan epoch, ages nine to 32, indicates that the trajectory of topological development remains consistent across this period. While adolescence begins with puberty, the end of adolescence is less clear, with older definitions ending before 20 and more recent definitions extending into the mid-20s. The transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than a purely biological shift. Our findings suggest that in Western countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and United States of America), adolescent topological development extends to around 32 years old, before brain networks begin a new trajectory of topological development.”

==Competence==

It's widely believed that minors differ fundamentally in their cognitive and decision-making abilities from adults. In addition, legal definitions are often conflated with the actual capacities of individuals, leading to a belief in a clear boundary between competent and incompetent ages. Many studies refute this view, supporting the concept of [[Evolving capacity|evolving capacity]].

*'''Kidd, C (2025) in ''The Conversation''. [https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438 Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research]'''
*:"More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it."

*'''Johnson SB, Blum RW, Giedd JN. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/ Adolescent maturity and the brain: the promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy.] J Adolesc Health. 2009 Sep;45(3):216-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.'''
*:"As of yet, however, neuroimaging studies do not allow a chronologic cut-point for behavioral or cognitive maturity at either the individual or population level. The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.[...] In sum, neuroimaging modalities involve an element of subjectivity, just as behavioral science modalities do. A concern is that high-profile media exposures may leave the mistaken impression that fMRI, in particular, is an infallible mind-reading technique that can be used to establish guilt or innocence, infer “true intentions,” detect lies, or establish competency to drive, vote, or [[consent]] to marriage.[...] Although scientists may be reticent to apply their research to policy, in some cases, policy makers are doing it for them."
*:"Ultimately, the goal is to be able to articulate the conditions under which adolescents’ competence, or demonstrated maturity, is most vulnerable and most resilient. Resilience, it seems, is often overlooked in contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and brain development. Indeed, the focus on pathologic conditions, deficits, reduced capacity, and age-based risks overshadows the enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the unique strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that help to reinforce and perpetuate opportunities for adolescents to thrive in this stage of development, not just survive."

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*:"A key principle that guides determinations about psychological maturity in adolescence and young adulthood is the degree to which contextual factors shape an individual’s behavior. For instance, an adolescent and an adult could achieve an identical level of performance on a cognitive task under certain conditions—say, when free of distraction and when the situation has low emotional arousal. However, if the context is shifted slightly by embedding reward cues in the cognitive task, adolescents’ performance disproportionally shifts compared to adults (e.g., Somerville et al., 2011). [...] A prime example of context-sensitive policy is graduated driving laws. They initially constrain new drivers to highly regulated conditions (e.g., during the day, without peers in the car) and slowly broaden the range of driving contexts as new drivers gain experience."
*:"one consequence of this framework would be the need to abandon the goal of identifying a single age-of-brain maturity. Rather, there would be a suite of maturity points that reflect different neural systems and different associated behaviors. For example, an individual could reach an age of “baseline cognitive maturity”—the capacity to engage in goal-directed behavior under neutral, non-distracted circumstances, substantially earlier than an age of “cognitive-emotional maturity”—the capacity to maintain goal-directed behavior in the face of competing emotional cues."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2010). chapter "Adultness" in''"Teen 2.0"'', 148-157.'''
*:"After reviewing the relevant scientific literature, interviewing many adults, and consulting with three other psychologists and two psychiatrists with expertise in adult development issues, we concluded that there are fourteen different skill-sets or "competencies" [love, sex, leadership, problem solving, physical abilities, verbal and math, interpersonal skills, responsibility, managing high-risk behaviors, work, education, personal care, self-management, and citizenship] that distinguish adults from non-adults. [...] For three of the competencies--love, leadership and problem solving--we did find statistically significant differences between the mean scores of teens and adults, with adults outscoring the teens. But the absolute differences were small. [...] On two other scales--work and self-management--the differences between the adult scores and teen scores were marginally significant (at the .05 level), again in the adults' favor, but the absolute differences were less than 4 percent. On the other nine scales, we found no significant differences at all between the adult and teen scores. [...] fifty five of the adults in our sample were college graduates--more than double the rate of college graduates in the United States."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2007). "[http://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf The Myth of the Teen Brain]," ''Scientific American Mind'', April/May, 57-63.'''
*:"Visual acuity, for example, peaks around the time of puberty. "Incidental memory"—the kind of memory that occurs automatically, without any mnemonic effort, peaks at about age 12 and declines through life. [...] In the 1940s pioneering intelligence researchers J. C. Raven and David Wechsler, relying on radically different kinds of intelligence tests, each showed that raw scores on intelligence tests peak between ages 13 and 15 and decline after that throughout life. Although verbal expertise and some forms of judgment can remain strong throughout life, the extraordinary cognitive abilities of teens, and especially their ability to learn new things rapidly, is beyond question. And whereas brain size is not necessarily a good indication of processing ability, it is notable that recent scanning data collected by Eric Courchesne and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, show that brain volume peaks at about age 14."
*:"A variety of research in several fields suggests that teen turmoil is caused by cultural factors, not by a faulty brain. [...] Anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures experience no turmoil whatsoever and that teen problems begin to appear only after Western schooling, movies and television are introduced. [...] Teens have the potential to perform in exemplary ways, the author says, but we hold them back by infantilizing them and trapping them in the frivolous world of teen culture."
*:"Studies of intelligence, perception and memory show that teens are in many ways superior to adults. [...] When we treat teens like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:(Intro) "Adolescents are qualitatively and categorically distinct from children. There is no empirical support, however, for a state of rationality or maturity common to most adults, rately seen in adolescents. Even young adolescents often show forms and levels of rationality beyond the competence of many adults, and adults of all ages often fall short of rational standards met by many adolescents [...] it is not surprising to find that in most societies for most of human history there was no such thing as adolescence, at least as we understand it (Epstein, 2007; Grotevant, 1998; Hine, 1999)."
*:"Postchildhood developmental changes in thinking are not tied to age and do not culminate in a state of maturity. Although it seems likely that many individuals show progress beyond childhood in the quality of their problem solving, decision making, judgment, and planning (Cauffman & Woolard, 2005; Steinberg & Scott, 2003), the deployment and progress of thinking in adolescence and beyond is highly variable, depending on specific interests, activities, and circumstances (Fischer, Stein, & Heikkinen, 2009). No theorist or researcher has ever identified a form or level of thinking routine among adults that is rarely seen in adolescents. Adolescent thinking often develops but not through a fixed sequence and not toward a universal state of maturity [...] It seems almost irresistible for adults to see themselves as having achieved a state of maturity that adolescents (and even younger adults) have not yet reached, but brain research provides no evidence to support the postulation of advanced states of maturity attained by the most or all adults but few adolescents. Many people continue to develop long beyond childhood, and their brains reflect those changes, but beyond age 12, there is no natural and universal state of maturity waiting to be achieved."
*:"Developmental changes beyond age 12 to 14 are much too stable and individualized, it appears to me, for a developmental panel, even if it included brain experts, to succeed in distinguishing age groups on the basis of their age development. Second, there is the reductionist fallacy. Brain data seem more scientific than behavioral data, but they are not, nor do they provide us with ultimate explanations, even if psychology can in principle be reduced to biology, a dubious proposition, we are a very long way from achieving such a reduction."
*:Editor: Moshman [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360 then published an article in HuffPo, that explains his position].

*'''Waber, D.P., et al. (2007). "The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development: Performance of a Population Based Sample of Healthy Children Aged 6 to 18 Years on a Neuropsychological Battery," ''Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society'', 13(5), 729-746.'''
*:"Perhaps most intriguing are the age-related trajectories for raw score performance. For most tasks, proficiency improved dramatically between 6 and 10 years of age, leveling off during early adolescence (approximately 10 to 12 years of age), suggesting that for many neurocognitive tasks, children approach adult levels of performance at that age. For a few measures, scores increased linearly throughout the age range. These were tasks that assessed basic information processing, such as Coding, Digit Span, and Spatial Span. Still others were associated with a non-linear component during adolescence. Some showed a flattening of the curve followed by another period of acceleration, suggesting another spurt in mid-adolescence. Verbal learning actually reversed direction with performance declining in later adolescence."

*'''Adler, N.E., & Matthews, K. (1994). "Health Psychology: Why do Some People Get Sick and Some Stay Well?," ''Annual Review of Psychology'', 45, 229-259.'''
*:"However, empirical tests show that adolescents are no less rational than adults. Applications of rational models to adolescent decision-making show that adolescents are consistent in their reasoning and behavior after the salient set of beliefs is assessed (Adler et al 1990). Quadrel et al (1993) demonstrated that adolescents are no more biased in their estimates of vulnerability to adverse health outcomes than are their parents."

*'''Weithorn, L. A. & Campbell, S. B. (1982). "The competency of children and adolescents to make informed treatment decisions," ''Child Development'', 53(6), 1589-1598.
*:"In general, minors aged fourteen were found to demonstrate a level of competence equivalent to that of adults. [...] The ages of eighteen or twenty-one as the "cutoffs" below which individuals are presumed to be incompetent to make determinations about their own welfare do not reflect the psychological capabilities of most adolescents."

*'''Offer, D. (1987). "In defense of adolescents," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 257, 3407-3408.'''
*:Mike Males [https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003554/http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ch2-psyc.htm describes] this study: "Northwestern University psychiatrist Daniel Offer, the nation’s leading researcher on adolescents, studied 30,000 teenagers and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. He and his colleagues found 85% to 90% of teens held attitudes and risk perceptions similar to that of their parents, were not alienated, did think about the future, were coping well with their lives, and did not display psychological disturbances. "Decision making for adults is no different than decision making among teenagers,” Offer reported in 1987 in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

*'''Offer, D., and Schonert Reichl, K.A. (1992). "Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research," ''Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry'', 31, 1003 1014.'''
*:"[T]he effects of pubertal hormones are neither potent nor pervasive (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). [...] Adolescence does not occur in a vacuum and is significantly affected by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. A recent investigation by Enright et al. (1987) illustrates this point. This study was based on the careful reading of 89 articles in the ''Journal of Genetic Psychology'' for the past 100 years. The articles were rated for their conceptions about the nature of adolescence. Enright et al. demonstrated ideological bias in approaches to understanding adolescent psychology, specifically in relation to economic conditions. Specifically, in times of economic depression, theories emerged in the literature that portrayed adolescents as "immature, psychologically unstable, and in need of prolonged participation in the education system" (p. 553). In contrast, during wartime, the psychological competence of adolescents was accentuated. The authors point out, "The field of adolescent psychology is not free from the societal influences that impinge upon legislators, educators, and parents in shaping American adolescents" (p. 554)."

*'''Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). "Adolescent (in)vulnerability," ''American Psychologist'', 48, 102-116.'''
*:"Three groups of subjects were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Subjects were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance."

*'''Hershovitz, S. (2022). [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/kids-philosophy-questions/629650/ "Why Kids Make the Best Philosophers,"] ''The Atlantic''.'''
*:"According to Piaget, Sarah should have been in the preoperational stage of development, so called because kids in it can’t yet use logic. But Sarah’s logic was exquisite—far more compelling than the cosmological argument. Whatever you make of an infinite regress of causes, it’s hard to imagine an infinite regress of cats. Matthews decided to study kids and their capacity for philosophical thought, introducing many people to the idea that kids are serious thinkers. Over decades of conversations with children, he found that “spontaneous excursions into philosophy” were common from the ages of 3 to 7. And he was struck by the subtle ways in which kids reasoned, as well as the frequency with which they surfaced philosophical questions. [...] Developmental psychologists are catching on to kids’ capabilities. Nowadays, most of them reject the idea that kids’ minds improve as they age. In The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik writes, “Children aren’t just defective adults, primitive grownups gradually attaining our perfection and complexity.” Their minds are different, but “equally complex and powerful.” Child development, she says, is “more like a metamorphosis, like caterpillars becoming butterflies, than like simple growth—though it may seem that children are the vibrant, wandering butterflies who transform into caterpillars inching along the grown-up path.”."

*'''Siegel, D. J. (2014). [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain "Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain,"] ''Psychology Today''.'''
*:Editor: Dr Siegel appears to believe in some of the myths surrounding the adolescent brain. He points to Synaptic Pruning, which has been suggested as one explanation for the fall in gray matter during the teen years, but his inference is not of much help to ageists who seek to withhold responsibilities from young people: "The classic “use it or lose it” principle applies to adolescence—those circuits that are actively engaged may remain, those underutilized may be subject to systematic destruction. And so for an adolescent, this means that if you want to learn a foreign language well, play a musical instrument, or be proficient at a sport, engaging in those activities before and during adolescence would be a good idea. We move from open potential in childhood to specialization during and following adolescence."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In biological terms, middle childhood corresponds to human juvenility — a stage in which the individual is still sexually immature, but no longer dependent on parents for survival. In social mammals and primates, juvenility is a phase of intense learning — often accomplished through play — in which youngsters practice adult behavioral patterns and acquire essential social and foraging skills."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is marked by a simultaneous increase in perceptual abilities (including a transition from local to global visual processing), motor control (including the emergence of adult-like walking), and complex reasoning skills (Bjorklund, 2011; Poirel et al., 2011; Weisner, 1996)."
*:"However, children at this age are not just learning and playing. Cross-culturally, middle childhood is the time when children are expected to start helping with domestic tasks—such as caring for younger siblings, collecting food and water, tending animals, and helping adults prepare food (Bogin, 1997; Lancy & Grove, 2011; Scalise Sugiyama, 2011; Weisner, 1996). In favorable ecologies, juveniles can contribute substantially to family subsistence (Kramer, 2011). Thanks to marked increases in spatial cognition (reflected in the emerging ability to understand maps) and navigational skills, children become able to memorize complex routes and find their way without adult supervision (Bjorklund, 2011; Piccardi, Leonzi, D’Amico, Marano, & Guariglia, 2014)."
*:"On a broader social level, cross-cultural evidence shows that juveniles start “getting noticed” by adults—that is, they begin to be viewed fully as people with their own individuality, personality, and social responsibility (Lancy & Grove, 2011)."
*:"While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."

*'''Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=sswa_facpubs Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective.] ''Human Nature'', 22, 281-302.'''
*:"Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or assignment of specific chores or duties.[...] There is also an acknowledgement at the exit from middle childhood, of near–adult levels of competence — as a herdsman or hunter or as gardener or infant-caretaker."
*:"In Jean Piaget’s influential theory of human cognitive development, the period from 5 to 7 years is marked by a major transition from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking (Piaget 1963). From a historical standpoint there is a great deal of evidence that this age range also marked a major transition in children’s social standing, in particular that a 7 year-old could be held legally and morally accountable for his/her actions (White 1991: 13)."
*:"The last point we would make is that the various markers of the onset of middle childhood we have enumerated all seem to be tied to a shift in cognitive functioning. There is an evident sensitivity to the expectations and needs of others—critical in child-minding and errand running. The child displays other indicators of “sense,” including lengthened attention span, greater language facility, and persistence in completing tasks. He or she is a willing student. The manifold signs of awareness of appropriate behavior vis-à-vis sex and gender go along with increased complexity in peer relations and rule-governed play. On the other hand, the exit from middle childhood is signaled more by markers of physical maturity—including secondary sexual characteristics, a growth spurt, voice change, increased sexuality, and augmented strength and endurance."

* '''Wang, F., Tong, Y., & Danovitch, J. (2019). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333302913_Who_do_I_believe_Children's_epistemic_trust_in_internet_teacher_and_peer_informants Who do I believe? Children’s epistemic trust in internet, teacher, and peer informants]. ''Cognitive Development'', 50, 248–260. Doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.05.006'''
::"Taken together, our findings suggest that school age children can reason about the reliability of information sources from different categories and that their judgments are sensitive to the type of information being sought. Just as children can be skeptical when making judgments about the reliability of different people (see Mills, 2013), children’s belief in information from the internet is not immutable. "

===Informed consent===

Children's decision-making ability has recently come under scrutiny, with [[consent]] to clinical research,<ref>[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13636 Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects (2023)]</ref> gender transition and vaccination efforts the most common contemporary themes so far. In a paper that repeated some of the myths re. development of older teens, it was nevertheless held that for children over the age of 11.2 need not be assessed individually for their ability to give consent to take part in clinical research.

*'''Hein, M. et al, (2015). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/s12910-015-0067-z Informed consent instead of assent is appropriate in children from the age of twelve]," ''BMC Medical Ethics'', 2015, 16:76.'''
*:"Children between 9.6 and 11.2 years were in the change-over period, an individual assessment of competence might be applicable in this age group. Children of 11.2 years and above can generally be considered decision-making competent, and although they need a supportive context, no individual assessment is needed."

=== Child's competence in law ===
* '''Lauren Eade (2001) [https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NewcLawRw/2001/16.pdf Legal Incapacity, Autonomy, and Children's Rights], ''Newcastle Law Review 5'', ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130420133701/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/Legal%20Incapacity,%20Autonomy,%20and%20Children's%20Rights.pdf a copy])'''
*:Doli incapax [age of criminal responsibility] and age of consent laws are representative of the two ways in which the law's presumption of children's incapacity denies autonomy even to the actually competent child. One denies autonomy and the fundamental stage of formation of intent; the other refuses to acknowledge the validity of a child's intent in particular areas. Both are devoid of scientific basis. Both are motivated by questionable control motives as well as a desire to protect. And both conceptualise the child in a manner inherently incompatible with the child as rights-holder.
*:But incapacity does not have to be an "all or nothing" issue. There is no reason why incapacity in some areas should deny capacity and autonomy in others, or why a child cannot be protected as well as allowed rights appropriate to his or her level of development. These are only irreconcilable propositions in the current model that presumptively ascribes incapacity to all children. If the law were to abandon its over-protective prejudices and engage with each child individually, judging his or her actual competence, these unjust consequences would be avoided. Immature children could retain the protection of incapacity. Specifically or generally autonomous children could gain recognition of their rights. And the law could at last acknowledge the fundamental fact that each and every child is a distinctly different human being.

==Risk Taking/Impulsivity/Prefrontal Physiology==

The oft-repeated myth of the human brain maturing fully at 25, is simplistic and outdated. If impulse control were dependent upon prefrontal volume, we would see no such thing as the quiet, studious preschooler - as all preschoolers have a tiny prefrontal cortex. As the previous studies suggest, the brains of teenagers are already losing gray matter and raw processing power is already declining by that age. Further studies are now informing us that functions of the prefrontal cortex are borrowed from other parts of the brain in teens, and ''raw'' levels of impulse-control are equal to or greater than that of adults. However, teens and young adults in particular, might be slightly less discriminatory, and less likely to use cognitive control when facing tasks within a negative emotional context. While this might manifest in poorer performance ''within an experimental context'', it is likely to be an ''adaptive'' (possibly pro-reproductive) trait that is net beneficial to socialization/competence building during youth, or otherwise experimental evidence of inadequate socialization. Further, there is no sound evidence to support the idea that the amygdala is the brain's "fear center"<ref>[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/05/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 Visser et al: Robust BOLD responses to faces but not to conditioned threat: challenging the amygdala’s reputation in human fear and extinction learning]</ref> - so any differences in teens' amygdala response can not be traced to function, let alone be ascribed to a mental deficiency. One would also have to account for the fact that when compared to adults, smaller childrens' level of amygdala activation is similar to that of adults, unlike teens. With respect to risk-taking sexual behavior, younger teens are no less careful than older adolescents, however, there are ethnic/cultural differences which prohibitionists appear to ignore.

*'''Kolk, S.M., Rakic, P. (2022). [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9 Development of prefrontal cortex.] ''Neuropsychopharmacol''. 47, 41–57. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9'''
*:"The constantly developing cognitive and executive capabilities occur parallel to the neurophysiological changes within the PFC and its connected areas and seem to reach a plateau in teenagers (around 12 years in human, around P50 in rodents)"

*'''Steinberg, L., (2008). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396566/ A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking]," ''Developmental Review'', Volume 28, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 78-106.'''
*:"Among the widely-held beliefs about adolescent risk-taking that have not been supported empirically are (a) that adolescents are irrational or deficient in their information processing, or that they reason about risk in fundamentally different ways than adults; (b) that adolescents do not perceive risks where adults do, or are more likely to believe that they are invulnerable; and (c) that adolescents are less risk-averse than adults. None of these assertions is correct: The logical reasoning and basic information-processing abilities of 16-year-olds are comparable to those of adults; adolescents are no worse than adults at perceiving risk or estimating their vulnerability to it (and, like adults, overestimate the dangerousness associated with various risky behaviors); and increasing the salience of the risks associated with making a poor or potentially dangerous decision has comparable effects on adolescents and adults (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996; see also Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008, this issue). Indeed, most studies find few, if any, age differences in individuals’ evaluations of the risks inherent in a wide range of dangerous behaviors (e.g., driving while drunk, having unprotected sex), in their judgments about the seriousness of the consequences that might result from risky behavior, or in the ways that they evaluate the relative costs and benefits of these activities (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993). In sum, adolescents’ greater involvement than adults in risk-taking does not stem from ignorance, irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or faulty calculations (Reyna & Farley, 2006)."

*'''Casey, B., (2013). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413480170 The Teenage Brain: Self Control]," ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'', Volume: 22 issue: 2, page(s): 82-87.'''
*:"Adolescence, by definition, involves new demands on the individual as she or he moves from dependence on the family unit to relative independence. This developmental period is not specific to humans, as evidenced by the increases in novelty seeking, interactions with peers, and fighting with parents observed in other species (see Romeo, 2013; Spear, 2013; both in this issue). These behaviors are thought to have evolved to serve adaptive functions related to successful mating and obtainment of resources necessary for survival (Spear & Varlinskaya, 2010). [...] To suggest that this period of development is one of no brakes or steering wheel (Bell & McBride, 2010) is to greatly oversimplify it. [...] Self-control—in this case, suppressing a compelling action—showed a different developmental pattern in the context of emotional information than in its absence, especially for males (Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 1 (also see Fig. 1 in Hare et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2011), when no emotional information is present, not only do many adolescents perform as well as adults, some perform even better. However, when decisions are required in the heat of the moment (i.e., in the presence of emotional cues; Fig. 2a), performance falters (Fig. 2b). Specifically, adolescents have difficulty suppressing a response to appetitive social cues relative to neutral ones. [...] Recently, a number of human imaging studies have attempted to evaluate this model and test for unique patterns of brain activity in adolescents during stereotypical risky behavior in the context of incentives (Chein, Albert, O’Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011; J. R. Cohen et al., 2010; Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010; Van Leijenhorst et al., 2010). This work has challenged the view that diminished self-control in adolescents is due to a less mature prefrontal cortex that leads to less successful exertion of regulatory control on behavior (Bell & McBride, 2010). [...] Indeed, if the objective of adolescence is to gain independence from the family unit, then providing opportunities for adolescents to engage in new responsibilities is essential. Without opportunities and experiences to help optimally shape the adolescent’s brain and behavior, the objectives of this developmental phase will not easily be met."

*'''Mills, K. L., Goddings, A.-L., Clasen, L. S., Giedd, J. N., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2014). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1159/000362328 The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence.] ''Developmental Neuroscience'', 36(3-4), 147–160.'''
*:"The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures."

*'''Bronski, J. (2021). "[https://ebin.pub/an-empirical-introduction-to-youth-1021810221.html?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_ZtS5lbHN8gICwu73uzc4rKtEXTq8Eq1ePjCjJ1OA30A-1635246299-0-gqNtZGzNA2WjcnBszQhl An Empirical Introduction to Youth]"'''
*:"The 2010 study looked at, among many, a white matter tract called the “uncinate fasciculus [which] … is a large fiber track connecting three key regions involved in emotion regulation: [the] amygdala, lateral and medial prefrontal cortex”136. This connection, which considering the evidence is safely considered to be done with all meaningful structural development by the end of puberty (which is likely to be before the age of fifteen), is exactly what some scientists claim causes a functional difference in teens. Specifically, they claim, among other things, that in teens the amygdala struggles to communicate with the frontal lobe, leading to lower inhibition of primal amygdalic functions. There is no evidence for this claim, since we have seen that the uncinated fasciculus, the main track connecting the amygdala and the frontal lobe, is mature at the end of puberty. So far we have seen that gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain, is accumulated until puberty, when it begins to be pruned. This pruning will continue into old age; there is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to loss of gray matter. We have also seen that the accumulation of white matter reaches its peak rate at the age of one year, and continues at decreasing rates until the age of approximately 45, in the prefrontal cortex and elsewhere in the brain. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the accumulation of white matter. Finally, in direct contrast to the unscientific claim that “Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part … Teens process information with the amygdala,” teens do in fact have working prefrontal cortexes, and the connections between that part of the brain and the amygdala are mature by the end of puberty. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the connection between the hindbrain and the forebrain, or the extent to which one “thinks” with either part of the brain. How do we now judge the statement that “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so?” Poorly. The proposition is clearly unsupported by the data regarding structural changes in the brain. Based on what we have reviewed, the claim seems totally arbitrary. Let us be charitable and look for other evidence that (Landouceur et al. 2012) might comment on this view. Perhaps the function of the brain only reaches mature levels at the age of 25. Development of Organ Function Function is what matters. For whatever reason, teen-brain neuroscientists love to obscure the debate on the maturity of the “teen brain” by making claims about its supposed structural immaturities. As we have seen, the actual evidence for these immaturities is sparse at best. Many claims of structural and functional immaturity rest on young, physically immature participants, which are grouped with older teens. Claims are then extended to all teenagers and hyperbolized in the news cycle. For instance, Dr. Giedd, who co-authored the 2004 gray matter study, has gone on the news and made claims about the immaturity of the brain “through adolescence.” The definition of adolescence is, of course, slippery. His data shows structural maturity by the age of 14 or 15, which he vaguely refers to as “late adolescence.” The WHO then defines adolescence as occurring during the ages 10-19. Many in the news refer to the age of 25 as the specific age at which the brain reaches maturity. How this came about has already been hinted at: earlier, a source was reviewed which showed that myelination of the frontal lobes continues until the mid-forties. One scientist, BJ Casey, ran an experiment which only featured participants up to the age of 24-25, and found that myelination continued to the highest age featured in the study. Out of this came the claim that the brain is still developing until the age of 25. In reality, further data shows that by this metric, the brain develops until 45! Dr. Frances Jensen wrote a whole book on this misleading claim, saying in a promotion article published in Time, The myelination process starts from the back of the brain and works its way to the front. That means the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decisionmaking, planning and self-control, is the last part to mature. It’s not that teens don’t have frontal- lobe capabilities but rather that their signals are not getting to the back of the brain fast enough to regulate their emotions. It’s why risk-taking and impulsive behavior are more common among teens and young adults. “This is why peer pressure rules at this time of life,” says Jensen. “It’s why my teenage boys would come home without their textbook and realize at 8 p.m. that they have a test the next day. They don’t have the fully developed capacity to think ahead at this time.” She also claims in her book that the teenage brain is “only 80% developed,” without a source."

*'''Romer, D. (2010). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445337/ Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention]," ''Developmental Psychobiology'', 52(3): 263–276.'''
*:"A review of the evidence for the hypothesis that limitations in brain development during adolescence restrict the ability to control impulsivity suggests that any such limitations are subtle at best. Instead, it is argued that lack of experience with novel adult behavior poses a much greater risk to adolescents than structural deficits in brain maturation [...] The evidence we have reviewed suggests that adolescent risk taking is not a universal phenomenon and that individual differences related to at least three types of impulsivity underlie such behavior in adolescents. Furthermore, at least two forms of impulsivity are associated with weak executive function as assessed by working memory and response inhibition tasks. However, sensation seeking does not appear to be inversely related to either of these executive functions and may actually be somewhat positively related to working memory ability."

*'''Romer, D. et al, (2017). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007 Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context]," ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience'', Volume 27, Pages 19-34.'''
*:Editor: For more on Romer's interpretation, see his article in [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/impulsive-teen-brain-not-based-science-180967027/ ''Smithsonian Magazine''].
*:"In conclusion, we have presented an alternative model of adolescent brain development that emphasizes the accumulation of experience as adolescents age and transition to adulthood, with concomitant changes in judgment and decision making (see Table 1 for a summary of differences between the Life-span Wisdom Model and Imbalance Models). The model explains much of the apparent increase in adolescent risk taking as an adaptive need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviors. The risk-taking that reflects lack of control or excessive sensitivity to immediate rewards is primarily an individual difference that characterizes some persons from an early age that can persist well into adulthood. At the same time, the adolescent brain is supremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities to take advantage of the experience gained. The result is a brain with integrated circuits encompassing executive function (i.e., cognitive control and inhibition), as well as verbatim and gist memory networks, which can be called upon to negotiate both novel and familiar situations. The preservation of robust gist thinking maintains wise decision making during later adulthood when cognitive control capacities diminish. We believe this approach is more aligned with the scientific evidence, including results that challenge stereotypes about the adolescent brain."

*'''Khurana, A., Romer, D., Betancourt, L. M., Brodsky, N. L., Giannetta, J. M., & Hurt, H. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/cdev.12383 Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, Even After Controlling for Parental Influences.] ''Child Development'', 86(4), 1125–1141. '''
*:"Of those who had initiated sexual activity by T3 (n = 91), nearly one in every four adolescents (27.5%) reported not using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Significant age differences were observed in the rates of sexual initiation, with older adolescents more likely to have initiated intercourse (t = 5.14, p < .001). No age differences were observed in condom use among those who had initiated sexual intercourse. Similarly, we noted no gender differences in the rates of sexual initiation or condom use in our sample. In terms of racial-ethnic variations, Black and Hispanic youth were more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse at T2 and T3, as compared to non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Native American youth. Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (46.2%) youth also had relatively higher rates of condom nonuse as compared to White youth (18.7%) in the nonvirgin subsample at T3."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:"There is no evidence that adolescents are uniquely egocentric or even much different from adults in this regard; on the contrary, research has shown age differences to be minimal or nonexistent (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Quadrel et al., 1993; Smetana & Villalobos, 2009). As fo the specific assertion that adolescents see themselves as invulnerable, it appears instead that adolescents routinely, and often drastically, overestimate their actual vulnerability (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). [...] risk taking is not always bad, and adolescents are not uniquely prone to it. People of all ages take risks of all sorts, including foolish and dangerous risks; there is no empirical basis for the common assumption that risk taking is a special phenomenon of adolescence. On the contrary, direct comparisons of adolescents and adults show minimal age differences (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993). Sociological data indicate that when covariates such as poverty are controlled, adolescents are no more prone to risk taking than adults, who in fact take plenty of dubious risks (Males, 2009, 2010)."

*'''Males, M. (2009). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/0743558408326913 Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable?]" ''Journal of Adolescent Research'', 24(1), 3–20. '''
*:"Far from justifying antiprecocity measures, emerging brain science, viewed in social contexts, indicates the dangers of efforts to restrict youth and to banish them from adult behaviors and public spaces. Preliminary analyses of brain physiology suggest that “taking risks is precisely the experience that develops the pre frontal cortex . . . you don’t learn what you need for adulthood by being excluded from it until you can demonstrate that you have got the right circuits” (Sercombe, in press). Viewed as a system, American social and health policies built on age-segregating measures may well be contributors to the extraordinarily high-risk behaviors prevailing among American youths and adults well into middle age compared with their counterparts in peer nations. There may be a price to pay in the adaptability of larger society as well. If brain science is to be credited with biodeterminist findings, neuroscannings and cognitive tests reveal developments in the middle-aged brain that make worry over teenage brains look silly. Significant losses in key memory and learning genes (Lu et al, 2004), mental fluidity (Schaie & Willis, 2008), and measurable losses in IQ show up in middle age and accelerate in senior years. Although some research indicates that myelinization (the pruning and selection of certain cerebral nerve fibers for myelin sheathing) aids adult brains in handling familiar situations more efficiently, it also renders them less able to address new challenges than more flexibly circuited younger brains."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM (2009) Adolescent Engagement in Dangerous Behaviors Is Associated with Increased White Matter Maturity of Frontal Cortex. ''PLoS ONE'' 4(8): e6773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006773'''
::"The direction of correlation suggests that rather than having immature cortices, adolescents who engage in dangerous activities have frontal white matter tracts that are more adult in form than their more conservative peers."

==Moral reasoning==

*'''Haidt, J. (2001). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20120425122316/http://www.nd.edu/~wcarbona/Haidt%202001.pdf The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment]," ''Psychological Review'', 108, 814-834.'''
*:"Turiel (1983) has shown that young children do not believe [that actions are wrong just because they are punished]. They say that harmful acts, such as hitting and pulling hair, are wrong whether they are punished or not. They even say that such acts would be wrong if adults ordered them to be done."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"Parallel improvements take place in mentalizing (the ability to understand and represent mental states) and moral reasoning, as children become able to consider multiple perspectives and conflicting goals (Jambon & Smetana, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2009)."

== Adaptive immaturity ==
While common belief about brain maturation is that juveniles are just undeveloped adults, there is a counterpoint that, in the course of human evolution, many typically 'juvenile' cognitive traits have become more adaptive than 'adult' ones. So, in some contexts, maturation can be seen as a disadvantage. Here is a concept of adaptive cognitive neoteny in literature.

* '''Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-05606-003?doi=1 The role of immaturity in human development]. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 122(2), 153–169. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.122.2.153'''
::“Some aspects of childhood are not specific preparations for adulthood. Rather, they are designed by evolution to adapt the child to its current environment but not necessarily to a future one.”
::"Several theorists have written of behavioral neoteny as the extended juvenile character of human behavior (Cairns, 1976; Lorenz, 1971; Mason, 1968a, 1968b). Cairns (1976) and Mason (1968a) have postulated, for example, that important aspects of human social behavior such as attachment are influenced by behavioral neoteny (see also Cairns, Gariepy, & Hood, 1990; and Montagu, 1989), and, according to Lorenz, such juvenile characteristics as curiosity are responsible for human’s behavioral flexibility.”

*'''Bufill, E., Agustí, J., & Blesa, R. (2011). [https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.21225 Human neoteny revisited: The case of synaptic plasticity.] ''American Journal of Human Biology'', 23(6), 729–739. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.21225'''
::"In Homo sapiens, brain development is retarded compared with other primates, especially in some association areas. These areas are characterized by the presence of neurons, which remain structurally immature throughout their lifespans and show an increase in the expression of the genes, which deal with metabolism and the activity and synaptic plasticity in adulthood. The retention of juvenile features in some adult neurons in our species has occurred in areas, which are related to episodic memory, planning, and social navigation. [...] which suggests that a neuronal neoteny has occurred in H. sapiens, which allows the human brain to function, to a certain degree, like a juvenile brain during adult life. "

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Competences and Development''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLComp}}

==See also==

*Perspectives on [[Ageism|Ageism]] include the similarity between [[Wikipedia:Troubled teen industry|"troubled teen industry"]] literature and [[Wikipedia:Scientific racism|scientific racism]].
*The concept of [[Evolving capacity|Evolving capacity]]

==External links==

*[https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19cP Dr. Howard R. Bernstein - Myth of the Adolescent Brain] (Video link)
*Jane C. Hu, [https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html The Myth of the 25-Year-Old Brain] (''Slate'', Nov 27 2022).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]

Research: Cognitive ability

2026-05-05T19:22:17Z

Thorn: /* Adaptive immaturity */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
:''[https://x.com/garwboy/status/1778137144747274433 Popular X Thread]''
The often-repeated ageist/ableist myth<ref>[https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html Slate: Updated take on the 25y/o brain myth]</ref> of brain development ending at the ages of 18 or 25 started circulating in the late 00s and early 10s,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain Brain research advances help elucidate teen behavior]</ref> but the samples were never followed up beyond the age of 25.<ref>[https://www.iflscience.com/does-the-brain-really-mature-at-the-age-of-25-68979 Does The Brain Really Mature At The Age Of 25?]</ref> Historically, similar arguments have been made against Women<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0079-6123(08)64447-7 Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain A Historical Perspective]</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-history-of-female-brain-studies-reveal-a-lot-11584895362 The History of Female Brain Studies Reveal a Lot - WSJ]</ref><ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-female-brain-why-damaging-myths-about-women-and-science-keep-coming-back-in-new-forms-129310 The ‘female’ brain: why damaging myths about women and science keep coming back in new forms]</ref> (the gender differences while moderate, probably ''exceed'' any teen-adult variations<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.001 The Trouble with Sex Differences]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.026 Dump the “dimorphism”: Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size]</ref>) and Black people.<ref>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49594/1000050402_ftp.pdf SOME RACIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE NEGRO BRAIN]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143281/ Goldstein HW, Yusko KP, Scherbaum CA, Larson EC. Reducing Black-White Racial Differences on Intelligence Tests Used in Hiring for Public Safety Jobs. J Intell. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040062. PMID: 37103247; PMCID: PMC10143281.]</ref> Such alleged "racial peculiarities" are ignored by modern-day authoritarians, who prefer to ideologically mobilize "brain science" in a more selective manner.

Further brain imaging investigations have put "adulthood" (when so defined) at least as late as the 30s, with one study bizarrely concluding that the brain stays in the same "phase" between 9 and the early 30s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059 BBC - People don't become 'adults' until their 30s, say scientists], [https://www.aol.com/articles/adolescence-lasts-30s-study-shows-101116917.html Adolescence lasts until 30s]</ref> Ultimately, no set age for the end of brain "development" and beginning of "deterioration" has ever been established, as this is an impossible task and riddled with subjective factors. ''Neuroplasticity'' (and adaptive interpretation thereof) is a massive pitfall here, and in teenagers, it is generally over-claimed. Plasticity is also a troublesome argument for [[Ageism|ageists]] to maintain, as they also hold that critical thinking (known to promote plasticity) is considerably degraded in teens.

In summary, it can be said that the perceived incompetence of the modern minor is exaggerated and culture-bound, owing somewhat to the highly lucrative "[[Adolescence|troubled teen]]" industry and the advocacy science surrounding it.

==A little background==

This myth began its ascent to folklore after a 2005 US Supreme Court decision preventing teenage offenders from being executed. In their brief, the American Psychological Association successfully,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/roper.pdf APA's Roper Amicus]</ref> (but fallaciously and contrary to their own earlier Teen Abortion amicus<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/hodgson.pdf Hodgson (Teen Abortion) Amicus]</ref>) argued that the teen temperament is ''uniquely'' malleable and subject to change. The amicus cites behavioral studies and observations that '''lack valid comparisons and experimental controls''', otherwise identifying '''trends that are culture-bound''' or contradicted by other studies cited by Robert Epstein (for example) in this article. Generalizations are wrongly made from physiological data to competences, and then further leaps of faith are made to behaviors and "policy implications".<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00767-3 Nature: Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet]</ref><ref>[https://studyfinds.org/scientists-admit-controversial-conflict-that-casts-doubt-on-studies-using-fmri-brain-scans/ Scientists Admit Controversial Conflict Casts Doubt On Studies Using Brain Scans]</ref><ref>[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12189784/fmri-studies-explained There’s a lot of junk fMRI research out there. Here’s what top neuroscientists want you to know - Vox]</ref><ref>[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/controversial-science-of-brain-imaging/ Controversial science of brain imaging - Scientific American]</ref> This common fallacy of relevance and the resulting chain of hollow claims (about young people), is typical of advocacy science. One legal scholar even coined the term "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" to describe it.<ref>[https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=faculty_scholarship Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note]</ref>

Well known data surrounding the high recidivism and reoffending rates of youth offenders also contradicts the "unique plasticity" or [[Research: Who offends and how often?|"second chance" narrative]] (sources in linked article). So like many MAP-adjacent topics, the source of the myth is a classical case of "bad science following good (or at least political) intentions". Since this Supreme Court decision, some less reputable brain scientists have cottoned on to the trend, sometimes making spurious claims that contradict their own experimental findings - one supposes, in an attempt to curry favor. The MacArthur Foundation, who manage a $7.0bn endowment, are one example of a private foundation who plowed considerable finance into a now-discontinued program - adding to the now increasingly outdated and discredited "teen brain" body of research.<ref>[https://www.macfound.org/networks/research-network-on-adolescent-development-juvenil MacArthur Foundation: Research Network on Adolescent Development]</ref>

Our [[Debate_Guide:_Teen_brain|Teen Brain debate guide]] offers rebuttals to these myths; use it together with the following sources:

==Basic Physiology/brain volumes==

Total brain volume ''and'' Gray Matter volume appears to reach a peak at the start of, or during puberty<ref>Cabana T, Jolicoeur P, and Michaud J (1993) Prenatal and postnatal growth and allometry of stature, head circumference, and brain weight in Quebec children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.5:93–99.</ref><ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447489v3.full.pdf Brain charts for the human lifespan - Bethlehem et al (2022)]</ref>, declining thereafter. White matter, which has a less critical function in cognition, takes until the mid-40s to peak in volume. It is clear that some parts of the brain develop into and beyond early adulthood, while others might regress somewhat. This is a normal process of aging, since brain development and cognitive capacity are highly elastic and dependent upon one's environment.

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*: "In the neurodevelopmental literature, a given neural measurement is typically interpreted as mature when it matches (to a sufficient degree) an “adult” reference. [...] However, structural development continues to progress for a surprisingly long time. One especially large study showed that for several brain regions, structural growth curves had not plateaued even by the age of 30, the oldest age in their sample (Tamnes et al., 2010; see Figure 1B). [...] Other work focused on structural brain measures through adulthood show progressive volumetric changes from ages 15–90 that never “level off” and instead changed constantly throughout the adult phase of life (Walhovd et al., 2005). [...] it is unclear whether there is even a steady set-point at all."
*:"[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20829489/ Dosenbach et al., 2010] used data-driven classification algorithms to compute an estimated “brain age” of individual subjects 7 to 30 years of age based on widespread intrinsic connectivity patterns within and between brain networks [...] However, these data also illustrate the challenges of applying general patterns of neurodevelopment from group-based to individual inference, as there is substantial variance in brain network connectivity that is unrelated to age. For example, some 8-year-old brains exhibited a greater “maturation index” than some 25 year old brains."

*'''Giedd, J. et al (1999). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12807832_Brain_Development_during_Childhood_and_Adolescence_A_Longitudinal_MRI_Study Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study]," ''Nature Neuroscience'', 2(10):861-3.'''
*:"Pediatric neuroimaging studies, up to now exclusively cross sectional, identify linear decreases in cortical gray matter and increases in white matter across ages 4 to 20. In this large-scale longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study, we confirmed linear increases in white matter, but demonstrated nonlinear changes in cortical gray matter, with a preadolescent increase followed by a postadolescent decrease. These changes in cortical gray matter were regionally specific, with developmental curves for the frontal and parietal lobe peaking at about age 12 and for the temporal lobe at about age 16, whereas cortical gray matter continued to increase in the occipital lobe through age 20. The subjects for this study were healthy boys and girls participating in an ongoing longitudinal pediatric brain-MRI project at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. [...] This MRI study demonstrates a preadolescent increase in cortical gray matter; this phenomenon was previously obscured, probably by the lack of longitudinal data, as even in an analysis of the 145 cross-section-al data points in our sample, the largest to date, we could not detect nonlinearity in these developmental curves".

*'''Bartzokis, G. et al., (2001). "[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11343525/ Age-related changes in frontal and temporal lobe volumes in men: a magnetic resonance imaging study]," ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'', Aug; 58(8):774.'''
*:"'''Methods:''' Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated. '''Results:''' Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined. '''Conclusions:''' The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood."

*'''Del Giudice, M, (2014). "[https://marcodgdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/delgiudice_2014_middle-childhood_synthesis_cdp.pdf Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis]", ''Child Development Perspectives'', Volume 8, Number 4, Pages 193–200.'''
*:Del Giudice has age 6-8 as the peak for gray matter (see tables). This paper also goes into detail about development in middle-childhood, most importantly the onsent of '''adrenarche'''<ref>Gilbert Herdt and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf ''The Magical Age of 10''], in ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000. </ref> between 6-8 years of age, giving rise to sexual differentiation in behavior - including sexual curiosity and attraction. It could be argued that as a developmental milestone, this age is as important, if not more so than the start of puberty, as determined by thelarche or gonardarche.
*:"By age 6, the brain has almost reached its maximum size and receives a decreasing share of the body’s glucose after the consumption peak of early childhood (see Figure 1; Giedd & Rapoport, 2010; Kuzawa et al., in press). However, brain development proceeds at a sustained pace, with intensive synaptogenesis in cortical areas (gray matter) and rapid maturation of axonal connections (white matter; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008). [...] The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: Children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Mousley, A., Bethlehem, R. A. I., Yeh, F. C., & Astle, D. E. (2025). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12647875/ Topological turning points across the human lifespan.] ''Nature communications'', 16(1), 10055. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8'''
::"[W]e identified four major topological turning points across the lifespan – around nine, 32, 66, and 83 years old."
::“The second lifespan epoch, ages nine to 32, indicates that the trajectory of topological development remains consistent across this period. While adolescence begins with puberty, the end of adolescence is less clear, with older definitions ending before 20 and more recent definitions extending into the mid-20s. The transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than a purely biological shift. Our findings suggest that in Western countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and United States of America), adolescent topological development extends to around 32 years old, before brain networks begin a new trajectory of topological development.”

==Competence==

It's widely believed that minors differ fundamentally in their cognitive and decision-making abilities from adults. In addition, legal definitions are often conflated with the actual capacities of individuals, leading to a belief in a clear boundary between competent and incompetent ages. Many studies refute this view, supporting the concept of [[Evolving capacity|evolving capacity]].

*'''Kidd, C (2025) in ''The Conversation''. [https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438 Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research]'''
*:"More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it."

*'''Johnson SB, Blum RW, Giedd JN. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/ Adolescent maturity and the brain: the promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy.] J Adolesc Health. 2009 Sep;45(3):216-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.'''
*:"As of yet, however, neuroimaging studies do not allow a chronologic cut-point for behavioral or cognitive maturity at either the individual or population level. The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.[...] In sum, neuroimaging modalities involve an element of subjectivity, just as behavioral science modalities do. A concern is that high-profile media exposures may leave the mistaken impression that fMRI, in particular, is an infallible mind-reading technique that can be used to establish guilt or innocence, infer “true intentions,” detect lies, or establish competency to drive, vote, or [[consent]] to marriage.[...] Although scientists may be reticent to apply their research to policy, in some cases, policy makers are doing it for them."
*:"Ultimately, the goal is to be able to articulate the conditions under which adolescents’ competence, or demonstrated maturity, is most vulnerable and most resilient. Resilience, it seems, is often overlooked in contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and brain development. Indeed, the focus on pathologic conditions, deficits, reduced capacity, and age-based risks overshadows the enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the unique strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that help to reinforce and perpetuate opportunities for adolescents to thrive in this stage of development, not just survive."

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*:"A key principle that guides determinations about psychological maturity in adolescence and young adulthood is the degree to which contextual factors shape an individual’s behavior. For instance, an adolescent and an adult could achieve an identical level of performance on a cognitive task under certain conditions—say, when free of distraction and when the situation has low emotional arousal. However, if the context is shifted slightly by embedding reward cues in the cognitive task, adolescents’ performance disproportionally shifts compared to adults (e.g., Somerville et al., 2011). [...] A prime example of context-sensitive policy is graduated driving laws. They initially constrain new drivers to highly regulated conditions (e.g., during the day, without peers in the car) and slowly broaden the range of driving contexts as new drivers gain experience."
*:"one consequence of this framework would be the need to abandon the goal of identifying a single age-of-brain maturity. Rather, there would be a suite of maturity points that reflect different neural systems and different associated behaviors. For example, an individual could reach an age of “baseline cognitive maturity”—the capacity to engage in goal-directed behavior under neutral, non-distracted circumstances, substantially earlier than an age of “cognitive-emotional maturity”—the capacity to maintain goal-directed behavior in the face of competing emotional cues."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2010). chapter "Adultness" in''"Teen 2.0"'', 148-157.'''
*:"After reviewing the relevant scientific literature, interviewing many adults, and consulting with three other psychologists and two psychiatrists with expertise in adult development issues, we concluded that there are fourteen different skill-sets or "competencies" [love, sex, leadership, problem solving, physical abilities, verbal and math, interpersonal skills, responsibility, managing high-risk behaviors, work, education, personal care, self-management, and citizenship] that distinguish adults from non-adults. [...] For three of the competencies--love, leadership and problem solving--we did find statistically significant differences between the mean scores of teens and adults, with adults outscoring the teens. But the absolute differences were small. [...] On two other scales--work and self-management--the differences between the adult scores and teen scores were marginally significant (at the .05 level), again in the adults' favor, but the absolute differences were less than 4 percent. On the other nine scales, we found no significant differences at all between the adult and teen scores. [...] fifty five of the adults in our sample were college graduates--more than double the rate of college graduates in the United States."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2007). "[http://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf The Myth of the Teen Brain]," ''Scientific American Mind'', April/May, 57-63.'''
*:"Visual acuity, for example, peaks around the time of puberty. "Incidental memory"—the kind of memory that occurs automatically, without any mnemonic effort, peaks at about age 12 and declines through life. [...] In the 1940s pioneering intelligence researchers J. C. Raven and David Wechsler, relying on radically different kinds of intelligence tests, each showed that raw scores on intelligence tests peak between ages 13 and 15 and decline after that throughout life. Although verbal expertise and some forms of judgment can remain strong throughout life, the extraordinary cognitive abilities of teens, and especially their ability to learn new things rapidly, is beyond question. And whereas brain size is not necessarily a good indication of processing ability, it is notable that recent scanning data collected by Eric Courchesne and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, show that brain volume peaks at about age 14."
*:"A variety of research in several fields suggests that teen turmoil is caused by cultural factors, not by a faulty brain. [...] Anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures experience no turmoil whatsoever and that teen problems begin to appear only after Western schooling, movies and television are introduced. [...] Teens have the potential to perform in exemplary ways, the author says, but we hold them back by infantilizing them and trapping them in the frivolous world of teen culture."
*:"Studies of intelligence, perception and memory show that teens are in many ways superior to adults. [...] When we treat teens like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:(Intro) "Adolescents are qualitatively and categorically distinct from children. There is no empirical support, however, for a state of rationality or maturity common to most adults, rately seen in adolescents. Even young adolescents often show forms and levels of rationality beyond the competence of many adults, and adults of all ages often fall short of rational standards met by many adolescents [...] it is not surprising to find that in most societies for most of human history there was no such thing as adolescence, at least as we understand it (Epstein, 2007; Grotevant, 1998; Hine, 1999)."
*:"Postchildhood developmental changes in thinking are not tied to age and do not culminate in a state of maturity. Although it seems likely that many individuals show progress beyond childhood in the quality of their problem solving, decision making, judgment, and planning (Cauffman & Woolard, 2005; Steinberg & Scott, 2003), the deployment and progress of thinking in adolescence and beyond is highly variable, depending on specific interests, activities, and circumstances (Fischer, Stein, & Heikkinen, 2009). No theorist or researcher has ever identified a form or level of thinking routine among adults that is rarely seen in adolescents. Adolescent thinking often develops but not through a fixed sequence and not toward a universal state of maturity [...] It seems almost irresistible for adults to see themselves as having achieved a state of maturity that adolescents (and even younger adults) have not yet reached, but brain research provides no evidence to support the postulation of advanced states of maturity attained by the most or all adults but few adolescents. Many people continue to develop long beyond childhood, and their brains reflect those changes, but beyond age 12, there is no natural and universal state of maturity waiting to be achieved."
*:"Developmental changes beyond age 12 to 14 are much too stable and individualized, it appears to me, for a developmental panel, even if it included brain experts, to succeed in distinguishing age groups on the basis of their age development. Second, there is the reductionist fallacy. Brain data seem more scientific than behavioral data, but they are not, nor do they provide us with ultimate explanations, even if psychology can in principle be reduced to biology, a dubious proposition, we are a very long way from achieving such a reduction."
*:Editor: Moshman [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360 then published an article in HuffPo, that explains his position].

*'''Waber, D.P., et al. (2007). "The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development: Performance of a Population Based Sample of Healthy Children Aged 6 to 18 Years on a Neuropsychological Battery," ''Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society'', 13(5), 729-746.'''
*:"Perhaps most intriguing are the age-related trajectories for raw score performance. For most tasks, proficiency improved dramatically between 6 and 10 years of age, leveling off during early adolescence (approximately 10 to 12 years of age), suggesting that for many neurocognitive tasks, children approach adult levels of performance at that age. For a few measures, scores increased linearly throughout the age range. These were tasks that assessed basic information processing, such as Coding, Digit Span, and Spatial Span. Still others were associated with a non-linear component during adolescence. Some showed a flattening of the curve followed by another period of acceleration, suggesting another spurt in mid-adolescence. Verbal learning actually reversed direction with performance declining in later adolescence."

*'''Adler, N.E., & Matthews, K. (1994). "Health Psychology: Why do Some People Get Sick and Some Stay Well?," ''Annual Review of Psychology'', 45, 229-259.'''
*:"However, empirical tests show that adolescents are no less rational than adults. Applications of rational models to adolescent decision-making show that adolescents are consistent in their reasoning and behavior after the salient set of beliefs is assessed (Adler et al 1990). Quadrel et al (1993) demonstrated that adolescents are no more biased in their estimates of vulnerability to adverse health outcomes than are their parents."

*'''Weithorn, L. A. & Campbell, S. B. (1982). "The competency of children and adolescents to make informed treatment decisions," ''Child Development'', 53(6), 1589-1598.
*:"In general, minors aged fourteen were found to demonstrate a level of competence equivalent to that of adults. [...] The ages of eighteen or twenty-one as the "cutoffs" below which individuals are presumed to be incompetent to make determinations about their own welfare do not reflect the psychological capabilities of most adolescents."

*'''Offer, D. (1987). "In defense of adolescents," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 257, 3407-3408.'''
*:Mike Males [https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003554/http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ch2-psyc.htm describes] this study: "Northwestern University psychiatrist Daniel Offer, the nation’s leading researcher on adolescents, studied 30,000 teenagers and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. He and his colleagues found 85% to 90% of teens held attitudes and risk perceptions similar to that of their parents, were not alienated, did think about the future, were coping well with their lives, and did not display psychological disturbances. "Decision making for adults is no different than decision making among teenagers,” Offer reported in 1987 in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

*'''Offer, D., and Schonert Reichl, K.A. (1992). "Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research," ''Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry'', 31, 1003 1014.'''
*:"[T]he effects of pubertal hormones are neither potent nor pervasive (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). [...] Adolescence does not occur in a vacuum and is significantly affected by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. A recent investigation by Enright et al. (1987) illustrates this point. This study was based on the careful reading of 89 articles in the ''Journal of Genetic Psychology'' for the past 100 years. The articles were rated for their conceptions about the nature of adolescence. Enright et al. demonstrated ideological bias in approaches to understanding adolescent psychology, specifically in relation to economic conditions. Specifically, in times of economic depression, theories emerged in the literature that portrayed adolescents as "immature, psychologically unstable, and in need of prolonged participation in the education system" (p. 553). In contrast, during wartime, the psychological competence of adolescents was accentuated. The authors point out, "The field of adolescent psychology is not free from the societal influences that impinge upon legislators, educators, and parents in shaping American adolescents" (p. 554)."

*'''Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). "Adolescent (in)vulnerability," ''American Psychologist'', 48, 102-116.'''
*:"Three groups of subjects were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Subjects were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance."

*'''Hershovitz, S. (2022). [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/kids-philosophy-questions/629650/ "Why Kids Make the Best Philosophers,"] ''The Atlantic''.'''
*:"According to Piaget, Sarah should have been in the preoperational stage of development, so called because kids in it can’t yet use logic. But Sarah’s logic was exquisite—far more compelling than the cosmological argument. Whatever you make of an infinite regress of causes, it’s hard to imagine an infinite regress of cats. Matthews decided to study kids and their capacity for philosophical thought, introducing many people to the idea that kids are serious thinkers. Over decades of conversations with children, he found that “spontaneous excursions into philosophy” were common from the ages of 3 to 7. And he was struck by the subtle ways in which kids reasoned, as well as the frequency with which they surfaced philosophical questions. [...] Developmental psychologists are catching on to kids’ capabilities. Nowadays, most of them reject the idea that kids’ minds improve as they age. In The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik writes, “Children aren’t just defective adults, primitive grownups gradually attaining our perfection and complexity.” Their minds are different, but “equally complex and powerful.” Child development, she says, is “more like a metamorphosis, like caterpillars becoming butterflies, than like simple growth—though it may seem that children are the vibrant, wandering butterflies who transform into caterpillars inching along the grown-up path.”."

*'''Siegel, D. J. (2014). [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain "Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain,"] ''Psychology Today''.'''
*:Editor: Dr Siegel appears to believe in some of the myths surrounding the adolescent brain. He points to Synaptic Pruning, which has been suggested as one explanation for the fall in gray matter during the teen years, but his inference is not of much help to ageists who seek to withhold responsibilities from young people: "The classic “use it or lose it” principle applies to adolescence—those circuits that are actively engaged may remain, those underutilized may be subject to systematic destruction. And so for an adolescent, this means that if you want to learn a foreign language well, play a musical instrument, or be proficient at a sport, engaging in those activities before and during adolescence would be a good idea. We move from open potential in childhood to specialization during and following adolescence."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In biological terms, middle childhood corresponds to human juvenility — a stage in which the individual is still sexually immature, but no longer dependent on parents for survival. In social mammals and primates, juvenility is a phase of intense learning — often accomplished through play — in which youngsters practice adult behavioral patterns and acquire essential social and foraging skills."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is marked by a simultaneous increase in perceptual abilities (including a transition from local to global visual processing), motor control (including the emergence of adult-like walking), and complex reasoning skills (Bjorklund, 2011; Poirel et al., 2011; Weisner, 1996)."
*:"However, children at this age are not just learning and playing. Cross-culturally, middle childhood is the time when children are expected to start helping with domestic tasks—such as caring for younger siblings, collecting food and water, tending animals, and helping adults prepare food (Bogin, 1997; Lancy & Grove, 2011; Scalise Sugiyama, 2011; Weisner, 1996). In favorable ecologies, juveniles can contribute substantially to family subsistence (Kramer, 2011). Thanks to marked increases in spatial cognition (reflected in the emerging ability to understand maps) and navigational skills, children become able to memorize complex routes and find their way without adult supervision (Bjorklund, 2011; Piccardi, Leonzi, D’Amico, Marano, & Guariglia, 2014)."
*:"On a broader social level, cross-cultural evidence shows that juveniles start “getting noticed” by adults—that is, they begin to be viewed fully as people with their own individuality, personality, and social responsibility (Lancy & Grove, 2011)."
*:"While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."

*'''Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=sswa_facpubs Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective.] ''Human Nature'', 22, 281-302.'''
*:"Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or assignment of specific chores or duties.[...] There is also an acknowledgement at the exit from middle childhood, of near–adult levels of competence — as a herdsman or hunter or as gardener or infant-caretaker."
*:"In Jean Piaget’s influential theory of human cognitive development, the period from 5 to 7 years is marked by a major transition from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking (Piaget 1963). From a historical standpoint there is a great deal of evidence that this age range also marked a major transition in children’s social standing, in particular that a 7 year-old could be held legally and morally accountable for his/her actions (White 1991: 13)."
*:"The last point we would make is that the various markers of the onset of middle childhood we have enumerated all seem to be tied to a shift in cognitive functioning. There is an evident sensitivity to the expectations and needs of others—critical in child-minding and errand running. The child displays other indicators of “sense,” including lengthened attention span, greater language facility, and persistence in completing tasks. He or she is a willing student. The manifold signs of awareness of appropriate behavior vis-à-vis sex and gender go along with increased complexity in peer relations and rule-governed play. On the other hand, the exit from middle childhood is signaled more by markers of physical maturity—including secondary sexual characteristics, a growth spurt, voice change, increased sexuality, and augmented strength and endurance."

* '''Wang, F., Tong, Y., & Danovitch, J. (2019). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333302913_Who_do_I_believe_Children's_epistemic_trust_in_internet_teacher_and_peer_informants Who do I believe? Children’s epistemic trust in internet, teacher, and peer informants]. ''Cognitive Development'', 50, 248–260. Doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.05.006'''
::"Taken together, our findings suggest that school age children can reason about the reliability of information sources from different categories and that their judgments are sensitive to the type of information being sought. Just as children can be skeptical when making judgments about the reliability of different people (see Mills, 2013), children’s belief in information from the internet is not immutable. "

===Informed consent===

Children's decision-making ability has recently come under scrutiny, with [[consent]] to clinical research,<ref>[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13636 Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects (2023)]</ref> gender transition and vaccination efforts the most common contemporary themes so far. In a paper that repeated some of the myths re. development of older teens, it was nevertheless held that for children over the age of 11.2 need not be assessed individually for their ability to give consent to take part in clinical research.

*'''Hein, M. et al, (2015). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/s12910-015-0067-z Informed consent instead of assent is appropriate in children from the age of twelve]," ''BMC Medical Ethics'', 2015, 16:76.'''
*:"Children between 9.6 and 11.2 years were in the change-over period, an individual assessment of competence might be applicable in this age group. Children of 11.2 years and above can generally be considered decision-making competent, and although they need a supportive context, no individual assessment is needed."

=== Child's competence in law ===
* '''Lauren Eade (2001) [https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NewcLawRw/2001/16.pdf Legal Incapacity, Autonomy, and Children's Rights], ''Newcastle Law Review 5'', ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130420133701/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/Legal%20Incapacity,%20Autonomy,%20and%20Children's%20Rights.pdf a copy])'''
*:Doli incapax [age of criminal responsibility] and age of consent laws are representative of the two ways in which the law's presumption of children's incapacity denies autonomy even to the actually competent child. One denies autonomy and the fundamental stage of formation of intent; the other refuses to acknowledge the validity of a child's intent in particular areas. Both are devoid of scientific basis. Both are motivated by questionable control motives as well as a desire to protect. And both conceptualise the child in a manner inherently incompatible with the child as rights-holder.
*:But incapacity does not have to be an "all or nothing" issue. There is no reason why incapacity in some areas should deny capacity and autonomy in others, or why a child cannot be protected as well as allowed rights appropriate to his or her level of development. These are only irreconcilable propositions in the current model that presumptively ascribes incapacity to all children. If the law were to abandon its over-protective prejudices and engage with each child individually, judging his or her actual competence, these unjust consequences would be avoided. Immature children could retain the protection of incapacity. Specifically or generally autonomous children could gain recognition of their rights. And the law could at last acknowledge the fundamental fact that each and every child is a distinctly different human being.

==Risk Taking/Impulsivity/Prefrontal Physiology==

The oft-repeated myth of the human brain maturing fully at 25, is simplistic and outdated. If impulse control were dependent upon prefrontal volume, we would see no such thing as the quiet, studious preschooler - as all preschoolers have a tiny prefrontal cortex. As the previous studies suggest, the brains of teenagers are already losing gray matter and raw processing power is already declining by that age. Further studies are now informing us that functions of the prefrontal cortex are borrowed from other parts of the brain in teens, and ''raw'' levels of impulse-control are equal to or greater than that of adults. However, teens and young adults in particular, might be slightly less discriminatory, and less likely to use cognitive control when facing tasks within a negative emotional context. While this might manifest in poorer performance ''within an experimental context'', it is likely to be an ''adaptive'' (possibly pro-reproductive) trait that is net beneficial to socialization/competence building during youth, or otherwise experimental evidence of inadequate socialization. Further, there is no sound evidence to support the idea that the amygdala is the brain's "fear center"<ref>[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/05/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 Visser et al: Robust BOLD responses to faces but not to conditioned threat: challenging the amygdala’s reputation in human fear and extinction learning]</ref> - so any differences in teens' amygdala response can not be traced to function, let alone be ascribed to a mental deficiency. One would also have to account for the fact that when compared to adults, smaller childrens' level of amygdala activation is similar to that of adults, unlike teens. With respect to risk-taking sexual behavior, younger teens are no less careful than older adolescents, however, there are ethnic/cultural differences which prohibitionists appear to ignore.

*'''Kolk, S.M., Rakic, P. (2022). [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9 Development of prefrontal cortex.] ''Neuropsychopharmacol''. 47, 41–57. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9'''
*:"The constantly developing cognitive and executive capabilities occur parallel to the neurophysiological changes within the PFC and its connected areas and seem to reach a plateau in teenagers (around 12 years in human, around P50 in rodents)"

*'''Steinberg, L., (2008). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396566/ A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking]," ''Developmental Review'', Volume 28, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 78-106.'''
*:"Among the widely-held beliefs about adolescent risk-taking that have not been supported empirically are (a) that adolescents are irrational or deficient in their information processing, or that they reason about risk in fundamentally different ways than adults; (b) that adolescents do not perceive risks where adults do, or are more likely to believe that they are invulnerable; and (c) that adolescents are less risk-averse than adults. None of these assertions is correct: The logical reasoning and basic information-processing abilities of 16-year-olds are comparable to those of adults; adolescents are no worse than adults at perceiving risk or estimating their vulnerability to it (and, like adults, overestimate the dangerousness associated with various risky behaviors); and increasing the salience of the risks associated with making a poor or potentially dangerous decision has comparable effects on adolescents and adults (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996; see also Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008, this issue). Indeed, most studies find few, if any, age differences in individuals’ evaluations of the risks inherent in a wide range of dangerous behaviors (e.g., driving while drunk, having unprotected sex), in their judgments about the seriousness of the consequences that might result from risky behavior, or in the ways that they evaluate the relative costs and benefits of these activities (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993). In sum, adolescents’ greater involvement than adults in risk-taking does not stem from ignorance, irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or faulty calculations (Reyna & Farley, 2006)."

*'''Casey, B., (2013). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413480170 The Teenage Brain: Self Control]," ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'', Volume: 22 issue: 2, page(s): 82-87.'''
*:"Adolescence, by definition, involves new demands on the individual as she or he moves from dependence on the family unit to relative independence. This developmental period is not specific to humans, as evidenced by the increases in novelty seeking, interactions with peers, and fighting with parents observed in other species (see Romeo, 2013; Spear, 2013; both in this issue). These behaviors are thought to have evolved to serve adaptive functions related to successful mating and obtainment of resources necessary for survival (Spear & Varlinskaya, 2010). [...] To suggest that this period of development is one of no brakes or steering wheel (Bell & McBride, 2010) is to greatly oversimplify it. [...] Self-control—in this case, suppressing a compelling action—showed a different developmental pattern in the context of emotional information than in its absence, especially for males (Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 1 (also see Fig. 1 in Hare et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2011), when no emotional information is present, not only do many adolescents perform as well as adults, some perform even better. However, when decisions are required in the heat of the moment (i.e., in the presence of emotional cues; Fig. 2a), performance falters (Fig. 2b). Specifically, adolescents have difficulty suppressing a response to appetitive social cues relative to neutral ones. [...] Recently, a number of human imaging studies have attempted to evaluate this model and test for unique patterns of brain activity in adolescents during stereotypical risky behavior in the context of incentives (Chein, Albert, O’Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011; J. R. Cohen et al., 2010; Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010; Van Leijenhorst et al., 2010). This work has challenged the view that diminished self-control in adolescents is due to a less mature prefrontal cortex that leads to less successful exertion of regulatory control on behavior (Bell & McBride, 2010). [...] Indeed, if the objective of adolescence is to gain independence from the family unit, then providing opportunities for adolescents to engage in new responsibilities is essential. Without opportunities and experiences to help optimally shape the adolescent’s brain and behavior, the objectives of this developmental phase will not easily be met."

*'''Mills, K. L., Goddings, A.-L., Clasen, L. S., Giedd, J. N., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2014). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1159/000362328 The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence.] ''Developmental Neuroscience'', 36(3-4), 147–160.'''
*:"The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures."

*'''Bronski, J. (2021). "[https://ebin.pub/an-empirical-introduction-to-youth-1021810221.html?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_ZtS5lbHN8gICwu73uzc4rKtEXTq8Eq1ePjCjJ1OA30A-1635246299-0-gqNtZGzNA2WjcnBszQhl An Empirical Introduction to Youth]"'''
*:"The 2010 study looked at, among many, a white matter tract called the “uncinate fasciculus [which] … is a large fiber track connecting three key regions involved in emotion regulation: [the] amygdala, lateral and medial prefrontal cortex”136. This connection, which considering the evidence is safely considered to be done with all meaningful structural development by the end of puberty (which is likely to be before the age of fifteen), is exactly what some scientists claim causes a functional difference in teens. Specifically, they claim, among other things, that in teens the amygdala struggles to communicate with the frontal lobe, leading to lower inhibition of primal amygdalic functions. There is no evidence for this claim, since we have seen that the uncinated fasciculus, the main track connecting the amygdala and the frontal lobe, is mature at the end of puberty. So far we have seen that gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain, is accumulated until puberty, when it begins to be pruned. This pruning will continue into old age; there is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to loss of gray matter. We have also seen that the accumulation of white matter reaches its peak rate at the age of one year, and continues at decreasing rates until the age of approximately 45, in the prefrontal cortex and elsewhere in the brain. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the accumulation of white matter. Finally, in direct contrast to the unscientific claim that “Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part … Teens process information with the amygdala,” teens do in fact have working prefrontal cortexes, and the connections between that part of the brain and the amygdala are mature by the end of puberty. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the connection between the hindbrain and the forebrain, or the extent to which one “thinks” with either part of the brain. How do we now judge the statement that “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so?” Poorly. The proposition is clearly unsupported by the data regarding structural changes in the brain. Based on what we have reviewed, the claim seems totally arbitrary. Let us be charitable and look for other evidence that (Landouceur et al. 2012) might comment on this view. Perhaps the function of the brain only reaches mature levels at the age of 25. Development of Organ Function Function is what matters. For whatever reason, teen-brain neuroscientists love to obscure the debate on the maturity of the “teen brain” by making claims about its supposed structural immaturities. As we have seen, the actual evidence for these immaturities is sparse at best. Many claims of structural and functional immaturity rest on young, physically immature participants, which are grouped with older teens. Claims are then extended to all teenagers and hyperbolized in the news cycle. For instance, Dr. Giedd, who co-authored the 2004 gray matter study, has gone on the news and made claims about the immaturity of the brain “through adolescence.” The definition of adolescence is, of course, slippery. His data shows structural maturity by the age of 14 or 15, which he vaguely refers to as “late adolescence.” The WHO then defines adolescence as occurring during the ages 10-19. Many in the news refer to the age of 25 as the specific age at which the brain reaches maturity. How this came about has already been hinted at: earlier, a source was reviewed which showed that myelination of the frontal lobes continues until the mid-forties. One scientist, BJ Casey, ran an experiment which only featured participants up to the age of 24-25, and found that myelination continued to the highest age featured in the study. Out of this came the claim that the brain is still developing until the age of 25. In reality, further data shows that by this metric, the brain develops until 45! Dr. Frances Jensen wrote a whole book on this misleading claim, saying in a promotion article published in Time, The myelination process starts from the back of the brain and works its way to the front. That means the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decisionmaking, planning and self-control, is the last part to mature. It’s not that teens don’t have frontal- lobe capabilities but rather that their signals are not getting to the back of the brain fast enough to regulate their emotions. It’s why risk-taking and impulsive behavior are more common among teens and young adults. “This is why peer pressure rules at this time of life,” says Jensen. “It’s why my teenage boys would come home without their textbook and realize at 8 p.m. that they have a test the next day. They don’t have the fully developed capacity to think ahead at this time.” She also claims in her book that the teenage brain is “only 80% developed,” without a source."

*'''Romer, D. (2010). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445337/ Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention]," ''Developmental Psychobiology'', 52(3): 263–276.'''
*:"A review of the evidence for the hypothesis that limitations in brain development during adolescence restrict the ability to control impulsivity suggests that any such limitations are subtle at best. Instead, it is argued that lack of experience with novel adult behavior poses a much greater risk to adolescents than structural deficits in brain maturation [...] The evidence we have reviewed suggests that adolescent risk taking is not a universal phenomenon and that individual differences related to at least three types of impulsivity underlie such behavior in adolescents. Furthermore, at least two forms of impulsivity are associated with weak executive function as assessed by working memory and response inhibition tasks. However, sensation seeking does not appear to be inversely related to either of these executive functions and may actually be somewhat positively related to working memory ability."

*'''Romer, D. et al, (2017). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007 Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context]," ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience'', Volume 27, Pages 19-34.'''
*:Editor: For more on Romer's interpretation, see his article in [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/impulsive-teen-brain-not-based-science-180967027/ ''Smithsonian Magazine''].
*:"In conclusion, we have presented an alternative model of adolescent brain development that emphasizes the accumulation of experience as adolescents age and transition to adulthood, with concomitant changes in judgment and decision making (see Table 1 for a summary of differences between the Life-span Wisdom Model and Imbalance Models). The model explains much of the apparent increase in adolescent risk taking as an adaptive need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviors. The risk-taking that reflects lack of control or excessive sensitivity to immediate rewards is primarily an individual difference that characterizes some persons from an early age that can persist well into adulthood. At the same time, the adolescent brain is supremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities to take advantage of the experience gained. The result is a brain with integrated circuits encompassing executive function (i.e., cognitive control and inhibition), as well as verbatim and gist memory networks, which can be called upon to negotiate both novel and familiar situations. The preservation of robust gist thinking maintains wise decision making during later adulthood when cognitive control capacities diminish. We believe this approach is more aligned with the scientific evidence, including results that challenge stereotypes about the adolescent brain."

*'''Khurana, A., Romer, D., Betancourt, L. M., Brodsky, N. L., Giannetta, J. M., & Hurt, H. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/cdev.12383 Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, Even After Controlling for Parental Influences.] ''Child Development'', 86(4), 1125–1141. '''
*:"Of those who had initiated sexual activity by T3 (n = 91), nearly one in every four adolescents (27.5%) reported not using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Significant age differences were observed in the rates of sexual initiation, with older adolescents more likely to have initiated intercourse (t = 5.14, p < .001). No age differences were observed in condom use among those who had initiated sexual intercourse. Similarly, we noted no gender differences in the rates of sexual initiation or condom use in our sample. In terms of racial-ethnic variations, Black and Hispanic youth were more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse at T2 and T3, as compared to non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Native American youth. Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (46.2%) youth also had relatively higher rates of condom nonuse as compared to White youth (18.7%) in the nonvirgin subsample at T3."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:"There is no evidence that adolescents are uniquely egocentric or even much different from adults in this regard; on the contrary, research has shown age differences to be minimal or nonexistent (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Quadrel et al., 1993; Smetana & Villalobos, 2009). As fo the specific assertion that adolescents see themselves as invulnerable, it appears instead that adolescents routinely, and often drastically, overestimate their actual vulnerability (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). [...] risk taking is not always bad, and adolescents are not uniquely prone to it. People of all ages take risks of all sorts, including foolish and dangerous risks; there is no empirical basis for the common assumption that risk taking is a special phenomenon of adolescence. On the contrary, direct comparisons of adolescents and adults show minimal age differences (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993). Sociological data indicate that when covariates such as poverty are controlled, adolescents are no more prone to risk taking than adults, who in fact take plenty of dubious risks (Males, 2009, 2010)."

*'''Males, M. (2009). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/0743558408326913 Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable?]" ''Journal of Adolescent Research'', 24(1), 3–20. '''
*:"Far from justifying antiprecocity measures, emerging brain science, viewed in social contexts, indicates the dangers of efforts to restrict youth and to banish them from adult behaviors and public spaces. Preliminary analyses of brain physiology suggest that “taking risks is precisely the experience that develops the pre frontal cortex . . . you don’t learn what you need for adulthood by being excluded from it until you can demonstrate that you have got the right circuits” (Sercombe, in press). Viewed as a system, American social and health policies built on age-segregating measures may well be contributors to the extraordinarily high-risk behaviors prevailing among American youths and adults well into middle age compared with their counterparts in peer nations. There may be a price to pay in the adaptability of larger society as well. If brain science is to be credited with biodeterminist findings, neuroscannings and cognitive tests reveal developments in the middle-aged brain that make worry over teenage brains look silly. Significant losses in key memory and learning genes (Lu et al, 2004), mental fluidity (Schaie & Willis, 2008), and measurable losses in IQ show up in middle age and accelerate in senior years. Although some research indicates that myelinization (the pruning and selection of certain cerebral nerve fibers for myelin sheathing) aids adult brains in handling familiar situations more efficiently, it also renders them less able to address new challenges than more flexibly circuited younger brains."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM (2009) Adolescent Engagement in Dangerous Behaviors Is Associated with Increased White Matter Maturity of Frontal Cortex. ''PLoS ONE'' 4(8): e6773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006773'''
::"The direction of correlation suggests that rather than having immature cortices, adolescents who engage in dangerous activities have frontal white matter tracts that are more adult in form than their more conservative peers."

==Moral reasoning==

*'''Haidt, J. (2001). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20120425122316/http://www.nd.edu/~wcarbona/Haidt%202001.pdf The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment]," ''Psychological Review'', 108, 814-834.'''
*:"Turiel (1983) has shown that young children do not believe [that actions are wrong just because they are punished]. They say that harmful acts, such as hitting and pulling hair, are wrong whether they are punished or not. They even say that such acts would be wrong if adults ordered them to be done."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"Parallel improvements take place in mentalizing (the ability to understand and represent mental states) and moral reasoning, as children become able to consider multiple perspectives and conflicting goals (Jambon & Smetana, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2009)."

== Adaptive immaturity ==
While common belief about brain maturation is that juveniles are just undeveloped adults, there is a counterpoint that, in the course of human evolution, many typically 'juvenile' cognitive traits have become more adaptive than 'adult' ones. So, in some contexts, maturation can be seen as a disadvantage. Here is a concept of adaptive cognitive neoteny in literature.

* '''Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-05606-003?doi=1 The role of immaturity in human development]. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 122(2), 153–169. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.122.2.153'''
::“Some aspects of childhood are not specific preparations for adulthood. Rather, they are designed by evolution to adapt the child to its current environment but not necessarily to a future one.”
::"Several theorists have written of behavioral neoteny as the extended juvenile character of human behavior (Cairns, 1976; Lorenz, 1971; Mason, 1968a, 1968b). Cairns (1976) and Mason (1968a) have postulated, for example, that important aspects of human social behavior such as attachment are influenced by behavioral neoteny (see also Cairns, Gariepy, & Hood, 1990; and Montagu, 1989), and, according to Lorenz, such juvenile characteristics as curiosity are responsible for human’s behavioral flexibility.”

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Competences and Development''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLComp}}

==See also==

*Perspectives on [[Ageism|Ageism]] include the similarity between [[Wikipedia:Troubled teen industry|"troubled teen industry"]] literature and [[Wikipedia:Scientific racism|scientific racism]].
*The concept of [[Evolving capacity|Evolving capacity]]

==External links==

*[https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19cP Dr. Howard R. Bernstein - Myth of the Adolescent Brain] (Video link)
*Jane C. Hu, [https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html The Myth of the 25-Year-Old Brain] (''Slate'', Nov 27 2022).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]

Research: Cognitive ability

2026-05-05T18:56:39Z

Thorn: /* Adaptive immaturity */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
:''[https://x.com/garwboy/status/1778137144747274433 Popular X Thread]''
The often-repeated ageist/ableist myth<ref>[https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html Slate: Updated take on the 25y/o brain myth]</ref> of brain development ending at the ages of 18 or 25 started circulating in the late 00s and early 10s,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain Brain research advances help elucidate teen behavior]</ref> but the samples were never followed up beyond the age of 25.<ref>[https://www.iflscience.com/does-the-brain-really-mature-at-the-age-of-25-68979 Does The Brain Really Mature At The Age Of 25?]</ref> Historically, similar arguments have been made against Women<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0079-6123(08)64447-7 Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain A Historical Perspective]</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-history-of-female-brain-studies-reveal-a-lot-11584895362 The History of Female Brain Studies Reveal a Lot - WSJ]</ref><ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-female-brain-why-damaging-myths-about-women-and-science-keep-coming-back-in-new-forms-129310 The ‘female’ brain: why damaging myths about women and science keep coming back in new forms]</ref> (the gender differences while moderate, probably ''exceed'' any teen-adult variations<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.001 The Trouble with Sex Differences]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.026 Dump the “dimorphism”: Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size]</ref>) and Black people.<ref>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49594/1000050402_ftp.pdf SOME RACIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE NEGRO BRAIN]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143281/ Goldstein HW, Yusko KP, Scherbaum CA, Larson EC. Reducing Black-White Racial Differences on Intelligence Tests Used in Hiring for Public Safety Jobs. J Intell. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040062. PMID: 37103247; PMCID: PMC10143281.]</ref> Such alleged "racial peculiarities" are ignored by modern-day authoritarians, who prefer to ideologically mobilize "brain science" in a more selective manner.

Further brain imaging investigations have put "adulthood" (when so defined) at least as late as the 30s, with one study bizarrely concluding that the brain stays in the same "phase" between 9 and the early 30s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059 BBC - People don't become 'adults' until their 30s, say scientists], [https://www.aol.com/articles/adolescence-lasts-30s-study-shows-101116917.html Adolescence lasts until 30s]</ref> Ultimately, no set age for the end of brain "development" and beginning of "deterioration" has ever been established, as this is an impossible task and riddled with subjective factors. ''Neuroplasticity'' (and adaptive interpretation thereof) is a massive pitfall here, and in teenagers, it is generally over-claimed. Plasticity is also a troublesome argument for [[Ageism|ageists]] to maintain, as they also hold that critical thinking (known to promote plasticity) is considerably degraded in teens.

In summary, it can be said that the perceived incompetence of the modern minor is exaggerated and culture-bound, owing somewhat to the highly lucrative "[[Adolescence|troubled teen]]" industry and the advocacy science surrounding it.

==A little background==

This myth began its ascent to folklore after a 2005 US Supreme Court decision preventing teenage offenders from being executed. In their brief, the American Psychological Association successfully,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/roper.pdf APA's Roper Amicus]</ref> (but fallaciously and contrary to their own earlier Teen Abortion amicus<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/hodgson.pdf Hodgson (Teen Abortion) Amicus]</ref>) argued that the teen temperament is ''uniquely'' malleable and subject to change. The amicus cites behavioral studies and observations that '''lack valid comparisons and experimental controls''', otherwise identifying '''trends that are culture-bound''' or contradicted by other studies cited by Robert Epstein (for example) in this article. Generalizations are wrongly made from physiological data to competences, and then further leaps of faith are made to behaviors and "policy implications".<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00767-3 Nature: Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet]</ref><ref>[https://studyfinds.org/scientists-admit-controversial-conflict-that-casts-doubt-on-studies-using-fmri-brain-scans/ Scientists Admit Controversial Conflict Casts Doubt On Studies Using Brain Scans]</ref><ref>[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12189784/fmri-studies-explained There’s a lot of junk fMRI research out there. Here’s what top neuroscientists want you to know - Vox]</ref><ref>[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/controversial-science-of-brain-imaging/ Controversial science of brain imaging - Scientific American]</ref> This common fallacy of relevance and the resulting chain of hollow claims (about young people), is typical of advocacy science. One legal scholar even coined the term "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" to describe it.<ref>[https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=faculty_scholarship Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note]</ref>

Well known data surrounding the high recidivism and reoffending rates of youth offenders also contradicts the "unique plasticity" or [[Research: Who offends and how often?|"second chance" narrative]] (sources in linked article). So like many MAP-adjacent topics, the source of the myth is a classical case of "bad science following good (or at least political) intentions". Since this Supreme Court decision, some less reputable brain scientists have cottoned on to the trend, sometimes making spurious claims that contradict their own experimental findings - one supposes, in an attempt to curry favor. The MacArthur Foundation, who manage a $7.0bn endowment, are one example of a private foundation who plowed considerable finance into a now-discontinued program - adding to the now increasingly outdated and discredited "teen brain" body of research.<ref>[https://www.macfound.org/networks/research-network-on-adolescent-development-juvenil MacArthur Foundation: Research Network on Adolescent Development]</ref>

Our [[Debate_Guide:_Teen_brain|Teen Brain debate guide]] offers rebuttals to these myths; use it together with the following sources:

==Basic Physiology/brain volumes==

Total brain volume ''and'' Gray Matter volume appears to reach a peak at the start of, or during puberty<ref>Cabana T, Jolicoeur P, and Michaud J (1993) Prenatal and postnatal growth and allometry of stature, head circumference, and brain weight in Quebec children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.5:93–99.</ref><ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447489v3.full.pdf Brain charts for the human lifespan - Bethlehem et al (2022)]</ref>, declining thereafter. White matter, which has a less critical function in cognition, takes until the mid-40s to peak in volume. It is clear that some parts of the brain develop into and beyond early adulthood, while others might regress somewhat. This is a normal process of aging, since brain development and cognitive capacity are highly elastic and dependent upon one's environment.

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*: "In the neurodevelopmental literature, a given neural measurement is typically interpreted as mature when it matches (to a sufficient degree) an “adult” reference. [...] However, structural development continues to progress for a surprisingly long time. One especially large study showed that for several brain regions, structural growth curves had not plateaued even by the age of 30, the oldest age in their sample (Tamnes et al., 2010; see Figure 1B). [...] Other work focused on structural brain measures through adulthood show progressive volumetric changes from ages 15–90 that never “level off” and instead changed constantly throughout the adult phase of life (Walhovd et al., 2005). [...] it is unclear whether there is even a steady set-point at all."
*:"[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20829489/ Dosenbach et al., 2010] used data-driven classification algorithms to compute an estimated “brain age” of individual subjects 7 to 30 years of age based on widespread intrinsic connectivity patterns within and between brain networks [...] However, these data also illustrate the challenges of applying general patterns of neurodevelopment from group-based to individual inference, as there is substantial variance in brain network connectivity that is unrelated to age. For example, some 8-year-old brains exhibited a greater “maturation index” than some 25 year old brains."

*'''Giedd, J. et al (1999). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12807832_Brain_Development_during_Childhood_and_Adolescence_A_Longitudinal_MRI_Study Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study]," ''Nature Neuroscience'', 2(10):861-3.'''
*:"Pediatric neuroimaging studies, up to now exclusively cross sectional, identify linear decreases in cortical gray matter and increases in white matter across ages 4 to 20. In this large-scale longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study, we confirmed linear increases in white matter, but demonstrated nonlinear changes in cortical gray matter, with a preadolescent increase followed by a postadolescent decrease. These changes in cortical gray matter were regionally specific, with developmental curves for the frontal and parietal lobe peaking at about age 12 and for the temporal lobe at about age 16, whereas cortical gray matter continued to increase in the occipital lobe through age 20. The subjects for this study were healthy boys and girls participating in an ongoing longitudinal pediatric brain-MRI project at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. [...] This MRI study demonstrates a preadolescent increase in cortical gray matter; this phenomenon was previously obscured, probably by the lack of longitudinal data, as even in an analysis of the 145 cross-section-al data points in our sample, the largest to date, we could not detect nonlinearity in these developmental curves".

*'''Bartzokis, G. et al., (2001). "[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11343525/ Age-related changes in frontal and temporal lobe volumes in men: a magnetic resonance imaging study]," ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'', Aug; 58(8):774.'''
*:"'''Methods:''' Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated. '''Results:''' Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined. '''Conclusions:''' The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood."

*'''Del Giudice, M, (2014). "[https://marcodgdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/delgiudice_2014_middle-childhood_synthesis_cdp.pdf Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis]", ''Child Development Perspectives'', Volume 8, Number 4, Pages 193–200.'''
*:Del Giudice has age 6-8 as the peak for gray matter (see tables). This paper also goes into detail about development in middle-childhood, most importantly the onsent of '''adrenarche'''<ref>Gilbert Herdt and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf ''The Magical Age of 10''], in ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000. </ref> between 6-8 years of age, giving rise to sexual differentiation in behavior - including sexual curiosity and attraction. It could be argued that as a developmental milestone, this age is as important, if not more so than the start of puberty, as determined by thelarche or gonardarche.
*:"By age 6, the brain has almost reached its maximum size and receives a decreasing share of the body’s glucose after the consumption peak of early childhood (see Figure 1; Giedd & Rapoport, 2010; Kuzawa et al., in press). However, brain development proceeds at a sustained pace, with intensive synaptogenesis in cortical areas (gray matter) and rapid maturation of axonal connections (white matter; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008). [...] The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: Children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Mousley, A., Bethlehem, R. A. I., Yeh, F. C., & Astle, D. E. (2025). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12647875/ Topological turning points across the human lifespan.] ''Nature communications'', 16(1), 10055. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8'''
::"[W]e identified four major topological turning points across the lifespan – around nine, 32, 66, and 83 years old."
::“The second lifespan epoch, ages nine to 32, indicates that the trajectory of topological development remains consistent across this period. While adolescence begins with puberty, the end of adolescence is less clear, with older definitions ending before 20 and more recent definitions extending into the mid-20s. The transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than a purely biological shift. Our findings suggest that in Western countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and United States of America), adolescent topological development extends to around 32 years old, before brain networks begin a new trajectory of topological development.”

==Competence==

It's widely believed that minors differ fundamentally in their cognitive and decision-making abilities from adults. In addition, legal definitions are often conflated with the actual capacities of individuals, leading to a belief in a clear boundary between competent and incompetent ages. Many studies refute this view, supporting the concept of [[Evolving capacity|evolving capacity]].

*'''Kidd, C (2025) in ''The Conversation''. [https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438 Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research]'''
*:"More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it."

*'''Johnson SB, Blum RW, Giedd JN. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/ Adolescent maturity and the brain: the promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy.] J Adolesc Health. 2009 Sep;45(3):216-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.'''
*:"As of yet, however, neuroimaging studies do not allow a chronologic cut-point for behavioral or cognitive maturity at either the individual or population level. The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.[...] In sum, neuroimaging modalities involve an element of subjectivity, just as behavioral science modalities do. A concern is that high-profile media exposures may leave the mistaken impression that fMRI, in particular, is an infallible mind-reading technique that can be used to establish guilt or innocence, infer “true intentions,” detect lies, or establish competency to drive, vote, or [[consent]] to marriage.[...] Although scientists may be reticent to apply their research to policy, in some cases, policy makers are doing it for them."
*:"Ultimately, the goal is to be able to articulate the conditions under which adolescents’ competence, or demonstrated maturity, is most vulnerable and most resilient. Resilience, it seems, is often overlooked in contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and brain development. Indeed, the focus on pathologic conditions, deficits, reduced capacity, and age-based risks overshadows the enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the unique strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that help to reinforce and perpetuate opportunities for adolescents to thrive in this stage of development, not just survive."

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*:"A key principle that guides determinations about psychological maturity in adolescence and young adulthood is the degree to which contextual factors shape an individual’s behavior. For instance, an adolescent and an adult could achieve an identical level of performance on a cognitive task under certain conditions—say, when free of distraction and when the situation has low emotional arousal. However, if the context is shifted slightly by embedding reward cues in the cognitive task, adolescents’ performance disproportionally shifts compared to adults (e.g., Somerville et al., 2011). [...] A prime example of context-sensitive policy is graduated driving laws. They initially constrain new drivers to highly regulated conditions (e.g., during the day, without peers in the car) and slowly broaden the range of driving contexts as new drivers gain experience."
*:"one consequence of this framework would be the need to abandon the goal of identifying a single age-of-brain maturity. Rather, there would be a suite of maturity points that reflect different neural systems and different associated behaviors. For example, an individual could reach an age of “baseline cognitive maturity”—the capacity to engage in goal-directed behavior under neutral, non-distracted circumstances, substantially earlier than an age of “cognitive-emotional maturity”—the capacity to maintain goal-directed behavior in the face of competing emotional cues."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2010). chapter "Adultness" in''"Teen 2.0"'', 148-157.'''
*:"After reviewing the relevant scientific literature, interviewing many adults, and consulting with three other psychologists and two psychiatrists with expertise in adult development issues, we concluded that there are fourteen different skill-sets or "competencies" [love, sex, leadership, problem solving, physical abilities, verbal and math, interpersonal skills, responsibility, managing high-risk behaviors, work, education, personal care, self-management, and citizenship] that distinguish adults from non-adults. [...] For three of the competencies--love, leadership and problem solving--we did find statistically significant differences between the mean scores of teens and adults, with adults outscoring the teens. But the absolute differences were small. [...] On two other scales--work and self-management--the differences between the adult scores and teen scores were marginally significant (at the .05 level), again in the adults' favor, but the absolute differences were less than 4 percent. On the other nine scales, we found no significant differences at all between the adult and teen scores. [...] fifty five of the adults in our sample were college graduates--more than double the rate of college graduates in the United States."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2007). "[http://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf The Myth of the Teen Brain]," ''Scientific American Mind'', April/May, 57-63.'''
*:"Visual acuity, for example, peaks around the time of puberty. "Incidental memory"—the kind of memory that occurs automatically, without any mnemonic effort, peaks at about age 12 and declines through life. [...] In the 1940s pioneering intelligence researchers J. C. Raven and David Wechsler, relying on radically different kinds of intelligence tests, each showed that raw scores on intelligence tests peak between ages 13 and 15 and decline after that throughout life. Although verbal expertise and some forms of judgment can remain strong throughout life, the extraordinary cognitive abilities of teens, and especially their ability to learn new things rapidly, is beyond question. And whereas brain size is not necessarily a good indication of processing ability, it is notable that recent scanning data collected by Eric Courchesne and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, show that brain volume peaks at about age 14."
*:"A variety of research in several fields suggests that teen turmoil is caused by cultural factors, not by a faulty brain. [...] Anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures experience no turmoil whatsoever and that teen problems begin to appear only after Western schooling, movies and television are introduced. [...] Teens have the potential to perform in exemplary ways, the author says, but we hold them back by infantilizing them and trapping them in the frivolous world of teen culture."
*:"Studies of intelligence, perception and memory show that teens are in many ways superior to adults. [...] When we treat teens like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:(Intro) "Adolescents are qualitatively and categorically distinct from children. There is no empirical support, however, for a state of rationality or maturity common to most adults, rately seen in adolescents. Even young adolescents often show forms and levels of rationality beyond the competence of many adults, and adults of all ages often fall short of rational standards met by many adolescents [...] it is not surprising to find that in most societies for most of human history there was no such thing as adolescence, at least as we understand it (Epstein, 2007; Grotevant, 1998; Hine, 1999)."
*:"Postchildhood developmental changes in thinking are not tied to age and do not culminate in a state of maturity. Although it seems likely that many individuals show progress beyond childhood in the quality of their problem solving, decision making, judgment, and planning (Cauffman & Woolard, 2005; Steinberg & Scott, 2003), the deployment and progress of thinking in adolescence and beyond is highly variable, depending on specific interests, activities, and circumstances (Fischer, Stein, & Heikkinen, 2009). No theorist or researcher has ever identified a form or level of thinking routine among adults that is rarely seen in adolescents. Adolescent thinking often develops but not through a fixed sequence and not toward a universal state of maturity [...] It seems almost irresistible for adults to see themselves as having achieved a state of maturity that adolescents (and even younger adults) have not yet reached, but brain research provides no evidence to support the postulation of advanced states of maturity attained by the most or all adults but few adolescents. Many people continue to develop long beyond childhood, and their brains reflect those changes, but beyond age 12, there is no natural and universal state of maturity waiting to be achieved."
*:"Developmental changes beyond age 12 to 14 are much too stable and individualized, it appears to me, for a developmental panel, even if it included brain experts, to succeed in distinguishing age groups on the basis of their age development. Second, there is the reductionist fallacy. Brain data seem more scientific than behavioral data, but they are not, nor do they provide us with ultimate explanations, even if psychology can in principle be reduced to biology, a dubious proposition, we are a very long way from achieving such a reduction."
*:Editor: Moshman [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360 then published an article in HuffPo, that explains his position].

*'''Waber, D.P., et al. (2007). "The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development: Performance of a Population Based Sample of Healthy Children Aged 6 to 18 Years on a Neuropsychological Battery," ''Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society'', 13(5), 729-746.'''
*:"Perhaps most intriguing are the age-related trajectories for raw score performance. For most tasks, proficiency improved dramatically between 6 and 10 years of age, leveling off during early adolescence (approximately 10 to 12 years of age), suggesting that for many neurocognitive tasks, children approach adult levels of performance at that age. For a few measures, scores increased linearly throughout the age range. These were tasks that assessed basic information processing, such as Coding, Digit Span, and Spatial Span. Still others were associated with a non-linear component during adolescence. Some showed a flattening of the curve followed by another period of acceleration, suggesting another spurt in mid-adolescence. Verbal learning actually reversed direction with performance declining in later adolescence."

*'''Adler, N.E., & Matthews, K. (1994). "Health Psychology: Why do Some People Get Sick and Some Stay Well?," ''Annual Review of Psychology'', 45, 229-259.'''
*:"However, empirical tests show that adolescents are no less rational than adults. Applications of rational models to adolescent decision-making show that adolescents are consistent in their reasoning and behavior after the salient set of beliefs is assessed (Adler et al 1990). Quadrel et al (1993) demonstrated that adolescents are no more biased in their estimates of vulnerability to adverse health outcomes than are their parents."

*'''Weithorn, L. A. & Campbell, S. B. (1982). "The competency of children and adolescents to make informed treatment decisions," ''Child Development'', 53(6), 1589-1598.
*:"In general, minors aged fourteen were found to demonstrate a level of competence equivalent to that of adults. [...] The ages of eighteen or twenty-one as the "cutoffs" below which individuals are presumed to be incompetent to make determinations about their own welfare do not reflect the psychological capabilities of most adolescents."

*'''Offer, D. (1987). "In defense of adolescents," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 257, 3407-3408.'''
*:Mike Males [https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003554/http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ch2-psyc.htm describes] this study: "Northwestern University psychiatrist Daniel Offer, the nation’s leading researcher on adolescents, studied 30,000 teenagers and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. He and his colleagues found 85% to 90% of teens held attitudes and risk perceptions similar to that of their parents, were not alienated, did think about the future, were coping well with their lives, and did not display psychological disturbances. "Decision making for adults is no different than decision making among teenagers,” Offer reported in 1987 in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

*'''Offer, D., and Schonert Reichl, K.A. (1992). "Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research," ''Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry'', 31, 1003 1014.'''
*:"[T]he effects of pubertal hormones are neither potent nor pervasive (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). [...] Adolescence does not occur in a vacuum and is significantly affected by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. A recent investigation by Enright et al. (1987) illustrates this point. This study was based on the careful reading of 89 articles in the ''Journal of Genetic Psychology'' for the past 100 years. The articles were rated for their conceptions about the nature of adolescence. Enright et al. demonstrated ideological bias in approaches to understanding adolescent psychology, specifically in relation to economic conditions. Specifically, in times of economic depression, theories emerged in the literature that portrayed adolescents as "immature, psychologically unstable, and in need of prolonged participation in the education system" (p. 553). In contrast, during wartime, the psychological competence of adolescents was accentuated. The authors point out, "The field of adolescent psychology is not free from the societal influences that impinge upon legislators, educators, and parents in shaping American adolescents" (p. 554)."

*'''Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). "Adolescent (in)vulnerability," ''American Psychologist'', 48, 102-116.'''
*:"Three groups of subjects were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Subjects were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance."

*'''Hershovitz, S. (2022). [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/kids-philosophy-questions/629650/ "Why Kids Make the Best Philosophers,"] ''The Atlantic''.'''
*:"According to Piaget, Sarah should have been in the preoperational stage of development, so called because kids in it can’t yet use logic. But Sarah’s logic was exquisite—far more compelling than the cosmological argument. Whatever you make of an infinite regress of causes, it’s hard to imagine an infinite regress of cats. Matthews decided to study kids and their capacity for philosophical thought, introducing many people to the idea that kids are serious thinkers. Over decades of conversations with children, he found that “spontaneous excursions into philosophy” were common from the ages of 3 to 7. And he was struck by the subtle ways in which kids reasoned, as well as the frequency with which they surfaced philosophical questions. [...] Developmental psychologists are catching on to kids’ capabilities. Nowadays, most of them reject the idea that kids’ minds improve as they age. In The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik writes, “Children aren’t just defective adults, primitive grownups gradually attaining our perfection and complexity.” Their minds are different, but “equally complex and powerful.” Child development, she says, is “more like a metamorphosis, like caterpillars becoming butterflies, than like simple growth—though it may seem that children are the vibrant, wandering butterflies who transform into caterpillars inching along the grown-up path.”."

*'''Siegel, D. J. (2014). [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain "Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain,"] ''Psychology Today''.'''
*:Editor: Dr Siegel appears to believe in some of the myths surrounding the adolescent brain. He points to Synaptic Pruning, which has been suggested as one explanation for the fall in gray matter during the teen years, but his inference is not of much help to ageists who seek to withhold responsibilities from young people: "The classic “use it or lose it” principle applies to adolescence—those circuits that are actively engaged may remain, those underutilized may be subject to systematic destruction. And so for an adolescent, this means that if you want to learn a foreign language well, play a musical instrument, or be proficient at a sport, engaging in those activities before and during adolescence would be a good idea. We move from open potential in childhood to specialization during and following adolescence."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In biological terms, middle childhood corresponds to human juvenility — a stage in which the individual is still sexually immature, but no longer dependent on parents for survival. In social mammals and primates, juvenility is a phase of intense learning — often accomplished through play — in which youngsters practice adult behavioral patterns and acquire essential social and foraging skills."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is marked by a simultaneous increase in perceptual abilities (including a transition from local to global visual processing), motor control (including the emergence of adult-like walking), and complex reasoning skills (Bjorklund, 2011; Poirel et al., 2011; Weisner, 1996)."
*:"However, children at this age are not just learning and playing. Cross-culturally, middle childhood is the time when children are expected to start helping with domestic tasks—such as caring for younger siblings, collecting food and water, tending animals, and helping adults prepare food (Bogin, 1997; Lancy & Grove, 2011; Scalise Sugiyama, 2011; Weisner, 1996). In favorable ecologies, juveniles can contribute substantially to family subsistence (Kramer, 2011). Thanks to marked increases in spatial cognition (reflected in the emerging ability to understand maps) and navigational skills, children become able to memorize complex routes and find their way without adult supervision (Bjorklund, 2011; Piccardi, Leonzi, D’Amico, Marano, & Guariglia, 2014)."
*:"On a broader social level, cross-cultural evidence shows that juveniles start “getting noticed” by adults—that is, they begin to be viewed fully as people with their own individuality, personality, and social responsibility (Lancy & Grove, 2011)."
*:"While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."

*'''Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=sswa_facpubs Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective.] ''Human Nature'', 22, 281-302.'''
*:"Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or assignment of specific chores or duties.[...] There is also an acknowledgement at the exit from middle childhood, of near–adult levels of competence — as a herdsman or hunter or as gardener or infant-caretaker."
*:"In Jean Piaget’s influential theory of human cognitive development, the period from 5 to 7 years is marked by a major transition from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking (Piaget 1963). From a historical standpoint there is a great deal of evidence that this age range also marked a major transition in children’s social standing, in particular that a 7 year-old could be held legally and morally accountable for his/her actions (White 1991: 13)."
*:"The last point we would make is that the various markers of the onset of middle childhood we have enumerated all seem to be tied to a shift in cognitive functioning. There is an evident sensitivity to the expectations and needs of others—critical in child-minding and errand running. The child displays other indicators of “sense,” including lengthened attention span, greater language facility, and persistence in completing tasks. He or she is a willing student. The manifold signs of awareness of appropriate behavior vis-à-vis sex and gender go along with increased complexity in peer relations and rule-governed play. On the other hand, the exit from middle childhood is signaled more by markers of physical maturity—including secondary sexual characteristics, a growth spurt, voice change, increased sexuality, and augmented strength and endurance."

* '''Wang, F., Tong, Y., & Danovitch, J. (2019). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333302913_Who_do_I_believe_Children's_epistemic_trust_in_internet_teacher_and_peer_informants Who do I believe? Children’s epistemic trust in internet, teacher, and peer informants]. ''Cognitive Development'', 50, 248–260. Doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.05.006'''
::"Taken together, our findings suggest that school age children can reason about the reliability of information sources from different categories and that their judgments are sensitive to the type of information being sought. Just as children can be skeptical when making judgments about the reliability of different people (see Mills, 2013), children’s belief in information from the internet is not immutable. "

===Informed consent===

Children's decision-making ability has recently come under scrutiny, with [[consent]] to clinical research,<ref>[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13636 Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects (2023)]</ref> gender transition and vaccination efforts the most common contemporary themes so far. In a paper that repeated some of the myths re. development of older teens, it was nevertheless held that for children over the age of 11.2 need not be assessed individually for their ability to give consent to take part in clinical research.

*'''Hein, M. et al, (2015). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/s12910-015-0067-z Informed consent instead of assent is appropriate in children from the age of twelve]," ''BMC Medical Ethics'', 2015, 16:76.'''
*:"Children between 9.6 and 11.2 years were in the change-over period, an individual assessment of competence might be applicable in this age group. Children of 11.2 years and above can generally be considered decision-making competent, and although they need a supportive context, no individual assessment is needed."

=== Child's competence in law ===
* '''Lauren Eade (2001) [https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NewcLawRw/2001/16.pdf Legal Incapacity, Autonomy, and Children's Rights], ''Newcastle Law Review 5'', ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130420133701/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/Legal%20Incapacity,%20Autonomy,%20and%20Children's%20Rights.pdf a copy])'''
*:Doli incapax [age of criminal responsibility] and age of consent laws are representative of the two ways in which the law's presumption of children's incapacity denies autonomy even to the actually competent child. One denies autonomy and the fundamental stage of formation of intent; the other refuses to acknowledge the validity of a child's intent in particular areas. Both are devoid of scientific basis. Both are motivated by questionable control motives as well as a desire to protect. And both conceptualise the child in a manner inherently incompatible with the child as rights-holder.
*:But incapacity does not have to be an "all or nothing" issue. There is no reason why incapacity in some areas should deny capacity and autonomy in others, or why a child cannot be protected as well as allowed rights appropriate to his or her level of development. These are only irreconcilable propositions in the current model that presumptively ascribes incapacity to all children. If the law were to abandon its over-protective prejudices and engage with each child individually, judging his or her actual competence, these unjust consequences would be avoided. Immature children could retain the protection of incapacity. Specifically or generally autonomous children could gain recognition of their rights. And the law could at last acknowledge the fundamental fact that each and every child is a distinctly different human being.

==Risk Taking/Impulsivity/Prefrontal Physiology==

The oft-repeated myth of the human brain maturing fully at 25, is simplistic and outdated. If impulse control were dependent upon prefrontal volume, we would see no such thing as the quiet, studious preschooler - as all preschoolers have a tiny prefrontal cortex. As the previous studies suggest, the brains of teenagers are already losing gray matter and raw processing power is already declining by that age. Further studies are now informing us that functions of the prefrontal cortex are borrowed from other parts of the brain in teens, and ''raw'' levels of impulse-control are equal to or greater than that of adults. However, teens and young adults in particular, might be slightly less discriminatory, and less likely to use cognitive control when facing tasks within a negative emotional context. While this might manifest in poorer performance ''within an experimental context'', it is likely to be an ''adaptive'' (possibly pro-reproductive) trait that is net beneficial to socialization/competence building during youth, or otherwise experimental evidence of inadequate socialization. Further, there is no sound evidence to support the idea that the amygdala is the brain's "fear center"<ref>[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/05/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 Visser et al: Robust BOLD responses to faces but not to conditioned threat: challenging the amygdala’s reputation in human fear and extinction learning]</ref> - so any differences in teens' amygdala response can not be traced to function, let alone be ascribed to a mental deficiency. One would also have to account for the fact that when compared to adults, smaller childrens' level of amygdala activation is similar to that of adults, unlike teens. With respect to risk-taking sexual behavior, younger teens are no less careful than older adolescents, however, there are ethnic/cultural differences which prohibitionists appear to ignore.

*'''Kolk, S.M., Rakic, P. (2022). [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9 Development of prefrontal cortex.] ''Neuropsychopharmacol''. 47, 41–57. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9'''
*:"The constantly developing cognitive and executive capabilities occur parallel to the neurophysiological changes within the PFC and its connected areas and seem to reach a plateau in teenagers (around 12 years in human, around P50 in rodents)"

*'''Steinberg, L., (2008). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396566/ A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking]," ''Developmental Review'', Volume 28, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 78-106.'''
*:"Among the widely-held beliefs about adolescent risk-taking that have not been supported empirically are (a) that adolescents are irrational or deficient in their information processing, or that they reason about risk in fundamentally different ways than adults; (b) that adolescents do not perceive risks where adults do, or are more likely to believe that they are invulnerable; and (c) that adolescents are less risk-averse than adults. None of these assertions is correct: The logical reasoning and basic information-processing abilities of 16-year-olds are comparable to those of adults; adolescents are no worse than adults at perceiving risk or estimating their vulnerability to it (and, like adults, overestimate the dangerousness associated with various risky behaviors); and increasing the salience of the risks associated with making a poor or potentially dangerous decision has comparable effects on adolescents and adults (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996; see also Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008, this issue). Indeed, most studies find few, if any, age differences in individuals’ evaluations of the risks inherent in a wide range of dangerous behaviors (e.g., driving while drunk, having unprotected sex), in their judgments about the seriousness of the consequences that might result from risky behavior, or in the ways that they evaluate the relative costs and benefits of these activities (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993). In sum, adolescents’ greater involvement than adults in risk-taking does not stem from ignorance, irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or faulty calculations (Reyna & Farley, 2006)."

*'''Casey, B., (2013). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413480170 The Teenage Brain: Self Control]," ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'', Volume: 22 issue: 2, page(s): 82-87.'''
*:"Adolescence, by definition, involves new demands on the individual as she or he moves from dependence on the family unit to relative independence. This developmental period is not specific to humans, as evidenced by the increases in novelty seeking, interactions with peers, and fighting with parents observed in other species (see Romeo, 2013; Spear, 2013; both in this issue). These behaviors are thought to have evolved to serve adaptive functions related to successful mating and obtainment of resources necessary for survival (Spear & Varlinskaya, 2010). [...] To suggest that this period of development is one of no brakes or steering wheel (Bell & McBride, 2010) is to greatly oversimplify it. [...] Self-control—in this case, suppressing a compelling action—showed a different developmental pattern in the context of emotional information than in its absence, especially for males (Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 1 (also see Fig. 1 in Hare et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2011), when no emotional information is present, not only do many adolescents perform as well as adults, some perform even better. However, when decisions are required in the heat of the moment (i.e., in the presence of emotional cues; Fig. 2a), performance falters (Fig. 2b). Specifically, adolescents have difficulty suppressing a response to appetitive social cues relative to neutral ones. [...] Recently, a number of human imaging studies have attempted to evaluate this model and test for unique patterns of brain activity in adolescents during stereotypical risky behavior in the context of incentives (Chein, Albert, O’Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011; J. R. Cohen et al., 2010; Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010; Van Leijenhorst et al., 2010). This work has challenged the view that diminished self-control in adolescents is due to a less mature prefrontal cortex that leads to less successful exertion of regulatory control on behavior (Bell & McBride, 2010). [...] Indeed, if the objective of adolescence is to gain independence from the family unit, then providing opportunities for adolescents to engage in new responsibilities is essential. Without opportunities and experiences to help optimally shape the adolescent’s brain and behavior, the objectives of this developmental phase will not easily be met."

*'''Mills, K. L., Goddings, A.-L., Clasen, L. S., Giedd, J. N., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2014). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1159/000362328 The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence.] ''Developmental Neuroscience'', 36(3-4), 147–160.'''
*:"The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures."

*'''Bronski, J. (2021). "[https://ebin.pub/an-empirical-introduction-to-youth-1021810221.html?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_ZtS5lbHN8gICwu73uzc4rKtEXTq8Eq1ePjCjJ1OA30A-1635246299-0-gqNtZGzNA2WjcnBszQhl An Empirical Introduction to Youth]"'''
*:"The 2010 study looked at, among many, a white matter tract called the “uncinate fasciculus [which] … is a large fiber track connecting three key regions involved in emotion regulation: [the] amygdala, lateral and medial prefrontal cortex”136. This connection, which considering the evidence is safely considered to be done with all meaningful structural development by the end of puberty (which is likely to be before the age of fifteen), is exactly what some scientists claim causes a functional difference in teens. Specifically, they claim, among other things, that in teens the amygdala struggles to communicate with the frontal lobe, leading to lower inhibition of primal amygdalic functions. There is no evidence for this claim, since we have seen that the uncinated fasciculus, the main track connecting the amygdala and the frontal lobe, is mature at the end of puberty. So far we have seen that gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain, is accumulated until puberty, when it begins to be pruned. This pruning will continue into old age; there is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to loss of gray matter. We have also seen that the accumulation of white matter reaches its peak rate at the age of one year, and continues at decreasing rates until the age of approximately 45, in the prefrontal cortex and elsewhere in the brain. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the accumulation of white matter. Finally, in direct contrast to the unscientific claim that “Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part … Teens process information with the amygdala,” teens do in fact have working prefrontal cortexes, and the connections between that part of the brain and the amygdala are mature by the end of puberty. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the connection between the hindbrain and the forebrain, or the extent to which one “thinks” with either part of the brain. How do we now judge the statement that “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so?” Poorly. The proposition is clearly unsupported by the data regarding structural changes in the brain. Based on what we have reviewed, the claim seems totally arbitrary. Let us be charitable and look for other evidence that (Landouceur et al. 2012) might comment on this view. Perhaps the function of the brain only reaches mature levels at the age of 25. Development of Organ Function Function is what matters. For whatever reason, teen-brain neuroscientists love to obscure the debate on the maturity of the “teen brain” by making claims about its supposed structural immaturities. As we have seen, the actual evidence for these immaturities is sparse at best. Many claims of structural and functional immaturity rest on young, physically immature participants, which are grouped with older teens. Claims are then extended to all teenagers and hyperbolized in the news cycle. For instance, Dr. Giedd, who co-authored the 2004 gray matter study, has gone on the news and made claims about the immaturity of the brain “through adolescence.” The definition of adolescence is, of course, slippery. His data shows structural maturity by the age of 14 or 15, which he vaguely refers to as “late adolescence.” The WHO then defines adolescence as occurring during the ages 10-19. Many in the news refer to the age of 25 as the specific age at which the brain reaches maturity. How this came about has already been hinted at: earlier, a source was reviewed which showed that myelination of the frontal lobes continues until the mid-forties. One scientist, BJ Casey, ran an experiment which only featured participants up to the age of 24-25, and found that myelination continued to the highest age featured in the study. Out of this came the claim that the brain is still developing until the age of 25. In reality, further data shows that by this metric, the brain develops until 45! Dr. Frances Jensen wrote a whole book on this misleading claim, saying in a promotion article published in Time, The myelination process starts from the back of the brain and works its way to the front. That means the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decisionmaking, planning and self-control, is the last part to mature. It’s not that teens don’t have frontal- lobe capabilities but rather that their signals are not getting to the back of the brain fast enough to regulate their emotions. It’s why risk-taking and impulsive behavior are more common among teens and young adults. “This is why peer pressure rules at this time of life,” says Jensen. “It’s why my teenage boys would come home without their textbook and realize at 8 p.m. that they have a test the next day. They don’t have the fully developed capacity to think ahead at this time.” She also claims in her book that the teenage brain is “only 80% developed,” without a source."

*'''Romer, D. (2010). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445337/ Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention]," ''Developmental Psychobiology'', 52(3): 263–276.'''
*:"A review of the evidence for the hypothesis that limitations in brain development during adolescence restrict the ability to control impulsivity suggests that any such limitations are subtle at best. Instead, it is argued that lack of experience with novel adult behavior poses a much greater risk to adolescents than structural deficits in brain maturation [...] The evidence we have reviewed suggests that adolescent risk taking is not a universal phenomenon and that individual differences related to at least three types of impulsivity underlie such behavior in adolescents. Furthermore, at least two forms of impulsivity are associated with weak executive function as assessed by working memory and response inhibition tasks. However, sensation seeking does not appear to be inversely related to either of these executive functions and may actually be somewhat positively related to working memory ability."

*'''Romer, D. et al, (2017). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007 Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context]," ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience'', Volume 27, Pages 19-34.'''
*:Editor: For more on Romer's interpretation, see his article in [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/impulsive-teen-brain-not-based-science-180967027/ ''Smithsonian Magazine''].
*:"In conclusion, we have presented an alternative model of adolescent brain development that emphasizes the accumulation of experience as adolescents age and transition to adulthood, with concomitant changes in judgment and decision making (see Table 1 for a summary of differences between the Life-span Wisdom Model and Imbalance Models). The model explains much of the apparent increase in adolescent risk taking as an adaptive need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviors. The risk-taking that reflects lack of control or excessive sensitivity to immediate rewards is primarily an individual difference that characterizes some persons from an early age that can persist well into adulthood. At the same time, the adolescent brain is supremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities to take advantage of the experience gained. The result is a brain with integrated circuits encompassing executive function (i.e., cognitive control and inhibition), as well as verbatim and gist memory networks, which can be called upon to negotiate both novel and familiar situations. The preservation of robust gist thinking maintains wise decision making during later adulthood when cognitive control capacities diminish. We believe this approach is more aligned with the scientific evidence, including results that challenge stereotypes about the adolescent brain."

*'''Khurana, A., Romer, D., Betancourt, L. M., Brodsky, N. L., Giannetta, J. M., & Hurt, H. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/cdev.12383 Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, Even After Controlling for Parental Influences.] ''Child Development'', 86(4), 1125–1141. '''
*:"Of those who had initiated sexual activity by T3 (n = 91), nearly one in every four adolescents (27.5%) reported not using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Significant age differences were observed in the rates of sexual initiation, with older adolescents more likely to have initiated intercourse (t = 5.14, p < .001). No age differences were observed in condom use among those who had initiated sexual intercourse. Similarly, we noted no gender differences in the rates of sexual initiation or condom use in our sample. In terms of racial-ethnic variations, Black and Hispanic youth were more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse at T2 and T3, as compared to non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Native American youth. Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (46.2%) youth also had relatively higher rates of condom nonuse as compared to White youth (18.7%) in the nonvirgin subsample at T3."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:"There is no evidence that adolescents are uniquely egocentric or even much different from adults in this regard; on the contrary, research has shown age differences to be minimal or nonexistent (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Quadrel et al., 1993; Smetana & Villalobos, 2009). As fo the specific assertion that adolescents see themselves as invulnerable, it appears instead that adolescents routinely, and often drastically, overestimate their actual vulnerability (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). [...] risk taking is not always bad, and adolescents are not uniquely prone to it. People of all ages take risks of all sorts, including foolish and dangerous risks; there is no empirical basis for the common assumption that risk taking is a special phenomenon of adolescence. On the contrary, direct comparisons of adolescents and adults show minimal age differences (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993). Sociological data indicate that when covariates such as poverty are controlled, adolescents are no more prone to risk taking than adults, who in fact take plenty of dubious risks (Males, 2009, 2010)."

*'''Males, M. (2009). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/0743558408326913 Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable?]" ''Journal of Adolescent Research'', 24(1), 3–20. '''
*:"Far from justifying antiprecocity measures, emerging brain science, viewed in social contexts, indicates the dangers of efforts to restrict youth and to banish them from adult behaviors and public spaces. Preliminary analyses of brain physiology suggest that “taking risks is precisely the experience that develops the pre frontal cortex . . . you don’t learn what you need for adulthood by being excluded from it until you can demonstrate that you have got the right circuits” (Sercombe, in press). Viewed as a system, American social and health policies built on age-segregating measures may well be contributors to the extraordinarily high-risk behaviors prevailing among American youths and adults well into middle age compared with their counterparts in peer nations. There may be a price to pay in the adaptability of larger society as well. If brain science is to be credited with biodeterminist findings, neuroscannings and cognitive tests reveal developments in the middle-aged brain that make worry over teenage brains look silly. Significant losses in key memory and learning genes (Lu et al, 2004), mental fluidity (Schaie & Willis, 2008), and measurable losses in IQ show up in middle age and accelerate in senior years. Although some research indicates that myelinization (the pruning and selection of certain cerebral nerve fibers for myelin sheathing) aids adult brains in handling familiar situations more efficiently, it also renders them less able to address new challenges than more flexibly circuited younger brains."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM (2009) Adolescent Engagement in Dangerous Behaviors Is Associated with Increased White Matter Maturity of Frontal Cortex. ''PLoS ONE'' 4(8): e6773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006773'''
::"The direction of correlation suggests that rather than having immature cortices, adolescents who engage in dangerous activities have frontal white matter tracts that are more adult in form than their more conservative peers."

==Moral reasoning==

*'''Haidt, J. (2001). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20120425122316/http://www.nd.edu/~wcarbona/Haidt%202001.pdf The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment]," ''Psychological Review'', 108, 814-834.'''
*:"Turiel (1983) has shown that young children do not believe [that actions are wrong just because they are punished]. They say that harmful acts, such as hitting and pulling hair, are wrong whether they are punished or not. They even say that such acts would be wrong if adults ordered them to be done."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"Parallel improvements take place in mentalizing (the ability to understand and represent mental states) and moral reasoning, as children become able to consider multiple perspectives and conflicting goals (Jambon & Smetana, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2009)."

== Adaptive immaturity ==
While common belief about brain maturation is that juveniles are just undeveloped adults, there is a counterpoint that, in the course of human evolution, many typically 'juvenile' cognitive traits have become more adaptive than 'adult' ones. So, in some contexts, maturation can be seen as a disadvantage. Here is a concept of adaptive cognitive neoteny in literature.

* '''Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-05606-003?doi=1 The role of immaturity in human development]. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 122(2), 153–169. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.122.2.153'''

::“Some aspects of childhood are not specific preparations for adulthood. Rather, they are designed by evolution to adapt the child to its current environment but not necessarily to a future one.”
::"Several theorists have written of behavioral neoteny as the extended juvenile character of human behavior (Cairns, 1976; Lorenz, 1971; Mason, 1968a, 1968b). Cairns (1976) and Mason (1968a) have postulated, for example, that important aspects of human social behavior such as attachment are influenced by behavioral neoteny (see also Cairns, Gariepy, & Hood, 1990; and Montagu, 1989), and, according to Lorenz, such juvenile characteristics as curiosity are responsible for human’s behavioral flexibility.”

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Competences and Development''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLComp}}

==See also==

*Perspectives on [[Ageism|Ageism]] include the similarity between [[Wikipedia:Troubled teen industry|"troubled teen industry"]] literature and [[Wikipedia:Scientific racism|scientific racism]].
*The concept of [[Evolving capacity|Evolving capacity]]

==External links==

*[https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19cP Dr. Howard R. Bernstein - Myth of the Adolescent Brain] (Video link)
*Jane C. Hu, [https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html The Myth of the 25-Year-Old Brain] (''Slate'', Nov 27 2022).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]

Research: Cognitive ability

2026-05-05T18:53:39Z

Thorn: /* Adaptive immaturity */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
:''[https://x.com/garwboy/status/1778137144747274433 Popular X Thread]''
The often-repeated ageist/ableist myth<ref>[https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html Slate: Updated take on the 25y/o brain myth]</ref> of brain development ending at the ages of 18 or 25 started circulating in the late 00s and early 10s,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain Brain research advances help elucidate teen behavior]</ref> but the samples were never followed up beyond the age of 25.<ref>[https://www.iflscience.com/does-the-brain-really-mature-at-the-age-of-25-68979 Does The Brain Really Mature At The Age Of 25?]</ref> Historically, similar arguments have been made against Women<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0079-6123(08)64447-7 Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain A Historical Perspective]</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-history-of-female-brain-studies-reveal-a-lot-11584895362 The History of Female Brain Studies Reveal a Lot - WSJ]</ref><ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-female-brain-why-damaging-myths-about-women-and-science-keep-coming-back-in-new-forms-129310 The ‘female’ brain: why damaging myths about women and science keep coming back in new forms]</ref> (the gender differences while moderate, probably ''exceed'' any teen-adult variations<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.001 The Trouble with Sex Differences]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.026 Dump the “dimorphism”: Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size]</ref>) and Black people.<ref>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49594/1000050402_ftp.pdf SOME RACIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE NEGRO BRAIN]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143281/ Goldstein HW, Yusko KP, Scherbaum CA, Larson EC. Reducing Black-White Racial Differences on Intelligence Tests Used in Hiring for Public Safety Jobs. J Intell. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040062. PMID: 37103247; PMCID: PMC10143281.]</ref> Such alleged "racial peculiarities" are ignored by modern-day authoritarians, who prefer to ideologically mobilize "brain science" in a more selective manner.

Further brain imaging investigations have put "adulthood" (when so defined) at least as late as the 30s, with one study bizarrely concluding that the brain stays in the same "phase" between 9 and the early 30s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059 BBC - People don't become 'adults' until their 30s, say scientists], [https://www.aol.com/articles/adolescence-lasts-30s-study-shows-101116917.html Adolescence lasts until 30s]</ref> Ultimately, no set age for the end of brain "development" and beginning of "deterioration" has ever been established, as this is an impossible task and riddled with subjective factors. ''Neuroplasticity'' (and adaptive interpretation thereof) is a massive pitfall here, and in teenagers, it is generally over-claimed. Plasticity is also a troublesome argument for [[Ageism|ageists]] to maintain, as they also hold that critical thinking (known to promote plasticity) is considerably degraded in teens.

In summary, it can be said that the perceived incompetence of the modern minor is exaggerated and culture-bound, owing somewhat to the highly lucrative "[[Adolescence|troubled teen]]" industry and the advocacy science surrounding it.

==A little background==

This myth began its ascent to folklore after a 2005 US Supreme Court decision preventing teenage offenders from being executed. In their brief, the American Psychological Association successfully,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/roper.pdf APA's Roper Amicus]</ref> (but fallaciously and contrary to their own earlier Teen Abortion amicus<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/hodgson.pdf Hodgson (Teen Abortion) Amicus]</ref>) argued that the teen temperament is ''uniquely'' malleable and subject to change. The amicus cites behavioral studies and observations that '''lack valid comparisons and experimental controls''', otherwise identifying '''trends that are culture-bound''' or contradicted by other studies cited by Robert Epstein (for example) in this article. Generalizations are wrongly made from physiological data to competences, and then further leaps of faith are made to behaviors and "policy implications".<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00767-3 Nature: Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet]</ref><ref>[https://studyfinds.org/scientists-admit-controversial-conflict-that-casts-doubt-on-studies-using-fmri-brain-scans/ Scientists Admit Controversial Conflict Casts Doubt On Studies Using Brain Scans]</ref><ref>[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12189784/fmri-studies-explained There’s a lot of junk fMRI research out there. Here’s what top neuroscientists want you to know - Vox]</ref><ref>[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/controversial-science-of-brain-imaging/ Controversial science of brain imaging - Scientific American]</ref> This common fallacy of relevance and the resulting chain of hollow claims (about young people), is typical of advocacy science. One legal scholar even coined the term "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" to describe it.<ref>[https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=faculty_scholarship Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note]</ref>

Well known data surrounding the high recidivism and reoffending rates of youth offenders also contradicts the "unique plasticity" or [[Research: Who offends and how often?|"second chance" narrative]] (sources in linked article). So like many MAP-adjacent topics, the source of the myth is a classical case of "bad science following good (or at least political) intentions". Since this Supreme Court decision, some less reputable brain scientists have cottoned on to the trend, sometimes making spurious claims that contradict their own experimental findings - one supposes, in an attempt to curry favor. The MacArthur Foundation, who manage a $7.0bn endowment, are one example of a private foundation who plowed considerable finance into a now-discontinued program - adding to the now increasingly outdated and discredited "teen brain" body of research.<ref>[https://www.macfound.org/networks/research-network-on-adolescent-development-juvenil MacArthur Foundation: Research Network on Adolescent Development]</ref>

Our [[Debate_Guide:_Teen_brain|Teen Brain debate guide]] offers rebuttals to these myths; use it together with the following sources:

==Basic Physiology/brain volumes==

Total brain volume ''and'' Gray Matter volume appears to reach a peak at the start of, or during puberty<ref>Cabana T, Jolicoeur P, and Michaud J (1993) Prenatal and postnatal growth and allometry of stature, head circumference, and brain weight in Quebec children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.5:93–99.</ref><ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447489v3.full.pdf Brain charts for the human lifespan - Bethlehem et al (2022)]</ref>, declining thereafter. White matter, which has a less critical function in cognition, takes until the mid-40s to peak in volume. It is clear that some parts of the brain develop into and beyond early adulthood, while others might regress somewhat. This is a normal process of aging, since brain development and cognitive capacity are highly elastic and dependent upon one's environment.

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*: "In the neurodevelopmental literature, a given neural measurement is typically interpreted as mature when it matches (to a sufficient degree) an “adult” reference. [...] However, structural development continues to progress for a surprisingly long time. One especially large study showed that for several brain regions, structural growth curves had not plateaued even by the age of 30, the oldest age in their sample (Tamnes et al., 2010; see Figure 1B). [...] Other work focused on structural brain measures through adulthood show progressive volumetric changes from ages 15–90 that never “level off” and instead changed constantly throughout the adult phase of life (Walhovd et al., 2005). [...] it is unclear whether there is even a steady set-point at all."
*:"[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20829489/ Dosenbach et al., 2010] used data-driven classification algorithms to compute an estimated “brain age” of individual subjects 7 to 30 years of age based on widespread intrinsic connectivity patterns within and between brain networks [...] However, these data also illustrate the challenges of applying general patterns of neurodevelopment from group-based to individual inference, as there is substantial variance in brain network connectivity that is unrelated to age. For example, some 8-year-old brains exhibited a greater “maturation index” than some 25 year old brains."

*'''Giedd, J. et al (1999). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12807832_Brain_Development_during_Childhood_and_Adolescence_A_Longitudinal_MRI_Study Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study]," ''Nature Neuroscience'', 2(10):861-3.'''
*:"Pediatric neuroimaging studies, up to now exclusively cross sectional, identify linear decreases in cortical gray matter and increases in white matter across ages 4 to 20. In this large-scale longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study, we confirmed linear increases in white matter, but demonstrated nonlinear changes in cortical gray matter, with a preadolescent increase followed by a postadolescent decrease. These changes in cortical gray matter were regionally specific, with developmental curves for the frontal and parietal lobe peaking at about age 12 and for the temporal lobe at about age 16, whereas cortical gray matter continued to increase in the occipital lobe through age 20. The subjects for this study were healthy boys and girls participating in an ongoing longitudinal pediatric brain-MRI project at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. [...] This MRI study demonstrates a preadolescent increase in cortical gray matter; this phenomenon was previously obscured, probably by the lack of longitudinal data, as even in an analysis of the 145 cross-section-al data points in our sample, the largest to date, we could not detect nonlinearity in these developmental curves".

*'''Bartzokis, G. et al., (2001). "[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11343525/ Age-related changes in frontal and temporal lobe volumes in men: a magnetic resonance imaging study]," ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'', Aug; 58(8):774.'''
*:"'''Methods:''' Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated. '''Results:''' Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined. '''Conclusions:''' The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood."

*'''Del Giudice, M, (2014). "[https://marcodgdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/delgiudice_2014_middle-childhood_synthesis_cdp.pdf Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis]", ''Child Development Perspectives'', Volume 8, Number 4, Pages 193–200.'''
*:Del Giudice has age 6-8 as the peak for gray matter (see tables). This paper also goes into detail about development in middle-childhood, most importantly the onsent of '''adrenarche'''<ref>Gilbert Herdt and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf ''The Magical Age of 10''], in ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000. </ref> between 6-8 years of age, giving rise to sexual differentiation in behavior - including sexual curiosity and attraction. It could be argued that as a developmental milestone, this age is as important, if not more so than the start of puberty, as determined by thelarche or gonardarche.
*:"By age 6, the brain has almost reached its maximum size and receives a decreasing share of the body’s glucose after the consumption peak of early childhood (see Figure 1; Giedd & Rapoport, 2010; Kuzawa et al., in press). However, brain development proceeds at a sustained pace, with intensive synaptogenesis in cortical areas (gray matter) and rapid maturation of axonal connections (white matter; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008). [...] The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: Children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Mousley, A., Bethlehem, R. A. I., Yeh, F. C., & Astle, D. E. (2025). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12647875/ Topological turning points across the human lifespan.] ''Nature communications'', 16(1), 10055. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8'''
::"[W]e identified four major topological turning points across the lifespan – around nine, 32, 66, and 83 years old."
::“The second lifespan epoch, ages nine to 32, indicates that the trajectory of topological development remains consistent across this period. While adolescence begins with puberty, the end of adolescence is less clear, with older definitions ending before 20 and more recent definitions extending into the mid-20s. The transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than a purely biological shift. Our findings suggest that in Western countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and United States of America), adolescent topological development extends to around 32 years old, before brain networks begin a new trajectory of topological development.”

==Competence==

It's widely believed that minors differ fundamentally in their cognitive and decision-making abilities from adults. In addition, legal definitions are often conflated with the actual capacities of individuals, leading to a belief in a clear boundary between competent and incompetent ages. Many studies refute this view, supporting the concept of [[Evolving capacity|evolving capacity]].

*'''Kidd, C (2025) in ''The Conversation''. [https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438 Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research]'''
*:"More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it."

*'''Johnson SB, Blum RW, Giedd JN. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/ Adolescent maturity and the brain: the promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy.] J Adolesc Health. 2009 Sep;45(3):216-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.'''
*:"As of yet, however, neuroimaging studies do not allow a chronologic cut-point for behavioral or cognitive maturity at either the individual or population level. The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.[...] In sum, neuroimaging modalities involve an element of subjectivity, just as behavioral science modalities do. A concern is that high-profile media exposures may leave the mistaken impression that fMRI, in particular, is an infallible mind-reading technique that can be used to establish guilt or innocence, infer “true intentions,” detect lies, or establish competency to drive, vote, or [[consent]] to marriage.[...] Although scientists may be reticent to apply their research to policy, in some cases, policy makers are doing it for them."
*:"Ultimately, the goal is to be able to articulate the conditions under which adolescents’ competence, or demonstrated maturity, is most vulnerable and most resilient. Resilience, it seems, is often overlooked in contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and brain development. Indeed, the focus on pathologic conditions, deficits, reduced capacity, and age-based risks overshadows the enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the unique strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that help to reinforce and perpetuate opportunities for adolescents to thrive in this stage of development, not just survive."

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*:"A key principle that guides determinations about psychological maturity in adolescence and young adulthood is the degree to which contextual factors shape an individual’s behavior. For instance, an adolescent and an adult could achieve an identical level of performance on a cognitive task under certain conditions—say, when free of distraction and when the situation has low emotional arousal. However, if the context is shifted slightly by embedding reward cues in the cognitive task, adolescents’ performance disproportionally shifts compared to adults (e.g., Somerville et al., 2011). [...] A prime example of context-sensitive policy is graduated driving laws. They initially constrain new drivers to highly regulated conditions (e.g., during the day, without peers in the car) and slowly broaden the range of driving contexts as new drivers gain experience."
*:"one consequence of this framework would be the need to abandon the goal of identifying a single age-of-brain maturity. Rather, there would be a suite of maturity points that reflect different neural systems and different associated behaviors. For example, an individual could reach an age of “baseline cognitive maturity”—the capacity to engage in goal-directed behavior under neutral, non-distracted circumstances, substantially earlier than an age of “cognitive-emotional maturity”—the capacity to maintain goal-directed behavior in the face of competing emotional cues."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2010). chapter "Adultness" in''"Teen 2.0"'', 148-157.'''
*:"After reviewing the relevant scientific literature, interviewing many adults, and consulting with three other psychologists and two psychiatrists with expertise in adult development issues, we concluded that there are fourteen different skill-sets or "competencies" [love, sex, leadership, problem solving, physical abilities, verbal and math, interpersonal skills, responsibility, managing high-risk behaviors, work, education, personal care, self-management, and citizenship] that distinguish adults from non-adults. [...] For three of the competencies--love, leadership and problem solving--we did find statistically significant differences between the mean scores of teens and adults, with adults outscoring the teens. But the absolute differences were small. [...] On two other scales--work and self-management--the differences between the adult scores and teen scores were marginally significant (at the .05 level), again in the adults' favor, but the absolute differences were less than 4 percent. On the other nine scales, we found no significant differences at all between the adult and teen scores. [...] fifty five of the adults in our sample were college graduates--more than double the rate of college graduates in the United States."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2007). "[http://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf The Myth of the Teen Brain]," ''Scientific American Mind'', April/May, 57-63.'''
*:"Visual acuity, for example, peaks around the time of puberty. "Incidental memory"—the kind of memory that occurs automatically, without any mnemonic effort, peaks at about age 12 and declines through life. [...] In the 1940s pioneering intelligence researchers J. C. Raven and David Wechsler, relying on radically different kinds of intelligence tests, each showed that raw scores on intelligence tests peak between ages 13 and 15 and decline after that throughout life. Although verbal expertise and some forms of judgment can remain strong throughout life, the extraordinary cognitive abilities of teens, and especially their ability to learn new things rapidly, is beyond question. And whereas brain size is not necessarily a good indication of processing ability, it is notable that recent scanning data collected by Eric Courchesne and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, show that brain volume peaks at about age 14."
*:"A variety of research in several fields suggests that teen turmoil is caused by cultural factors, not by a faulty brain. [...] Anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures experience no turmoil whatsoever and that teen problems begin to appear only after Western schooling, movies and television are introduced. [...] Teens have the potential to perform in exemplary ways, the author says, but we hold them back by infantilizing them and trapping them in the frivolous world of teen culture."
*:"Studies of intelligence, perception and memory show that teens are in many ways superior to adults. [...] When we treat teens like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:(Intro) "Adolescents are qualitatively and categorically distinct from children. There is no empirical support, however, for a state of rationality or maturity common to most adults, rately seen in adolescents. Even young adolescents often show forms and levels of rationality beyond the competence of many adults, and adults of all ages often fall short of rational standards met by many adolescents [...] it is not surprising to find that in most societies for most of human history there was no such thing as adolescence, at least as we understand it (Epstein, 2007; Grotevant, 1998; Hine, 1999)."
*:"Postchildhood developmental changes in thinking are not tied to age and do not culminate in a state of maturity. Although it seems likely that many individuals show progress beyond childhood in the quality of their problem solving, decision making, judgment, and planning (Cauffman & Woolard, 2005; Steinberg & Scott, 2003), the deployment and progress of thinking in adolescence and beyond is highly variable, depending on specific interests, activities, and circumstances (Fischer, Stein, & Heikkinen, 2009). No theorist or researcher has ever identified a form or level of thinking routine among adults that is rarely seen in adolescents. Adolescent thinking often develops but not through a fixed sequence and not toward a universal state of maturity [...] It seems almost irresistible for adults to see themselves as having achieved a state of maturity that adolescents (and even younger adults) have not yet reached, but brain research provides no evidence to support the postulation of advanced states of maturity attained by the most or all adults but few adolescents. Many people continue to develop long beyond childhood, and their brains reflect those changes, but beyond age 12, there is no natural and universal state of maturity waiting to be achieved."
*:"Developmental changes beyond age 12 to 14 are much too stable and individualized, it appears to me, for a developmental panel, even if it included brain experts, to succeed in distinguishing age groups on the basis of their age development. Second, there is the reductionist fallacy. Brain data seem more scientific than behavioral data, but they are not, nor do they provide us with ultimate explanations, even if psychology can in principle be reduced to biology, a dubious proposition, we are a very long way from achieving such a reduction."
*:Editor: Moshman [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360 then published an article in HuffPo, that explains his position].

*'''Waber, D.P., et al. (2007). "The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development: Performance of a Population Based Sample of Healthy Children Aged 6 to 18 Years on a Neuropsychological Battery," ''Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society'', 13(5), 729-746.'''
*:"Perhaps most intriguing are the age-related trajectories for raw score performance. For most tasks, proficiency improved dramatically between 6 and 10 years of age, leveling off during early adolescence (approximately 10 to 12 years of age), suggesting that for many neurocognitive tasks, children approach adult levels of performance at that age. For a few measures, scores increased linearly throughout the age range. These were tasks that assessed basic information processing, such as Coding, Digit Span, and Spatial Span. Still others were associated with a non-linear component during adolescence. Some showed a flattening of the curve followed by another period of acceleration, suggesting another spurt in mid-adolescence. Verbal learning actually reversed direction with performance declining in later adolescence."

*'''Adler, N.E., & Matthews, K. (1994). "Health Psychology: Why do Some People Get Sick and Some Stay Well?," ''Annual Review of Psychology'', 45, 229-259.'''
*:"However, empirical tests show that adolescents are no less rational than adults. Applications of rational models to adolescent decision-making show that adolescents are consistent in their reasoning and behavior after the salient set of beliefs is assessed (Adler et al 1990). Quadrel et al (1993) demonstrated that adolescents are no more biased in their estimates of vulnerability to adverse health outcomes than are their parents."

*'''Weithorn, L. A. & Campbell, S. B. (1982). "The competency of children and adolescents to make informed treatment decisions," ''Child Development'', 53(6), 1589-1598.
*:"In general, minors aged fourteen were found to demonstrate a level of competence equivalent to that of adults. [...] The ages of eighteen or twenty-one as the "cutoffs" below which individuals are presumed to be incompetent to make determinations about their own welfare do not reflect the psychological capabilities of most adolescents."

*'''Offer, D. (1987). "In defense of adolescents," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 257, 3407-3408.'''
*:Mike Males [https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003554/http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ch2-psyc.htm describes] this study: "Northwestern University psychiatrist Daniel Offer, the nation’s leading researcher on adolescents, studied 30,000 teenagers and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. He and his colleagues found 85% to 90% of teens held attitudes and risk perceptions similar to that of their parents, were not alienated, did think about the future, were coping well with their lives, and did not display psychological disturbances. "Decision making for adults is no different than decision making among teenagers,” Offer reported in 1987 in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

*'''Offer, D., and Schonert Reichl, K.A. (1992). "Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research," ''Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry'', 31, 1003 1014.'''
*:"[T]he effects of pubertal hormones are neither potent nor pervasive (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). [...] Adolescence does not occur in a vacuum and is significantly affected by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. A recent investigation by Enright et al. (1987) illustrates this point. This study was based on the careful reading of 89 articles in the ''Journal of Genetic Psychology'' for the past 100 years. The articles were rated for their conceptions about the nature of adolescence. Enright et al. demonstrated ideological bias in approaches to understanding adolescent psychology, specifically in relation to economic conditions. Specifically, in times of economic depression, theories emerged in the literature that portrayed adolescents as "immature, psychologically unstable, and in need of prolonged participation in the education system" (p. 553). In contrast, during wartime, the psychological competence of adolescents was accentuated. The authors point out, "The field of adolescent psychology is not free from the societal influences that impinge upon legislators, educators, and parents in shaping American adolescents" (p. 554)."

*'''Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). "Adolescent (in)vulnerability," ''American Psychologist'', 48, 102-116.'''
*:"Three groups of subjects were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Subjects were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance."

*'''Hershovitz, S. (2022). [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/kids-philosophy-questions/629650/ "Why Kids Make the Best Philosophers,"] ''The Atlantic''.'''
*:"According to Piaget, Sarah should have been in the preoperational stage of development, so called because kids in it can’t yet use logic. But Sarah’s logic was exquisite—far more compelling than the cosmological argument. Whatever you make of an infinite regress of causes, it’s hard to imagine an infinite regress of cats. Matthews decided to study kids and their capacity for philosophical thought, introducing many people to the idea that kids are serious thinkers. Over decades of conversations with children, he found that “spontaneous excursions into philosophy” were common from the ages of 3 to 7. And he was struck by the subtle ways in which kids reasoned, as well as the frequency with which they surfaced philosophical questions. [...] Developmental psychologists are catching on to kids’ capabilities. Nowadays, most of them reject the idea that kids’ minds improve as they age. In The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik writes, “Children aren’t just defective adults, primitive grownups gradually attaining our perfection and complexity.” Their minds are different, but “equally complex and powerful.” Child development, she says, is “more like a metamorphosis, like caterpillars becoming butterflies, than like simple growth—though it may seem that children are the vibrant, wandering butterflies who transform into caterpillars inching along the grown-up path.”."

*'''Siegel, D. J. (2014). [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain "Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain,"] ''Psychology Today''.'''
*:Editor: Dr Siegel appears to believe in some of the myths surrounding the adolescent brain. He points to Synaptic Pruning, which has been suggested as one explanation for the fall in gray matter during the teen years, but his inference is not of much help to ageists who seek to withhold responsibilities from young people: "The classic “use it or lose it” principle applies to adolescence—those circuits that are actively engaged may remain, those underutilized may be subject to systematic destruction. And so for an adolescent, this means that if you want to learn a foreign language well, play a musical instrument, or be proficient at a sport, engaging in those activities before and during adolescence would be a good idea. We move from open potential in childhood to specialization during and following adolescence."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In biological terms, middle childhood corresponds to human juvenility — a stage in which the individual is still sexually immature, but no longer dependent on parents for survival. In social mammals and primates, juvenility is a phase of intense learning — often accomplished through play — in which youngsters practice adult behavioral patterns and acquire essential social and foraging skills."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is marked by a simultaneous increase in perceptual abilities (including a transition from local to global visual processing), motor control (including the emergence of adult-like walking), and complex reasoning skills (Bjorklund, 2011; Poirel et al., 2011; Weisner, 1996)."
*:"However, children at this age are not just learning and playing. Cross-culturally, middle childhood is the time when children are expected to start helping with domestic tasks—such as caring for younger siblings, collecting food and water, tending animals, and helping adults prepare food (Bogin, 1997; Lancy & Grove, 2011; Scalise Sugiyama, 2011; Weisner, 1996). In favorable ecologies, juveniles can contribute substantially to family subsistence (Kramer, 2011). Thanks to marked increases in spatial cognition (reflected in the emerging ability to understand maps) and navigational skills, children become able to memorize complex routes and find their way without adult supervision (Bjorklund, 2011; Piccardi, Leonzi, D’Amico, Marano, & Guariglia, 2014)."
*:"On a broader social level, cross-cultural evidence shows that juveniles start “getting noticed” by adults—that is, they begin to be viewed fully as people with their own individuality, personality, and social responsibility (Lancy & Grove, 2011)."
*:"While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."

*'''Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=sswa_facpubs Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective.] ''Human Nature'', 22, 281-302.'''
*:"Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or assignment of specific chores or duties.[...] There is also an acknowledgement at the exit from middle childhood, of near–adult levels of competence — as a herdsman or hunter or as gardener or infant-caretaker."
*:"In Jean Piaget’s influential theory of human cognitive development, the period from 5 to 7 years is marked by a major transition from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking (Piaget 1963). From a historical standpoint there is a great deal of evidence that this age range also marked a major transition in children’s social standing, in particular that a 7 year-old could be held legally and morally accountable for his/her actions (White 1991: 13)."
*:"The last point we would make is that the various markers of the onset of middle childhood we have enumerated all seem to be tied to a shift in cognitive functioning. There is an evident sensitivity to the expectations and needs of others—critical in child-minding and errand running. The child displays other indicators of “sense,” including lengthened attention span, greater language facility, and persistence in completing tasks. He or she is a willing student. The manifold signs of awareness of appropriate behavior vis-à-vis sex and gender go along with increased complexity in peer relations and rule-governed play. On the other hand, the exit from middle childhood is signaled more by markers of physical maturity—including secondary sexual characteristics, a growth spurt, voice change, increased sexuality, and augmented strength and endurance."

* '''Wang, F., Tong, Y., & Danovitch, J. (2019). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333302913_Who_do_I_believe_Children's_epistemic_trust_in_internet_teacher_and_peer_informants Who do I believe? Children’s epistemic trust in internet, teacher, and peer informants]. ''Cognitive Development'', 50, 248–260. Doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.05.006'''
::"Taken together, our findings suggest that school age children can reason about the reliability of information sources from different categories and that their judgments are sensitive to the type of information being sought. Just as children can be skeptical when making judgments about the reliability of different people (see Mills, 2013), children’s belief in information from the internet is not immutable. "

===Informed consent===

Children's decision-making ability has recently come under scrutiny, with [[consent]] to clinical research,<ref>[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13636 Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects (2023)]</ref> gender transition and vaccination efforts the most common contemporary themes so far. In a paper that repeated some of the myths re. development of older teens, it was nevertheless held that for children over the age of 11.2 need not be assessed individually for their ability to give consent to take part in clinical research.

*'''Hein, M. et al, (2015). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/s12910-015-0067-z Informed consent instead of assent is appropriate in children from the age of twelve]," ''BMC Medical Ethics'', 2015, 16:76.'''
*:"Children between 9.6 and 11.2 years were in the change-over period, an individual assessment of competence might be applicable in this age group. Children of 11.2 years and above can generally be considered decision-making competent, and although they need a supportive context, no individual assessment is needed."

=== Child's competence in law ===
* '''Lauren Eade (2001) [https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NewcLawRw/2001/16.pdf Legal Incapacity, Autonomy, and Children's Rights], ''Newcastle Law Review 5'', ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130420133701/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/Legal%20Incapacity,%20Autonomy,%20and%20Children's%20Rights.pdf a copy])'''
*:Doli incapax [age of criminal responsibility] and age of consent laws are representative of the two ways in which the law's presumption of children's incapacity denies autonomy even to the actually competent child. One denies autonomy and the fundamental stage of formation of intent; the other refuses to acknowledge the validity of a child's intent in particular areas. Both are devoid of scientific basis. Both are motivated by questionable control motives as well as a desire to protect. And both conceptualise the child in a manner inherently incompatible with the child as rights-holder.
*:But incapacity does not have to be an "all or nothing" issue. There is no reason why incapacity in some areas should deny capacity and autonomy in others, or why a child cannot be protected as well as allowed rights appropriate to his or her level of development. These are only irreconcilable propositions in the current model that presumptively ascribes incapacity to all children. If the law were to abandon its over-protective prejudices and engage with each child individually, judging his or her actual competence, these unjust consequences would be avoided. Immature children could retain the protection of incapacity. Specifically or generally autonomous children could gain recognition of their rights. And the law could at last acknowledge the fundamental fact that each and every child is a distinctly different human being.

==Risk Taking/Impulsivity/Prefrontal Physiology==

The oft-repeated myth of the human brain maturing fully at 25, is simplistic and outdated. If impulse control were dependent upon prefrontal volume, we would see no such thing as the quiet, studious preschooler - as all preschoolers have a tiny prefrontal cortex. As the previous studies suggest, the brains of teenagers are already losing gray matter and raw processing power is already declining by that age. Further studies are now informing us that functions of the prefrontal cortex are borrowed from other parts of the brain in teens, and ''raw'' levels of impulse-control are equal to or greater than that of adults. However, teens and young adults in particular, might be slightly less discriminatory, and less likely to use cognitive control when facing tasks within a negative emotional context. While this might manifest in poorer performance ''within an experimental context'', it is likely to be an ''adaptive'' (possibly pro-reproductive) trait that is net beneficial to socialization/competence building during youth, or otherwise experimental evidence of inadequate socialization. Further, there is no sound evidence to support the idea that the amygdala is the brain's "fear center"<ref>[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/05/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 Visser et al: Robust BOLD responses to faces but not to conditioned threat: challenging the amygdala’s reputation in human fear and extinction learning]</ref> - so any differences in teens' amygdala response can not be traced to function, let alone be ascribed to a mental deficiency. One would also have to account for the fact that when compared to adults, smaller childrens' level of amygdala activation is similar to that of adults, unlike teens. With respect to risk-taking sexual behavior, younger teens are no less careful than older adolescents, however, there are ethnic/cultural differences which prohibitionists appear to ignore.

*'''Kolk, S.M., Rakic, P. (2022). [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9 Development of prefrontal cortex.] ''Neuropsychopharmacol''. 47, 41–57. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9'''
*:"The constantly developing cognitive and executive capabilities occur parallel to the neurophysiological changes within the PFC and its connected areas and seem to reach a plateau in teenagers (around 12 years in human, around P50 in rodents)"

*'''Steinberg, L., (2008). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396566/ A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking]," ''Developmental Review'', Volume 28, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 78-106.'''
*:"Among the widely-held beliefs about adolescent risk-taking that have not been supported empirically are (a) that adolescents are irrational or deficient in their information processing, or that they reason about risk in fundamentally different ways than adults; (b) that adolescents do not perceive risks where adults do, or are more likely to believe that they are invulnerable; and (c) that adolescents are less risk-averse than adults. None of these assertions is correct: The logical reasoning and basic information-processing abilities of 16-year-olds are comparable to those of adults; adolescents are no worse than adults at perceiving risk or estimating their vulnerability to it (and, like adults, overestimate the dangerousness associated with various risky behaviors); and increasing the salience of the risks associated with making a poor or potentially dangerous decision has comparable effects on adolescents and adults (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996; see also Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008, this issue). Indeed, most studies find few, if any, age differences in individuals’ evaluations of the risks inherent in a wide range of dangerous behaviors (e.g., driving while drunk, having unprotected sex), in their judgments about the seriousness of the consequences that might result from risky behavior, or in the ways that they evaluate the relative costs and benefits of these activities (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993). In sum, adolescents’ greater involvement than adults in risk-taking does not stem from ignorance, irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or faulty calculations (Reyna & Farley, 2006)."

*'''Casey, B., (2013). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413480170 The Teenage Brain: Self Control]," ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'', Volume: 22 issue: 2, page(s): 82-87.'''
*:"Adolescence, by definition, involves new demands on the individual as she or he moves from dependence on the family unit to relative independence. This developmental period is not specific to humans, as evidenced by the increases in novelty seeking, interactions with peers, and fighting with parents observed in other species (see Romeo, 2013; Spear, 2013; both in this issue). These behaviors are thought to have evolved to serve adaptive functions related to successful mating and obtainment of resources necessary for survival (Spear & Varlinskaya, 2010). [...] To suggest that this period of development is one of no brakes or steering wheel (Bell & McBride, 2010) is to greatly oversimplify it. [...] Self-control—in this case, suppressing a compelling action—showed a different developmental pattern in the context of emotional information than in its absence, especially for males (Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 1 (also see Fig. 1 in Hare et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2011), when no emotional information is present, not only do many adolescents perform as well as adults, some perform even better. However, when decisions are required in the heat of the moment (i.e., in the presence of emotional cues; Fig. 2a), performance falters (Fig. 2b). Specifically, adolescents have difficulty suppressing a response to appetitive social cues relative to neutral ones. [...] Recently, a number of human imaging studies have attempted to evaluate this model and test for unique patterns of brain activity in adolescents during stereotypical risky behavior in the context of incentives (Chein, Albert, O’Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011; J. R. Cohen et al., 2010; Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010; Van Leijenhorst et al., 2010). This work has challenged the view that diminished self-control in adolescents is due to a less mature prefrontal cortex that leads to less successful exertion of regulatory control on behavior (Bell & McBride, 2010). [...] Indeed, if the objective of adolescence is to gain independence from the family unit, then providing opportunities for adolescents to engage in new responsibilities is essential. Without opportunities and experiences to help optimally shape the adolescent’s brain and behavior, the objectives of this developmental phase will not easily be met."

*'''Mills, K. L., Goddings, A.-L., Clasen, L. S., Giedd, J. N., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2014). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1159/000362328 The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence.] ''Developmental Neuroscience'', 36(3-4), 147–160.'''
*:"The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures."

*'''Bronski, J. (2021). "[https://ebin.pub/an-empirical-introduction-to-youth-1021810221.html?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_ZtS5lbHN8gICwu73uzc4rKtEXTq8Eq1ePjCjJ1OA30A-1635246299-0-gqNtZGzNA2WjcnBszQhl An Empirical Introduction to Youth]"'''
*:"The 2010 study looked at, among many, a white matter tract called the “uncinate fasciculus [which] … is a large fiber track connecting three key regions involved in emotion regulation: [the] amygdala, lateral and medial prefrontal cortex”136. This connection, which considering the evidence is safely considered to be done with all meaningful structural development by the end of puberty (which is likely to be before the age of fifteen), is exactly what some scientists claim causes a functional difference in teens. Specifically, they claim, among other things, that in teens the amygdala struggles to communicate with the frontal lobe, leading to lower inhibition of primal amygdalic functions. There is no evidence for this claim, since we have seen that the uncinated fasciculus, the main track connecting the amygdala and the frontal lobe, is mature at the end of puberty. So far we have seen that gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain, is accumulated until puberty, when it begins to be pruned. This pruning will continue into old age; there is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to loss of gray matter. We have also seen that the accumulation of white matter reaches its peak rate at the age of one year, and continues at decreasing rates until the age of approximately 45, in the prefrontal cortex and elsewhere in the brain. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the accumulation of white matter. Finally, in direct contrast to the unscientific claim that “Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part … Teens process information with the amygdala,” teens do in fact have working prefrontal cortexes, and the connections between that part of the brain and the amygdala are mature by the end of puberty. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the connection between the hindbrain and the forebrain, or the extent to which one “thinks” with either part of the brain. How do we now judge the statement that “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so?” Poorly. The proposition is clearly unsupported by the data regarding structural changes in the brain. Based on what we have reviewed, the claim seems totally arbitrary. Let us be charitable and look for other evidence that (Landouceur et al. 2012) might comment on this view. Perhaps the function of the brain only reaches mature levels at the age of 25. Development of Organ Function Function is what matters. For whatever reason, teen-brain neuroscientists love to obscure the debate on the maturity of the “teen brain” by making claims about its supposed structural immaturities. As we have seen, the actual evidence for these immaturities is sparse at best. Many claims of structural and functional immaturity rest on young, physically immature participants, which are grouped with older teens. Claims are then extended to all teenagers and hyperbolized in the news cycle. For instance, Dr. Giedd, who co-authored the 2004 gray matter study, has gone on the news and made claims about the immaturity of the brain “through adolescence.” The definition of adolescence is, of course, slippery. His data shows structural maturity by the age of 14 or 15, which he vaguely refers to as “late adolescence.” The WHO then defines adolescence as occurring during the ages 10-19. Many in the news refer to the age of 25 as the specific age at which the brain reaches maturity. How this came about has already been hinted at: earlier, a source was reviewed which showed that myelination of the frontal lobes continues until the mid-forties. One scientist, BJ Casey, ran an experiment which only featured participants up to the age of 24-25, and found that myelination continued to the highest age featured in the study. Out of this came the claim that the brain is still developing until the age of 25. In reality, further data shows that by this metric, the brain develops until 45! Dr. Frances Jensen wrote a whole book on this misleading claim, saying in a promotion article published in Time, The myelination process starts from the back of the brain and works its way to the front. That means the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decisionmaking, planning and self-control, is the last part to mature. It’s not that teens don’t have frontal- lobe capabilities but rather that their signals are not getting to the back of the brain fast enough to regulate their emotions. It’s why risk-taking and impulsive behavior are more common among teens and young adults. “This is why peer pressure rules at this time of life,” says Jensen. “It’s why my teenage boys would come home without their textbook and realize at 8 p.m. that they have a test the next day. They don’t have the fully developed capacity to think ahead at this time.” She also claims in her book that the teenage brain is “only 80% developed,” without a source."

*'''Romer, D. (2010). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445337/ Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention]," ''Developmental Psychobiology'', 52(3): 263–276.'''
*:"A review of the evidence for the hypothesis that limitations in brain development during adolescence restrict the ability to control impulsivity suggests that any such limitations are subtle at best. Instead, it is argued that lack of experience with novel adult behavior poses a much greater risk to adolescents than structural deficits in brain maturation [...] The evidence we have reviewed suggests that adolescent risk taking is not a universal phenomenon and that individual differences related to at least three types of impulsivity underlie such behavior in adolescents. Furthermore, at least two forms of impulsivity are associated with weak executive function as assessed by working memory and response inhibition tasks. However, sensation seeking does not appear to be inversely related to either of these executive functions and may actually be somewhat positively related to working memory ability."

*'''Romer, D. et al, (2017). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007 Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context]," ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience'', Volume 27, Pages 19-34.'''
*:Editor: For more on Romer's interpretation, see his article in [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/impulsive-teen-brain-not-based-science-180967027/ ''Smithsonian Magazine''].
*:"In conclusion, we have presented an alternative model of adolescent brain development that emphasizes the accumulation of experience as adolescents age and transition to adulthood, with concomitant changes in judgment and decision making (see Table 1 for a summary of differences between the Life-span Wisdom Model and Imbalance Models). The model explains much of the apparent increase in adolescent risk taking as an adaptive need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviors. The risk-taking that reflects lack of control or excessive sensitivity to immediate rewards is primarily an individual difference that characterizes some persons from an early age that can persist well into adulthood. At the same time, the adolescent brain is supremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities to take advantage of the experience gained. The result is a brain with integrated circuits encompassing executive function (i.e., cognitive control and inhibition), as well as verbatim and gist memory networks, which can be called upon to negotiate both novel and familiar situations. The preservation of robust gist thinking maintains wise decision making during later adulthood when cognitive control capacities diminish. We believe this approach is more aligned with the scientific evidence, including results that challenge stereotypes about the adolescent brain."

*'''Khurana, A., Romer, D., Betancourt, L. M., Brodsky, N. L., Giannetta, J. M., & Hurt, H. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/cdev.12383 Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, Even After Controlling for Parental Influences.] ''Child Development'', 86(4), 1125–1141. '''
*:"Of those who had initiated sexual activity by T3 (n = 91), nearly one in every four adolescents (27.5%) reported not using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Significant age differences were observed in the rates of sexual initiation, with older adolescents more likely to have initiated intercourse (t = 5.14, p < .001). No age differences were observed in condom use among those who had initiated sexual intercourse. Similarly, we noted no gender differences in the rates of sexual initiation or condom use in our sample. In terms of racial-ethnic variations, Black and Hispanic youth were more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse at T2 and T3, as compared to non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Native American youth. Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (46.2%) youth also had relatively higher rates of condom nonuse as compared to White youth (18.7%) in the nonvirgin subsample at T3."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:"There is no evidence that adolescents are uniquely egocentric or even much different from adults in this regard; on the contrary, research has shown age differences to be minimal or nonexistent (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Quadrel et al., 1993; Smetana & Villalobos, 2009). As fo the specific assertion that adolescents see themselves as invulnerable, it appears instead that adolescents routinely, and often drastically, overestimate their actual vulnerability (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). [...] risk taking is not always bad, and adolescents are not uniquely prone to it. People of all ages take risks of all sorts, including foolish and dangerous risks; there is no empirical basis for the common assumption that risk taking is a special phenomenon of adolescence. On the contrary, direct comparisons of adolescents and adults show minimal age differences (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993). Sociological data indicate that when covariates such as poverty are controlled, adolescents are no more prone to risk taking than adults, who in fact take plenty of dubious risks (Males, 2009, 2010)."

*'''Males, M. (2009). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/0743558408326913 Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable?]" ''Journal of Adolescent Research'', 24(1), 3–20. '''
*:"Far from justifying antiprecocity measures, emerging brain science, viewed in social contexts, indicates the dangers of efforts to restrict youth and to banish them from adult behaviors and public spaces. Preliminary analyses of brain physiology suggest that “taking risks is precisely the experience that develops the pre frontal cortex . . . you don’t learn what you need for adulthood by being excluded from it until you can demonstrate that you have got the right circuits” (Sercombe, in press). Viewed as a system, American social and health policies built on age-segregating measures may well be contributors to the extraordinarily high-risk behaviors prevailing among American youths and adults well into middle age compared with their counterparts in peer nations. There may be a price to pay in the adaptability of larger society as well. If brain science is to be credited with biodeterminist findings, neuroscannings and cognitive tests reveal developments in the middle-aged brain that make worry over teenage brains look silly. Significant losses in key memory and learning genes (Lu et al, 2004), mental fluidity (Schaie & Willis, 2008), and measurable losses in IQ show up in middle age and accelerate in senior years. Although some research indicates that myelinization (the pruning and selection of certain cerebral nerve fibers for myelin sheathing) aids adult brains in handling familiar situations more efficiently, it also renders them less able to address new challenges than more flexibly circuited younger brains."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM (2009) Adolescent Engagement in Dangerous Behaviors Is Associated with Increased White Matter Maturity of Frontal Cortex. ''PLoS ONE'' 4(8): e6773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006773'''
::"The direction of correlation suggests that rather than having immature cortices, adolescents who engage in dangerous activities have frontal white matter tracts that are more adult in form than their more conservative peers."

==Moral reasoning==

*'''Haidt, J. (2001). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20120425122316/http://www.nd.edu/~wcarbona/Haidt%202001.pdf The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment]," ''Psychological Review'', 108, 814-834.'''
*:"Turiel (1983) has shown that young children do not believe [that actions are wrong just because they are punished]. They say that harmful acts, such as hitting and pulling hair, are wrong whether they are punished or not. They even say that such acts would be wrong if adults ordered them to be done."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"Parallel improvements take place in mentalizing (the ability to understand and represent mental states) and moral reasoning, as children become able to consider multiple perspectives and conflicting goals (Jambon & Smetana, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2009)."

== Adaptive immaturity ==
While common belief about brain maturation is that juveniles are just undeveloped adults, there is a counterpoint that, in the course of human evolution, many typically 'juvenile' cognitive traits have become more adaptive than 'adult' ones. So, in some contexts, maturation can be seen as a kind of retardation. Here is a concept of adaptive cognitive neoteny in literature.

* '''Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). The role of immaturity in human development. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 122(2), 153–169. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.122.2.153'''

::“Some aspects of childhood are not specific preparations for adulthood. Rather, they are designed by evolution to adapt the child to its current environment but not necessarily to a future one.”
::"Several theorists have written of behavioral neoteny as the extended juvenile character of human behavior (Cairns, 1976; Lorenz, 1971; Mason, 1968a, 1968b). Cairns (1976) and Mason (1968a) have postulated, for example, that important aspects of human social behavior such as attachment are influenced by behavioral neoteny (see also Cairns, Gariepy, & Hood, 1990; and Montagu, 1989), and, according to Lorenz, such juvenile characteristics as curiosity are responsible for human’s behavioral flexibility.”

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Competences and Development''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLComp}}

==See also==

*Perspectives on [[Ageism|Ageism]] include the similarity between [[Wikipedia:Troubled teen industry|"troubled teen industry"]] literature and [[Wikipedia:Scientific racism|scientific racism]].
*The concept of [[Evolving capacity|Evolving capacity]]

==External links==

*[https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19cP Dr. Howard R. Bernstein - Myth of the Adolescent Brain] (Video link)
*Jane C. Hu, [https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html The Myth of the 25-Year-Old Brain] (''Slate'', Nov 27 2022).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]

Research: Cognitive ability

2026-05-05T18:52:56Z

Thorn: /* Moral reasoning */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
:''[https://x.com/garwboy/status/1778137144747274433 Popular X Thread]''
The often-repeated ageist/ableist myth<ref>[https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html Slate: Updated take on the 25y/o brain myth]</ref> of brain development ending at the ages of 18 or 25 started circulating in the late 00s and early 10s,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/brain Brain research advances help elucidate teen behavior]</ref> but the samples were never followed up beyond the age of 25.<ref>[https://www.iflscience.com/does-the-brain-really-mature-at-the-age-of-25-68979 Does The Brain Really Mature At The Age Of 25?]</ref> Historically, similar arguments have been made against Women<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/s0079-6123(08)64447-7 Sexual Differentiation of the Human Brain A Historical Perspective]</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-history-of-female-brain-studies-reveal-a-lot-11584895362 The History of Female Brain Studies Reveal a Lot - WSJ]</ref><ref>[https://theconversation.com/the-female-brain-why-damaging-myths-about-women-and-science-keep-coming-back-in-new-forms-129310 The ‘female’ brain: why damaging myths about women and science keep coming back in new forms]</ref> (the gender differences while moderate, probably ''exceed'' any teen-adult variations<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.001 The Trouble with Sex Differences]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.026 Dump the “dimorphism”: Comprehensive synthesis of human brain studies reveals few male-female differences beyond size]</ref>) and Black people.<ref>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/49594/1000050402_ftp.pdf SOME RACIAL PECULIARITIES OF THE NEGRO BRAIN]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10143281/ Goldstein HW, Yusko KP, Scherbaum CA, Larson EC. Reducing Black-White Racial Differences on Intelligence Tests Used in Hiring for Public Safety Jobs. J Intell. 2023 Mar 28;11(4):62. doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11040062. PMID: 37103247; PMCID: PMC10143281.]</ref> Such alleged "racial peculiarities" are ignored by modern-day authoritarians, who prefer to ideologically mobilize "brain science" in a more selective manner.

Further brain imaging investigations have put "adulthood" (when so defined) at least as late as the 30s, with one study bizarrely concluding that the brain stays in the same "phase" between 9 and the early 30s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059 BBC - People don't become 'adults' until their 30s, say scientists], [https://www.aol.com/articles/adolescence-lasts-30s-study-shows-101116917.html Adolescence lasts until 30s]</ref> Ultimately, no set age for the end of brain "development" and beginning of "deterioration" has ever been established, as this is an impossible task and riddled with subjective factors. ''Neuroplasticity'' (and adaptive interpretation thereof) is a massive pitfall here, and in teenagers, it is generally over-claimed. Plasticity is also a troublesome argument for [[Ageism|ageists]] to maintain, as they also hold that critical thinking (known to promote plasticity) is considerably degraded in teens.

In summary, it can be said that the perceived incompetence of the modern minor is exaggerated and culture-bound, owing somewhat to the highly lucrative "[[Adolescence|troubled teen]]" industry and the advocacy science surrounding it.

==A little background==

This myth began its ascent to folklore after a 2005 US Supreme Court decision preventing teenage offenders from being executed. In their brief, the American Psychological Association successfully,<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/roper.pdf APA's Roper Amicus]</ref> (but fallaciously and contrary to their own earlier Teen Abortion amicus<ref>[https://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/hodgson.pdf Hodgson (Teen Abortion) Amicus]</ref>) argued that the teen temperament is ''uniquely'' malleable and subject to change. The amicus cites behavioral studies and observations that '''lack valid comparisons and experimental controls''', otherwise identifying '''trends that are culture-bound''' or contradicted by other studies cited by Robert Epstein (for example) in this article. Generalizations are wrongly made from physiological data to competences, and then further leaps of faith are made to behaviors and "policy implications".<ref>[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00767-3 Nature: Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet]</ref><ref>[https://studyfinds.org/scientists-admit-controversial-conflict-that-casts-doubt-on-studies-using-fmri-brain-scans/ Scientists Admit Controversial Conflict Casts Doubt On Studies Using Brain Scans]</ref><ref>[https://www.vox.com/2016/9/8/12189784/fmri-studies-explained There’s a lot of junk fMRI research out there. Here’s what top neuroscientists want you to know - Vox]</ref><ref>[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/controversial-science-of-brain-imaging/ Controversial science of brain imaging - Scientific American]</ref> This common fallacy of relevance and the resulting chain of hollow claims (about young people), is typical of advocacy science. One legal scholar even coined the term "Brain Overclaim Syndrome" to describe it.<ref>[https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1116&context=faculty_scholarship Brain Overclaim Syndrome and Criminal Responsibility: A Diagnostic Note]</ref>

Well known data surrounding the high recidivism and reoffending rates of youth offenders also contradicts the "unique plasticity" or [[Research: Who offends and how often?|"second chance" narrative]] (sources in linked article). So like many MAP-adjacent topics, the source of the myth is a classical case of "bad science following good (or at least political) intentions". Since this Supreme Court decision, some less reputable brain scientists have cottoned on to the trend, sometimes making spurious claims that contradict their own experimental findings - one supposes, in an attempt to curry favor. The MacArthur Foundation, who manage a $7.0bn endowment, are one example of a private foundation who plowed considerable finance into a now-discontinued program - adding to the now increasingly outdated and discredited "teen brain" body of research.<ref>[https://www.macfound.org/networks/research-network-on-adolescent-development-juvenil MacArthur Foundation: Research Network on Adolescent Development]</ref>

Our [[Debate_Guide:_Teen_brain|Teen Brain debate guide]] offers rebuttals to these myths; use it together with the following sources:

==Basic Physiology/brain volumes==

Total brain volume ''and'' Gray Matter volume appears to reach a peak at the start of, or during puberty<ref>Cabana T, Jolicoeur P, and Michaud J (1993) Prenatal and postnatal growth and allometry of stature, head circumference, and brain weight in Quebec children. Am. J. Hum. Biol.5:93–99.</ref><ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447489v3.full.pdf Brain charts for the human lifespan - Bethlehem et al (2022)]</ref>, declining thereafter. White matter, which has a less critical function in cognition, takes until the mid-40s to peak in volume. It is clear that some parts of the brain develop into and beyond early adulthood, while others might regress somewhat. This is a normal process of aging, since brain development and cognitive capacity are highly elastic and dependent upon one's environment.

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*: "In the neurodevelopmental literature, a given neural measurement is typically interpreted as mature when it matches (to a sufficient degree) an “adult” reference. [...] However, structural development continues to progress for a surprisingly long time. One especially large study showed that for several brain regions, structural growth curves had not plateaued even by the age of 30, the oldest age in their sample (Tamnes et al., 2010; see Figure 1B). [...] Other work focused on structural brain measures through adulthood show progressive volumetric changes from ages 15–90 that never “level off” and instead changed constantly throughout the adult phase of life (Walhovd et al., 2005). [...] it is unclear whether there is even a steady set-point at all."
*:"[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20829489/ Dosenbach et al., 2010] used data-driven classification algorithms to compute an estimated “brain age” of individual subjects 7 to 30 years of age based on widespread intrinsic connectivity patterns within and between brain networks [...] However, these data also illustrate the challenges of applying general patterns of neurodevelopment from group-based to individual inference, as there is substantial variance in brain network connectivity that is unrelated to age. For example, some 8-year-old brains exhibited a greater “maturation index” than some 25 year old brains."

*'''Giedd, J. et al (1999). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12807832_Brain_Development_during_Childhood_and_Adolescence_A_Longitudinal_MRI_Study Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study]," ''Nature Neuroscience'', 2(10):861-3.'''
*:"Pediatric neuroimaging studies, up to now exclusively cross sectional, identify linear decreases in cortical gray matter and increases in white matter across ages 4 to 20. In this large-scale longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging study, we confirmed linear increases in white matter, but demonstrated nonlinear changes in cortical gray matter, with a preadolescent increase followed by a postadolescent decrease. These changes in cortical gray matter were regionally specific, with developmental curves for the frontal and parietal lobe peaking at about age 12 and for the temporal lobe at about age 16, whereas cortical gray matter continued to increase in the occipital lobe through age 20. The subjects for this study were healthy boys and girls participating in an ongoing longitudinal pediatric brain-MRI project at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. [...] This MRI study demonstrates a preadolescent increase in cortical gray matter; this phenomenon was previously obscured, probably by the lack of longitudinal data, as even in an analysis of the 145 cross-section-al data points in our sample, the largest to date, we could not detect nonlinearity in these developmental curves".

*'''Bartzokis, G. et al., (2001). "[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11343525/ Age-related changes in frontal and temporal lobe volumes in men: a magnetic resonance imaging study]," ''Arch Gen Psychiatry'', Aug; 58(8):774.'''
*:"'''Methods:''' Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated. '''Results:''' Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined. '''Conclusions:''' The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood."

*'''Del Giudice, M, (2014). "[https://marcodgdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/delgiudice_2014_middle-childhood_synthesis_cdp.pdf Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis]", ''Child Development Perspectives'', Volume 8, Number 4, Pages 193–200.'''
*:Del Giudice has age 6-8 as the peak for gray matter (see tables). This paper also goes into detail about development in middle-childhood, most importantly the onsent of '''adrenarche'''<ref>Gilbert Herdt and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf ''The Magical Age of 10''], in ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000. </ref> between 6-8 years of age, giving rise to sexual differentiation in behavior - including sexual curiosity and attraction. It could be argued that as a developmental milestone, this age is as important, if not more so than the start of puberty, as determined by thelarche or gonardarche.
*:"By age 6, the brain has almost reached its maximum size and receives a decreasing share of the body’s glucose after the consumption peak of early childhood (see Figure 1; Giedd & Rapoport, 2010; Kuzawa et al., in press). However, brain development proceeds at a sustained pace, with intensive synaptogenesis in cortical areas (gray matter) and rapid maturation of axonal connections (white matter; Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips, & Beaulieu, 2008). [...] The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: Children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Mousley, A., Bethlehem, R. A. I., Yeh, F. C., & Astle, D. E. (2025). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12647875/ Topological turning points across the human lifespan.] ''Nature communications'', 16(1), 10055. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8'''
::"[W]e identified four major topological turning points across the lifespan – around nine, 32, 66, and 83 years old."
::“The second lifespan epoch, ages nine to 32, indicates that the trajectory of topological development remains consistent across this period. While adolescence begins with puberty, the end of adolescence is less clear, with older definitions ending before 20 and more recent definitions extending into the mid-20s. The transition to adulthood is influenced by cultural, historical, and social factors, making it context-dependent rather than a purely biological shift. Our findings suggest that in Western countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and United States of America), adolescent topological development extends to around 32 years old, before brain networks begin a new trajectory of topological development.”

==Competence==

It's widely believed that minors differ fundamentally in their cognitive and decision-making abilities from adults. In addition, legal definitions are often conflated with the actual capacities of individuals, leading to a belief in a clear boundary between competent and incompetent ages. Many studies refute this view, supporting the concept of [[Evolving capacity|evolving capacity]].

*'''Kidd, C (2025) in ''The Conversation''. [https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-systematic-problem-solvers-at-younger-ages-than-psychologists-had-thought-new-research-266438 Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research]'''
*:"More than half the children we tested demonstrated evidence of structured algorithmic thinking, and at ages as young as 4 years old. While older kids were more likely to use algorithmic strategies, our finding contrasts with Piaget’s belief that children were incapable of this kind of systematic strategizing before 7 years of age. Our results suggest that children are actually capable of spontaneous logical strategy discovery much earlier when circumstances require it. Explaining our results requires a more nuanced interpretation of Piaget’s original data. While children may still favor apparently less logical solutions to problems during the first two Piagetian stages, it’s not because they are incapable of doing otherwise if the situation requires it."

*'''Johnson SB, Blum RW, Giedd JN. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/ Adolescent maturity and the brain: the promise and pitfalls of neuroscience research in adolescent health policy.] J Adolesc Health. 2009 Sep;45(3):216-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.'''
*:"As of yet, however, neuroimaging studies do not allow a chronologic cut-point for behavioral or cognitive maturity at either the individual or population level. The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.[...] In sum, neuroimaging modalities involve an element of subjectivity, just as behavioral science modalities do. A concern is that high-profile media exposures may leave the mistaken impression that fMRI, in particular, is an infallible mind-reading technique that can be used to establish guilt or innocence, infer “true intentions,” detect lies, or establish competency to drive, vote, or [[consent]] to marriage.[...] Although scientists may be reticent to apply their research to policy, in some cases, policy makers are doing it for them."
*:"Ultimately, the goal is to be able to articulate the conditions under which adolescents’ competence, or demonstrated maturity, is most vulnerable and most resilient. Resilience, it seems, is often overlooked in contemporary discussions of adolescent maturity and brain development. Indeed, the focus on pathologic conditions, deficits, reduced capacity, and age-based risks overshadows the enormous opportunity for brain science to illuminate the unique strengths and potentialities of the adolescent brain. So, too, can this information inform policies that help to reinforce and perpetuate opportunities for adolescents to thrive in this stage of development, not just survive."

*'''Leah H. Somerville. 2016. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Searching for Signatures of Brain Maturity: What Are We Searching For?] ''[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059 Neuron]'', 92(6), 1164–1167, doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.059'''
*:"A key principle that guides determinations about psychological maturity in adolescence and young adulthood is the degree to which contextual factors shape an individual’s behavior. For instance, an adolescent and an adult could achieve an identical level of performance on a cognitive task under certain conditions—say, when free of distraction and when the situation has low emotional arousal. However, if the context is shifted slightly by embedding reward cues in the cognitive task, adolescents’ performance disproportionally shifts compared to adults (e.g., Somerville et al., 2011). [...] A prime example of context-sensitive policy is graduated driving laws. They initially constrain new drivers to highly regulated conditions (e.g., during the day, without peers in the car) and slowly broaden the range of driving contexts as new drivers gain experience."
*:"one consequence of this framework would be the need to abandon the goal of identifying a single age-of-brain maturity. Rather, there would be a suite of maturity points that reflect different neural systems and different associated behaviors. For example, an individual could reach an age of “baseline cognitive maturity”—the capacity to engage in goal-directed behavior under neutral, non-distracted circumstances, substantially earlier than an age of “cognitive-emotional maturity”—the capacity to maintain goal-directed behavior in the face of competing emotional cues."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2010). chapter "Adultness" in''"Teen 2.0"'', 148-157.'''
*:"After reviewing the relevant scientific literature, interviewing many adults, and consulting with three other psychologists and two psychiatrists with expertise in adult development issues, we concluded that there are fourteen different skill-sets or "competencies" [love, sex, leadership, problem solving, physical abilities, verbal and math, interpersonal skills, responsibility, managing high-risk behaviors, work, education, personal care, self-management, and citizenship] that distinguish adults from non-adults. [...] For three of the competencies--love, leadership and problem solving--we did find statistically significant differences between the mean scores of teens and adults, with adults outscoring the teens. But the absolute differences were small. [...] On two other scales--work and self-management--the differences between the adult scores and teen scores were marginally significant (at the .05 level), again in the adults' favor, but the absolute differences were less than 4 percent. On the other nine scales, we found no significant differences at all between the adult and teen scores. [...] fifty five of the adults in our sample were college graduates--more than double the rate of college graduates in the United States."

*'''Epstein, Robert (2007). "[http://drrobertepstein.com/pdf/Epstein-THE_MYTH_OF_THE_TEEN_BRAIN-Scientific_American_Mind-4-07.pdf The Myth of the Teen Brain]," ''Scientific American Mind'', April/May, 57-63.'''
*:"Visual acuity, for example, peaks around the time of puberty. "Incidental memory"—the kind of memory that occurs automatically, without any mnemonic effort, peaks at about age 12 and declines through life. [...] In the 1940s pioneering intelligence researchers J. C. Raven and David Wechsler, relying on radically different kinds of intelligence tests, each showed that raw scores on intelligence tests peak between ages 13 and 15 and decline after that throughout life. Although verbal expertise and some forms of judgment can remain strong throughout life, the extraordinary cognitive abilities of teens, and especially their ability to learn new things rapidly, is beyond question. And whereas brain size is not necessarily a good indication of processing ability, it is notable that recent scanning data collected by Eric Courchesne and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, show that brain volume peaks at about age 14."
*:"A variety of research in several fields suggests that teen turmoil is caused by cultural factors, not by a faulty brain. [...] Anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures experience no turmoil whatsoever and that teen problems begin to appear only after Western schooling, movies and television are introduced. [...] Teens have the potential to perform in exemplary ways, the author says, but we hold them back by infantilizing them and trapping them in the frivolous world of teen culture."
*:"Studies of intelligence, perception and memory show that teens are in many ways superior to adults. [...] When we treat teens like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:(Intro) "Adolescents are qualitatively and categorically distinct from children. There is no empirical support, however, for a state of rationality or maturity common to most adults, rately seen in adolescents. Even young adolescents often show forms and levels of rationality beyond the competence of many adults, and adults of all ages often fall short of rational standards met by many adolescents [...] it is not surprising to find that in most societies for most of human history there was no such thing as adolescence, at least as we understand it (Epstein, 2007; Grotevant, 1998; Hine, 1999)."
*:"Postchildhood developmental changes in thinking are not tied to age and do not culminate in a state of maturity. Although it seems likely that many individuals show progress beyond childhood in the quality of their problem solving, decision making, judgment, and planning (Cauffman & Woolard, 2005; Steinberg & Scott, 2003), the deployment and progress of thinking in adolescence and beyond is highly variable, depending on specific interests, activities, and circumstances (Fischer, Stein, & Heikkinen, 2009). No theorist or researcher has ever identified a form or level of thinking routine among adults that is rarely seen in adolescents. Adolescent thinking often develops but not through a fixed sequence and not toward a universal state of maturity [...] It seems almost irresistible for adults to see themselves as having achieved a state of maturity that adolescents (and even younger adults) have not yet reached, but brain research provides no evidence to support the postulation of advanced states of maturity attained by the most or all adults but few adolescents. Many people continue to develop long beyond childhood, and their brains reflect those changes, but beyond age 12, there is no natural and universal state of maturity waiting to be achieved."
*:"Developmental changes beyond age 12 to 14 are much too stable and individualized, it appears to me, for a developmental panel, even if it included brain experts, to succeed in distinguishing age groups on the basis of their age development. Second, there is the reductionist fallacy. Brain data seem more scientific than behavioral data, but they are not, nor do they provide us with ultimate explanations, even if psychology can in principle be reduced to biology, a dubious proposition, we are a very long way from achieving such a reduction."
*:Editor: Moshman [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/adolescents-and-their-tee_b_858360 then published an article in HuffPo, that explains his position].

*'''Waber, D.P., et al. (2007). "The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development: Performance of a Population Based Sample of Healthy Children Aged 6 to 18 Years on a Neuropsychological Battery," ''Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society'', 13(5), 729-746.'''
*:"Perhaps most intriguing are the age-related trajectories for raw score performance. For most tasks, proficiency improved dramatically between 6 and 10 years of age, leveling off during early adolescence (approximately 10 to 12 years of age), suggesting that for many neurocognitive tasks, children approach adult levels of performance at that age. For a few measures, scores increased linearly throughout the age range. These were tasks that assessed basic information processing, such as Coding, Digit Span, and Spatial Span. Still others were associated with a non-linear component during adolescence. Some showed a flattening of the curve followed by another period of acceleration, suggesting another spurt in mid-adolescence. Verbal learning actually reversed direction with performance declining in later adolescence."

*'''Adler, N.E., & Matthews, K. (1994). "Health Psychology: Why do Some People Get Sick and Some Stay Well?," ''Annual Review of Psychology'', 45, 229-259.'''
*:"However, empirical tests show that adolescents are no less rational than adults. Applications of rational models to adolescent decision-making show that adolescents are consistent in their reasoning and behavior after the salient set of beliefs is assessed (Adler et al 1990). Quadrel et al (1993) demonstrated that adolescents are no more biased in their estimates of vulnerability to adverse health outcomes than are their parents."

*'''Weithorn, L. A. & Campbell, S. B. (1982). "The competency of children and adolescents to make informed treatment decisions," ''Child Development'', 53(6), 1589-1598.
*:"In general, minors aged fourteen were found to demonstrate a level of competence equivalent to that of adults. [...] The ages of eighteen or twenty-one as the "cutoffs" below which individuals are presumed to be incompetent to make determinations about their own welfare do not reflect the psychological capabilities of most adolescents."

*'''Offer, D. (1987). "In defense of adolescents," ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', 257, 3407-3408.'''
*:Mike Males [https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003554/http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/ch2-psyc.htm describes] this study: "Northwestern University psychiatrist Daniel Offer, the nation’s leading researcher on adolescents, studied 30,000 teenagers and adults from the 1960s to the 1990s. He and his colleagues found 85% to 90% of teens held attitudes and risk perceptions similar to that of their parents, were not alienated, did think about the future, were coping well with their lives, and did not display psychological disturbances. "Decision making for adults is no different than decision making among teenagers,” Offer reported in 1987 in the Journal of the American Medical Association."

*'''Offer, D., and Schonert Reichl, K.A. (1992). "Debunking the myths of adolescence: Findings from recent research," ''Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry'', 31, 1003 1014.'''
*:"[T]he effects of pubertal hormones are neither potent nor pervasive (Brooks-Gunn and Reiter, 1990). [...] Adolescence does not occur in a vacuum and is significantly affected by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. A recent investigation by Enright et al. (1987) illustrates this point. This study was based on the careful reading of 89 articles in the ''Journal of Genetic Psychology'' for the past 100 years. The articles were rated for their conceptions about the nature of adolescence. Enright et al. demonstrated ideological bias in approaches to understanding adolescent psychology, specifically in relation to economic conditions. Specifically, in times of economic depression, theories emerged in the literature that portrayed adolescents as "immature, psychologically unstable, and in need of prolonged participation in the education system" (p. 553). In contrast, during wartime, the psychological competence of adolescents was accentuated. The authors point out, "The field of adolescent psychology is not free from the societal influences that impinge upon legislators, educators, and parents in shaping American adolescents" (p. 554)."

*'''Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). "Adolescent (in)vulnerability," ''American Psychologist'', 48, 102-116.'''
*:"Three groups of subjects were asked to judge the probability that they and several target others (a friend, an acquaintance, a parent, a child) would experience various risks. Subjects were middle-class adults, their teenage children, and high-risk adolescents from treatment homes. All three groups saw themselves as facing somewhat less risk than the target others. However, this perception of relative invulnerability was no more pronounced for adolescents than for adults. Indeed, the parents were viewed as less vulnerable than their teenage children by both the adults and those teens. These results are consistent with others showing small differences in the cognitive decision-making processes of adolescents and adults. Underestimating teens' competence can mean misdiagnosing the sources of their risk behaviors, denying them deserved freedoms, and failing to provide needed assistance."

*'''Hershovitz, S. (2022). [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/kids-philosophy-questions/629650/ "Why Kids Make the Best Philosophers,"] ''The Atlantic''.'''
*:"According to Piaget, Sarah should have been in the preoperational stage of development, so called because kids in it can’t yet use logic. But Sarah’s logic was exquisite—far more compelling than the cosmological argument. Whatever you make of an infinite regress of causes, it’s hard to imagine an infinite regress of cats. Matthews decided to study kids and their capacity for philosophical thought, introducing many people to the idea that kids are serious thinkers. Over decades of conversations with children, he found that “spontaneous excursions into philosophy” were common from the ages of 3 to 7. And he was struck by the subtle ways in which kids reasoned, as well as the frequency with which they surfaced philosophical questions. [...] Developmental psychologists are catching on to kids’ capabilities. Nowadays, most of them reject the idea that kids’ minds improve as they age. In The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik writes, “Children aren’t just defective adults, primitive grownups gradually attaining our perfection and complexity.” Their minds are different, but “equally complex and powerful.” Child development, she says, is “more like a metamorphosis, like caterpillars becoming butterflies, than like simple growth—though it may seem that children are the vibrant, wandering butterflies who transform into caterpillars inching along the grown-up path.”."

*'''Siegel, D. J. (2014). [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain "Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain,"] ''Psychology Today''.'''
*:Editor: Dr Siegel appears to believe in some of the myths surrounding the adolescent brain. He points to Synaptic Pruning, which has been suggested as one explanation for the fall in gray matter during the teen years, but his inference is not of much help to ageists who seek to withhold responsibilities from young people: "The classic “use it or lose it” principle applies to adolescence—those circuits that are actively engaged may remain, those underutilized may be subject to systematic destruction. And so for an adolescent, this means that if you want to learn a foreign language well, play a musical instrument, or be proficient at a sport, engaging in those activities before and during adolescence would be a good idea. We move from open potential in childhood to specialization during and following adolescence."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In biological terms, middle childhood corresponds to human juvenility — a stage in which the individual is still sexually immature, but no longer dependent on parents for survival. In social mammals and primates, juvenility is a phase of intense learning — often accomplished through play — in which youngsters practice adult behavioral patterns and acquire essential social and foraging skills."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is marked by a simultaneous increase in perceptual abilities (including a transition from local to global visual processing), motor control (including the emergence of adult-like walking), and complex reasoning skills (Bjorklund, 2011; Poirel et al., 2011; Weisner, 1996)."
*:"However, children at this age are not just learning and playing. Cross-culturally, middle childhood is the time when children are expected to start helping with domestic tasks—such as caring for younger siblings, collecting food and water, tending animals, and helping adults prepare food (Bogin, 1997; Lancy & Grove, 2011; Scalise Sugiyama, 2011; Weisner, 1996). In favorable ecologies, juveniles can contribute substantially to family subsistence (Kramer, 2011). Thanks to marked increases in spatial cognition (reflected in the emerging ability to understand maps) and navigational skills, children become able to memorize complex routes and find their way without adult supervision (Bjorklund, 2011; Piccardi, Leonzi, D’Amico, Marano, & Guariglia, 2014)."
*:"On a broader social level, cross-cultural evidence shows that juveniles start “getting noticed” by adults—that is, they begin to be viewed fully as people with their own individuality, personality, and social responsibility (Lancy & Grove, 2011)."
*:"While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."

*'''Lancy, D. F., & Grove, M. A. (2011). [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=sswa_facpubs Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective.] ''Human Nature'', 22, 281-302.'''
*:"Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or assignment of specific chores or duties.[...] There is also an acknowledgement at the exit from middle childhood, of near–adult levels of competence — as a herdsman or hunter or as gardener or infant-caretaker."
*:"In Jean Piaget’s influential theory of human cognitive development, the period from 5 to 7 years is marked by a major transition from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking (Piaget 1963). From a historical standpoint there is a great deal of evidence that this age range also marked a major transition in children’s social standing, in particular that a 7 year-old could be held legally and morally accountable for his/her actions (White 1991: 13)."
*:"The last point we would make is that the various markers of the onset of middle childhood we have enumerated all seem to be tied to a shift in cognitive functioning. There is an evident sensitivity to the expectations and needs of others—critical in child-minding and errand running. The child displays other indicators of “sense,” including lengthened attention span, greater language facility, and persistence in completing tasks. He or she is a willing student. The manifold signs of awareness of appropriate behavior vis-à-vis sex and gender go along with increased complexity in peer relations and rule-governed play. On the other hand, the exit from middle childhood is signaled more by markers of physical maturity—including secondary sexual characteristics, a growth spurt, voice change, increased sexuality, and augmented strength and endurance."

* '''Wang, F., Tong, Y., & Danovitch, J. (2019). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333302913_Who_do_I_believe_Children's_epistemic_trust_in_internet_teacher_and_peer_informants Who do I believe? Children’s epistemic trust in internet, teacher, and peer informants]. ''Cognitive Development'', 50, 248–260. Doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.05.006'''
::"Taken together, our findings suggest that school age children can reason about the reliability of information sources from different categories and that their judgments are sensitive to the type of information being sought. Just as children can be skeptical when making judgments about the reliability of different people (see Mills, 2013), children’s belief in information from the internet is not immutable. "

===Informed consent===

Children's decision-making ability has recently come under scrutiny, with [[consent]] to clinical research,<ref>[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obr.13636 Encouraging greater empowerment for adolescents in consent procedures in social science research and policy projects (2023)]</ref> gender transition and vaccination efforts the most common contemporary themes so far. In a paper that repeated some of the myths re. development of older teens, it was nevertheless held that for children over the age of 11.2 need not be assessed individually for their ability to give consent to take part in clinical research.

*'''Hein, M. et al, (2015). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1186/s12910-015-0067-z Informed consent instead of assent is appropriate in children from the age of twelve]," ''BMC Medical Ethics'', 2015, 16:76.'''
*:"Children between 9.6 and 11.2 years were in the change-over period, an individual assessment of competence might be applicable in this age group. Children of 11.2 years and above can generally be considered decision-making competent, and although they need a supportive context, no individual assessment is needed."

=== Child's competence in law ===
* '''Lauren Eade (2001) [https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NewcLawRw/2001/16.pdf Legal Incapacity, Autonomy, and Children's Rights], ''Newcastle Law Review 5'', ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130420133701/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/Legal%20Incapacity,%20Autonomy,%20and%20Children's%20Rights.pdf a copy])'''
*:Doli incapax [age of criminal responsibility] and age of consent laws are representative of the two ways in which the law's presumption of children's incapacity denies autonomy even to the actually competent child. One denies autonomy and the fundamental stage of formation of intent; the other refuses to acknowledge the validity of a child's intent in particular areas. Both are devoid of scientific basis. Both are motivated by questionable control motives as well as a desire to protect. And both conceptualise the child in a manner inherently incompatible with the child as rights-holder.
*:But incapacity does not have to be an "all or nothing" issue. There is no reason why incapacity in some areas should deny capacity and autonomy in others, or why a child cannot be protected as well as allowed rights appropriate to his or her level of development. These are only irreconcilable propositions in the current model that presumptively ascribes incapacity to all children. If the law were to abandon its over-protective prejudices and engage with each child individually, judging his or her actual competence, these unjust consequences would be avoided. Immature children could retain the protection of incapacity. Specifically or generally autonomous children could gain recognition of their rights. And the law could at last acknowledge the fundamental fact that each and every child is a distinctly different human being.

==Risk Taking/Impulsivity/Prefrontal Physiology==

The oft-repeated myth of the human brain maturing fully at 25, is simplistic and outdated. If impulse control were dependent upon prefrontal volume, we would see no such thing as the quiet, studious preschooler - as all preschoolers have a tiny prefrontal cortex. As the previous studies suggest, the brains of teenagers are already losing gray matter and raw processing power is already declining by that age. Further studies are now informing us that functions of the prefrontal cortex are borrowed from other parts of the brain in teens, and ''raw'' levels of impulse-control are equal to or greater than that of adults. However, teens and young adults in particular, might be slightly less discriminatory, and less likely to use cognitive control when facing tasks within a negative emotional context. While this might manifest in poorer performance ''within an experimental context'', it is likely to be an ''adaptive'' (possibly pro-reproductive) trait that is net beneficial to socialization/competence building during youth, or otherwise experimental evidence of inadequate socialization. Further, there is no sound evidence to support the idea that the amygdala is the brain's "fear center"<ref>[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/05/JNEUROSCI.0857-21.2021 Visser et al: Robust BOLD responses to faces but not to conditioned threat: challenging the amygdala’s reputation in human fear and extinction learning]</ref> - so any differences in teens' amygdala response can not be traced to function, let alone be ascribed to a mental deficiency. One would also have to account for the fact that when compared to adults, smaller childrens' level of amygdala activation is similar to that of adults, unlike teens. With respect to risk-taking sexual behavior, younger teens are no less careful than older adolescents, however, there are ethnic/cultural differences which prohibitionists appear to ignore.

*'''Kolk, S.M., Rakic, P. (2022). [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9 Development of prefrontal cortex.] ''Neuropsychopharmacol''. 47, 41–57. doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01137-9'''
*:"The constantly developing cognitive and executive capabilities occur parallel to the neurophysiological changes within the PFC and its connected areas and seem to reach a plateau in teenagers (around 12 years in human, around P50 in rodents)"

*'''Steinberg, L., (2008). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396566/ A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking]," ''Developmental Review'', Volume 28, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 78-106.'''
*:"Among the widely-held beliefs about adolescent risk-taking that have not been supported empirically are (a) that adolescents are irrational or deficient in their information processing, or that they reason about risk in fundamentally different ways than adults; (b) that adolescents do not perceive risks where adults do, or are more likely to believe that they are invulnerable; and (c) that adolescents are less risk-averse than adults. None of these assertions is correct: The logical reasoning and basic information-processing abilities of 16-year-olds are comparable to those of adults; adolescents are no worse than adults at perceiving risk or estimating their vulnerability to it (and, like adults, overestimate the dangerousness associated with various risky behaviors); and increasing the salience of the risks associated with making a poor or potentially dangerous decision has comparable effects on adolescents and adults (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996; see also Rivers, Reyna, & Mills, 2008, this issue). Indeed, most studies find few, if any, age differences in individuals’ evaluations of the risks inherent in a wide range of dangerous behaviors (e.g., driving while drunk, having unprotected sex), in their judgments about the seriousness of the consequences that might result from risky behavior, or in the ways that they evaluate the relative costs and benefits of these activities (Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993). In sum, adolescents’ greater involvement than adults in risk-taking does not stem from ignorance, irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or faulty calculations (Reyna & Farley, 2006)."

*'''Casey, B., (2013). "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721413480170 The Teenage Brain: Self Control]," ''Current Directions in Psychological Science'', Volume: 22 issue: 2, page(s): 82-87.'''
*:"Adolescence, by definition, involves new demands on the individual as she or he moves from dependence on the family unit to relative independence. This developmental period is not specific to humans, as evidenced by the increases in novelty seeking, interactions with peers, and fighting with parents observed in other species (see Romeo, 2013; Spear, 2013; both in this issue). These behaviors are thought to have evolved to serve adaptive functions related to successful mating and obtainment of resources necessary for survival (Spear & Varlinskaya, 2010). [...] To suggest that this period of development is one of no brakes or steering wheel (Bell & McBride, 2010) is to greatly oversimplify it. [...] Self-control—in this case, suppressing a compelling action—showed a different developmental pattern in the context of emotional information than in its absence, especially for males (Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2011). As illustrated in Figure 1 (also see Fig. 1 in Hare et al., 2008; National Research Council, 2011), when no emotional information is present, not only do many adolescents perform as well as adults, some perform even better. However, when decisions are required in the heat of the moment (i.e., in the presence of emotional cues; Fig. 2a), performance falters (Fig. 2b). Specifically, adolescents have difficulty suppressing a response to appetitive social cues relative to neutral ones. [...] Recently, a number of human imaging studies have attempted to evaluate this model and test for unique patterns of brain activity in adolescents during stereotypical risky behavior in the context of incentives (Chein, Albert, O’Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011; J. R. Cohen et al., 2010; Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010; Van Leijenhorst et al., 2010). This work has challenged the view that diminished self-control in adolescents is due to a less mature prefrontal cortex that leads to less successful exertion of regulatory control on behavior (Bell & McBride, 2010). [...] Indeed, if the objective of adolescence is to gain independence from the family unit, then providing opportunities for adolescents to engage in new responsibilities is essential. Without opportunities and experiences to help optimally shape the adolescent’s brain and behavior, the objectives of this developmental phase will not easily be met."

*'''Mills, K. L., Goddings, A.-L., Clasen, L. S., Giedd, J. N., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2014). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1159/000362328 The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence.] ''Developmental Neuroscience'', 36(3-4), 147–160.'''
*:"The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures."

*'''Bronski, J. (2021). "[https://ebin.pub/an-empirical-introduction-to-youth-1021810221.html?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_ZtS5lbHN8gICwu73uzc4rKtEXTq8Eq1ePjCjJ1OA30A-1635246299-0-gqNtZGzNA2WjcnBszQhl An Empirical Introduction to Youth]"'''
*:"The 2010 study looked at, among many, a white matter tract called the “uncinate fasciculus [which] … is a large fiber track connecting three key regions involved in emotion regulation: [the] amygdala, lateral and medial prefrontal cortex”136. This connection, which considering the evidence is safely considered to be done with all meaningful structural development by the end of puberty (which is likely to be before the age of fifteen), is exactly what some scientists claim causes a functional difference in teens. Specifically, they claim, among other things, that in teens the amygdala struggles to communicate with the frontal lobe, leading to lower inhibition of primal amygdalic functions. There is no evidence for this claim, since we have seen that the uncinated fasciculus, the main track connecting the amygdala and the frontal lobe, is mature at the end of puberty. So far we have seen that gray matter, in the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain, is accumulated until puberty, when it begins to be pruned. This pruning will continue into old age; there is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to loss of gray matter. We have also seen that the accumulation of white matter reaches its peak rate at the age of one year, and continues at decreasing rates until the age of approximately 45, in the prefrontal cortex and elsewhere in the brain. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the accumulation of white matter. Finally, in direct contrast to the unscientific claim that “Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part … Teens process information with the amygdala,” teens do in fact have working prefrontal cortexes, and the connections between that part of the brain and the amygdala are mature by the end of puberty. There is nothing significant about the age of 25 when it comes to the connection between the hindbrain and the forebrain, or the extent to which one “thinks” with either part of the brain. How do we now judge the statement that “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so?” Poorly. The proposition is clearly unsupported by the data regarding structural changes in the brain. Based on what we have reviewed, the claim seems totally arbitrary. Let us be charitable and look for other evidence that (Landouceur et al. 2012) might comment on this view. Perhaps the function of the brain only reaches mature levels at the age of 25. Development of Organ Function Function is what matters. For whatever reason, teen-brain neuroscientists love to obscure the debate on the maturity of the “teen brain” by making claims about its supposed structural immaturities. As we have seen, the actual evidence for these immaturities is sparse at best. Many claims of structural and functional immaturity rest on young, physically immature participants, which are grouped with older teens. Claims are then extended to all teenagers and hyperbolized in the news cycle. For instance, Dr. Giedd, who co-authored the 2004 gray matter study, has gone on the news and made claims about the immaturity of the brain “through adolescence.” The definition of adolescence is, of course, slippery. His data shows structural maturity by the age of 14 or 15, which he vaguely refers to as “late adolescence.” The WHO then defines adolescence as occurring during the ages 10-19. Many in the news refer to the age of 25 as the specific age at which the brain reaches maturity. How this came about has already been hinted at: earlier, a source was reviewed which showed that myelination of the frontal lobes continues until the mid-forties. One scientist, BJ Casey, ran an experiment which only featured participants up to the age of 24-25, and found that myelination continued to the highest age featured in the study. Out of this came the claim that the brain is still developing until the age of 25. In reality, further data shows that by this metric, the brain develops until 45! Dr. Frances Jensen wrote a whole book on this misleading claim, saying in a promotion article published in Time, The myelination process starts from the back of the brain and works its way to the front. That means the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decisionmaking, planning and self-control, is the last part to mature. It’s not that teens don’t have frontal- lobe capabilities but rather that their signals are not getting to the back of the brain fast enough to regulate their emotions. It’s why risk-taking and impulsive behavior are more common among teens and young adults. “This is why peer pressure rules at this time of life,” says Jensen. “It’s why my teenage boys would come home without their textbook and realize at 8 p.m. that they have a test the next day. They don’t have the fully developed capacity to think ahead at this time.” She also claims in her book that the teenage brain is “only 80% developed,” without a source."

*'''Romer, D. (2010). "[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445337/ Adolescent Risk Taking, Impulsivity, and Brain Development: Implications for Prevention]," ''Developmental Psychobiology'', 52(3): 263–276.'''
*:"A review of the evidence for the hypothesis that limitations in brain development during adolescence restrict the ability to control impulsivity suggests that any such limitations are subtle at best. Instead, it is argued that lack of experience with novel adult behavior poses a much greater risk to adolescents than structural deficits in brain maturation [...] The evidence we have reviewed suggests that adolescent risk taking is not a universal phenomenon and that individual differences related to at least three types of impulsivity underlie such behavior in adolescents. Furthermore, at least two forms of impulsivity are associated with weak executive function as assessed by working memory and response inhibition tasks. However, sensation seeking does not appear to be inversely related to either of these executive functions and may actually be somewhat positively related to working memory ability."

*'''Romer, D. et al, (2017). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007 Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context]," ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience'', Volume 27, Pages 19-34.'''
*:Editor: For more on Romer's interpretation, see his article in [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/impulsive-teen-brain-not-based-science-180967027/ ''Smithsonian Magazine''].
*:"In conclusion, we have presented an alternative model of adolescent brain development that emphasizes the accumulation of experience as adolescents age and transition to adulthood, with concomitant changes in judgment and decision making (see Table 1 for a summary of differences between the Life-span Wisdom Model and Imbalance Models). The model explains much of the apparent increase in adolescent risk taking as an adaptive need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviors. The risk-taking that reflects lack of control or excessive sensitivity to immediate rewards is primarily an individual difference that characterizes some persons from an early age that can persist well into adulthood. At the same time, the adolescent brain is supremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities to take advantage of the experience gained. The result is a brain with integrated circuits encompassing executive function (i.e., cognitive control and inhibition), as well as verbatim and gist memory networks, which can be called upon to negotiate both novel and familiar situations. The preservation of robust gist thinking maintains wise decision making during later adulthood when cognitive control capacities diminish. We believe this approach is more aligned with the scientific evidence, including results that challenge stereotypes about the adolescent brain."

*'''Khurana, A., Romer, D., Betancourt, L. M., Brodsky, N. L., Giannetta, J. M., & Hurt, H. (2015). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/cdev.12383 Stronger Working Memory Reduces Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, Even After Controlling for Parental Influences.] ''Child Development'', 86(4), 1125–1141. '''
*:"Of those who had initiated sexual activity by T3 (n = 91), nearly one in every four adolescents (27.5%) reported not using a condom during their last sexual intercourse. Significant age differences were observed in the rates of sexual initiation, with older adolescents more likely to have initiated intercourse (t = 5.14, p < .001). No age differences were observed in condom use among those who had initiated sexual intercourse. Similarly, we noted no gender differences in the rates of sexual initiation or condom use in our sample. In terms of racial-ethnic variations, Black and Hispanic youth were more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse at T2 and T3, as compared to non-Hispanic White, Asian, and Native American youth. Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (46.2%) youth also had relatively higher rates of condom nonuse as compared to White youth (18.7%) in the nonvirgin subsample at T3."

*'''Moshman, David (2011). "[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203835111/adolescent-rationality-development-david-moshman Adolescent Rationality and Development: Cognition, Morality, and Identity, Third Edition].'''
*:"There is no evidence that adolescents are uniquely egocentric or even much different from adults in this regard; on the contrary, research has shown age differences to be minimal or nonexistent (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002; Quadrel et al., 1993; Smetana & Villalobos, 2009). As fo the specific assertion that adolescents see themselves as invulnerable, it appears instead that adolescents routinely, and often drastically, overestimate their actual vulnerability (Millstein & Halpern-Felsher, 2002). [...] risk taking is not always bad, and adolescents are not uniquely prone to it. People of all ages take risks of all sorts, including foolish and dangerous risks; there is no empirical basis for the common assumption that risk taking is a special phenomenon of adolescence. On the contrary, direct comparisons of adolescents and adults show minimal age differences (Beyth-Marom et al., 1993). Sociological data indicate that when covariates such as poverty are controlled, adolescents are no more prone to risk taking than adults, who in fact take plenty of dubious risks (Males, 2009, 2010)."

*'''Males, M. (2009). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/0743558408326913 Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable?]" ''Journal of Adolescent Research'', 24(1), 3–20. '''
*:"Far from justifying antiprecocity measures, emerging brain science, viewed in social contexts, indicates the dangers of efforts to restrict youth and to banish them from adult behaviors and public spaces. Preliminary analyses of brain physiology suggest that “taking risks is precisely the experience that develops the pre frontal cortex . . . you don’t learn what you need for adulthood by being excluded from it until you can demonstrate that you have got the right circuits” (Sercombe, in press). Viewed as a system, American social and health policies built on age-segregating measures may well be contributors to the extraordinarily high-risk behaviors prevailing among American youths and adults well into middle age compared with their counterparts in peer nations. There may be a price to pay in the adaptability of larger society as well. If brain science is to be credited with biodeterminist findings, neuroscannings and cognitive tests reveal developments in the middle-aged brain that make worry over teenage brains look silly. Significant losses in key memory and learning genes (Lu et al, 2004), mental fluidity (Schaie & Willis, 2008), and measurable losses in IQ show up in middle age and accelerate in senior years. Although some research indicates that myelinization (the pruning and selection of certain cerebral nerve fibers for myelin sheathing) aids adult brains in handling familiar situations more efficiently, it also renders them less able to address new challenges than more flexibly circuited younger brains."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"The most dramatic changes probably occur in the domain of self-regulation and executive functions: children become much more capable of inhibiting unwanted behavior, maintaining sustained attention, making and following plans, and so forth (Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Weisner, 1996)."

*'''Berns GS, Moore S, Capra CM (2009) Adolescent Engagement in Dangerous Behaviors Is Associated with Increased White Matter Maturity of Frontal Cortex. ''PLoS ONE'' 4(8): e6773. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006773'''
::"The direction of correlation suggests that rather than having immature cortices, adolescents who engage in dangerous activities have frontal white matter tracts that are more adult in form than their more conservative peers."

==Moral reasoning==

*'''Haidt, J. (2001). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20120425122316/http://www.nd.edu/~wcarbona/Haidt%202001.pdf The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment]," ''Psychological Review'', 108, 814-834.'''
*:"Turiel (1983) has shown that young children do not believe [that actions are wrong just because they are punished]. They say that harmful acts, such as hitting and pulling hair, are wrong whether they are punished or not. They even say that such acts would be wrong if adults ordered them to be done."

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"Parallel improvements take place in mentalizing (the ability to understand and represent mental states) and moral reasoning, as children become able to consider multiple perspectives and conflicting goals (Jambon & Smetana, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2009)."

== Adaptive immaturity ==
While common belief about brain maturation is that juveniles are just undeveloped adults, there is a counterpoint that, in the course of human evolution, many typically 'juvenile' cognitive traits have become more adaptive than 'adult' ones. So, in some contexts, maturation can be seen as a kind of retardation. Here is a concept of adaptive cognitive neoteny in literature.

* '''Bjorklund, D. F. (1997). The role of immaturity in human development. ''Psychological Bulletin'', 122(2), 153–169. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.122.2.153'''

::“Some aspects of childhood are not specific preparations for adulthood. Rather, they are designed by evolution to adapt the child to its current environment but not necessarily to a future one.”
::Several theorists have written of behavioral neoteny as the extended juvenile character of human behavior (Cairns, 1976; Lorenz, 1971; Mason, 1968a, 1968b). Cairns (1976) and Mason (1968a) have postulated, for example, that important aspects of human social behavior such as attachment are influenced by behavioral neoteny (see also Cairns, Gariepy, & Hood, 1990; and Montagu, 1989), and, according to Lorenz, such juvenile characteristics as curiosity are responsible for human’s behavioral flexibility. ”

::

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Competences and Development''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLComp}}

==See also==

*Perspectives on [[Ageism|Ageism]] include the similarity between [[Wikipedia:Troubled teen industry|"troubled teen industry"]] literature and [[Wikipedia:Scientific racism|scientific racism]].
*The concept of [[Evolving capacity|Evolving capacity]]

==External links==

*[https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19cP Dr. Howard R. Bernstein - Myth of the Adolescent Brain] (Video link)
*Jane C. Hu, [https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html The Myth of the 25-Year-Old Brain] (''Slate'', Nov 27 2022).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]

Research: Evolutionary Perspectives on Intergenerational Sexuality

2026-05-02T16:08:09Z

Thorn: /* Evolutionary product of human neotenization */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>
:''This article has been written in standard format mixed with an anthology.''

While the [[Debate_Guide:_Evolutionary_logic|evolutionary logic]] of intergenerational sexual behaviour and [[Hebephilia|hebephilic]] attraction towards pubertal [[Adolescence|adolescents]] of the opposite sex is easily explained by fertility potential of such behaviour ([[Research: Pedophilia as a sexual/erotic orientation|see mentions of hebephilia)]], the explanation of intergenerational attractions toward prepubertal children ([[pedophilia]]/pedosexuality), or adolescent homosexual partners ([[Pederasty|pederastic]] inclination), or the very existence of prepubertal [[child]] sexuality, is less obvious.

The emergence of such sexuality has several [[Wikipedia:Darwinism|evolutionary explanations]] with varying degrees of evidence, which come from [[Wikipedia:Ethology|ethology]] and [[Wikipedia:Neuroscience|neuroscience]]. There are suggestions that, in our evolutionary past, pedosexual behaviors could have had some evolutionary functions or been an evolutionary by-product of human sexuality development. These explanations may have pragmatic implications for the [[Research: A "cure" for pedophilia?#Psychological wellbeing for MAPs|well-being]] of both MAPs and minors. "Evolutionary scenarios are not just interesting explanatory “stories,” but can illuminate limits as well as opportunities for intervention" (Del Giudice M., 2014). Here is an attempt to categorize these hypotheses, although they overlap greatly and can hardly be considered separately. Rather, they describe different aspects of a complex evolutionary process.

== Adaptation to the lack of success in male sexual competition ==
One hypothesis is that if a male is unsuccessful in sexual competition for fertile females, and he chronically feels inferior to others and is afraid of other adults, then his sexuality towards adults may be suppressed and redirected towards children, because children do not cause fear, and next to them the male feels his strength and superiority. Male's sexuality is more associated with dominance and this may explain the greater prevalence of attraction to children among men than among women.<ref>[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5 Medicus, G., Hopf, S. (1990). The Phylogeny of Male/Female Differences in Sexual Behavior.] In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5</ref>

Excerpts:
* '''Medicus, G., Hopf, S. (1990). [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5 The Phylogeny of Male/Female Differences in Sexual Behavior.] In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5'''
*:"As has been pointed out, adult human sexual behavior with children and adolescents can be understood within the context of dimorphism. Male/ female differences in sexual behavior result at least in part from the different amounts of energy and time each sex expends for reproduction (see Table 4.1). This initial difference produces a difference in the functional proximity of the moods of fear and aggression to sexual mood (see Table 4.11), as well as a difference in the likelihood for active pursuit of sexual opportunities"
*:"One of the most consistent psychological correlates that has been identified is that many adult males who are sexually attracted to children and adolescents show manifestations of (real or self-perceived) social inadequacy with peers. Such males may suffer from feelings of anxiety when they consider sexual behavior with an adult partner (Johnston and Johnston, 1986; Panton, 1979; Segal and Marshall, 1985). Because sex and fear are such functionally distant moods in males, many human adult males cannot perform sexual actions when they feel inferior to their sexual partner or when they feel anxious (e.g., Bancroft, 1985; Eicher, 1980). This explanation is in accordance with the previously mentioned male/female dimorphism in the relationship of mood and behavior (see Table 4.11). Because of their small size, lack of experience, and sense of insecurity, children and adolescents of either sex do not arouse feelings of inferiority, fear, and anxiety in adult males. Thus, children and adolescents can become "sexual objects" for males who in sociosexual relations with adults feel inferior or anxious."

* '''Glenn D. Wilson and David N. Cox. 1983. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130410124803/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/The%20Child-Lovers%20-%20A%20Study%20of%20Paedophiles%20in%20Society.pdf The Child-Lovers: A Study of Paedophiles in Society.] By London: Peter Owen. Pp 132. British Journal of Psychiatry. 1983;143(4):430-430. doi:10.1192/S0007125000200780'''
*: "Examination of the characteristics of children that the paedophiles found most attractive points to the conclusion that the ability to achieve social dominance over the child may be the key to understanding the paedophile’s choice of sex target."
*: "Viewed in this way, paedophilia would seem to be one of several alternative adaptations to the problem of lack of success (or perceived inability to succeed) in intermale competition for access to females. It has been often noted by ethologists that the males of any species are thrown into strong Darwinian competition with one another. Those that are most successful monopolise an unequal share of female resources, and the others have to make do with various substitute sexual outlets. Following this model, we would not expect to find any genetic predisposition toward paedophilia per se, but as with homosexuality and certain other sex deviations, some degree of heritability would be mediated by the constitutional basis of dominance versus submissiveness. In other words, paedophiles may inherit their submissive nature, which in turn makes for difficulties in establishing normal sexual roles."

*'''Connie M. Anderson (1990). "Adolescent/Adult Copulatory Behavior in Nonhuman Primates." In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13'''
*: "Adult, subadult, and adolescent females are monopolized by adult male harem-holders, leaving a few adult and all subadult males without adult sexual partners. Under these conditions, males without harems choose a particular juvenile female to follow and display intense parental-like behavior towards her. Eventually, she becomes the first individual in the male's harem, and he begins mating with her at her first estrous swelling. Thus, both parental-like and copulatory motor patterns are directed at the same individual over the course of time and, for a brief period, even simultaneously."

== "Nest helper" hypothesis ==
{{research}}
The concept of "nest helper", is an explanation of a few individuals within a group being nonreproductive, yet aiding their group's survival. They may be affectionately disposed and caring towards others without reproducing, since this promotes the reproduction of peers who share some of the same genes due to being genetic relatives in the group. Due to sexual competition and the costs of human reproduction, not every individual ''can'' reproduce, hence there are indirect genetic benefits of "nest helping" that may overcome benefits of direct reproductive efforts for some individuals. This evolutionary hypothesis applies to both exclusive homosexuality and exclusive pedophilia, although due to a lack of investigation, there is at present little evidence for it (Feierman, 1990<ref name=":5">[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23 Feierman, Jay R. (1990). Human Erotic Age Orientation: A Conclusion.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 552–566). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23</ref>).

Excerpts:
* '''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23 Human Erotic Age Orientation: A Conclusion.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 552–566). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23'''
*:"Whereas a similar challenge has been met somewhat reasonably in terms of the "nest helper" concept of adult homosexuality, hypothesizing that another type of nest helper would have to erotically love and sexually interact with the children for whom he was caring"

== Help in developing sexual ability ==

For many primates, sexual behavior requires learning. Therefore, in some species, adult primates who have sexual contact with juveniles may help them develop sexual skills. In addition, sex can trigger the onset of fertility. Such a function could have played a role in the human evolutionary past (Dienske, 1990<ref name=":0">Dienske, Herman (1990). The Concept of Function in the Behavioral Sciences with Specific Reference to Pedophilia and Pedosexual Behavior: A Biophilosophical Perspective. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13</ref>). In some species, this function has built in to that extent that without early sexual experience with an adult an individual grows up unable to conceive.<ref name=":7">Feierman, Jay R. (1990). A Biosocial Overview of Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 8–68). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_2</ref>

* '''Connie M. Anderson (1990). "Adolescent/Adult Copulatory Behavior in Nonhuman Primates". In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13'''
*: "Among nonhuman primates, then, sexual interaction between adult females and immature males is universal [...] Adult females do interact sexually with males of all ages, including infants too young to be capable of intromission or ejaculation. Females have little to lose by doing so, since they do not deplete their egg supply by unsuccessful matings and since they are unlikely to be seriously injured in the process. They may also help their immature male relatives by allowing them access to experienced females to practice sexual behavior so that they can perform successfully from the time spermatogenesis begins."

* '''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). A Biosocial Overview of Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 8–68). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_2'''
*: "In the squirrel monkey (Saimin), captivity-raised individuals of both sexes in mixed-sex peer groups were not even able to conceive unless they had been allowed, when they were juveniles, to have sexual contact with opposite-sex adults (Hopf, 1979, personal communication)."

*'''De Waal, Frans B. M. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15 Sociosexual behavior used for tension regulation in all age and sex combinations among bonobos.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 378–393). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15'''
*: "Thus, juvenile male chimpanzees are attracted to females in estrus, and pubertal females begin to explore sexual contact with older males as soon as their genital swellings develop (van der Weel, 1978; de Waal, 1982; Goodall, 1986). Such intergenerational experience undoubtedly contributes to the development of adequate sexual skills."

== Advantage in sexual competition ==
The emergence of nonexclusive pedophilic interest could be due to males experiencing selection pressure to display affiliative behavior towards minors. Such a display aims to convince fertile females that the male is ready for paternal investment, thus giving advantages in access to the fertile female (Taub, 1990<ref>Taub, David M. (1990). The Functions of Primate Paternalism: A Cross-Species Review. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 338–377). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_14</ref>).

Excerpts:
*'''Taub, David M. (1990). The Functions of Primate Paternalism: A Cross-Species Review. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 338–377). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_14'''
*: "Why then are these unrelated males forming special affiliations with and investing in these infants? Proponents of this view suggest that males form special relationships with infants as a means whereby they may develop a closer and stronger affiliative relationship with the infant's mother. This enhanced, or special, relationship with the mother, in turn, enhances the male's chances of mating with this female in the future."

== Sex as a buffer for aggression ==
Ethologist Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt suggested that the interconnection between sex and dominance is the basic ("reptilian") way of vertebrate sexuality organization. Aggression and dominance acquired a functional connection with male sexuality due to the fact that aggressive and dominant males tended to win in sexual competition. In contrast, submission was embedded in female sexuality. The submissive posture of the female ready for mating is a stimulus to transform male’s aggressive drive to the sexual drive. This prevents injuries and allows mating to occur. Thus aggression, dominance and submission were sexualized, and sexuality acquired the ability to buffer aggression in hierarchical relationships. (The manifestation of that ability is that the appeasing posture of a defeated enemy in animals often resembles the posture of a female ready to mate). Eibl-Eibesfeldt supposed that it is possible that this function could be partly transferred into the adult-juvenile hierarchical relationship (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1990<ref name=":1">[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6 Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus (1990). Dominance, Submission, and Love: Sexual Pathologies from the Perspective of Ethology.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 150–175). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6</ref>).

Excerpts:
* '''Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6 Dominance, Submission, and Love: Sexual Pathologies from the Perspective of Ethology.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 150–175). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6'''
*: “Dominance between group members is also expressed by ritualized mounting, and submission, in turn, is expressed by female-type presenting. From these kinds of greeting rituals have evolved behaviors such as those of hamadryas baboons, in which males approaching high-ranking individuals present as if they, the presenters, were females. Their buttocks are hairless and red in mimicry of the female buttocks, thus enhancing the signal value of presenting (Wiclder, 1966, 1967b). The high-ranking individual may mount or just perform the intention to mount in response to the other's presenting. This use by primates of sexual motor patterns to acknowledge dominance rank order has often been interpreted as being equivalent to human homosexuality. This interpretation is an oversimplification. These sexual motor patterns are derived from copulatory behaviors but, then, have acquired a new function related to social hierarchies: mounting serves as an indication of dominance, and presenting serves as an indication of submission, an agonistic buffer in a greeting context”
*:“Children have characteristics, such as small size, that facilitate adult males' feeling dominant to them, as occurs in pedosexual behavior.”

== Sex for reconciliation and food sharing ==
The reduction of social tension mediated by sociosexual contact is widespread in the communities of human closest relatives, the [[Research: Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals|Bonobos]]. The tension arises in situations of competition or inequality referring to any kind of resources such as food, access to reproduction or any interesting stimulus matter. In addition to the reconciliation effect, sexual contacts allow them to willingly share resources with one another. Ethologist Frans de Waal pointed that this mechanism works for individuals of any status, sex and age, including contacts between adults and infants. Via this mechanism, adults share food with juveniles who are not their descendants and are not of reproductive interest. The emergence of this mechanism presumably occurred as a result of an evolutionary shift in relationships between males and females towards the more tolerant and equal in the case of Bonobos (de Waal, 1990<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15 De Waal, Frans B. M. (1990). Sociosexual behavior used for tension regulation in all age and sex combinations among bonobos.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 378–393). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15</ref>). Among most other primates except for humans, cases of adults, especially males, sharing food with another's offspring are quite rare (Mackey, 1990<ref name=":6">Mackey, Wade C. (1990). Adult·Male/Juvenile Association as a Species-Characteristic Human Trait: A Comparative Field Approach. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 299–323). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_12</ref>).

Frans de Waal suggests that our ancestor’s sexual behavior may have been similar to Bonobo's. This sex-for-food mechanism then allowed females to exchange sex for male commitment and paternal investment, thus giving rise to the human nuclear family. And subsequently, the very development of the nuclear family led to an increasing restriction of sex functions to heterosexual reproductive bonding only (de Waal, 2006<ref> [https://sci-hub.se/10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp de Waal, Frans B. M. (2006). Bonobo Sex and Society. Scientific American, 16, 14-21], doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp</ref>).

Excerpts:
*'''De Waal, Frans B. M. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15 Sociosexual behavior used for tension regulation in all age and sex combinations among bonobos.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 378–393). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15'''
*: "Typically, upon the introduction of food, the bonobos would become very active, engaging in aggressive competition but also inviting one another for sociosexual contact These contacts appeared to reduce the tension and to allow for food sharing. Thus, it could be demonstrated that subordinate group members more often asserted themselves toward dominant food possessors following a sociosexual contact than without such prior contact (de Waal, 1987). The interaction could even take the form of an exchange, e.g., a female presents to a male who is holding a large bundle of branches and leaves and takes the entire bundle out of his hands immediately following sexual intercourse. On other occasions, sociosexual behavior was used as a reconciliation. The majority of instances of genital massage, for instance, followed aggressive incidents in which the adult male had chased one of the adolescent males. After a couple of minutes, the younger male would return to the aggressor to present his genitals."
*:“Sociosexual behavior occurred with equal frequency and equal intensity in all age and sex combinations possible. Intergenerational sex was part of this general pattern. The bonobo's sexual reconciliation and reassurance patterns were described and contrasted with the behavior of the chimpanzee, which virtually lacks this nonreproductive function of sexual behavior. The evolutionary origin of this difference was sought in heterosexual bonding among bonohos in their natural habitat. [...] Coexistence of plural males and females without agonistic competition in mating could be guaranteed by changing the character of sexual behavior into affiliative behavior in which all individuals can participate, and by decreasing the reproductive meaning (Mori, 1984, p.277).[...] This possible evolutionary background of the phenomena observed in bonobos is of relevance in connection with human sexuality, both because of the shared biological ancestry and the fact that heterosexual bonding is characteristic of the human species as well."
*:"[T]he most logical pathway by which sexual behavior evolved into a general reassurance mechanism is that this mechanism was first established in the adult male/female relationship, after which it was adopted in other age and sex combinations. In other words, the widespread application of sexual behavior patterns in the bonobo' s social life has its origin in an emphasis on heterosexual bonding (de Waal, 1987). Field research supports this view in that male/female relationships seem closer and more tolerant in bonobos than in chimpanzees."

*'''de Waal, Frans B. M. (2006). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp Bonobo Sex and Society.] Scientific American, 16, 14-21, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp'''
*:"Ocasionally, the role of sex in relation to food is taken one step further, bringing bonobos very close to humans in their behavior. It has been speculated by anthropologists--including C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University and Helen Fisher of Rutgers University--that sex is partially separated from reproduction in our species because it serves to cement mutually profitable relationships between men and women. The human females capacity to mate throughout her cycle and her strong sex drive allow her to exchange sex for male commitment and paternal care, thus giving rise to the nuclear family."
*:"This arrangement is thought to be favored by natural selection because it allows women to raise more offspring than they could if they were on their own."
*:"Given its peacemaking and appeasement functions, it is not surprising that sex among bonobos occurs in so many different partner combinations, including between juveniles and adults. The need for peaceful coexistence is obviously not restricted to adult heterosexual pairs."
*:“In fact, nuclear families are probably incompatible with the diverse use of sex found in bonobos. If our ancestors started out with a sex life similar to that of bonobos, the evolution of the family would have required dramatic change.
*: Human family life implies paternal investment, which is unlikely to develop unless males can be reasonably certain that they are caring for their own, not someone elses, offspring. Bonobo society lacks any such guarantee, but humans protect the integrity of their family units through all kinds of moral restrictions and taboos. Thus, although our species is characterized by an extraordinary interest in sex, there are no societies in which people engage in it at the drop of a hat (or a cardboard box, as the case may be). A sense of shame and a desire for domestic privacy are typical human concepts related to the evolution and cultural bolstering of the family."

* '''Mackey, Wade C. (1990). Adult·Male/Juvenile Association as a Species-Characteristic Human Trait: A Comparative Field Approach. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 299–323). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_12'''
*: "As pointed out earlier, human adult males share food/provisions with their young, and this sharing by adult males is relatively rare across the zoological kingdom. It is reasonable that the sharing of a most valuable commodity -- food -- is much easier emotionally for the provisioner if the provisioner "likes" the recipient, and conversely, a recipient tends to like someone who feeds him or her, especially during the dependency of preadulthood. Accordingly, the behavioral enhancement of any neurohormonal mechanisms (subtended by the relevant genetic material) that resulted in greater affiliative feelings, toward juveniles, for example, would facilitate food sharing. The facilitation might be further sensitized by the stimulus of those young who are provisioned showing outward signs of affiliation towards the provisioner. Across generations, the increased provisioning of juveniles by adult males would marginally increase those juveniles' viability, thereby increasing those adult males' chances of having descendants. Thus, the alleles in adult males and juveniles that canalized reciprocal adult-male/juvenile affiliative behavior, in general, and the resultant specific adult-male/juvenile association, in particular, would gradually and systematically displace competing alleles that did not facilitate the development of affiliation between adult males and juveniles. In the 20th century, food sharing from human adult males to juveniles has been found to be a universal practice"

== Sex as an attachment promoter. Development of paternal investment==
In addition to the “reptilian” connection between sex and dominance, Eibl-Eibesfeldt described another way of sexuality organization. That evolutionary later way is the interweaving of sex and attachment, which is typical for birds and some mammals forming long-term reproductive alliances. The ability of males to form attachment and exhibit caring behavior to a sexual partner is highly beneficial for females. Human evolution went through an increase in the maturation time of offspring, which led to huge reproductive costs for females. Thus, there was a particularly strong sexual selection of males, in which sexual desire was accompanied by consistent caring behavior towards the female and her offspring. This attachment to a sexual partner may be evolutionarily linked to child-parent attachment (in some species, this connection is manifested in the features of sexual courtship rituals containing signs of childish behavior, which function to induce caring behavior and affection in a sexual partner). So according to this theory, the functional system of parental care and the functional system of mating became interconnected. Eibl-Eibesfeldt wrote that romantic love occurs through the fusion of parental care and sexual desire, and this fusion is an antecedent for children and adolescents to evoke romantic feelings in some adults (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1990 <ref name=":1" />).

In line with Eibl-Eibesfeldt, ethologist Herman Dienske argues that, in the course of evolution, due to the ability of human females to conceal ovulation and to be continuously sexually receptive, male sexual interest has evolved in turn to foster consistent male proximity (to invest in offspring that take so long to mature), and subsequently could promote male proximity with the infant (Dienske, 1990<ref name=":0" />). Indeed, the repertoire of pedosexual behavior observed in humans, besides sexual actions, may also include caring behavior: comforting/caressing, feeding, grooming (body care such as washing or massage), protecting, teaching (Feierman, 1990<ref name=":7" />).

Excerpts:
* '''Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6 Dominance, Submission, and Love: Sexual Pathologies from the Perspective of Ethology.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 150–175). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6'''
*: “If one observes courtship and greeting rituals in birds and mammals, one soon becomes aware that the patterns by which a friendly affiliation is established, upheld, or strengthened are basically derived from maternal behaviors and infantile appeals that trigger these patterns.”
*: “In human sexual behavior, strata of different phylogenetic origins can be distinguished. Sexuality based upon the mechanisms of male dominance and female submission, which characterizes the reptiles, also constitutes the basic layer of human sexuality. This reptilian heritage is superimposed, however, by a more recently acquired sexuality characterized by affiliation and love. The new potentiality to act in a friendly manner evolved with the development of parental care independently in birds and in mammals. In normal human sexual behavior, the archaic agonal sexuality is controlled by affiliative sexuality and, therefore, is characterized by love. Agonal sexuality is still with us, however, as indicated, among other features, by the phallic male-dominance displays, by a male hormonal response linked to dominance achievement, and by the sexual fantasies of submission that are experienced by females. Agonal sexuality normally is under the control of affiliative sexuality, and therefore, humans correctly associate sex with love. Certain forms of sexuality, such as sadomasochism and a particular form of male homosexuality, are explained as being a regression to the archaic agonal sexuality. Pedophilia and pedosexual behavior are explained within the regression context, too. Children have characteristics, such as small size, that facilitate adult males' feeling dominant to them, as occurs in pedosexual behavior. Since human adult/adult romantic love is derived by phylogeny from parental caregiving behavior, it is easily seen how, in some adult humans, the feeling of love toward children has been retained and eroticized, which is the true meaning of the term "pedophilia.”

*'''Dienske, Herman (1990). The Concept of Function in the Behavioral Sciences with Specific Reference to Pedophilia and Pedosexual Behavior: A Biophilosophical Perspective. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13'''
*:"it was pointed out that the continuous sexual activity of humans promotes the coherence of the adult-male/adult-female pair and that it encourages the male parent to participate in rearing his offspring. This assumption requires (1) that sex induces affiliation (i.e., the maintenance of proximity and the extension of favors) and (2) that this affiliation is continued after offspring are born and (3) is accompanied by male paternal care. The associations among sex, affiliation, and paternal care seem to be common in humans. This situation does not imply, however, a simple causal relationship. Infrequent or absent sex may precede divorce. It cannot be decided whether infrequent sex reduces affiliation or whether the decreased affiliation reduces sex. It is likely that sex and affiliation mutually enhance each other and that the absence of one of the two leads to a declining spiral that eventually results in separation or disinterest."
*: “the associations among sex, affiliation, and paternal care are not compelling in that alternative functional solutions exist. Nevertheless, the affiliation-promoting effect of sex seems apparent.”
*: “Human females, in contrast, lack such signals and thus have what is called "concealed ovulation" (Alexander and Noonan, 1979); in fact, the timing of human ovulation was not known until recently. Uncertainty concerning the time at which ovulation occurs would promote frequent copulations. It is possible that continuous sexual behavior in human females is their afflliation-promoting strategy, since it can induce more consistent male proximity (Daniels, 1983).”
*:“[P]edophilic and homosexual nonprocreative sexual contacts could be considered functional, since favors resulting from the affiliation, which is maintained in part by sexual behavior, can be considerable.”

*'''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). A Biosocial Overview of Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 8–68). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_2'''
*: "some of the components of parental investment, collectively called "nurturing behavior", are seen in both pedo-and ephebophilia and can be considered and discussed as (1) comforting and contact, (2) feeding, (3) grooming, (4) protecting, and (5) teaching."

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"This author's way of circumventing the debate is to say that there are in the human species phylogenetic building blocks, or phylisms, that in the course of individual sexuoerotic development are capable of being diverted from their usual expression, so as to become entrained to sexuoerotic arousal. In the case of pedophilia, the phylism of parent/child pairbonding becomes diverted and entrained to sexuoerotic, lover /lover pairbonding. The pedophile's attachment to a child represents a merger of parental and erotic love."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

This hypothesis is also mentioned in modern scientific encyclopedias:

* '''Klapilová, K., Bártová, K. (2017). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1 Sexual Pathology.] In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717 Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.] (pp. 7439 - 7445). Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1'''
*:“the evolutionary explanation behind the origin of pedophilia refers to the fusion of two evolutionarily ancient adaptive systems – reproduction and nurturing. Money (1990) states that a pedophile’s relationship to a child qualitatively, and also neurologically, resembles a blend between parental and erotic love. Likewise, it can be linked to the close cohesion between these two systems that can be observed also between phylogenetically close species.”.
*:”The founder of the human ethnology field, Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1973), directly warns about the type of affiliative-erotic relationship that connects to the composition of long-term partnership, which was developed both in mammals and birds together with nurturing behavior, and therefore it is not surprising that they are occasionally mixed in humans.”

* '''Klapilová, K., Bártová, K. "Male Sexual Disorders" In: Todd K. Shackelford (ed.), 2022, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/2d84ebccbbaafc78b4516ef6b129e5a2 The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology. Vol 4.] ''Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)''.'''
:: "A phylogenetic explanation of pedophilia refers to the fusion of two evolutionarily old systems– reproduction and nurturing (Money, 1990). It is also in line with the results of neuroimaging studies in which pedophilic men could be distinguished from controls by their increased fMRI activity in reaction to child versus adult faces (Ponseti et al., 2016) and increased brain responses to not only human but also animal infants in pedophiles (Ponseti et al., 2018), interpreted as an over-responsive nurturing system. This view agrees with older ethological theories that sees pedophilia as a mixture of parental and erotic love indicated by behavioral displays of both (Money, 2012)."

* '''Stevens, A., & Price, J. (2016). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315740577 Evolutionary Psychiatry: A new beginning] (Classic Ed.) (pp. 206-218) Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.4324/9781315740577'''
*: “We would entertain the hypothesis proposed separately by Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1990) and by Money (1990) that two innate biosocial propensities – caregiving and sex-mating – have become fused in the course of ontogeny in those who display the paedophilic orientation.”
*:“[A]ffiliative erotic love, as Eibl-Eibesfeldt points out, itself evolved in birds and mammals together with the development of parental care-giving behaviour. ‘Since human adult/adult romantic love is derived by phylogeny from parent care-giving behaviour,’ asserts EiblEibesfeldt, ‘it is easily seen how, in some adult humans, the feeling of love toward children has been retained and eroticised, which is the true meaning of the term “pedophilia”.“.

=== Complementary behavior among minors ===
The hypothesis of pedophilic attraction as a promoter of affection and care is confirmed by the existence of complementary behavior of minors, who [[Testimony: CSA (Children's Sexual Advances)|often show initiative and willingness for sexual relations with adults]]<ref>[https://ia802202.us.archive.org/16/items/rind-2022-reactions-to-minor-older-and-minor-peer-sex-in-finnish-survey/Rind%202022%20-%20Reactions%20to%20Minor-Older%20and%20Minor-Peer%20Sex%20in%20Finnish%20survey.pdf Rind, B. Reactions to Minor-Older and Minor-Peer Sex as a Function of Personal and Situational Variables in a Finnish Nationally Representative Student Sample. Arch Sex Behav 51, 961–985 (2022).], see also [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/images/Rindbasics.pdf Yesmap Primer] and [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02224-0 DOI.org].</ref>. It’s assumed that such a behavior could function to receive affection and extra resources not available from the child's default caregiver. This testifies to the evolutionarily beneficial and reciprocal essence of intergenerational attraction (Klapilová & Bártová, 2017; Stevens & Price, 2016; Rind, 2013 <ref name=":4"> [https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Rind.Pederasty.an.Integration.pdf Rind, B. (2013). Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Evidence and Perspectives.] In: Thomas K Hubbard, Beert Verstraete (Eds.), [https://libgen.is/search.php?req=censoring+sex+research&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Censoring Sex Research: The Debate over Male Intergenerational Relations]. (pp. 1-90) New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315432458</ref>).

* '''Klapilová, K., Bártová, K. (2017). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1 Sexual Pathology.] In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717 Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.] (pp. 7439 - 7445). Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1'''
*:“The child’s adaptive behavioral function to demand nurture from adults and his prospective urge to perform sexual activities is not mentioned too often. Still, it is a rather widespread behavior across cultures and historical periods that can help the child receive extra resources not available from their own parents. It would therefore be a complementary strategy – from the pedophile’s side, there is the eroticization of nurturing behavior and attraction to signalization that encourages caretaking, whereas from the child’s side, it is a functional, environmentally conditioned strategy that brings benefits in the form of resources and possibly even acquisition of sexual experience and calibration of child sexuality”.

* '''Stevens, A., & Price, J. (2016). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315740577 Evolutionary Psychiatry: A new beginning] (Classic Ed.) (pp. 206-218) Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.4324/9781315740577'''
*:“it is undeniable that many children in our society – especially those in boarding schools and childrens’ homes – suffer from ‘parent hunger’. They are what Mia Kellmer-Pringle has called ‘touch-hungry children’. It is possible that the care-eliciting ‘phylism’ in these children may become eroticized just as the care-giving phylism may be eroticized in adult paedophiles. Thus, children starved of parental affection may compete for the love and attention of adults in their environment by using erotic solicitation as a strategy for survival. To suggest this possibility is not to excuse adults who exploit the emotional needs of children for their personal gratification but to provide an evolutionary explanation as to how and why erotic bonds between adults and juveniles may occur. We would propose that both care-eliciting and care-giving phylisms can be eroticized.”

=== Neurological, endocrinological and psychological evidence ===

Human sexuality researchers have confirmed the neurobiological interconnection of sexual and attachment systems. The release of oxytocin, vasopressin and prolactin, hormones associated with parental behavior, during sex and orgasm stimulates the formation of attachment, altruistic behavior and care for a partner. The reverse is also true: trusting and caring relationships can evoke sexual interest (Dewitte & Marieke, 2012 <ref> [https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499.2011.576351 Dewitte, Marieke (2012). Different Perspectives on the Sex-Attachment Link: Towards an Emotion-Motivational Account.] The Journal of Sex Research, 49, 105–124. https://doi=10.1080/00224499.2011.576351</ref>; Fleischman, 2021 <ref> [https://www.dianafleischman.com/_files/ugd/cb1e47_2914fac5806e4843a8544c1cdee5a69a.pdf Fleischman, D. (2021). Sex as Bonding Mechanisms.] In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717 Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.] Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717</ref>).

Two decades after Eibl-Eibesfeldt suggested that the neural systems of sex and care are relatively more connected in people who are sexually attracted to children, neuroscientists have found some experimental evidence for that. Brain structures responsible for social connections, altruistic and parental motivation (such as the left anterior insula), in people with pedophilic interest, respond to infant stimuli more intensively, receiving reinforcement from the neural circuits responsible for mating. In addition, a greater connection between parental and mating systems is characteristic of males, which is explained by evolutionarily different ways of forming maternal and paternal investments (Ponseti et al., (2018). <ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645 Ponseti J, Bruhn D, Nolting J, Gerwinn H, Pohl A, Stirn A, Granert O, Laufs H, Deuschl G, Wolff S, Jansen O, Siebner H, Briken P, Mohnke S, Amelung T, Kneer J, Schiffer B, Walter H, Kruger THC. Decoding Pedophilia: Increased Anterior Insula Response to Infant Animal Pictures.] Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Jan 23;11:645. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645. PMID: 29403367; PMCID: PMC5778266.</ref>).

Excerpts:
*'''Ponseti et al., (2018). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645 Decoding Pedophilia: Increased Anterior Insula Response to Infant Animal Pictures".] Front Hum Neurosci.'''
*: “This gives rise to the assumption that increased brain responses to infant stimuli in pedophilia are rather a consequence of an over-active nurturing system than of an over-active sexual system.”
*: “The left anterior insula, being a crucial area of nurturing processing, was also frequently found to be activated in sexual brain studies (Stoleru et al., 2012). Furthermore, the left anterior insula (as well as the SMA) is a constituent of the human attachment system, thereby enabling both nurturing and pair-bonding (Feldman, 2016). Based on both observations, (i) the over-responding to nurturing stimuli in various motivational areas and (ii) the functional overlap of nurturing and sexual processing of the involved left anterior insula a tentative and simple model of pedophilia could be as follows: Nurturing stimuli receive additional processing resources by mating-circuits. In case of human infant stimuli this leads to a sexual connotation of infant stimuli. This idea is supported by the suggestion that nurturing and pair-bonding are two closely inter-related domains in humans at the level of physiological functions, brain processing, and involved neuropeptides”
*: "In any case, from an evolutionary perspective, paternal nurturing is an unusual and probably more recently evolved male behavior. Phylogenetically speaking, male brains are not “geared” to handle infant stimuli. This may explain why the “parental caregiving” network of males and females displays differences (Abraham et al., 2014).
*: It might be hypothesized that, in contrast to ancient maternal infant stimulus processing, human male brains process infant stimuli with brain areas that might not be associated primarily with caregiving. If so, it is conceivable that the involvement of brain areas not “geared” to the paternal nurturing aspects associated with infant stimuli makes male brains vulnerable to not maintaining the functional division between the domains of nurturing and mating behavior."

*'''Schuler, M. et al (2019). "[https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/abn-abn0000412.pdf Empathy in pedophilia and sexual offending against children: A multifaceted approach]," ''Journal of Abnormal Psychology'', 128(5), 453–464.'''
*:"Participants included 85 pedophilic men who committed hands-on child sexual offenses (P+CSO), 72 pedophilic men who never committed hands-on child sexual offenses (P−CSO), and 128 nonoffending teleiophilic male controls (TC). Several affective and cognitive aspects of empathy were assessed using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Whereas in self-reports (IRI) P+CSO scored lower than TC (P−CSO intermediate) in cognitive perspective-taking abilities, a performance-based measure (MET) revealed evidence for a better differentiation of emotional states in P−CSO as compared with P+CSO (TC intermediate). In addition, P+CSO and P−CSO showed significantly higher affective resonance while observing children (MET), which was paralleled by higher self-reported levels of personal distress in social situations (IRI). The results indicate evidence for higher general affective empathic resonance to children in pedophilic men but superior cognitive empathy abilities in nonoffending pedophiles only, which may act as a protective factor in the prevention of sexual offending."

=== Sex and attachment in general ===
*'''Fletcher, G. J. O.; Simpson, J. A.; Campbell, L.; Overall, N. C. . (2015). [https://pismin.com/10.1177/1745691614561683 Pair-Bonding, Romantic Love, and Evolution: The Curious Case of Homo sapiens.] Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(1), 20–36. doi:10.1177/1745691614561683'''
*:"Factor analytic studies of perceptions of romantic love in Western samples support these models, typically revealing three components (e.g., Aron & Westbay, 1996). The labels assigned to each factor vary across studies, but they reflect passion (sexual attraction), emotional bonding (intimacy), and commitment (caregiving)."
*:"romantic love provides a potent motivational push toward the kind of devotion and commitment required for the huge investment needed to support a mate and raise children successfully."
*:"romantic love is an adaptation — a commitment device — that facilitated longterm pair-bonding"
*:"The striking similarity between the behavioral manifestations of parent–infant love and romantic love suggests that evolution may have borrowed these ancient bonding mechanisms, originally evolved in mammals to bond mothers to their offspring, and applied them to men and women in the context of romantic pair-bonding."
*:"Using phylogenetic comparative methods with 230 different species, Opie et al. (2013) found that the evolution of monogamy is strongly related to paternal care of offspring"

== Evolutionary product of human neotenization ==
Another factor of pedosexual attraction emergence is a human neotenization. The evolutionary advantage of retaining neotenic (childish) traits which elicit nurturing responses from adults, results in the retention of neotenic genetic traits due to sexual competition. Therefore such traits become sexually attractive. That leads to the observable progressive neotenization of humans in comparison with ancestors and subsequently increases likelihood of juveniles being sexually attractive. Since fertile females retained juvenile traits into their fertile years, the line between fertile and infertile female age became blurred. Thus, some males become oriented toward females who are too young for reproduction (Feierman, 1990<ref name=":5" />).

Excerpts:
* '''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23 Human Erotic Age Orientation: A Conclusion.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 552–566). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23'''
*:“All of these genetically and culturally transmitted processes blur the distinction between reproductively competent adults and children and adolescents. Therefore, all of these processes must be considered to be determinants, at some level, of pedo- and ephebophilia.”
*:“pedo-and ephebophiles, like chins and spandrels, may have no primary adaptive function in themselves but, instead, may be rank-ordered by-products of selection for more adaptive attributes in their kin.”

*'''Lievesley, R. and Harper, C.A. (2024) “[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19419899.2024.2321149#d1e314 The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgments made by people who are attracted to children]”, ''Psychology and Sexuality'', DOI:10.1080/19419899.2024.2321149'''
*:"From an evolutionary perspective, men typically perceive more youthful faces as more attractive due to these indicating a greater degree of fertility (Gallup & Frederick, Citation2010, Little, Citation2015, Thornhill & Grammer, Citation1999). [...] [A]n increased degree of closeness of facial features appears to be encoded as indicating youth (Albert et al., Citation2007), and in turn, this youthfulness is associated with beauty (Sutherland et al., Citation2013)."

*'''Bogin, B. (1997). [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/%28SICI%291096-8644%281997%2925%20%3C63%3A%3AAID-AJPA3%3E3.0.CO%3B2-8 Evolutionary hypotheses for human childhood]. ''Yearbook of Physical Anthropology'', 40, 63–89.'''
*:"Taken together, these studies indicate that adults are more likely to protect or nuture individuals with ‘‘neotenous’’ facial features. McCabe defines such features as having a relatively large ratio of cranium size to lower face size."

The common hypothesis about pedosexuality is that it is merely a by-product of human neotenization. However, there are also arguments that diverse sexuality in adults (including homosexuality and pedosexuality, as seen, for example, in bonobos) in itself is a form of adaptive neoteny. Juvenile bisexual play is widespread among mammals and serves to acquire reproductive skills. Retaining this ability in adulthood may serve a range of sociosexual functions.

* '''Poiani, A. (2010). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/animal-homosexuality/0352ED7E7645EE35B14FAAF3AE3A127B Animal homosexuality: A biosocial perspective.] ''Cambridge University Press''. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511762192'''
::"Indeed, under various potential selective mechanisms, canalisation of neotenic traits may favour the expression of a great diversity of sexual behaviours that are characteristic of the juvenile stages of development. That is, although from an ontogenetic perspective juvenile homosexual play is a route to efficient heterosexuality in most species, from a phylogenetic perspective neotenic processes, by retaining those juvenile traits past the period of sexual maturation throughout evolution, may produce adult homosexuals or bisexuals. In the adult, homosexual behaviours may then undergo further adaptations related to social life. A potential example of this process may be found in the bonobo, where juvenile same-sex sexual behaviours are as common as they are in the congeneric chimpanzee, but in adults they occur much more frequently than in chimpanzees, being expressed in specific socio-sexual contexts."
::Note: Although the authors make this claim about homosexuality only, there is no obstacle to extending the same conclusion to pedosexuality as well.

== Mentorship-Bonding/Enculturation-Alliance Hypothesis ==
On the basis of previously available evolutionary explanations (Mackey, 1990 <ref name=":6" />; Muscarella, 2000 <ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1300/j082v40n01_03 Muscarella, F. (2000). The evolution of homoerotic behavior in humans.] Journal of Homosexuality, 40, 51–77.</ref>; Kirkpatrick, 2000 <ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1086/300145 Kirkpatrick, R. C. (2000). The evolution of human homosexual behavior.] Current Anthropology, 41, 385–413</ref>; Neil, 2009<ref>[http://humanbehaviors.free.fr/Livre%20-%20Human%20bisexuality%20-%20The%20Origins%20and%20Role%20of%20Same-Sex%20Relations%20in%20Human%20Societies%202009.pdf Neill, J. (2009). The origins and role of same-sex relations in human societies.] Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.</ref>), [[Bruce Rind]] developed a hypothesis explaining the most widely documented type of male homosexuality in human history, namely [[pederasty]] (the relationship between a man and a peripubertal/[[Adolescence|adolescent]] boy) (Rind, 2013 <ref name=":4" />).

It is assumed that the evolutionary function of man-boy sexual relationships comes from our evolutionary past, when the environment was very different from the modern one. Humans have had a long evolutionary history as [[Wikipedia:Hunter-gatherer|hunter-gatherers]]. This time was characterized by intergroup warfare and the hunting of large animals. To do this, it was necessary to form close-knit same-sex male groups, to form specific male skills of war and hunting, and to maintain the specific masculine culture of this group. This created a selection pressure to create a mechanism to facilitate such rallying, recruitment and enculturation of new members, which is a long-term and labor-intensive undertaking. It is hypothesized that the sexual attraction between a boy and a man became such a mechanism, through the ability to form a strong emotional connection, prompting the mentor to teach and care, and the boy to seek training and a role model.

The evolutionary benefit of such a mechanism is assumed both at the individual level (for the junior this is training, protection, and promotion in the male hierarchy, for the adult this is the expansion of the network of alliances) and at the group level (the clan received a reliable replenishment of group members, well-prepared, enculturated and committed to the culture of the group, which gave a competitive advantage).

This hypothesis is supported by [[Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships|cross-cultural studies]], where a variety of independent cultures demonstrate the prevalence of sexual relations between men and boys of peripubertal age. These relationships are built into these cultures and are part of growing up and becoming a man. The readiness, desire and initiative for sexual contact comes not only from adult men, but also from boys, and this is recorded as a typical phenomenon in these cultures. This also confirms the existence of an evolutionary benefit for younger participants.

Moreover, this attraction is not associated with reproductive losses, unlike exclusive homosexuality. It is typical of all these cultures that, upon reaching adulthood, men get wives and at the same time have sexual relations with boys themselves. It is assumed that this ability of the average heterosexual male to experience pederastic attraction is specific to our species.

But this ability is optional (facultative). That is, unlike obligate heterosexual attraction, pederastic interest is to a large extent activated or suppressed by the social environment. This explains the fact that there is a sharp difference in the prevalence of pederastic behavior and attraction between cultures, and the fact that in modern Western cultures it does not manifest itself widely.

Excerpts:
*'''Rind, B. (2013). [https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Rind.Pederasty.an.Integration.pdf Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Evidence and Perspectives.] In: Thomas K Hubbard, Beert Verstraete (Eds.), [https://libgen.is/search.php?req=censoring+sex+research&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Censoring Sex Research: The Debate over Male Intergenerational Relations]. (pp. 1-90) New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315432458'''
*:“Formally, this hypothesis holds that pederasty evolved in the early human hunter-gatherer EEA [Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness] as an adaptation (i.e., exaptation), whose function it was to reproduce the male group by facilitating the mentoring and enculturation of boys from peripubescence through adolescence, as well as their emotional and psychological binding with the group. This function was a solution to the recurring adaptive problems in the EEA of surviving and exploiting an extremely dangerous and competitive social and physical environment”
*:“In short, the ages of boys sought out as recruits in male groups, the period in which they are mentored and enculturated, the ages of boys that men in such societies (and our own) find erotically appealing, the ages at which boys are especially open to being mentored (and capable as well, owing to an emergent adult-cognitive capacity), and the ages at which they are open to pederastic relations appear to be part of a single package, in which each of these characteristics seems to be a design feature and element of a larger design, whose function is reproducing the male group.”
*:“It is important to emphasize that pederasty’s relatively infrequent expression in societies such as ours does not imply that it is not an adaptation. In our society, developmental inputs have traditionally been intensely hostile toward homosexual behavior, often accompanied by severe social sanctions, including public disgrace and punishment, which can be expected to have had a significant dampening effect on the emergence and activation of pederastic desire and the expression of pederastic behavior.”
*:“Thus, even though adaptive in the EEA , pederasty, being a facultative trait, is nevertheless rare in our environment. On the other hand, in cultures with cultural ideologies and social structures facilitative of pederastic desire and expression, its occurrence has been widespread across the male population, which is consistent with the assumptions that most males have at least a moderate potential for the behavior and that such potential is sufficient for the behavior to emerge, provided other factors are not inhibitory.”

* '''Schiefenhövel, W. (1990). Ritualized Adult-Male/Adolescent-Male Sexual Behavior in Melanesia: An Anthropological and Ethological Perspective. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) Pedophilia. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_16'''
*: "Men are expected to plan, work, fight, and sometimes, die together. The necessary altruistic behavior and effective cooperation of the warriors as well as the acceptance of a male hierarchy would have been fostered by the institution of prescribed homosexuality."

* '''Riegel, D. L. (2011). [https://web.archive.org/web/20130425190309/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/The%20Role%20of%20Androphilia%20in%20the%20Psychosexual%20Development%20of%20Boys.pdf The role of androphilia in the psychosexual development of boys.] ''International Journal of Sexual Health'', 23(1), 2–13. doi:10.1080/19317611.2010.509696'''
*:"Proceeding from Feierman's (1990) thesis, it can be postulated that in prehistoric times it is likely that many children, due to violence, disease, poor nutrition, and life spans that were considerably shorter than what we have considered normal for the past couple of centuries, found themselves without either parents or other adults who would be willing to take on the burden of looking after and feeding a not yet productive child. However, a boy who was sexually androphilic (Vanggaard, 1969) would have the potential advantage of closely bonding with an older male whose sexuality included a male-directed pedosexual component, and who would preferentially protect, provide for, and teach the boy the skills necessary to survive and prosper. Studies have identified such secondary boy-attracted pedosexual tendencies in 20% to 30% of self-identified heterosexual adult males (Freund, 1970; cf. Briere & Runtz, 1989, Quinsey, 1984, West, 1980), and these tendencies would not be selected against so long as the bearers were primarily heterosexual and only secondarily male-oriented pedosexual. There is no reason to believe that these percentages were not similar in prehistoric times; there is some evidence for familial transmission (Gaffney, Lurie, & Berlin, 1984). In the absence of our modern-day taboos, such adaptive and beneficial boy/older male relationships could proceed unimpeded, the boy's juvenile androphilic sexuality would typically be supplanted by heterosexuality as he matured (Sandfort, 1987), he would then pass on his genes, and thus both of these traits would be maintained in the gene pool."

* '''Rind, Bruce. (2014). [https://pismin.com/10.1080/19317611.2014.956853 Trends in evolutionary explanations for human male same-sex eroticism: a commentary on Riegel (2011).] ''International Journal of Sexual Health'', (), 1–11. doi:10.1080/19317611.2014.956853'''
*:"In this commentary, I discuss his social critique and focus on his evolutionary hypothesis, reviewing seven earlier hypotheses for comparison. "
*:"Werner (2006) focused exclusively on the evolution of male homosexual behavior. Based on selected cross-species data, he posited that male homosexual behavior evolved in stages over eons of time. In the first, involving primitive species (e.g., reptiles), single adult males controlled territories, where they waited for females for mating. Adolescent or transvestite males, who resembled adult females in form and/or behavior, gained entry to these territories because of their female mimicry and they were tolerated once there because they submitted homosexually to the adult resident. Their benefit for this submission was mating opportunities with visiting females, which otherwise would not have been available to them. In the second stage, male homosexual behavior changed function (i.e., was an exaptation) in various more complex descendent species with greater cognitive capacities (so that deception via female mimicry no longer worked) and in which adult males lived together in groups rather than as isolates. Here, the changed function of homosexual submission was to elicit tolerance from the dominant male, which served to uphold the dominance hierarchy, which in turn facilitated multi-male group living. The third and final phase occurred when multiple males did not simply live together but cooperated on common tasks. Here, male homosexual behavior changed function once again, in which it facilitated alliance formation, which in turn enabled pursuit of common tasks. He called his explanation the hierarchy/cooperation theory for human male homosexual behavior. Werner claimed that pathic (i.e., transgenderal) homosexuality was the most common form of male homosexual behavior cross-culturally, followed by transgenerational homosexuality. He speculated that different social structures produce different strategies for male/male cooperation, which in turn determine the form by which male homoeroticism is expressed."

* '''Jaroslava Varella Valentova, Andreone Teles Medrado, and Marco Antonio Correa Varella “Male Bisexuality”. In: Todd K. Shackelford (ed.), 2022, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/2d84ebccbbaafc78b4516ef6b129e5a2 The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology. Vol 4.] ''Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)''.'''
::"The alternative sneaking tactic can apply to transitory bisexual men, who would pursue predominantly same-sex relationships early in life when they do not possess status and/or resources to attract females, and create and maintain a family. In the younger age, they might have same-sex tutors or they might sexually serve to dominant males possessing resources. However, they might also sneak among the female partners of the dominant male, and gain at least some copulations and a nonzero reproductive success. Later in life they might switch to predominantly other-sex mating."

==Childhood as a target for sexual selection==

Some authors have suggested that not only adolescence but also middle childhood are involved in sexual selection process, and evolved as a stage at which individuals not only could but should take responsibilities. This appears to contradict how childhood is constructed in modern society (see also [[Research:_Cognitive_ability#Competence|research on childhood competence]]). According to such theories, in middle childhood, individuals become "nest helpers", helping in nurturing for younger siblings, foraging, and chores. This is a fine tuning stage of later social and sexual life-history strategies. First sexual or romantic attractions, sexual play, separation in gender roles typically emerge several years before puberty reflecting the fact that children are drawn into the evolutionary process of sexual selection much earlier than they become fertile. At this stage they actively learn sociosexual behavior and receive feedback about their sociosexual success from peer and adults, adapting their sexual competitive strategy to the environmental input. They engage in sexual and romantic relationship along with adults benefiting from learning, resources and social status they gain. This contributes to their sexual success in later life stages.

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In summary, the life stage of juvenility/middle childhood has two major interlocking functions: social learning and social integration in a system of roles, norms, activities, and shared knowledge. While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."
*:"Middle childhood is one of the main stages of human development, marked by the eruption of the first permanent molars around age 6 and the onset of androgen secretion by the adrenal glands at about 6-8 years (Bogin, 1997)."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is typically associated with a strong separation in gender roles, even in societies where tasks are not rigidly assigned by sex."
*:"The stress response system plays a major role in gathering and storing information about environmental safety, predictability, and availability of resources; adrenarche contributes by translating that information into adaptive, sexually differentiated patterns of behavior (Del Giudice et al., 2011; Ellis & Del Giudice, 2014). Consistent with this view, both early relational stress and early nutrition have been found to modulate the timing of adrenarche (Ellis & Essex, 2007; Hochberg, 2008). It is no coincidence that the first sexual and romantic attractions typically develop in middle childhood, in tandem with the intensification of sexual play (Bancroft, 2003; Herdt & McClintock, 2000). By interacting with peers and adults, juveniles receive feedback about the effectiveness of their nascent behavioral strategies. The information collected during middle childhood feeds into the next developmental switch point, that of gonadarche (Ellis, 2013)"
*:"By determining children’s initial place in social networks and hierarchies, competition in middle childhood indirectly affects their ability to attract sexual and romantic partners later. In other words, middle childhood is a likely target for sexual selection — that is, natural selection arising from the processes of choosing mates (mate choice) and competing for mates (mating competition). My colleagues and I (Del Giudice et al., 2009) argued that sexual selection is one reason why sex differences emerge and intensify in middle childhood."

== Other relevant information ==

=== Ontogenetic plasticity ===

Here's an explanation for why, if a minor attraction was adaptive, it may not be ubiquitous today.
*'''Alanko K, Salo B, Mokros A, Santtila P, (2013). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235369954_Evidence_for_Heritability_of_Adult_Men's_Sexual_Interest_in_Youth_under_Age_16_from_a_Population-Based_Extended_Twin_Design "Evidence for heritability of adult men's sexual interest in youth under age 16 from a population-based extended twin design."] ''J Sex Med,'' 10(4):1090-9.'''
*:"Adult men's sexual interest in youthfulness‐related cues may be genetically influenced. [...] The amount of variance attributable to nonadditive genetic influences (heritability) was estimated at 14.6%.[...] Compared with the variance attributable to nonshared environmental effects (plus measurement error), the contribution of any genetic factors seems comparatively weak."
*::'''Editor''': Note, that a heritability coefficient close to zero does not mean the weakness/absence of genetic control over the trait, counter wise may point to high genetic consistency among population, in which case the trait variance is naturally more dependent on the environment. ("Traits such as walking and breathing have low heritability, because these are usually universal traits with slight variations. [...] as heredity becomes more similar, the environment becomes the primary explanation for differences."<ref>[https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/psychology/biological-bases-of-behavior/heritability/ Studysmarter.co.uk: Explanation on heritability]</ref>) This finding of low heritability may be interpreted to mean that the genetic ability to develop minor attraction is highly pervasive among humans and modified by nurture and other environments. This goes along with the [[Research:_Evolutionary_Perspectives_on_Intergenerational_Sexuality#Mentorship-Bonding%2FEnculturation-Alliance_Hypothesis|Rind's conclusion]] on pederasty as evolutionary determined but a facultative trait.

*'''Bhugra, D. (2000). [https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/14681990050001574 Disturbances in objects of desire: Cross-cultural issues.] Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 15(1), 67–78. doi:10.1080/14681990050001574'''
*:"Paraphilias are defined as sexual attractions to objects or individuals not normally found attractive. [...] It is argued that, in some types of individual deviance, cultural factors are more likely to play an important role. Some cultures are seen as sex-positive and others as sex-negative but, within each cultural setting, attitudes towards sex and the function of sexual activity are a key to understanding the development of sexual deviance. In cultures where sex is seen as an attraction-led phenomenon rather than a purely procreative one, individuals are more likely to be attracted to 'objects'."

===Undesirable traits as adaptations===

Both pedohebephilic attraction and childhood sexuality are likely influenced somewhat by environmental factors. For example, there exist theories of [[Research:_Psychopathy_and_abnormal_psychology#Adverse_childhood|adverse childhood in pedohebephiles]] and [[Research:_Youth_sexuality#Factors_of_earlier_sexual_development|factors of earlier sexual development]] in youth sexuality. These are unproven and causality is hard to infer. It has been speculated that these are [[Research:_Evolutionary_Perspectives_on_Intergenerational_Sexuality#Complementary_behavior_among_minors|complementary]] adaptations to difficult circumstances.

From a layman's point of view, undesirable traits that arise as a result of adverse environment are mental breakdowns. From an evolutionary perspective, these may be ways to adapt in a harsh, primordial context. It is worth keeping this perspective in mind.

*'''Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647–670.'''
*:"The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite."

*'''Del Giudice, M. (2014b). [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/e27ce435-4226-2581-e053-d805fe0acbaa/DelGiudice_2014_early-stress_jdohad_pre.pdf Early stress and human behavioral development: Emerging evolutionary perspectives.] Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 5, 270-280.'''
*:“Stress experienced early in life exerts a powerful, lasting influence on development. Converging empirical findings show that stressful experiences become deeply embedded in the child's neurobiology, with an astonishing range of long-term effects on cognition, emotion, and behavior. In contrast with the prevailing view that such effects are the maladaptive outcomes of 'toxic' stress, adaptive models regard them as manifestations of evolved developmental plasticity.”
*:“Building on the concept of developmental plasticity, researchers have been increasingly advancing alternative models in which early stress does not primarily impair or dysregulate children’s developmental trajectories, but rather shifts them toward behavioral strategies that have proven biologically adaptive in harsh or unpredictable conditions”
*:“Exposure to stress works as a cue to local environmental conditions, and feeds into plasticity mechanisms that coordinate the development of alternative phenotypes.”
*:“In this perspective, many putative maladaptive traits such as anxiety, aggression, and impulsivity can be reframed as costly but adaptive phenotypes that improve an individual’s survival and reproduction prospects in hostile, unpredictable contexts. For example, increased vigilance and anxiety can be regarded as defensive reactions to potential threats, whereas aggression and impulsivity can be effective competitive strategies in harsh, unstable social environments. Furthermore, there is evidence that high levels of physiological and emotional reactivity increase an individual’s sensitivity to context, making him/her more open to both negative and positive social influences. Of course, some of these adaptive traits are going to have undesirable consequences for the individual and/or the social group, and may even be diagnosed as symptoms of psychopathology (e.g., conduct disorders). According to adaptive models, children exposed to early stress should exhibit patterns of impaired cognitive and emotional functioning when tested in safe, stress-free contexts and/or with tasks that mimic the demands of those contexts; but they should often perform better than their peers on tasks that reproduce key features of the dangerous, unpredictable environments they are adapted to. The initial evidence suggests that this may be the case.“

=== Response to critique of evolutionary explanations ===

*'''Karen Franklin. (2010). [https://pismin.com/10.1007/s10508-010-9616-1 Why the Rush to Create Dubious New Sexual Disorders?]. , 39(4), 819–820. doi:10.1007/s10508-010-9616-1'''
*:"As all students of Darwin know, evolutionary success strategies must be understood on a population-wide basis, not an individual level. Moreover, social scientists generally agree that biological evolution is rarely sufficient to understand human behavior in modern, complex social systems. Thus, to say that a trait may have emerged as evolutionarily adaptive in prehistoric times implies nothing of its presence or function on an individual level in contemporary society."

== See also ==

*[[Debate_Guide: Evolutionary logic|Debate Guide: Evolutionary logic]]
*[[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in_History|Intergenerational Relationships in History]]
*[[Research: Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals|Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals]]

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category: Research: Broader Perspectives]]

== References ==

Research: Evolutionary Perspectives on Intergenerational Sexuality

2026-05-02T16:07:30Z

Thorn: /* Evolutionary by-product of human neotenization */

<div style="margin-right: 25px; float: left;">__TOC__</div>
:''This article has been written in standard format mixed with an anthology.''

While the [[Debate_Guide:_Evolutionary_logic|evolutionary logic]] of intergenerational sexual behaviour and [[Hebephilia|hebephilic]] attraction towards pubertal [[Adolescence|adolescents]] of the opposite sex is easily explained by fertility potential of such behaviour ([[Research: Pedophilia as a sexual/erotic orientation|see mentions of hebephilia)]], the explanation of intergenerational attractions toward prepubertal children ([[pedophilia]]/pedosexuality), or adolescent homosexual partners ([[Pederasty|pederastic]] inclination), or the very existence of prepubertal [[child]] sexuality, is less obvious.

The emergence of such sexuality has several [[Wikipedia:Darwinism|evolutionary explanations]] with varying degrees of evidence, which come from [[Wikipedia:Ethology|ethology]] and [[Wikipedia:Neuroscience|neuroscience]]. There are suggestions that, in our evolutionary past, pedosexual behaviors could have had some evolutionary functions or been an evolutionary by-product of human sexuality development. These explanations may have pragmatic implications for the [[Research: A "cure" for pedophilia?#Psychological wellbeing for MAPs|well-being]] of both MAPs and minors. "Evolutionary scenarios are not just interesting explanatory “stories,” but can illuminate limits as well as opportunities for intervention" (Del Giudice M., 2014). Here is an attempt to categorize these hypotheses, although they overlap greatly and can hardly be considered separately. Rather, they describe different aspects of a complex evolutionary process.

== Adaptation to the lack of success in male sexual competition ==
One hypothesis is that if a male is unsuccessful in sexual competition for fertile females, and he chronically feels inferior to others and is afraid of other adults, then his sexuality towards adults may be suppressed and redirected towards children, because children do not cause fear, and next to them the male feels his strength and superiority. Male's sexuality is more associated with dominance and this may explain the greater prevalence of attraction to children among men than among women.<ref>[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5 Medicus, G., Hopf, S. (1990). The Phylogeny of Male/Female Differences in Sexual Behavior.] In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5</ref>

Excerpts:
* '''Medicus, G., Hopf, S. (1990). [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5 The Phylogeny of Male/Female Differences in Sexual Behavior.] In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_5'''
*:"As has been pointed out, adult human sexual behavior with children and adolescents can be understood within the context of dimorphism. Male/ female differences in sexual behavior result at least in part from the different amounts of energy and time each sex expends for reproduction (see Table 4.1). This initial difference produces a difference in the functional proximity of the moods of fear and aggression to sexual mood (see Table 4.11), as well as a difference in the likelihood for active pursuit of sexual opportunities"
*:"One of the most consistent psychological correlates that has been identified is that many adult males who are sexually attracted to children and adolescents show manifestations of (real or self-perceived) social inadequacy with peers. Such males may suffer from feelings of anxiety when they consider sexual behavior with an adult partner (Johnston and Johnston, 1986; Panton, 1979; Segal and Marshall, 1985). Because sex and fear are such functionally distant moods in males, many human adult males cannot perform sexual actions when they feel inferior to their sexual partner or when they feel anxious (e.g., Bancroft, 1985; Eicher, 1980). This explanation is in accordance with the previously mentioned male/female dimorphism in the relationship of mood and behavior (see Table 4.11). Because of their small size, lack of experience, and sense of insecurity, children and adolescents of either sex do not arouse feelings of inferiority, fear, and anxiety in adult males. Thus, children and adolescents can become "sexual objects" for males who in sociosexual relations with adults feel inferior or anxious."

* '''Glenn D. Wilson and David N. Cox. 1983. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130410124803/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/The%20Child-Lovers%20-%20A%20Study%20of%20Paedophiles%20in%20Society.pdf The Child-Lovers: A Study of Paedophiles in Society.] By London: Peter Owen. Pp 132. British Journal of Psychiatry. 1983;143(4):430-430. doi:10.1192/S0007125000200780'''
*: "Examination of the characteristics of children that the paedophiles found most attractive points to the conclusion that the ability to achieve social dominance over the child may be the key to understanding the paedophile’s choice of sex target."
*: "Viewed in this way, paedophilia would seem to be one of several alternative adaptations to the problem of lack of success (or perceived inability to succeed) in intermale competition for access to females. It has been often noted by ethologists that the males of any species are thrown into strong Darwinian competition with one another. Those that are most successful monopolise an unequal share of female resources, and the others have to make do with various substitute sexual outlets. Following this model, we would not expect to find any genetic predisposition toward paedophilia per se, but as with homosexuality and certain other sex deviations, some degree of heritability would be mediated by the constitutional basis of dominance versus submissiveness. In other words, paedophiles may inherit their submissive nature, which in turn makes for difficulties in establishing normal sexual roles."

*'''Connie M. Anderson (1990). "Adolescent/Adult Copulatory Behavior in Nonhuman Primates." In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13'''
*: "Adult, subadult, and adolescent females are monopolized by adult male harem-holders, leaving a few adult and all subadult males without adult sexual partners. Under these conditions, males without harems choose a particular juvenile female to follow and display intense parental-like behavior towards her. Eventually, she becomes the first individual in the male's harem, and he begins mating with her at her first estrous swelling. Thus, both parental-like and copulatory motor patterns are directed at the same individual over the course of time and, for a brief period, even simultaneously."

== "Nest helper" hypothesis ==
{{research}}
The concept of "nest helper", is an explanation of a few individuals within a group being nonreproductive, yet aiding their group's survival. They may be affectionately disposed and caring towards others without reproducing, since this promotes the reproduction of peers who share some of the same genes due to being genetic relatives in the group. Due to sexual competition and the costs of human reproduction, not every individual ''can'' reproduce, hence there are indirect genetic benefits of "nest helping" that may overcome benefits of direct reproductive efforts for some individuals. This evolutionary hypothesis applies to both exclusive homosexuality and exclusive pedophilia, although due to a lack of investigation, there is at present little evidence for it (Feierman, 1990<ref name=":5">[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23 Feierman, Jay R. (1990). Human Erotic Age Orientation: A Conclusion.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 552–566). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23</ref>).

Excerpts:
* '''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23 Human Erotic Age Orientation: A Conclusion.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 552–566). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23'''
*:"Whereas a similar challenge has been met somewhat reasonably in terms of the "nest helper" concept of adult homosexuality, hypothesizing that another type of nest helper would have to erotically love and sexually interact with the children for whom he was caring"

== Help in developing sexual ability ==

For many primates, sexual behavior requires learning. Therefore, in some species, adult primates who have sexual contact with juveniles may help them develop sexual skills. In addition, sex can trigger the onset of fertility. Such a function could have played a role in the human evolutionary past (Dienske, 1990<ref name=":0">Dienske, Herman (1990). The Concept of Function in the Behavioral Sciences with Specific Reference to Pedophilia and Pedosexual Behavior: A Biophilosophical Perspective. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13</ref>). In some species, this function has built in to that extent that without early sexual experience with an adult an individual grows up unable to conceive.<ref name=":7">Feierman, Jay R. (1990). A Biosocial Overview of Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 8–68). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_2</ref>

* '''Connie M. Anderson (1990). "Adolescent/Adult Copulatory Behavior in Nonhuman Primates". In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13'''
*: "Among nonhuman primates, then, sexual interaction between adult females and immature males is universal [...] Adult females do interact sexually with males of all ages, including infants too young to be capable of intromission or ejaculation. Females have little to lose by doing so, since they do not deplete their egg supply by unsuccessful matings and since they are unlikely to be seriously injured in the process. They may also help their immature male relatives by allowing them access to experienced females to practice sexual behavior so that they can perform successfully from the time spermatogenesis begins."

* '''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). A Biosocial Overview of Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 8–68). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_2'''
*: "In the squirrel monkey (Saimin), captivity-raised individuals of both sexes in mixed-sex peer groups were not even able to conceive unless they had been allowed, when they were juveniles, to have sexual contact with opposite-sex adults (Hopf, 1979, personal communication)."

*'''De Waal, Frans B. M. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15 Sociosexual behavior used for tension regulation in all age and sex combinations among bonobos.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 378–393). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15'''
*: "Thus, juvenile male chimpanzees are attracted to females in estrus, and pubertal females begin to explore sexual contact with older males as soon as their genital swellings develop (van der Weel, 1978; de Waal, 1982; Goodall, 1986). Such intergenerational experience undoubtedly contributes to the development of adequate sexual skills."

== Advantage in sexual competition ==
The emergence of nonexclusive pedophilic interest could be due to males experiencing selection pressure to display affiliative behavior towards minors. Such a display aims to convince fertile females that the male is ready for paternal investment, thus giving advantages in access to the fertile female (Taub, 1990<ref>Taub, David M. (1990). The Functions of Primate Paternalism: A Cross-Species Review. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 338–377). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_14</ref>).

Excerpts:
*'''Taub, David M. (1990). The Functions of Primate Paternalism: A Cross-Species Review. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 338–377). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_14'''
*: "Why then are these unrelated males forming special affiliations with and investing in these infants? Proponents of this view suggest that males form special relationships with infants as a means whereby they may develop a closer and stronger affiliative relationship with the infant's mother. This enhanced, or special, relationship with the mother, in turn, enhances the male's chances of mating with this female in the future."

== Sex as a buffer for aggression ==
Ethologist Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt suggested that the interconnection between sex and dominance is the basic ("reptilian") way of vertebrate sexuality organization. Aggression and dominance acquired a functional connection with male sexuality due to the fact that aggressive and dominant males tended to win in sexual competition. In contrast, submission was embedded in female sexuality. The submissive posture of the female ready for mating is a stimulus to transform male’s aggressive drive to the sexual drive. This prevents injuries and allows mating to occur. Thus aggression, dominance and submission were sexualized, and sexuality acquired the ability to buffer aggression in hierarchical relationships. (The manifestation of that ability is that the appeasing posture of a defeated enemy in animals often resembles the posture of a female ready to mate). Eibl-Eibesfeldt supposed that it is possible that this function could be partly transferred into the adult-juvenile hierarchical relationship (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1990<ref name=":1">[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6 Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus (1990). Dominance, Submission, and Love: Sexual Pathologies from the Perspective of Ethology.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 150–175). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6</ref>).

Excerpts:
* '''Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6 Dominance, Submission, and Love: Sexual Pathologies from the Perspective of Ethology.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 150–175). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6'''
*: “Dominance between group members is also expressed by ritualized mounting, and submission, in turn, is expressed by female-type presenting. From these kinds of greeting rituals have evolved behaviors such as those of hamadryas baboons, in which males approaching high-ranking individuals present as if they, the presenters, were females. Their buttocks are hairless and red in mimicry of the female buttocks, thus enhancing the signal value of presenting (Wiclder, 1966, 1967b). The high-ranking individual may mount or just perform the intention to mount in response to the other's presenting. This use by primates of sexual motor patterns to acknowledge dominance rank order has often been interpreted as being equivalent to human homosexuality. This interpretation is an oversimplification. These sexual motor patterns are derived from copulatory behaviors but, then, have acquired a new function related to social hierarchies: mounting serves as an indication of dominance, and presenting serves as an indication of submission, an agonistic buffer in a greeting context”
*:“Children have characteristics, such as small size, that facilitate adult males' feeling dominant to them, as occurs in pedosexual behavior.”

== Sex for reconciliation and food sharing ==
The reduction of social tension mediated by sociosexual contact is widespread in the communities of human closest relatives, the [[Research: Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals|Bonobos]]. The tension arises in situations of competition or inequality referring to any kind of resources such as food, access to reproduction or any interesting stimulus matter. In addition to the reconciliation effect, sexual contacts allow them to willingly share resources with one another. Ethologist Frans de Waal pointed that this mechanism works for individuals of any status, sex and age, including contacts between adults and infants. Via this mechanism, adults share food with juveniles who are not their descendants and are not of reproductive interest. The emergence of this mechanism presumably occurred as a result of an evolutionary shift in relationships between males and females towards the more tolerant and equal in the case of Bonobos (de Waal, 1990<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15 De Waal, Frans B. M. (1990). Sociosexual behavior used for tension regulation in all age and sex combinations among bonobos.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 378–393). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15</ref>). Among most other primates except for humans, cases of adults, especially males, sharing food with another's offspring are quite rare (Mackey, 1990<ref name=":6">Mackey, Wade C. (1990). Adult·Male/Juvenile Association as a Species-Characteristic Human Trait: A Comparative Field Approach. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 299–323). Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_12</ref>).

Frans de Waal suggests that our ancestor’s sexual behavior may have been similar to Bonobo's. This sex-for-food mechanism then allowed females to exchange sex for male commitment and paternal investment, thus giving rise to the human nuclear family. And subsequently, the very development of the nuclear family led to an increasing restriction of sex functions to heterosexual reproductive bonding only (de Waal, 2006<ref> [https://sci-hub.se/10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp de Waal, Frans B. M. (2006). Bonobo Sex and Society. Scientific American, 16, 14-21], doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp</ref>).

Excerpts:
*'''De Waal, Frans B. M. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15 Sociosexual behavior used for tension regulation in all age and sex combinations among bonobos.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 378–393). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_15'''
*: "Typically, upon the introduction of food, the bonobos would become very active, engaging in aggressive competition but also inviting one another for sociosexual contact These contacts appeared to reduce the tension and to allow for food sharing. Thus, it could be demonstrated that subordinate group members more often asserted themselves toward dominant food possessors following a sociosexual contact than without such prior contact (de Waal, 1987). The interaction could even take the form of an exchange, e.g., a female presents to a male who is holding a large bundle of branches and leaves and takes the entire bundle out of his hands immediately following sexual intercourse. On other occasions, sociosexual behavior was used as a reconciliation. The majority of instances of genital massage, for instance, followed aggressive incidents in which the adult male had chased one of the adolescent males. After a couple of minutes, the younger male would return to the aggressor to present his genitals."
*:“Sociosexual behavior occurred with equal frequency and equal intensity in all age and sex combinations possible. Intergenerational sex was part of this general pattern. The bonobo's sexual reconciliation and reassurance patterns were described and contrasted with the behavior of the chimpanzee, which virtually lacks this nonreproductive function of sexual behavior. The evolutionary origin of this difference was sought in heterosexual bonding among bonohos in their natural habitat. [...] Coexistence of plural males and females without agonistic competition in mating could be guaranteed by changing the character of sexual behavior into affiliative behavior in which all individuals can participate, and by decreasing the reproductive meaning (Mori, 1984, p.277).[...] This possible evolutionary background of the phenomena observed in bonobos is of relevance in connection with human sexuality, both because of the shared biological ancestry and the fact that heterosexual bonding is characteristic of the human species as well."
*:"[T]he most logical pathway by which sexual behavior evolved into a general reassurance mechanism is that this mechanism was first established in the adult male/female relationship, after which it was adopted in other age and sex combinations. In other words, the widespread application of sexual behavior patterns in the bonobo' s social life has its origin in an emphasis on heterosexual bonding (de Waal, 1987). Field research supports this view in that male/female relationships seem closer and more tolerant in bonobos than in chimpanzees."

*'''de Waal, Frans B. M. (2006). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp Bonobo Sex and Society.] Scientific American, 16, 14-21, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0606-14sp'''
*:"Ocasionally, the role of sex in relation to food is taken one step further, bringing bonobos very close to humans in their behavior. It has been speculated by anthropologists--including C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University and Helen Fisher of Rutgers University--that sex is partially separated from reproduction in our species because it serves to cement mutually profitable relationships between men and women. The human females capacity to mate throughout her cycle and her strong sex drive allow her to exchange sex for male commitment and paternal care, thus giving rise to the nuclear family."
*:"This arrangement is thought to be favored by natural selection because it allows women to raise more offspring than they could if they were on their own."
*:"Given its peacemaking and appeasement functions, it is not surprising that sex among bonobos occurs in so many different partner combinations, including between juveniles and adults. The need for peaceful coexistence is obviously not restricted to adult heterosexual pairs."
*:“In fact, nuclear families are probably incompatible with the diverse use of sex found in bonobos. If our ancestors started out with a sex life similar to that of bonobos, the evolution of the family would have required dramatic change.
*: Human family life implies paternal investment, which is unlikely to develop unless males can be reasonably certain that they are caring for their own, not someone elses, offspring. Bonobo society lacks any such guarantee, but humans protect the integrity of their family units through all kinds of moral restrictions and taboos. Thus, although our species is characterized by an extraordinary interest in sex, there are no societies in which people engage in it at the drop of a hat (or a cardboard box, as the case may be). A sense of shame and a desire for domestic privacy are typical human concepts related to the evolution and cultural bolstering of the family."

* '''Mackey, Wade C. (1990). Adult·Male/Juvenile Association as a Species-Characteristic Human Trait: A Comparative Field Approach. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 299–323). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_12'''
*: "As pointed out earlier, human adult males share food/provisions with their young, and this sharing by adult males is relatively rare across the zoological kingdom. It is reasonable that the sharing of a most valuable commodity -- food -- is much easier emotionally for the provisioner if the provisioner "likes" the recipient, and conversely, a recipient tends to like someone who feeds him or her, especially during the dependency of preadulthood. Accordingly, the behavioral enhancement of any neurohormonal mechanisms (subtended by the relevant genetic material) that resulted in greater affiliative feelings, toward juveniles, for example, would facilitate food sharing. The facilitation might be further sensitized by the stimulus of those young who are provisioned showing outward signs of affiliation towards the provisioner. Across generations, the increased provisioning of juveniles by adult males would marginally increase those juveniles' viability, thereby increasing those adult males' chances of having descendants. Thus, the alleles in adult males and juveniles that canalized reciprocal adult-male/juvenile affiliative behavior, in general, and the resultant specific adult-male/juvenile association, in particular, would gradually and systematically displace competing alleles that did not facilitate the development of affiliation between adult males and juveniles. In the 20th century, food sharing from human adult males to juveniles has been found to be a universal practice"

== Sex as an attachment promoter. Development of paternal investment==
In addition to the “reptilian” connection between sex and dominance, Eibl-Eibesfeldt described another way of sexuality organization. That evolutionary later way is the interweaving of sex and attachment, which is typical for birds and some mammals forming long-term reproductive alliances. The ability of males to form attachment and exhibit caring behavior to a sexual partner is highly beneficial for females. Human evolution went through an increase in the maturation time of offspring, which led to huge reproductive costs for females. Thus, there was a particularly strong sexual selection of males, in which sexual desire was accompanied by consistent caring behavior towards the female and her offspring. This attachment to a sexual partner may be evolutionarily linked to child-parent attachment (in some species, this connection is manifested in the features of sexual courtship rituals containing signs of childish behavior, which function to induce caring behavior and affection in a sexual partner). So according to this theory, the functional system of parental care and the functional system of mating became interconnected. Eibl-Eibesfeldt wrote that romantic love occurs through the fusion of parental care and sexual desire, and this fusion is an antecedent for children and adolescents to evoke romantic feelings in some adults (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1990 <ref name=":1" />).

In line with Eibl-Eibesfeldt, ethologist Herman Dienske argues that, in the course of evolution, due to the ability of human females to conceal ovulation and to be continuously sexually receptive, male sexual interest has evolved in turn to foster consistent male proximity (to invest in offspring that take so long to mature), and subsequently could promote male proximity with the infant (Dienske, 1990<ref name=":0" />). Indeed, the repertoire of pedosexual behavior observed in humans, besides sexual actions, may also include caring behavior: comforting/caressing, feeding, grooming (body care such as washing or massage), protecting, teaching (Feierman, 1990<ref name=":7" />).

Excerpts:
* '''Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6 Dominance, Submission, and Love: Sexual Pathologies from the Perspective of Ethology.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 150–175). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_6'''
*: “If one observes courtship and greeting rituals in birds and mammals, one soon becomes aware that the patterns by which a friendly affiliation is established, upheld, or strengthened are basically derived from maternal behaviors and infantile appeals that trigger these patterns.”
*: “In human sexual behavior, strata of different phylogenetic origins can be distinguished. Sexuality based upon the mechanisms of male dominance and female submission, which characterizes the reptiles, also constitutes the basic layer of human sexuality. This reptilian heritage is superimposed, however, by a more recently acquired sexuality characterized by affiliation and love. The new potentiality to act in a friendly manner evolved with the development of parental care independently in birds and in mammals. In normal human sexual behavior, the archaic agonal sexuality is controlled by affiliative sexuality and, therefore, is characterized by love. Agonal sexuality is still with us, however, as indicated, among other features, by the phallic male-dominance displays, by a male hormonal response linked to dominance achievement, and by the sexual fantasies of submission that are experienced by females. Agonal sexuality normally is under the control of affiliative sexuality, and therefore, humans correctly associate sex with love. Certain forms of sexuality, such as sadomasochism and a particular form of male homosexuality, are explained as being a regression to the archaic agonal sexuality. Pedophilia and pedosexual behavior are explained within the regression context, too. Children have characteristics, such as small size, that facilitate adult males' feeling dominant to them, as occurs in pedosexual behavior. Since human adult/adult romantic love is derived by phylogeny from parental caregiving behavior, it is easily seen how, in some adult humans, the feeling of love toward children has been retained and eroticized, which is the true meaning of the term "pedophilia.”

*'''Dienske, Herman (1990). The Concept of Function in the Behavioral Sciences with Specific Reference to Pedophilia and Pedosexual Behavior: A Biophilosophical Perspective. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 324–337). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_13'''
*:"it was pointed out that the continuous sexual activity of humans promotes the coherence of the adult-male/adult-female pair and that it encourages the male parent to participate in rearing his offspring. This assumption requires (1) that sex induces affiliation (i.e., the maintenance of proximity and the extension of favors) and (2) that this affiliation is continued after offspring are born and (3) is accompanied by male paternal care. The associations among sex, affiliation, and paternal care seem to be common in humans. This situation does not imply, however, a simple causal relationship. Infrequent or absent sex may precede divorce. It cannot be decided whether infrequent sex reduces affiliation or whether the decreased affiliation reduces sex. It is likely that sex and affiliation mutually enhance each other and that the absence of one of the two leads to a declining spiral that eventually results in separation or disinterest."
*: “the associations among sex, affiliation, and paternal care are not compelling in that alternative functional solutions exist. Nevertheless, the affiliation-promoting effect of sex seems apparent.”
*: “Human females, in contrast, lack such signals and thus have what is called "concealed ovulation" (Alexander and Noonan, 1979); in fact, the timing of human ovulation was not known until recently. Uncertainty concerning the time at which ovulation occurs would promote frequent copulations. It is possible that continuous sexual behavior in human females is their afflliation-promoting strategy, since it can induce more consistent male proximity (Daniels, 1983).”
*:“[P]edophilic and homosexual nonprocreative sexual contacts could be considered functional, since favors resulting from the affiliation, which is maintained in part by sexual behavior, can be considerable.”

*'''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). A Biosocial Overview of Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents. In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 8–68). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_2'''
*: "some of the components of parental investment, collectively called "nurturing behavior", are seen in both pedo-and ephebophilia and can be considered and discussed as (1) comforting and contact, (2) feeding, (3) grooming, (4) protecting, and (5) teaching."

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"This author's way of circumventing the debate is to say that there are in the human species phylogenetic building blocks, or phylisms, that in the course of individual sexuoerotic development are capable of being diverted from their usual expression, so as to become entrained to sexuoerotic arousal. In the case of pedophilia, the phylism of parent/child pairbonding becomes diverted and entrained to sexuoerotic, lover /lover pairbonding. The pedophile's attachment to a child represents a merger of parental and erotic love."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

This hypothesis is also mentioned in modern scientific encyclopedias:

* '''Klapilová, K., Bártová, K. (2017). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1 Sexual Pathology.] In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717 Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.] (pp. 7439 - 7445). Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1'''
*:“the evolutionary explanation behind the origin of pedophilia refers to the fusion of two evolutionarily ancient adaptive systems – reproduction and nurturing. Money (1990) states that a pedophile’s relationship to a child qualitatively, and also neurologically, resembles a blend between parental and erotic love. Likewise, it can be linked to the close cohesion between these two systems that can be observed also between phylogenetically close species.”.
*:”The founder of the human ethnology field, Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1973), directly warns about the type of affiliative-erotic relationship that connects to the composition of long-term partnership, which was developed both in mammals and birds together with nurturing behavior, and therefore it is not surprising that they are occasionally mixed in humans.”

* '''Klapilová, K., Bártová, K. "Male Sexual Disorders" In: Todd K. Shackelford (ed.), 2022, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/2d84ebccbbaafc78b4516ef6b129e5a2 The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology. Vol 4.] ''Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)''.'''
:: "A phylogenetic explanation of pedophilia refers to the fusion of two evolutionarily old systems– reproduction and nurturing (Money, 1990). It is also in line with the results of neuroimaging studies in which pedophilic men could be distinguished from controls by their increased fMRI activity in reaction to child versus adult faces (Ponseti et al., 2016) and increased brain responses to not only human but also animal infants in pedophiles (Ponseti et al., 2018), interpreted as an over-responsive nurturing system. This view agrees with older ethological theories that sees pedophilia as a mixture of parental and erotic love indicated by behavioral displays of both (Money, 2012)."

* '''Stevens, A., & Price, J. (2016). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315740577 Evolutionary Psychiatry: A new beginning] (Classic Ed.) (pp. 206-218) Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.4324/9781315740577'''
*: “We would entertain the hypothesis proposed separately by Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1990) and by Money (1990) that two innate biosocial propensities – caregiving and sex-mating – have become fused in the course of ontogeny in those who display the paedophilic orientation.”
*:“[A]ffiliative erotic love, as Eibl-Eibesfeldt points out, itself evolved in birds and mammals together with the development of parental care-giving behaviour. ‘Since human adult/adult romantic love is derived by phylogeny from parent care-giving behaviour,’ asserts EiblEibesfeldt, ‘it is easily seen how, in some adult humans, the feeling of love toward children has been retained and eroticised, which is the true meaning of the term “pedophilia”.“.

=== Complementary behavior among minors ===
The hypothesis of pedophilic attraction as a promoter of affection and care is confirmed by the existence of complementary behavior of minors, who [[Testimony: CSA (Children's Sexual Advances)|often show initiative and willingness for sexual relations with adults]]<ref>[https://ia802202.us.archive.org/16/items/rind-2022-reactions-to-minor-older-and-minor-peer-sex-in-finnish-survey/Rind%202022%20-%20Reactions%20to%20Minor-Older%20and%20Minor-Peer%20Sex%20in%20Finnish%20survey.pdf Rind, B. Reactions to Minor-Older and Minor-Peer Sex as a Function of Personal and Situational Variables in a Finnish Nationally Representative Student Sample. Arch Sex Behav 51, 961–985 (2022).], see also [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/images/Rindbasics.pdf Yesmap Primer] and [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02224-0 DOI.org].</ref>. It’s assumed that such a behavior could function to receive affection and extra resources not available from the child's default caregiver. This testifies to the evolutionarily beneficial and reciprocal essence of intergenerational attraction (Klapilová & Bártová, 2017; Stevens & Price, 2016; Rind, 2013 <ref name=":4"> [https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Rind.Pederasty.an.Integration.pdf Rind, B. (2013). Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Evidence and Perspectives.] In: Thomas K Hubbard, Beert Verstraete (Eds.), [https://libgen.is/search.php?req=censoring+sex+research&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Censoring Sex Research: The Debate over Male Intergenerational Relations]. (pp. 1-90) New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315432458</ref>).

* '''Klapilová, K., Bártová, K. (2017). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1 Sexual Pathology.] In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717 Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.] (pp. 7439 - 7445). Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3382-1'''
*:“The child’s adaptive behavioral function to demand nurture from adults and his prospective urge to perform sexual activities is not mentioned too often. Still, it is a rather widespread behavior across cultures and historical periods that can help the child receive extra resources not available from their own parents. It would therefore be a complementary strategy – from the pedophile’s side, there is the eroticization of nurturing behavior and attraction to signalization that encourages caretaking, whereas from the child’s side, it is a functional, environmentally conditioned strategy that brings benefits in the form of resources and possibly even acquisition of sexual experience and calibration of child sexuality”.

* '''Stevens, A., & Price, J. (2016). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315740577 Evolutionary Psychiatry: A new beginning] (Classic Ed.) (pp. 206-218) Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.4324/9781315740577'''
*:“it is undeniable that many children in our society – especially those in boarding schools and childrens’ homes – suffer from ‘parent hunger’. They are what Mia Kellmer-Pringle has called ‘touch-hungry children’. It is possible that the care-eliciting ‘phylism’ in these children may become eroticized just as the care-giving phylism may be eroticized in adult paedophiles. Thus, children starved of parental affection may compete for the love and attention of adults in their environment by using erotic solicitation as a strategy for survival. To suggest this possibility is not to excuse adults who exploit the emotional needs of children for their personal gratification but to provide an evolutionary explanation as to how and why erotic bonds between adults and juveniles may occur. We would propose that both care-eliciting and care-giving phylisms can be eroticized.”

=== Neurological, endocrinological and psychological evidence ===

Human sexuality researchers have confirmed the neurobiological interconnection of sexual and attachment systems. The release of oxytocin, vasopressin and prolactin, hormones associated with parental behavior, during sex and orgasm stimulates the formation of attachment, altruistic behavior and care for a partner. The reverse is also true: trusting and caring relationships can evoke sexual interest (Dewitte & Marieke, 2012 <ref> [https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499.2011.576351 Dewitte, Marieke (2012). Different Perspectives on the Sex-Attachment Link: Towards an Emotion-Motivational Account.] The Journal of Sex Research, 49, 105–124. https://doi=10.1080/00224499.2011.576351</ref>; Fleischman, 2021 <ref> [https://www.dianafleischman.com/_files/ugd/cb1e47_2914fac5806e4843a8544c1cdee5a69a.pdf Fleischman, D. (2021). Sex as Bonding Mechanisms.] In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717 Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.] Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1717</ref>).

Two decades after Eibl-Eibesfeldt suggested that the neural systems of sex and care are relatively more connected in people who are sexually attracted to children, neuroscientists have found some experimental evidence for that. Brain structures responsible for social connections, altruistic and parental motivation (such as the left anterior insula), in people with pedophilic interest, respond to infant stimuli more intensively, receiving reinforcement from the neural circuits responsible for mating. In addition, a greater connection between parental and mating systems is characteristic of males, which is explained by evolutionarily different ways of forming maternal and paternal investments (Ponseti et al., (2018). <ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645 Ponseti J, Bruhn D, Nolting J, Gerwinn H, Pohl A, Stirn A, Granert O, Laufs H, Deuschl G, Wolff S, Jansen O, Siebner H, Briken P, Mohnke S, Amelung T, Kneer J, Schiffer B, Walter H, Kruger THC. Decoding Pedophilia: Increased Anterior Insula Response to Infant Animal Pictures.] Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Jan 23;11:645. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645. PMID: 29403367; PMCID: PMC5778266.</ref>).

Excerpts:
*'''Ponseti et al., (2018). "[https://sci-hub.se/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00645 Decoding Pedophilia: Increased Anterior Insula Response to Infant Animal Pictures".] Front Hum Neurosci.'''
*: “This gives rise to the assumption that increased brain responses to infant stimuli in pedophilia are rather a consequence of an over-active nurturing system than of an over-active sexual system.”
*: “The left anterior insula, being a crucial area of nurturing processing, was also frequently found to be activated in sexual brain studies (Stoleru et al., 2012). Furthermore, the left anterior insula (as well as the SMA) is a constituent of the human attachment system, thereby enabling both nurturing and pair-bonding (Feldman, 2016). Based on both observations, (i) the over-responding to nurturing stimuli in various motivational areas and (ii) the functional overlap of nurturing and sexual processing of the involved left anterior insula a tentative and simple model of pedophilia could be as follows: Nurturing stimuli receive additional processing resources by mating-circuits. In case of human infant stimuli this leads to a sexual connotation of infant stimuli. This idea is supported by the suggestion that nurturing and pair-bonding are two closely inter-related domains in humans at the level of physiological functions, brain processing, and involved neuropeptides”
*: "In any case, from an evolutionary perspective, paternal nurturing is an unusual and probably more recently evolved male behavior. Phylogenetically speaking, male brains are not “geared” to handle infant stimuli. This may explain why the “parental caregiving” network of males and females displays differences (Abraham et al., 2014).
*: It might be hypothesized that, in contrast to ancient maternal infant stimulus processing, human male brains process infant stimuli with brain areas that might not be associated primarily with caregiving. If so, it is conceivable that the involvement of brain areas not “geared” to the paternal nurturing aspects associated with infant stimuli makes male brains vulnerable to not maintaining the functional division between the domains of nurturing and mating behavior."

*'''Schuler, M. et al (2019). "[https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/abn-abn0000412.pdf Empathy in pedophilia and sexual offending against children: A multifaceted approach]," ''Journal of Abnormal Psychology'', 128(5), 453–464.'''
*:"Participants included 85 pedophilic men who committed hands-on child sexual offenses (P+CSO), 72 pedophilic men who never committed hands-on child sexual offenses (P−CSO), and 128 nonoffending teleiophilic male controls (TC). Several affective and cognitive aspects of empathy were assessed using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Whereas in self-reports (IRI) P+CSO scored lower than TC (P−CSO intermediate) in cognitive perspective-taking abilities, a performance-based measure (MET) revealed evidence for a better differentiation of emotional states in P−CSO as compared with P+CSO (TC intermediate). In addition, P+CSO and P−CSO showed significantly higher affective resonance while observing children (MET), which was paralleled by higher self-reported levels of personal distress in social situations (IRI). The results indicate evidence for higher general affective empathic resonance to children in pedophilic men but superior cognitive empathy abilities in nonoffending pedophiles only, which may act as a protective factor in the prevention of sexual offending."

=== Sex and attachment in general ===
*'''Fletcher, G. J. O.; Simpson, J. A.; Campbell, L.; Overall, N. C. . (2015). [https://pismin.com/10.1177/1745691614561683 Pair-Bonding, Romantic Love, and Evolution: The Curious Case of Homo sapiens.] Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(1), 20–36. doi:10.1177/1745691614561683'''
*:"Factor analytic studies of perceptions of romantic love in Western samples support these models, typically revealing three components (e.g., Aron & Westbay, 1996). The labels assigned to each factor vary across studies, but they reflect passion (sexual attraction), emotional bonding (intimacy), and commitment (caregiving)."
*:"romantic love provides a potent motivational push toward the kind of devotion and commitment required for the huge investment needed to support a mate and raise children successfully."
*:"romantic love is an adaptation — a commitment device — that facilitated longterm pair-bonding"
*:"The striking similarity between the behavioral manifestations of parent–infant love and romantic love suggests that evolution may have borrowed these ancient bonding mechanisms, originally evolved in mammals to bond mothers to their offspring, and applied them to men and women in the context of romantic pair-bonding."
*:"Using phylogenetic comparative methods with 230 different species, Opie et al. (2013) found that the evolution of monogamy is strongly related to paternal care of offspring"

== Evolutionary product of human neotenization ==
Another factor of pedosexual attraction emergence is a human neotenization. The evolutionary advantage of retaining neotenic (childish) traits which elicit nurturing responses from adults, results in the retention of neotenic genetic traits due to sexual competition. Therefore such traits become sexually attractive. That leads to the observable progressive neotenization of humans in comparison with ancestors and subsequently increases likelihood of juveniles being sexually attractive. Since fertile females retained juvenile traits into their fertile years, the line between fertile and infertile female age became blurred. Thus, some males become oriented toward females who are too young for reproduction (Feierman, 1990<ref name=":5" />).

Excerpts:
* '''Feierman, Jay R. (1990). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23 Human Erotic Age Orientation: A Conclusion.] In: Jay R. Feierman (Ed.), [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions] (pp. 552–566). Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_23'''
*:“All of these genetically and culturally transmitted processes blur the distinction between reproductively competent adults and children and adolescents. Therefore, all of these processes must be considered to be determinants, at some level, of pedo- and ephebophilia.”
*:“pedo-and ephebophiles, like chins and spandrels, may have no primary adaptive function in themselves but, instead, may be rank-ordered by-products of selection for more adaptive attributes in their kin.”

*'''Lievesley, R. and Harper, C.A. (2024) “[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19419899.2024.2321149#d1e314 The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgments made by people who are attracted to children]”, ''Psychology and Sexuality'', DOI:10.1080/19419899.2024.2321149'''
*:"From an evolutionary perspective, men typically perceive more youthful faces as more attractive due to these indicating a greater degree of fertility (Gallup & Frederick, Citation2010, Little, Citation2015, Thornhill & Grammer, Citation1999). [...] [A]n increased degree of closeness of facial features appears to be encoded as indicating youth (Albert et al., Citation2007), and in turn, this youthfulness is associated with beauty (Sutherland et al., Citation2013)."

*'''Bogin, B. (1997). [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/%28SICI%291096-8644%281997%2925%20%3C63%3A%3AAID-AJPA3%3E3.0.CO%3B2-8 Evolutionary hypotheses for human childhood]. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 40, 63–89.'''
*:"Taken together, these studies indicate that adults are more likely to protect or nuture individuals with ‘‘neotenous’’ facial features. McCabe defines such features as having a relatively large ratio of cranium size to lower face size."

The common hypothesis about pedosexuality is that it is merely a by-product of human neotenization. However, there are also arguments that diverse sexuality in adults (including homosexuality and pedosexuality, as seen, for example, in bonobos) in itself is a form of adaptive neoteny. Juvenile bisexual play is widespread among mammals and serves to acquire reproductive skills. Retaining this ability in adulthood may serve a range of sociosexual functions.

* '''Poiani, A. (2010). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/animal-homosexuality/0352ED7E7645EE35B14FAAF3AE3A127B Animal homosexuality: A biosocial perspective.] ''Cambridge University Press''. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511762192'''
::"Indeed, under various potential selective mechanisms, canalisation of neotenic traits may favour the expression of a great diversity of sexual behaviours that are characteristic of the juvenile stages of development. That is, although from an ontogenetic perspective juvenile homosexual play is a route to efficient heterosexuality in most species, from a phylogenetic perspective neotenic processes, by retaining those juvenile traits past the period of sexual maturation throughout evolution, may produce adult homosexuals or bisexuals. In the adult, homosexual behaviours may then undergo further adaptations related to social life. A potential example of this process may be found in the bonobo, where juvenile same-sex sexual behaviours are as common as they are in the congeneric chimpanzee, but in adults they occur much more frequently than in chimpanzees, being expressed in specific socio-sexual contexts."
::Note: Although the authors make this claim about homosexuality only, there is no obstacle to extending the same conclusion to pedosexuality as well.

== Mentorship-Bonding/Enculturation-Alliance Hypothesis ==
On the basis of previously available evolutionary explanations (Mackey, 1990 <ref name=":6" />; Muscarella, 2000 <ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1300/j082v40n01_03 Muscarella, F. (2000). The evolution of homoerotic behavior in humans.] Journal of Homosexuality, 40, 51–77.</ref>; Kirkpatrick, 2000 <ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1086/300145 Kirkpatrick, R. C. (2000). The evolution of human homosexual behavior.] Current Anthropology, 41, 385–413</ref>; Neil, 2009<ref>[http://humanbehaviors.free.fr/Livre%20-%20Human%20bisexuality%20-%20The%20Origins%20and%20Role%20of%20Same-Sex%20Relations%20in%20Human%20Societies%202009.pdf Neill, J. (2009). The origins and role of same-sex relations in human societies.] Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.</ref>), [[Bruce Rind]] developed a hypothesis explaining the most widely documented type of male homosexuality in human history, namely [[pederasty]] (the relationship between a man and a peripubertal/[[Adolescence|adolescent]] boy) (Rind, 2013 <ref name=":4" />).

It is assumed that the evolutionary function of man-boy sexual relationships comes from our evolutionary past, when the environment was very different from the modern one. Humans have had a long evolutionary history as [[Wikipedia:Hunter-gatherer|hunter-gatherers]]. This time was characterized by intergroup warfare and the hunting of large animals. To do this, it was necessary to form close-knit same-sex male groups, to form specific male skills of war and hunting, and to maintain the specific masculine culture of this group. This created a selection pressure to create a mechanism to facilitate such rallying, recruitment and enculturation of new members, which is a long-term and labor-intensive undertaking. It is hypothesized that the sexual attraction between a boy and a man became such a mechanism, through the ability to form a strong emotional connection, prompting the mentor to teach and care, and the boy to seek training and a role model.

The evolutionary benefit of such a mechanism is assumed both at the individual level (for the junior this is training, protection, and promotion in the male hierarchy, for the adult this is the expansion of the network of alliances) and at the group level (the clan received a reliable replenishment of group members, well-prepared, enculturated and committed to the culture of the group, which gave a competitive advantage).

This hypothesis is supported by [[Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships|cross-cultural studies]], where a variety of independent cultures demonstrate the prevalence of sexual relations between men and boys of peripubertal age. These relationships are built into these cultures and are part of growing up and becoming a man. The readiness, desire and initiative for sexual contact comes not only from adult men, but also from boys, and this is recorded as a typical phenomenon in these cultures. This also confirms the existence of an evolutionary benefit for younger participants.

Moreover, this attraction is not associated with reproductive losses, unlike exclusive homosexuality. It is typical of all these cultures that, upon reaching adulthood, men get wives and at the same time have sexual relations with boys themselves. It is assumed that this ability of the average heterosexual male to experience pederastic attraction is specific to our species.

But this ability is optional (facultative). That is, unlike obligate heterosexual attraction, pederastic interest is to a large extent activated or suppressed by the social environment. This explains the fact that there is a sharp difference in the prevalence of pederastic behavior and attraction between cultures, and the fact that in modern Western cultures it does not manifest itself widely.

Excerpts:
*'''Rind, B. (2013). [https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Rind.Pederasty.an.Integration.pdf Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Evidence and Perspectives.] In: Thomas K Hubbard, Beert Verstraete (Eds.), [https://libgen.is/search.php?req=censoring+sex+research&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Censoring Sex Research: The Debate over Male Intergenerational Relations]. (pp. 1-90) New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315432458'''
*:“Formally, this hypothesis holds that pederasty evolved in the early human hunter-gatherer EEA [Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness] as an adaptation (i.e., exaptation), whose function it was to reproduce the male group by facilitating the mentoring and enculturation of boys from peripubescence through adolescence, as well as their emotional and psychological binding with the group. This function was a solution to the recurring adaptive problems in the EEA of surviving and exploiting an extremely dangerous and competitive social and physical environment”
*:“In short, the ages of boys sought out as recruits in male groups, the period in which they are mentored and enculturated, the ages of boys that men in such societies (and our own) find erotically appealing, the ages at which boys are especially open to being mentored (and capable as well, owing to an emergent adult-cognitive capacity), and the ages at which they are open to pederastic relations appear to be part of a single package, in which each of these characteristics seems to be a design feature and element of a larger design, whose function is reproducing the male group.”
*:“It is important to emphasize that pederasty’s relatively infrequent expression in societies such as ours does not imply that it is not an adaptation. In our society, developmental inputs have traditionally been intensely hostile toward homosexual behavior, often accompanied by severe social sanctions, including public disgrace and punishment, which can be expected to have had a significant dampening effect on the emergence and activation of pederastic desire and the expression of pederastic behavior.”
*:“Thus, even though adaptive in the EEA , pederasty, being a facultative trait, is nevertheless rare in our environment. On the other hand, in cultures with cultural ideologies and social structures facilitative of pederastic desire and expression, its occurrence has been widespread across the male population, which is consistent with the assumptions that most males have at least a moderate potential for the behavior and that such potential is sufficient for the behavior to emerge, provided other factors are not inhibitory.”

* '''Schiefenhövel, W. (1990). Ritualized Adult-Male/Adolescent-Male Sexual Behavior in Melanesia: An Anthropological and Ethological Perspective. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) Pedophilia. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_16'''
*: "Men are expected to plan, work, fight, and sometimes, die together. The necessary altruistic behavior and effective cooperation of the warriors as well as the acceptance of a male hierarchy would have been fostered by the institution of prescribed homosexuality."

* '''Riegel, D. L. (2011). [https://web.archive.org/web/20130425190309/http://snifferdogonline.com/reports/Child%20Abuse,%20Sexuality%20and%20Violence/The%20Role%20of%20Androphilia%20in%20the%20Psychosexual%20Development%20of%20Boys.pdf The role of androphilia in the psychosexual development of boys.] ''International Journal of Sexual Health'', 23(1), 2–13. doi:10.1080/19317611.2010.509696'''
*:"Proceeding from Feierman's (1990) thesis, it can be postulated that in prehistoric times it is likely that many children, due to violence, disease, poor nutrition, and life spans that were considerably shorter than what we have considered normal for the past couple of centuries, found themselves without either parents or other adults who would be willing to take on the burden of looking after and feeding a not yet productive child. However, a boy who was sexually androphilic (Vanggaard, 1969) would have the potential advantage of closely bonding with an older male whose sexuality included a male-directed pedosexual component, and who would preferentially protect, provide for, and teach the boy the skills necessary to survive and prosper. Studies have identified such secondary boy-attracted pedosexual tendencies in 20% to 30% of self-identified heterosexual adult males (Freund, 1970; cf. Briere & Runtz, 1989, Quinsey, 1984, West, 1980), and these tendencies would not be selected against so long as the bearers were primarily heterosexual and only secondarily male-oriented pedosexual. There is no reason to believe that these percentages were not similar in prehistoric times; there is some evidence for familial transmission (Gaffney, Lurie, & Berlin, 1984). In the absence of our modern-day taboos, such adaptive and beneficial boy/older male relationships could proceed unimpeded, the boy's juvenile androphilic sexuality would typically be supplanted by heterosexuality as he matured (Sandfort, 1987), he would then pass on his genes, and thus both of these traits would be maintained in the gene pool."

* '''Rind, Bruce. (2014). [https://pismin.com/10.1080/19317611.2014.956853 Trends in evolutionary explanations for human male same-sex eroticism: a commentary on Riegel (2011).] ''International Journal of Sexual Health'', (), 1–11. doi:10.1080/19317611.2014.956853'''
*:"In this commentary, I discuss his social critique and focus on his evolutionary hypothesis, reviewing seven earlier hypotheses for comparison. "
*:"Werner (2006) focused exclusively on the evolution of male homosexual behavior. Based on selected cross-species data, he posited that male homosexual behavior evolved in stages over eons of time. In the first, involving primitive species (e.g., reptiles), single adult males controlled territories, where they waited for females for mating. Adolescent or transvestite males, who resembled adult females in form and/or behavior, gained entry to these territories because of their female mimicry and they were tolerated once there because they submitted homosexually to the adult resident. Their benefit for this submission was mating opportunities with visiting females, which otherwise would not have been available to them. In the second stage, male homosexual behavior changed function (i.e., was an exaptation) in various more complex descendent species with greater cognitive capacities (so that deception via female mimicry no longer worked) and in which adult males lived together in groups rather than as isolates. Here, the changed function of homosexual submission was to elicit tolerance from the dominant male, which served to uphold the dominance hierarchy, which in turn facilitated multi-male group living. The third and final phase occurred when multiple males did not simply live together but cooperated on common tasks. Here, male homosexual behavior changed function once again, in which it facilitated alliance formation, which in turn enabled pursuit of common tasks. He called his explanation the hierarchy/cooperation theory for human male homosexual behavior. Werner claimed that pathic (i.e., transgenderal) homosexuality was the most common form of male homosexual behavior cross-culturally, followed by transgenerational homosexuality. He speculated that different social structures produce different strategies for male/male cooperation, which in turn determine the form by which male homoeroticism is expressed."

* '''Jaroslava Varella Valentova, Andreone Teles Medrado, and Marco Antonio Correa Varella “Male Bisexuality”. In: Todd K. Shackelford (ed.), 2022, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/2d84ebccbbaafc78b4516ef6b129e5a2 The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology. Vol 4.] ''Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing)''.'''
::"The alternative sneaking tactic can apply to transitory bisexual men, who would pursue predominantly same-sex relationships early in life when they do not possess status and/or resources to attract females, and create and maintain a family. In the younger age, they might have same-sex tutors or they might sexually serve to dominant males possessing resources. However, they might also sneak among the female partners of the dominant male, and gain at least some copulations and a nonzero reproductive success. Later in life they might switch to predominantly other-sex mating."

==Childhood as a target for sexual selection==

Some authors have suggested that not only adolescence but also middle childhood are involved in sexual selection process, and evolved as a stage at which individuals not only could but should take responsibilities. This appears to contradict how childhood is constructed in modern society (see also [[Research:_Cognitive_ability#Competence|research on childhood competence]]). According to such theories, in middle childhood, individuals become "nest helpers", helping in nurturing for younger siblings, foraging, and chores. This is a fine tuning stage of later social and sexual life-history strategies. First sexual or romantic attractions, sexual play, separation in gender roles typically emerge several years before puberty reflecting the fact that children are drawn into the evolutionary process of sexual selection much earlier than they become fertile. At this stage they actively learn sociosexual behavior and receive feedback about their sociosexual success from peer and adults, adapting their sexual competitive strategy to the environmental input. They engage in sexual and romantic relationship along with adults benefiting from learning, resources and social status they gain. This contributes to their sexual success in later life stages.

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In summary, the life stage of juvenility/middle childhood has two major interlocking functions: social learning and social integration in a system of roles, norms, activities, and shared knowledge. While children are still receiving sustained investment from parents and other relatives—in the form of food, protection, knowledge, and so forth—they also start to actively contribute to their family economy. By providing resources and sharing the burden of child care, juveniles can boost their parents’ reproductive potential. The dual nature of juveniles as both receivers and providers explains many psychological features of middle childhood and has likely played a major role in the evolution of human life history (Kramer, 2011)."
*:"Middle childhood is one of the main stages of human development, marked by the eruption of the first permanent molars around age 6 and the onset of androgen secretion by the adrenal glands at about 6-8 years (Bogin, 1997)."
*:"The transition to middle childhood is typically associated with a strong separation in gender roles, even in societies where tasks are not rigidly assigned by sex."
*:"The stress response system plays a major role in gathering and storing information about environmental safety, predictability, and availability of resources; adrenarche contributes by translating that information into adaptive, sexually differentiated patterns of behavior (Del Giudice et al., 2011; Ellis & Del Giudice, 2014). Consistent with this view, both early relational stress and early nutrition have been found to modulate the timing of adrenarche (Ellis & Essex, 2007; Hochberg, 2008). It is no coincidence that the first sexual and romantic attractions typically develop in middle childhood, in tandem with the intensification of sexual play (Bancroft, 2003; Herdt & McClintock, 2000). By interacting with peers and adults, juveniles receive feedback about the effectiveness of their nascent behavioral strategies. The information collected during middle childhood feeds into the next developmental switch point, that of gonadarche (Ellis, 2013)"
*:"By determining children’s initial place in social networks and hierarchies, competition in middle childhood indirectly affects their ability to attract sexual and romantic partners later. In other words, middle childhood is a likely target for sexual selection — that is, natural selection arising from the processes of choosing mates (mate choice) and competing for mates (mating competition). My colleagues and I (Del Giudice et al., 2009) argued that sexual selection is one reason why sex differences emerge and intensify in middle childhood."

== Other relevant information ==

=== Ontogenetic plasticity ===

Here's an explanation for why, if a minor attraction was adaptive, it may not be ubiquitous today.
*'''Alanko K, Salo B, Mokros A, Santtila P, (2013). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235369954_Evidence_for_Heritability_of_Adult_Men's_Sexual_Interest_in_Youth_under_Age_16_from_a_Population-Based_Extended_Twin_Design "Evidence for heritability of adult men's sexual interest in youth under age 16 from a population-based extended twin design."] ''J Sex Med,'' 10(4):1090-9.'''
*:"Adult men's sexual interest in youthfulness‐related cues may be genetically influenced. [...] The amount of variance attributable to nonadditive genetic influences (heritability) was estimated at 14.6%.[...] Compared with the variance attributable to nonshared environmental effects (plus measurement error), the contribution of any genetic factors seems comparatively weak."
*::'''Editor''': Note, that a heritability coefficient close to zero does not mean the weakness/absence of genetic control over the trait, counter wise may point to high genetic consistency among population, in which case the trait variance is naturally more dependent on the environment. ("Traits such as walking and breathing have low heritability, because these are usually universal traits with slight variations. [...] as heredity becomes more similar, the environment becomes the primary explanation for differences."<ref>[https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/psychology/biological-bases-of-behavior/heritability/ Studysmarter.co.uk: Explanation on heritability]</ref>) This finding of low heritability may be interpreted to mean that the genetic ability to develop minor attraction is highly pervasive among humans and modified by nurture and other environments. This goes along with the [[Research:_Evolutionary_Perspectives_on_Intergenerational_Sexuality#Mentorship-Bonding%2FEnculturation-Alliance_Hypothesis|Rind's conclusion]] on pederasty as evolutionary determined but a facultative trait.

*'''Bhugra, D. (2000). [https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/14681990050001574 Disturbances in objects of desire: Cross-cultural issues.] Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 15(1), 67–78. doi:10.1080/14681990050001574'''
*:"Paraphilias are defined as sexual attractions to objects or individuals not normally found attractive. [...] It is argued that, in some types of individual deviance, cultural factors are more likely to play an important role. Some cultures are seen as sex-positive and others as sex-negative but, within each cultural setting, attitudes towards sex and the function of sexual activity are a key to understanding the development of sexual deviance. In cultures where sex is seen as an attraction-led phenomenon rather than a purely procreative one, individuals are more likely to be attracted to 'objects'."

===Undesirable traits as adaptations===

Both pedohebephilic attraction and childhood sexuality are likely influenced somewhat by environmental factors. For example, there exist theories of [[Research:_Psychopathy_and_abnormal_psychology#Adverse_childhood|adverse childhood in pedohebephiles]] and [[Research:_Youth_sexuality#Factors_of_earlier_sexual_development|factors of earlier sexual development]] in youth sexuality. These are unproven and causality is hard to infer. It has been speculated that these are [[Research:_Evolutionary_Perspectives_on_Intergenerational_Sexuality#Complementary_behavior_among_minors|complementary]] adaptations to difficult circumstances.

From a layman's point of view, undesirable traits that arise as a result of adverse environment are mental breakdowns. From an evolutionary perspective, these may be ways to adapt in a harsh, primordial context. It is worth keeping this perspective in mind.

*'''Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647–670.'''
*:"The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite."

*'''Del Giudice, M. (2014b). [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/e27ce435-4226-2581-e053-d805fe0acbaa/DelGiudice_2014_early-stress_jdohad_pre.pdf Early stress and human behavioral development: Emerging evolutionary perspectives.] Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 5, 270-280.'''
*:“Stress experienced early in life exerts a powerful, lasting influence on development. Converging empirical findings show that stressful experiences become deeply embedded in the child's neurobiology, with an astonishing range of long-term effects on cognition, emotion, and behavior. In contrast with the prevailing view that such effects are the maladaptive outcomes of 'toxic' stress, adaptive models regard them as manifestations of evolved developmental plasticity.”
*:“Building on the concept of developmental plasticity, researchers have been increasingly advancing alternative models in which early stress does not primarily impair or dysregulate children’s developmental trajectories, but rather shifts them toward behavioral strategies that have proven biologically adaptive in harsh or unpredictable conditions”
*:“Exposure to stress works as a cue to local environmental conditions, and feeds into plasticity mechanisms that coordinate the development of alternative phenotypes.”
*:“In this perspective, many putative maladaptive traits such as anxiety, aggression, and impulsivity can be reframed as costly but adaptive phenotypes that improve an individual’s survival and reproduction prospects in hostile, unpredictable contexts. For example, increased vigilance and anxiety can be regarded as defensive reactions to potential threats, whereas aggression and impulsivity can be effective competitive strategies in harsh, unstable social environments. Furthermore, there is evidence that high levels of physiological and emotional reactivity increase an individual’s sensitivity to context, making him/her more open to both negative and positive social influences. Of course, some of these adaptive traits are going to have undesirable consequences for the individual and/or the social group, and may even be diagnosed as symptoms of psychopathology (e.g., conduct disorders). According to adaptive models, children exposed to early stress should exhibit patterns of impaired cognitive and emotional functioning when tested in safe, stress-free contexts and/or with tasks that mimic the demands of those contexts; but they should often perform better than their peers on tasks that reproduce key features of the dangerous, unpredictable environments they are adapted to. The initial evidence suggests that this may be the case.“

=== Response to critique of evolutionary explanations ===

*'''Karen Franklin. (2010). [https://pismin.com/10.1007/s10508-010-9616-1 Why the Rush to Create Dubious New Sexual Disorders?]. , 39(4), 819–820. doi:10.1007/s10508-010-9616-1'''
*:"As all students of Darwin know, evolutionary success strategies must be understood on a population-wide basis, not an individual level. Moreover, social scientists generally agree that biological evolution is rarely sufficient to understand human behavior in modern, complex social systems. Thus, to say that a trait may have emerged as evolutionarily adaptive in prehistoric times implies nothing of its presence or function on an individual level in contemporary society."

== See also ==

*[[Debate_Guide: Evolutionary logic|Debate Guide: Evolutionary logic]]
*[[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in_History|Intergenerational Relationships in History]]
*[[Research: Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals|Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals]]

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category: Research: Broader Perspectives]]

== References ==

Research: Youth sexuality

2026-05-02T11:21:32Z

Thorn: /* Sexual behaviour among youth */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Sexual activities among youth under 18 are common and do not tend to damage participants directly.<ref>[https://metro.co.uk/2013/04/29/children-of-ten-are-regularly-having-sex-3697942/ Children of ten ‘are regularly having sex’]: <small>"The problem was highlighted in a survey carried out among year 9 pupils by Michelle Barry, who works with youngsters as part of a Southampton rape crisis project. She said: ‘I was gobsmacked when I asked a class of 13-year-olds if they had ever sent naked pictures of themselves and not a single hand did not go up. ‘What is most worrying is the fact young people do not identify this as a problem. For them, it is part and parcel of school life.’"</small></ref> In localities where an association has been seen to exist, socially conservative attitudes and inadequate education, particularly concerning feminine gender roles, are the likely causes.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499.2015.1055855 Kim, H. S. (2015). Sexual Debut and Mental Health Among South Korean Adolescents. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(3), 313–320.]</ref> Whilst these experiences play an important part in learning, their diversity challenges the common myth of a uniform "childhood sexuality" characterized by "[[Childhood Innocence|innocent]] sex play". Evidence of young people's sexual behavior comes from a variety of sources (see below), including research from anthropology as shown in our [[Research:_Nonwestern_Intergenerational_Relationships|page on non-western cultures]].

==Age-appropriate chronophilia?==
It is supposed that as a child develops into an adult, his or her [[chronophilia|age-preference]] adjusts naturally in line with his or her age. This [[Debate Guide: Corresponding age attraction|corresponding age attraction]] argument is easily dismissed as ethnocentric to Western cultures, in which children are sorted into same-age peer groups. It is not supported by the evidence.

==Sexual behaviour among youth==

===Effects and perception===

The idea of "children" as "perpetrators of sexual abuse" is an American Imperialist worldview originating in the 1980s, as youth sexuality was further [[moral panic|problematized]]. By the 1990s, it had come to predominate in European countries - even formerly liberal Denmark.<ref>[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-022-02421-5 Leander, EM.B. Children’s Sexuality and Nudity in Discourse and Images in a Danish Education and Care Journal over 50 Years (1970–2019): The Emergence of “The Child Perpetrator of Sexual Abuse” in an International Perspective. Arch Sex Behav (2022). ]</ref> Our excerpts look mainly at studies that were not conducted under the presumption of abuse.

*'''Bourne PA, Brown N., (2026). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403546354_Psychosocial_Implications_of_the_Age_of_Sexual_Consent_Being_16_Years_in_Jamaica_Article_Information_Corresponding_author_Distributed_under_Creative_Commons_CC-BY_40/link/69d3d4463c61894306741d97/download Psychosocial Implications of the Age of Sexual Consent Being 16 Years in Jamaica]. ''Adv Res Psych & Behav Sci''.'''
*:"The age of sexual consent in Jamaica is legally established at 16 years, intended to protect minors from sexual exploitation while recognizing developmental transitions into late adolescence. However, discrepancies between statutory law and adolescent sexual behavior create complex psychosocial implications affecting well-being, access to healthcare, identity formation, and social development. This study critically examines the psychosocial consequences of maintaining the age of consent at 16 years within the Jamaican socio-cultural and legal context. Using a qualitative conceptual analytical design supported by documentary review of empirical research, policy documents, and legal analyses, the study identifies key themes including criminalization anxiety, service access barriers, gendered stigma, and developmental dissonance. The findings suggest that while the protective intent of the law is clear, unintended psychosocial consequences may arise when legal norms conflict with behavioural realities."
*'''Schmiedeberg, C., Avilés, T.G. (2025). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03128-z Longitudinal Links Between Sexual Debut and Self-Esteem Development in German Adolescents and Young Adults], Arch Sex Behav, 54, 1709–1716.'''
*:"The present study investigated whether first sexual intercourse was associated with subsequent changes in self-esteem. Data from a large, nationwide randomly sampled longitudinal study of adolescents and emerging adults in Germany (N = 1678, 53% female) of whom 39% experienced sexual debut during the study period were used. Fixed-effects regression models were applied to estimate the effect of sexual debut on self-esteem. Findings indicated a significant positive effect of sexual debut on subsequent self-esteem. This effect was not moderated by age at sexual debut or gender. Together, the results emphasize the developmental significance of sexual experiences for personal growth in adolescents and emerging adults."

*'''Corpuz, R., Kotov, D. A., & Donovan, R. L. (2023) [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1199735/abstract Earlier sexual debut predicts higher (not lower) levels of father care measured across twelve weeks: An experience sampling study.] ''Frontiers in Psychology'', 14, 1199735. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1199735'''
*:“They reported on ages of sexual debut, thorarche [age of first ejaculation], and the years between thorarche and first reproduction (i.e., current age) was calculated. Only age of sexual debut had a relationship with time allocated toward infants. Importantly however, this small effect was in a direction opposite of our LHT derived hypothesis. Males with earlier sexual debut spent more time with their infants.“

*'''McKee, Alan (2010). [https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41858/1/41858.pdf Does pornography harm young people?] ''Australian Journal of Communication'', 37(1), pp. 17-36.'''
*:"[...]longitudinal research and retrospective studies have consistently shown that similar-aged, consensual sexual experiences among children have no impact on adult sexual adjustment, either positive or negative (Greenwald and Leitenberg, 1989; [[Allie_C._Kilpatrick|Kilpatrick, 1992]]; Okami et al, 1997, p. 340). Lamb and Coakley’s research with adults who recalled childhood sexual games noted that: ‘Statistical analysis showed that these subjects did not differ from those who did not remember any childhood sexual games’ (Lamb and Coakley, 1993, p. 520).
*:"It is important that we distinguish between normal childhood sexual play and sexual abuse, and not simply collapse the two of them together (Lamb and Coakley, 1993). As noted above, an extensive tradition of research over many decades has established that sexual play – including looking at naked bodies, or pictures of naked bodies – can be a normal, healthy part of children’s development. But any form of coerced sexual practice – including being forced to look at pornography – can be destructive."

*'''Yin Xu, Sam Norton & Qazi Rahman (2021). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353849073_Adolescent_Sexual_Behavior_Patterns_Mental_Health_and_Early_Life_Adversities_in_a_British_Birth_Cohort Adolescent Sexual Behavior Patterns, Mental Health, and Early Life Adversities in a British Birth Cohort]". ''The Journal of Sex Research'', 59(1):1-12.'''
*:"This study tested adolescent sexual behavior patterns at age 14, their association with mental health at age 17 (psychological well-being, substance use, and self-harm attempts), and the influence of early life adversities upon this association. A British birth cohort (5,593 boys and 5,724 girls from the Millennium Cohort Study) was used. Latent class analysis suggested five subgroups of adolescent sexual behaviors: a “no sexual behavior” (50.74%), a “kisser” (39.92%), a “touching under clothes” (4.71%), a “genital touching” (2.64%), and an “all sexual activities” class (1.99%). Adolescents from the “kisser,” “touching under clothes,” “genital touching,” and “all sexual activities” classes reported significantly more substance use and self-harm attempts compared to adolescents from the “no sexual behavior” group. The associations became weaker after controlling for early life adversities (reducing around 4.38% to 37.35% for boys, and 9.29% to 52.56% for girls), and reduced to a smaller degree after further controlling for mental health variables at 14. The associations between sexual behaviors and psychological well-being became nonsignificant after controlling for early life adversities. Adolescents who have engaged in low-intensity sexual activities at early age may have poorer reported mental health, a pattern that is stronger for girls and early life adversity may partially explain this association."

*'''Nicholas, L., & Tredoux, C. (1996). "[https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114783 Early, late and non-participants in sexual intercourse: A profile of black South African first-year university students]". ''International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling'', 19 (2), 111–117'''
*:NewgonWiki: In this study 267 students experienced first sexual intercourse at or before 15 years. 370 students experienced first sexual intercourse at or after 18 years. The authors report this result: "Seventy-six percent of early starters reported greater satisfaction with their first sexual intercourse than did late starters (55%) (i.e., greatly enjoying, or simply enjoying sex).“

*'''Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (2001). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1023/a:1015252903931 "Sexual experiences in childhood: young adult's recollections,"] ''Arch Sex Behav'', 31(3):263-73'''
*:In a 2002 study of 269 Swedish students, 30% of those who had a sexual experience with a peer before the age of 13 assessed the activity as having had a positive effect on them as an adult, 66% thought it had no positive or negative effects, and 4% reported a negative effect. Except one, all of the subjects who reported a negative effect were involved in coercive activities.

*'''Donahue, K. L., Lichtenstein, P., Långström, N., & D’Onofrio, B. M. (2013). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1037/a0028922 Why does early sexual intercourse predict subsequent maladjustment? Exploring potential familial confounds.] ''Health Psychology'', 32(2), 180–189.'''
*:"'''Conclusions:''' Early intercourse may be associated with poor psychosocial health largely due to shared familial influences rather than through a direct causal connection. Therefore, effective and efficient interventions should address other risk factors common to early intercourse and poor psychosocial health"

*'''[[Judith Levine|Levine, J.]] (1996). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20090129100152/http://motherjones.com/news/feature/1996/07/levine-2.html A Question of Abuse]," ''Mother Jones''.'''
*:"What's wrong with these things? "They make parents nervous," says [[Allie_C._Kilpatrick|Allie Kilpatrick]], a social work professor at the University of Georgia who conducted a massive review of the literature on childhood sexual experiences, both wanted and unwanted, and administered her own 33-page questionnaire to 501 Southern women. Most of Kilpatrick's subjects had kissed and hugged, fondled and masturbated as adolescents, and more than a quarter had had vaginal intercourse. Her conclusion: "The majority of young people who experience some kind of sexual behavior find it pleasurable, without much guilt, and with no harmful consequences." A similar study of 526 New England undergraduates revealed "no differences...between sibling, nonsibling, and no-[sexual]-experience groups on a variety of adult sexual behavior and sexual adjustment measures."
[[File:Exclaim-ippf.jpg|thumb|In 2023, conservative groups reacted with outrage, after a document by the International Planned Parenthood Federation made factual statements about young peoples' sexuality<ref>Exclaim! A Declaration by IPPF, opens with: "Young people are sexual beings. They have sexual needs, desires, fantasies and dreams. It is important for all young people around the world to be able to explore, experience and express their sexualities in healthy, positive, pleasurable and safe ways. This can only happen when young people’s sexual rights are guaranteed." Later on, it is stated that "Young people’s sexual rights are different and more complex than adults’ sexual rights. One reason for this is the widespread denial of young people’s sexuality. There is a common misconception that young people are not, or should not be sexual beings with the exception of certain groups, such as married young people or young people above a certain age. Sexuality is a central aspect of being human during all phases of each person’s life. Another reason why young people’s sexual rights are particularly complex is because of the need to both protect and empower young people. There is a common assumption that young people are incapable of making decisions for themselves, so parents or other adults should have full authority over decisions related to their sexuality. Resistance to recognize young people’s sexuality and their decision- making abilities makes the realization of young people’s sexual rights all the more challenging. One of the most fundamental challenges of working from a rights-based perspective is finding the balance between young people’s right to be protected and their right to participate and take responsibility for exercising their own rights. Since each young person develops at their own pace, there is no universal age at which certain sexual rights and protections gain or lose importance. Therefore, striking the balance between protection and autonomy should be based on the evolving capacities of each individual young person."</ref>]]
*'''Harden, K., Mendle, J., Hill, J., Turkheimer, E., and Emery, R. (2008). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20201028141000/http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles%20for%20Online%20CV/(1)Harden%20et%20al%20(in%20press).pdf Rethinking timing of first sex and delinquency]," ''Journal of Youth and Adolescence'', 37(4), 373-385.'''
*:"The relation between timing of first sex and later delinquency was examined using a genetically informed sample of 534 same-sex twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, who were assessed at three time points over a 7-year interval. [...] After controlling for these genetic and environmental confounds using a quasi-experimental design, earlier age at first sex predicted lower levels of delinquency in early adulthood. [...]
*:Although the current results are contrary to embedded assumptions, they are actually consistent with previous research. Specifically, three quasi-experimental (longitudinal or behavior genetic) studies that examined whether timing of first sex influences subsequent psychosocial functioning, controlling for psychological differences that precede sexual initiation, have all failed to find adverse effects for sexual timing. [...]
*:The current study suggests that there may be positive functions for early initiation of sexual activity, in that the co-twin with earlier age at first sex demonstrated lower levels of delinquency in early adulthood. This result echoes a small but important body of previous research. In one of the first pieces of sex research, Kinsey et al. (1953) concluded that premarital sexual activity resulted in minimal "psychological disturbance" and may result in healthier non-romantic relationships and greater happiness later in life. More recent research has indicated that early sexual timing is associated with popularity (Prinstein et al. 2003); high self-esteem (for a review see Goodson et al. 2006; Paul et al. 2000); positive self-concept (Pedersen et al. 2003); high levels of body pride (Lammers et al. 2000), and increasing closeness to the same-sex best friend (Billy et al. 1988). [...] In the domain of adult sexual functioning, earlier age at first sex was found to predict greater coital orgasmic capacity in adult women (Raboch and Bartak 1983) and to discriminate sexually functional versus non-functional older men (age 64 years; Vallery-Masson et al. 1981). Women reporting an earlier age at first sex demonstrate less reactivity and faster recovery (as measured by cortical response) in response to stress (Brody 2002)."

*'''Arreola, Sonya; Neilands, Torsten; Pollack, Lance; Paul, Jay; Catania, Joseph (2008). "Childhood Sexual Experiences and Adult Health Sequelae Among Gay and Bisexual Men: Defining Childhood Sexual Abuse," ''Journal of Sex Research'', 45(3), pp. 246 - 252.'''
*:"Those who had forced sex were significantly more likely to be depressed or have suicidal ideation than those who had consensual sex and those who had no sex before age 18. There was no difference between the consensual sex group and those who had no sex before age 18. The level of well-being was significantly higher for the consensual group compared with the no sex before 18 group and the forced sex group. The latter two groups did not differ from each other on well-being. [...] Interestingly, the forced sex group and the no sex group were statistically indistinguishable in their level of well-being, while the consensual sex group was significantly more likely to have a higher level of well-being than either of the other two groups. This suggests that consensual sex before 18 years of age may have a positive effect, perhaps as an adaptive milestone of adolescent sexual development." This study was inclusive of both minor-minor relations and adult-minor relations; no distinctions were made.

*'''Meier, A. M. (2007). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1086/512708 "Adolescent First Sex and Subsequent Mental Health."] ''American Journal of Sociology'', 112(6), 1811–1847.'''
*:Editor note: A more up-to date analysis of this study's findings would surely do a better job of identifying confounds of negative outcomes.
*:"While some adolescents experience mental health decrements, the majority of those who had first sex did not. This finding highlights the importance of considering contingencies when investigating the effects of life events on mental health. [...] With respect to policy concerned with adolescent sexual activity, recall that welfare reform legislation’s “abstinence only” initiative suggests that nonmarital sex negatively impacts psychological well-being. This study finds mixed evidence on this assertion. On the one hand, I find support for statistically significant negative mental health effects of first sex for those in the aforementioned subgroups. On the other hand, a substantial majority of those who had sex in this sample did not experience changes in mental health. Among those who did see changes in mental health, on the individual level those changes are moderate in size—one-third to three quarters of an SD on the scales of their respective outcome. While relatively few adolescents who had sex exhibit changes in mental health, and the changes are not huge where they exist, changes of this size in these subgroups could amount to substantial shifts in population-level mental health. [...] For example, if those who had sex prior to time 1 did so in part because they had weaker norms against sex, then perhaps first sex would be less consequential for their mental health. If this is the case, the effects of first sex reported by this study may overestimate the true effects among adolescents."

*'''Bauserman, Robert, and Davis, Clive (1996). "Perceptions of Early Sexual Experiences and Adult Sexual Adjustment," ''International Journal of Sexual Health'', 8(3), 37-59.'''
*:"Results supported the hypotheses that positively evaluated early sexual experiences would be associated with greater erotophilia, more acceptance of various sexual behaviors for self and others, and greater sexual satisfaction." (From [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J056v08n03_03 abstract].)

* '''Poiani, A. (2010). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/animal-homosexuality/0352ED7E7645EE35B14FAAF3AE3A127B Animal homosexuality: A biosocial perspective.] ''Cambridge University Press''. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511762192'''
:: "When children of both sexes are reared together in a fully permissive environment they do engage in sex play activities. [...] Child sex play should therefore be regarded as a normal occurrence in human populations (Finkelhor 1980; Greenwald & Leitenberg 1989; Friedrich et al. 1991; Sandfort & Cohen Kettenis 2000; Friedrich 2000; Larsson & Svedin 2002). Children tend to avoid sex play activities with each other only as a response to bans enforced by adults; in the Chiricahua Apaches and many industrialised Western societies, for instance (Fox 1962; Friedrich et al. 1991; Larsson & Svedin 2001)."

::"Although involvement in heterosexual sexual behaviours continues to increase with age, involvement in homosexual sexual behaviours decreases during adolescence (Leitenberg et al. 1989), again suggesting that homosexual sexual experiences at younger ages tend to be more a precursor to the development of heterosexuality than of homosexuality in most individuals. Both kinds of sexual play experiences (heterosexual and homosexual) had the same positive effect on the development of sexual arousal as the child matured (Leitenberg et al. 1989)."

===Prevalence and diversity===
Most prevalence data is limited to parentally-observed behaviour. Surveys show decreasing rates of sexual intercourse before age 13 in America.<ref>[https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/factsheets/2019_sexual_trend_yrbs.htm YRBS]</ref>

[[File:First_arousal_and_orgasm_in_males.jpg|thumb| 400px| ''“orgasm is not at all rare among pre-adolescent boys”'' [[Alfred Kinsey]] (1948)<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/sexual_behavior_in_the_human_male_1948_-_chapter5_-_early_sexual_growth_and_activity.pdf Early Sexual Growth and Activity], in: [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=CB631307547C3F42D3EF6322A1708CAD Sexual Behavior in the Human Male] (1948) [[Alfred Kinsey]] - notable statistics on pre-adolescent and adolescent male sexual behaviours (first orgasm, homosexual and heterosexual activities, etc.)</ref>]]
*'''McKee, Alan (2010). [https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41858/1/41858.pdf Does pornography harm young people?] ''Australian Journal of Communication'', 37(1), pp. 17-36.'''
*:"In a 1996 study 59% of adults surveyed said that they ‘recalled at least one sexual experience with another child during their childhood’ (Haugaard, 1996, p. 86). A 1993 retrospective study of 128 women found that 85% described ‘a childhood sexual game experience’ (Lamb and Coakley, 1993, p. 515)."
*:"And in a 2002 study in Sweden 64% of girls aged 3-6 looked at other children’s genitals occasionally, sometime or often; 20% showed their genitals to children; 8% tried to look at nude pictures; 48% played doctors; 18% masturbated; 21% tried to touch other children’s genitals; and 43% touched their genitals at home (Larsson and Svedin, 2002, p.255). Meanwhile, in the same study, 65% of 3-6 year old boys looked at other children’s genitals; 50% tried to look at people undressing; 34% showed their genitals to other children; 8% tried to look at nude pictures; 37% played doctors; 28% masturbated; and 71% touched their genitals at home (Larsson and Svedin, 2002, p. 256)."

[[File:First_arousal_in_girls.jpg|thumb| 400px| ''““0.3 per cent of the females in the total sample masturbating to the point of orgasm by three years of age, and 8 per cent by ten years of age (Table 25, Figure 13)

Psychologic reactions or physical contacts with other girls were, in a few instances, the sources of sexual arousal at three years of age. About 3 per cent had been aroused by other girls by eleven years of age, and 6 per cent by thirteen years of age ( Table 13, Figures 4, 82).

Reactions to or contacts with boys had brought similar arousal in a fraction of one per cent at three years of age, but in about 7 per cent of the sample by eleven, and in 12 per cent of the sample by thirteen years of age ( Table 13, Figure 4 )
[...]
In those cases in which the child had failed to reach orgasm, the failure may have been due to lack of a physiologic capacity to respond to that point, but in many instances it may have been due to the child's failure to discover the necessary physical techniques for effective self-stimulation.”'' [[Alfred Kinsey]] (1953)<ref> Pre-adolescent sexual development, in: [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=9A7BCB943B7D39A05E0CC86DD8A63295 Sexual Behavior in the Human Female] (1953) [[Alfred Kinsey]] - statistics on pre-adolescent female sexual behaviours (first orgasm, arousal, significance of sex play, etc.)</ref>]]

*'''Veraa, A. (2009). ''[http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume18/j18_4.htm Child Sexual Abuse: The Sources of Anxiety Making and the Negative Effects]''. IPT Journal, vol 18.
*:"Much research since then has strongly supported the notion that children are sexual beings. It has been shown that children, without prompting by adults, think sexually, may engage in a wide range of sexual activities, and enjoy them despite sanctions imposed by adults. (Langfelt, 1981; Martinson, 1981; Goldman and Goldman, 1982<ref>[http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED224562.pdf Goldman and Goldman's 1982 study]</ref>; 1988; Haugaard and Tilly, 1988; Okami, 1992; Paris, 1997; Sandfort, 2001; Bancroft, 2003; Denov, 2003). It has also been long known that adult/child sexual activities in other cultures, such as routine stimulation of infant’s and children’s genitals and actively instructing them as to the pleasure of sex, has produced positive rather than negative effects on children. (Ford and Beach, 1951; Yates, 1978; Herlihy, 1993; Barr, 1996; Paris, 1997). Also see [[James Kincaid|Kincaid, (1998).]] The distaste of child sexuality in our culture seems therefore induced and not intrinsic; culturally or religiously relative, in other words."

*'''[[Floyd Martinson|Martinson, Floyd M.]] (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.
*:"By twelve years of age, approximately one boy in every four or five has tried at least to copulate with a female and more than ten percent of preadolescent boys experience their first ejaculation in connection with heterosexual intercourse, according to Kinsey. Ramsey reported that about one-third of his sample of middle-class boys had attempted sexual intercourse."

*'''Ford. C. S.. & Beach. F. A. (1951). ''Patterns of sexual behavior''. New York: Harper & Row.'''
*:"As long as the adult members of a society permit them to do so, immature males and females engage in practically every type of sexual behavior found in grown men and women. [p. 197] [...] After reviewing the cross-species and cross-cultural evidence, we are convinced that tendencies toward sexual behavior before maturity and even before puberty are genetically determined in many primates, including human beings."

*'''Reynolds, M.A., Herbenick, D. L., & Bancroft, J. (2003). The nature of childhood sexual experiences: Two studies 50 years apart. In J. Bancroft (Ed.), ''Sexual Development in Childhood'' (pp. 134-155). Indiana: Indiana University Press.'''
*:Editor: In a 1999 study of undergraduate students, 5.2% of females and 12.8% of males reported having engaged in sex play with their peers involving genital contact before elementary school, and that 1.3% of girls and 4.0% of boys had engaged in sex play involving anal/genital insertion (with objects or fingers) or oral-genital intercourse before elementary school. By the end of elementary school, the numbers increased to 29.2% for females and 32.9% for males for genital contact and 12.3 for girls and 10.1% for boys for insertion or oral sex. Very little pressure and almost no coercion were reported.

*'''Thigpen, Jeffry W. (2009). "Early Sexual Behavior in a Sample of Low-Income, African American Children," ''Journal of Sex Research'', 46(1), pp. 67-79.'''
*:"Some recent studies of primarily White, middle-class children have expanded our knowledge of the types of sexual behavior observed in children without known or suspected histories of sexual abuse. These studies show that children engage in sexual play (Lamb & Coakley, 1993; Leitenberg, Greenwald, & Tarran, 1989; Okami, Olmstead, & Abramson, 1997); show interest in viewing the bodies of others, as well as displaying their own (Friedrich, Fisher, Broughton, Houston, & Shafran, 1998; Friedrich, Grambsch, Broughton, Kuiper, & Beilke, 1991; Phipps-Yonas, Yonas, Turner, & Kauper, 1992; Shafran, 1995); and have knowledge of sexual anatomy and function (Gordon, Schroeder, & Abrams, 1990a,b; Grocke, Smith, & Graham, 1995). Taken with the findings from earlier descriptive studies that document the occurrence of such sexual behavior as penile erections in male infants, genital manipulation and play, and [[masturbation]] (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948; Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953; Moll, 1913; Spitz, 1949), non-abused children are suggested to display a wide range of sexual behavior. Behavioral differentiation by gender has been suggested, as genital manipulation and masturbatory behavior have been reported to be more common among boys (Friedrich et al., 1998; Gagnon, 1985; Rutter, 1971). Older children are suggested to be more knowledgeable than younger children about sexual behavior, pregnancy, and sexual abuse prevention (Gordon et al., 1990a), whereas hugging and kissing, self-stimulation, and exhibitionism are reported to be more common among younger children (Friedrich et al., 1991; Kinsey et al., 1948). The findings of some studies have noted an inverse relation between age and childhood sexual behavior, suggesting that the sexual behavior of children becomes covert over time (Friedrich et al., 1998; Friedrich et al., 1991; Gagnon, 1985)."

*'''Yates, A. (2004). "Biologic perspective on early erotic development," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 479-496.'''
*:"Eighty-five percent of young university women recalled erotic games and 44% recalled erotic games that involved boys [79]. Most remembered feeling sexually aroused or excited at the time. Most of the play involved exposing or touching the genitals. Insertion of objects in the vagina and oral contact was distinctly unusual. Other studies confirmed that most young adult students recalled early sex play that they viewed in a positive light as pleasurable and exciting [40, 80 and 81]."

*'''Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach (1951) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=EDFEA6F931F7829028850C4ADCF1356E Patterns of Sexual Behavior]. ''New York: Harper and Row'''''
*: In their examination of 191 cultures, Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach concluded that as “long as the adult members of a society permit them to do so, immature males and females engage in practically every type of sexual behavior found in grown men and women.”

*'''Bhugra, D. (2000). [https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/14681990050001574 Disturbances in objects of desire: Cross-cultural issues.] Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 15(1), 67–78. doi:10.1080/14681990050001574'''
*:"In their cross-cultural study of the sexual thoughts of children, [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED224562.pdf Goldman and Goldman (1982)] found that 50% of boys [Editor: actually 5%, not 50%, check in the original paper, p.188] and 9.5% of girls expressed aversion to their biological sex. This reaction peaked in adolescence, with 30% of 13-year-old boys in Australia and 20% in the USA expressing such feelings which, by contrast, were virtually absent in Sweden. Bancroft (1989) suggests that the more rigid the sex role stereotypes in a society, the greater the likelihood of this gender dysphoria. Thus, rigid expectations could produce anxiety and insecurity about gender identity, for which transsexual ideas would offer one method of coping."

*'''Sandnabba, N. Kenneth, Pekka Santtila, and Niklas Nordling. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pekka-Santtila-2/publication/247525378_Sexual_behavior_and_social_adaptation_among_sadomasochistically-oriented_males/links/568d184d08aec2fdf6f63ff8/Sexual-behavior-and-social-adaptation-among-sadomasochistically-orien “Sexual Behavior and Social Adaptation among Sadomasochistically-Oriented Males.”] ''The Journal of Sex Research'' 36, no. 3 (1999): 273–82.'''
:: Table 3 demonstrates the age at which participants (164 of male sadomasochists) became aware of their sadomasochistic preference: 9.3% in the <10 age bracket; another 12.3% in the 11-13 age bracket; yet another 19.1% in the 14-17 age bracket.

*'''Walker, A.M., Kuperberg, A. (2022) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alicia-Walker-2/publication/357834764_Pathways_and_Patterns_of_Entrance_into_BDSM/links/620413dc50d0b450188c52a8/Pathways-and-Patterns-of-Entrance-into-BDSM.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&_sg%5B1%5D=starte Pathways and Patterns of Entrance into BDSM]. ''Arch Sex Behav'' 51, 1045–1062 . doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02154-x'''
::"Almost one-ffth reported onset of fantasies before age 13, 76.4% reported onset before age 18, and 92.7% before age 22."

=== Factors of earlier sexual development ===
There is an assumption that cultural sexual restrictions are responsible for the timing of sexual development. While this may be true at some point, there are many other powerful factors that influence timing.
*'''Ellis, B. J., & Essex, M. J. (2007). [https://sci-hub.ru/10.2307/4620739 Family environments, adrenarche and sexual maturation: A longitudinal test of a life history model]. Child Development, 78, 1799–1817.'''
*:"Higher quality parental investment (from both mothers and fathers) and less father-reported Marital Conflict/Depression forecast later adrenarche. Older age at menarche in mothers, higher socioeconomic status, greater mother-based Parental Supportiveness, and lower third-grade body mass index each uniquely and significantly predicted later sexual development in daughters. Consistent with a life history perspective, quality of parental investment emerged as a central feature of the proximal family environment in relation to pubertal timing."

*'''Ellis, B. J., Figueredo, A. J., Brumbach, B. H., & Schlomer, G. L. (2009). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269820233_Fundamental_Dimensions_of_Environmental_Risk_The_Impact_of_Harsh_versus_Unpredictable_Environments_on_the_Evolution_and_Development_of_Life_History_Strategies The impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies.] Human Nature, 20, 204–268.'''
*:"The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH [life history] traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism's resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales.

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In a nutshell, dangerous and unpredictable environments tend to favor fast strategies characterized by early reproduction, sexual promiscuity, unstable relationships, impulsivity, risk taking, aggression, and exploitative tendencies, whereas safe and predictable environments tend to entrain slow strategies characterized by late reproduction, stable relationships, high selfcontrol, aversion to risk, and prosociality. Slow strategies are also favored by nutritional scarcity when danger is low (see Del Giudice et al., 2016; Ellis et al., 2009)"
*:"Another recent example is the finding that early adrenarche is associated with reduced white matter volume in the frontal lobe of children (Klauser et al., 2015). Again, the standard interpretation is that early DHEA exposure has a disruptive effect on neurodevelopmenal processes; however, it is also possible that different trajectories of brain development — and even associated “symptoms” such as anxiety and aggressive behaviors — may instead reflect alternative strategies on a fast-slow continuum of life history variation. Ellis and colleagues (2012) present an extended analysis of adolescent risk-taking from this perspective, and discuss several implications for the design of interventions."

* '''Poiani, A. (2010). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/animal-homosexuality/0352ED7E7645EE35B14FAAF3AE3A127B Animal homosexuality: A biosocial perspective.] ''Cambridge University Press''. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511762192'''
::"Sexual attraction develops slowly before puberty and by the age of about 10 years boys and girls have already experienced their first sexual attraction (McClintock & Herdt 1996). At 10, or before, the gonads are usually not fully mature; however, what does mature at that age are the adrenal glands, hence the naming of adrenarche for that stage of development (McClintock & Herdt 1996; Havelock et al. 2004). Adrenarche is a developmental process that is mainly confined to the Hominoidea (Havelock et al. 2004). Starting at about six years old, and therefore well before gonadarche, the adrenals begin to develop and by the age of 10 their steroid secretory activity is in full swing. One of the main steroids secreted by the adrenals is dehydroepiandrosterone (see, for example, Herdt & McClintock 2000), which is a precursor of both oestrogens and testosterone. Thyrotropin and cortisol are also secreted during this period (Ponton & Judice 2004). From this we may predict that stressful events that enhance the secretory activity of the adrenal glands may result in the early release of steroid hormones into the bloodstream that, in turn, could promote an early surge of sexual activity (see Ponton & Judice 2004 and references therein). Moreover, stress at around age 10 that increases the secretory activity of the adrenals may also affect the development of brain centres that control sexual behaviour and orientation and that are sensitive to steroids, at a time when sexual attraction is developing. Adrenarche, therefore, may be at the centre of a potential mechanism of prepubertal development of homosexuality in humans. Within this mechanism, changes in brain architecture may be modulated by stressful social experiences for instance, thus producing ontogenies leading to homosexuality."

==Early and middle childhood==

:''For a recent review, see [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345982853_Sexuality_Development_in_Childhood Li, 2020.] and perhaps combine with physical data and observations of Adrenarche as the dawn of advanced adult-like sexuality from our article on [[Research: Cognitive ability|cognitive ability]]. Below are some review highlights.''

*'''Li, Gu. (2022). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345982853_Sexuality_Development_in_Childhood Sexuality Development in Childhood]. 10.1007/978-3-030-84273-4_12. ''In book:'' Gender and sexuality development: Contemporary theory and research (pp.323-356) Chapter: 12 Publisher: Springer'''
*:new theoretic frame:
*::"[R]esearchers should abolish linear stage models, which incorrectly assume that there is emerging sexual abilities (e.g., kissing), which gradually evolve into full-blown sexual abilities (e.g., having sexual intercourse).[...] sexual activities do not always follow the linear order from kissing to coitus over time"
*:solitary activities:
*::"Around 40% to 60% of adults recalled having had masturbated in childhood (Bancroft, 2003), and up to 83% of young adults reported having had any type of solitary sexual behavior before adolescence. [...] masturbation in children seldom involves sexual fantasies or sexual attraction as in adults."
*:partnered activities ("doctor games"):
*::"Past research has suggested that a move as “trivial” as a touch on the hand can illicit physiological and emotional arousal in children that is similar to adults’ sexual experience.[..]These findings suggest that unlike adults, whose erotic feelings are centered around genitalia, children’s erotic feelings are not limited to this area. [...] [I]t is important to recognize that childhood sexual experience is overall positive for most people (Lamb, 2004; Lamb & Coakley, 1993; Larsson & Svedin, 2002a), and that when properly supervised, childhood sexual games could provide a safe context for children to gain sexual knowledge and could have a long-term positive impact on children’s sexuality development"
*:sexual arousability is independent from sexual attraction:
*:: "[C]hildren’s sexual behavior typically does not accompany sexual desire. [...] Surveying 119 boys and 116 girls aged 8 to 11 years, Cameron and Biber (1973) found that 4% of children reported that sex “had been the focus of their thought in the past 5 min [...] 3.9% of men and 2.8% of women recalled thinking a lot about sex between ages 6 to 10 years(Larsson & Svedin, 2002a) [...] young children can be aroused by physical stimulations but without the motivation to seek out sexual encounters and/or the capacity to experience sexual fantasies or sexual attraction. The cause of this dissociation has been attributed to two independent systems governing human sexuality: sexual arousability (i.e., the capacity to become sexually aroused) and sexual proceptivity (i.e., the motivation to have sex)[...] [C]hildren can experience sexual arousal even though they have low levels of endogenous androgens and estrogens"
*:onset of sexual attraction:
*::"LGB individuals on average have first same-sex sexual attraction at age 10 and heterosexual individuals on average experience first other-sex sexual attraction at the same time"
*:sexual orientation fluidity in childhood and early adolescence:
*::"[O]ver half of lesbian women and over one third of gay men reported that their first sexual attraction was towards the other sex rather than the same sex [...] Moreover, some self-identified completely heterosexual women and men may experience same-sex sexual attraction or sexual behavior in early adolescence but not in emerging adulthood"
*:adrenarche as a hormonal basis for prepubertal sexuality awakening:
*::"Adrenarche refers to the “awakening of adrenal gland,” which on average occurs in middle childhood (around 6- to 8-years-old) and is marked by the upsurge of adrenal androgens such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) [...] DHEA and its metabolite testosterone improve sexual desire and sexual arousal [...] The link between adrenarche and sexual proceptivity appears to hold universally: A cross-cultural study in New Guinea and the U.S. found that sexual attraction and other proceptive sexual experiences emerge around age 10 years in different cultures, shortly after the onset of adrenache"
*:safety or deprivation of intimate peer relationship:
*::"the general consensus among researchers is that the dynamics and atmosphere of sexual encounters (e.g., whether these encounters are mutually initiated; whether sexual coercion is involved; whether these encounters take place in a close relationship) have a larger impact on children’s future outcomes than the type of sexual activities (e.g., involving genital contact or not; Diamond et al., 2015; Lamb & Plocha, 2014). [...] Cross-species evidence further suggests that social deprivation of peer interactions in early life may result in persisting deficits in sexual behavior.[...] These findings raise the possibility that peer interactions in childhood, either with the same sex or the other sex, may be essential for the development of later sexual behaviors. However, this hypothesis has not been tested in humans"
*:sexual education:
*::"starting the discussions before children are in school, creating opportunities to talk, and taking a step-by-step strategy are associated with better communication quality (Gordon et al., 1990; Pluhar et al., 2006; Wilson et al., 2010).[...] In contrast, when parents adopt untrusting, intimidating, or antagonistic approaches or focus on persuading children into sexual abstinence, their children are more likely to hide information from parents"
*:promotion of sexual agency:
*::"It is widely yet incorrectly assumed that because children have immature self-regulatory systems, they do not exercise sexual reasoning or decision-making (reviewed in Jarkovská & Lamb, 2018). Yet, studies on sexualizing media and sexual scripts have suggested that children do regulate their own sexual behaviors, with their self-regulations being heavily influenced by sexual scripts (APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 2007). [...] Therefore, one fruitful future direction could be to develop educational, social, and psychological interventions to reduce sexual scripts that prescribe fixed gender and sexual norms and to encourage sexual agency in children."

*'''World Health Organization (2010) - [https://www.bzga-whocc.de/fileadmin/user_upload/BZgA_Standards_English.pdf Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe]'''
*:"Children have sexual feelings even in early infancy. Between the second and third year of their lives, they discover the physical differences between men and women.
*:[...]
*:During this time, children start to discover their own bodies (early childhood masturbation, self-stimulation) and they may also try to examine the bodies of their friends (playing doctor) […] from the age of three, they understand that adults are secretive about this subject. They test adults’ limits, for instance by undressing without warning or by using sexually charged language."

*'''Josephs, Lawrence (2015). "[https://www.ipce.info/library/journal-article/how-children-learn-about-sex How Children Learn About Sex: A Cross-Species and Cross- Cultural Analysis]," ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', 44:1059-1069, DOI: [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1007/s10508-015-0498-0 10.1007/s10508-015-0498-0]'''
*:"Nevertheless, the existing but widely scattered primatological and anthropological data indicate that nonhuman primates, hunter-gatherer children, and children in various small tribal cultures from around the world learn about sex through observational learning and sexual rehearsal play prior to puberty. Psychological research in contemporary western contexts indicates that during early childhood children are sexually curious and appear to enjoy pleasure in genital stimulation but contemporary western parents tend to conceal parental sexuality, prohibit interactive sex play, and take a minimalist approach to early childhood sex education in the attempt to preserve childhood sexual innocence."

*'''Loretta Haroian, Ph.D. (2000, reprint). "[http://www.ejhs.org/volume3/Haroian/body.htm Child Sexual Development]," ''Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality'', Volume 3, Feb. 1, 2000'''
*:"Two year olds “love to be in the bathroom with other family members. They still like to be naked; they love to romp, flee and pursue, to taste, touch and rub.” [...] “In the later half of the third year, the child begins to feel great tension and expresses it through many compulsive patterns, such as thumb sucking, nose picking, masturbation [...] “Three-and-a-half shifts rapidly between extreme shyness and exhibitionism, all in the quest of positive attention [...] The intense need for attention, preoccupation with bodily functions, interest and curiosity about reproduction and increased ability to communicate verbally with adults can culminate in a pseudo-mature seductive posture, especially in female threes [...] It is quite common at a party of adults to see the 3-year-old daughter of the host comfortably curled up in the lap or laps of a succession of male guests capturing their attention with her interpersonal magnetism. “She may even request that her ‘new friend’ put her to bed and may hold thoughts of him and make reference to him for days or weeks after the party. This behavioral pattern is not exclusive to girls, but is somewhat more pronounced, is better tolerated in terms of gender role stereotypes and receives positive reinforcement from the involved adults [...] “The potential for sexual stimulation in this situation is obvious, and available data confirms the incidence of pedophilic genital fondling at this age [...] The sex histories of many adult men and women contain such experiences that were not traumatic or that caused little concern until the sexual activity escalated beyond looking and fondling or until the situation was discovered and responded to negatively by other adults. [...] Girls at this age are often in love with a considerably older boy or adult male [...] Most children feel that same-sex experimentation is normal and age appropriate, but that heterosexual coupling should be reserved for adulthood and reproduction.”

*'''Volbert, R. (1997). Sexuelles Verhalten von Kindern: Normale Entwicklung oder Indikator für sexuellen Mißbrauch?<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/images/Tabuzone.pdf Volbert, identified in Tabu Zone]</ref> In G. Amann & R. Wipplinger (Hrsg.), Sexueller Mißbrauch (S. 385-398). Tübingen: dgvt-Verlag'''
*:[translation] “(…I)n a survey of 211 nursery nurses and kindergarten teachers of the former GDR (Bach, 1993), they stated that they had observed genital games in 75% of boys and 60% of girls aged 2 to 6 years. In a study by Klein (1993), the Erzieherinnen surveyed said that 40% of girls and 19% of boys often played on their genitals. 27% of the Erzieherinnen stated that they had noticed clear states of arousal in the children; orgasms were observed in 13% of the boys and in 17% of the girls. In a Norwegian study (Gundersen et al., 1981), 85% of the Erzieherinnen surveyed stated that they had observed masturbation in the kindergarten children. About a quarter said that it comes to orgasm in the children. In accordance with this, 81% of 91 Erzieherinnen surveyed in a study by Volbert and Zellmer (in prev.), having observed genital games in the children under their care up to 7 years of age; 43% confirmed the observation of masturbation of children and 23% reported having observed that children masturbated to orgasm".

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:" It is no coincidence that the first sexual and romantic attractions typically develop in middle childhood, in tandem with the intensification of sexual play (Bancroft, 2003; Herdt & McClintock, 2000). By interacting with peers and adults, juveniles receive feedback about the effectiveness of their nascent behavioral strategies."
*:"Fetishistic attractions also tend to form in middle childhood, with the onset of pleasurable sensations toward the object of the fetish (e.g., rubber, shoes) that later become fully eroticized (Lawrence, 2009). The onset of fetishistic attractions is part of a generalized awakening of sexuality in middle childhood (Table 1) and illustrates the potential for rapid plasticity with long-lasting outcomes."
*:"While learning and play are relatively risk-free, they are not without consequences. The social position achieved in middle childhood is a springboard for adolescence and adulthood; popularity and centrality within the peer network put a child at a considerable advantage, with potentially long-term effects on mating and reproductive success (Del Giudice et al., 2009)."

* '''[[Gilbert Herdt]] and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf The Magical Age of 10], ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000.'''
*:"Middle childhood should no longer be viewed as a period of hormonal quiescence. Nor should we believe that for all children, there is an absence of sexual subjectivity before gonadarche. Rather, the accumulating evidence suggests that there is more sexual subjectivity occurring during childhood than previously believed, especially from the age of 6 onward, with the onset of adrenarche."
*:"It is tempting to argue that if attraction typically develops during adrenarche but is ignored or repressed by adults’ retrospection about sexual development, particularly before it becomes stabilized around the age of 10, the contemporary United States may be a good example of a society in which discontinuity in sexuality is a common developmental experience, and may affect the memory of earliest sexual attraction (Herdt, 1990). Because male and female, as well as homosexual and heterosexual experiences of attraction were found before the age of 10, the internal representation of sexual attraction is robust and memorable enough to overcome these societal constraints (McClintock and Herdt, 1996)."

==Fetal/infant sexual capacity==

Freud's theories are widely known for their references to autoerotic behaviors in infants.<ref>[https://nosubject.com/Auto-eroticism Auto-eroticism]</ref><ref>"That children were capable of autoerotic activity was never in doubt among nineteenth-century sexologists." See, Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes, ''Theorizing the Sexual Child in Modernity'' (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 79.</ref> Numerous studies have since revealed suspected epilectic seizures in infants to be masturbatory episodes.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/1059-1311(92)90026-W Wulff, C. H., Østergaard, J. R., & Storm, K. (1992). Epileptic fits or infantile masturbation? Seizure, 1(3), 199–201. doi:10.1016/1059-1311(92)90026-w]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/BF02752422 Deda, G., Çaksen, H., Suskan, E., & Gümüs, D. (2001). Masturbation mimicking seizure in an infant. The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 68(8), 779–781. doi:10.1007/bf02752422]</ref><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289189248_Childhood_masturbation_Diagnosis_of_pseudoepileptic_seizures_in_children Childhood masturbation: Diagnosis of pseudoepileptic seizures in children]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4912646/ Doust ZK, Shariat M, Zabandan N, Tabrizi A, Tehrani F. Diagnostic Value of the Urine Mucus Test in Childhood Masturbation among Children below 12 Years of Age: A Cross-Sectional Study from Iran. Iran J Med Sci. 2016 Jul;41(4):283-7. PMID: 27365549; PMCID: PMC4912646.]</ref> Further investigations have gone into greater detail, including in-utero obervations:

*'''Giorgi, Giorgio, and Siccardi, Marco (1996). "Ultrasonographic observation of a female fetus' sexual behavior in utero," ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology'', 175, 3(1, part 1), 753.'''
*:"We recently observed a female fetus at 32 weeks' gestation touching the vulva with the fingers of the right hand. The caressing movements were centered primarily on the region of the clitoris. Movements stopped after 30 to 40 seconds and started again after a few minutes. Furthermore, these slight touches were repeated and were associated with short, rapid movements of pelvis and legs. After another break, in addition to this behavior, the fetus contracted the muscles of the trunk and limbs, and then clonicotonic movements of the whole body followed. Finally, she relaxed and rested.
*:We observed this behavior for about 20 minutes. The mother was an active and interested witness, conversing with observers about her child's experience.
*:Evidence of male fetuses' excitement reflex in utero, such as erection or ″masturbation” movements, has been previously reported.
*:The current observation seems to show not only that the excitement reflex can be evoked in female fetuses at the third trimester of gestation but also that the orgasmic reflex can be elicited during intrauterine life. This would agree with the physiologic features of female sexuality: The female sexual response is separate from reproductive functions and doesn't need a full sexual maturity to be explicit."


*'''Thomson Salo, F. & Paul, C. (2011) [https://perspectives.waimh.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2017/05/Reconsidering-parental-sexuality-and-infant-sensual-excitement-and-greed-What-is-lost-in-infant-mental-health-without-these-concepts.pdf Reconsidering parental sexuality, and infant sensual excitement and greed: what is lost in infant mental health without these concepts?] World Association for Infant Mental Health.'''
*:"If infants enjoy breastfeeding and enjoy their body generally, this would be a good basis for their sense of identity, self esteem and enjoyable sexuality. The British psychoanalyst, Rosine Perelberg (2007), wrote that, “The ‘right’ amount of erotism is crucial, so that it is not too much, overexciting the child, or too little, without an erotic investment for the baby, which is also so crucial for its relationship with its own body.” [...] One father asked the Maternal and Child Health Nurse if his 4-month-old son could be jealous of the parents “being intimate” – when the baby was lying on the bed beside his parents he cried loudly whenever his father touched his wife’s breasts (McWilliams, pers. comm.14.8.07). Male observers have reported 15-week-old girl babies acting flirtatiously with them. And while gender often seems relatively ignored in Infant Mental Health in the first year, yet by 6 months there is often a difference in the quality of the sensual excitement with which babies respond to adults."

*'''Yates, A. (2004). "Biologic perspective on early erotic development," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 479-496.'''
*:"William Masters was an obstetrician before he became a sex researcher. He devised a game that he played while waiting for an infant to be born. He would bet that, if it were a boy, he could deliver the infant before the child could produce an erection. He won the game only half of the time."

*'''Yates, A. (1978). [http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/yates/sex/SexWithoutShame.html Sex without shame: Encouraging the child's healthy sexual development]. ''New York: William Morrow''.'''
*:"He also noted that all girl babies lubricated vaginally in the first four to six hours of life. Infants were born ready and fully equipped. During sleep, spontaneous erections or vaginal lubrications occur every eighty to, ninety minutes throughout the entire life span. (Masters, 1975) Throughout life, sleeping sexual function remains far more reliable. While awake, our conscious anxieties take their toll.
*:Masturbation culminating in climax may occur as early as the first month of life. The baby girl is the most enthusiastic and proficient. With unmistakable intent, she crosses her thighs rigidly. With a glassy stare she grunts, rubs, and flushes for a few seconds or minutes. If interrupted, she screams with annoyance. Movements cease abruptly and are followed by relaxation and deep sleep. This sequence occurs many times during the day, but only occasionally at night. The baby boy proceeds with distinct penis throbs and thrusts accompanied by convulsive contractions of the torso. After climax his erection (without ejaculation) quickly subsides and he appears calm and peaceful. Kinsey reports that one boy of eleven months had ten climaxes in an hour and that another of the same age had fourteen in thirty-eight minutes."

*'''[[Floyd Martinson|Martinson, Floyd M.]] (1973). [http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]. ''The Book Mark''.'''
*:"Before specifically discussing the affectional and sexual behavior of infants, we will more systematically and conclusively establish that infants have the somato-sensory capacity for erotic behavior. Boy babies are sometimes born with erections, and there is no reason to believe that the capacity for such marked physiological response develops any later in girls. In a study of nine male babies of ages three to twenty weeks, tumescence (penile erection) was observed at least once daily in seven of the nine. (Halverson, 1940). [...] Kinsey (1953, p. 142) reports one record of a seven-month-old infant and records of five infants under one year who were observed to masturbate. Twenty-three girls, three years or younger, appeared to reach orgasm in self stimulation. Kinsey's unpublished interview data contains notations from interviews with a small sample of two year olds and their mothers. One mother reported that her son had the habit of rubbing against a doll's head to masturbate. Another reported that her son's masturbating was deliberate, prolonged, and accompanied by an erection."
*:Later article: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3811331 Eroticism in Infancy and Childhood].

*'''[[Floyd Martinson|Martinson, Floyd M.]] (1981). “[http://library.lol/main/1EEA84D225F59C0B4853B57D604F82BB The Sex Education of Young Children]”, in ''Sex Education in the Eighties The Challenge of Healthy Sexual Evolution'', ed. by Lorna Brown (Plenum Press: New York), pp. 51-82.'''
*:“What sexual capacity, anatomical, physiological, or psychological, does the child possess that could result in sexual interest, behavior, and learning during the earliest years of life? Sexual capacities and their rehearsal are apparent in the infant long before the development of self-consciousness or erotic awakening. Knowledge of such capacity has existed for a very long time. For example, Pouillet reported research that showed the erectal capacity of infant boys almost 100 years ago, noting that all boys exhibited the faculty for erection if the edge of the foreskin of the penis was tickled with a feather (Pouillet, 1883, p. 99).
*:Parents, particularly mothers, are a major source of the knowledge that boy babies commonly have spontaneous erections under a variety of conditions-a full bladder, during bathing, during sleep (Conn & Kanner, 1947, p. 339). In a study of nine male babies aged 3 to 20 weeks, Halverson (1940) reported tumescence (penile erection) at least once daily in seven of the nine. Individual responses varied from 5 to 40 erections per day. Tumescence was often accompanied by restlessness, fretting, crying, stretching, and stiffly flexing the limbs. Following detumescence, behavior was in the nature of playful activity or relaxation. In many societies genital stimulation has been used to subdue and relax infants."

*'''Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes, [http://library.lol/main/8FFE60B6B39354A79CBFF671A7891AE2 Theorizing the Sexual Child in Modernity] (''Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan'', 2010), p. 79.'''
*:"Every physician conversant with nervous affections and diseases incident to childhood is aware of the fact that manifestations of the sexual instinct may occur in very young children. Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1892/1965) [...] That children were capable of autoerotic activity was never in doubt among nineteenth-century sexologists."

== See also ==
*'''[[Floyd Martinson]]''' - a pioneer in child sexuality research, contributing more to that field than anyone else in his lifetime
*:*Floyd M. Martinson, '''"[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/index.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]"''', ''The Book Mark'', USA, 1973.
*:* Floyd M. Martinson. (1974) '''[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/adolescent/Adolescent.html The Quality of Adolescent Sexual Experiences]'''. ''The Book Mark''
*:*Martinson, Floyd M. (1981). “'''[http://library.lol/main/1EEA84D225F59C0B4853B57D604F82BB The Sex Education of Young Children]'''”, in ''Sex Education in the Eighties The Challenge of Healthy Sexual Evolution'', ed. by Lorna Brown (Plenum Press: New York), pp. 51-82.
*:*Floyd M. Martinson. '''"[https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=16ABA69C5A0F45E04E97BD31A7CD26BE The Sexual Life of Children]"''', ''Bergin & Garvey'', 1994
*'''[[John Bancroft]]''' - a sexologist, former director in Kinsey's Institute who made great contribution into child and adolescence sexuality
*:*John Bancroft, June Machover Reinisch (1990) '''[https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F212BDB2C84220A1D4E56106B9AD8A6A Adolescence and Puberty]'''. ''Oxford University Press''
*:*John Bancroft (2003) '''[https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=C3F0A409AC9F1193E0BA75B847BC19E4 Sexual Development in Childhood] (Kinsey Institute Series)''' ''Indiana University Press''

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Youth Sexuality''' contains some useful information on this topic. Please feel free to right click, save and upload to your favored character-limited social media service.

{{Template:EGLYS}}

'''Sociocultural arguments''' are also somewhat related:

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==External links==

*[https://fstube.net/w/aXHNcMvrWkCtYQfezZ2Ax6 Sexual Development & Children with Sex Behavior Problems (Part 1 of 3)] - First in a series ([https://fstube.net/w/aQjNqSGjxTS99Bz6mysnWS 2], [https://fstube.net/w/7p2B6thkDV6wjKMgtq2TqD 3]) of videos hitting back at the medical culture of problematizing young people's sexuality.

*Goldman, Ronald; Goldman, Juliette (1982) [https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED224562 Children's Sexual Thinking: A Comparative Study of Children Aged 5 to 15 Years in Australia, North America, Britain and Sweden.] [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED224562.pdf pdf] - "The purpose of this cross-national descriptive study is to measure the extent of children's sexual knowledge and sexual understanding at various ages and to identify what processes of thought children use in trying to explain biological functions and the phenomena of their own bodies as they grow and change."

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Youth sexuality

2026-05-01T18:58:44Z

Thorn: /* Sexual behaviour among youth */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Sexual activities among youth under 18 are common and do not tend to damage participants directly.<ref>[https://metro.co.uk/2013/04/29/children-of-ten-are-regularly-having-sex-3697942/ Children of ten ‘are regularly having sex’]: <small>"The problem was highlighted in a survey carried out among year 9 pupils by Michelle Barry, who works with youngsters as part of a Southampton rape crisis project. She said: ‘I was gobsmacked when I asked a class of 13-year-olds if they had ever sent naked pictures of themselves and not a single hand did not go up. ‘What is most worrying is the fact young people do not identify this as a problem. For them, it is part and parcel of school life.’"</small></ref> In localities where an association has been seen to exist, socially conservative attitudes and inadequate education, particularly concerning feminine gender roles, are the likely causes.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499.2015.1055855 Kim, H. S. (2015). Sexual Debut and Mental Health Among South Korean Adolescents. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(3), 313–320.]</ref> Whilst these experiences play an important part in learning, their diversity challenges the common myth of a uniform "childhood sexuality" characterized by "[[Childhood Innocence|innocent]] sex play". Evidence of young people's sexual behavior comes from a variety of sources (see below), including research from anthropology as shown in our [[Research:_Nonwestern_Intergenerational_Relationships|page on non-western cultures]].

==Age-appropriate chronophilia?==
It is supposed that as a child develops into an adult, his or her [[chronophilia|age-preference]] adjusts naturally in line with his or her age. This [[Debate Guide: Corresponding age attraction|corresponding age attraction]] argument is easily dismissed as ethnocentric to Western cultures, in which children are sorted into same-age peer groups. It is not supported by the evidence.

==Sexual behaviour among youth==

===Effects and perception===

The idea of "children" as "perpetrators of sexual abuse" is an American Imperialist worldview originating in the 1980s, as youth sexuality was further [[moral panic|problematized]]. By the 1990s, it had come to predominate in European countries - even formerly liberal Denmark.<ref>[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-022-02421-5 Leander, EM.B. Children’s Sexuality and Nudity in Discourse and Images in a Danish Education and Care Journal over 50 Years (1970–2019): The Emergence of “The Child Perpetrator of Sexual Abuse” in an International Perspective. Arch Sex Behav (2022). ]</ref> Our excerpts look mainly at studies that were not conducted under the presumption of abuse.

*'''Bourne PA, Brown N., (2026). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403546354_Psychosocial_Implications_of_the_Age_of_Sexual_Consent_Being_16_Years_in_Jamaica_Article_Information_Corresponding_author_Distributed_under_Creative_Commons_CC-BY_40/link/69d3d4463c61894306741d97/download Psychosocial Implications of the Age of Sexual Consent Being 16 Years in Jamaica]. ''Adv Res Psych & Behav Sci''.'''
*:"The age of sexual consent in Jamaica is legally established at 16 years, intended to protect minors from sexual exploitation while recognizing developmental transitions into late adolescence. However, discrepancies between statutory law and adolescent sexual behavior create complex psychosocial implications affecting well-being, access to healthcare, identity formation, and social development. This study critically examines the psychosocial consequences of maintaining the age of consent at 16 years within the Jamaican socio-cultural and legal context. Using a qualitative conceptual analytical design supported by documentary review of empirical research, policy documents, and legal analyses, the study identifies key themes including criminalization anxiety, service access barriers, gendered stigma, and developmental dissonance. The findings suggest that while the protective intent of the law is clear, unintended psychosocial consequences may arise when legal norms conflict with behavioural realities."
*'''Schmiedeberg, C., Avilés, T.G. (2025). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03128-z Longitudinal Links Between Sexual Debut and Self-Esteem Development in German Adolescents and Young Adults], Arch Sex Behav, 54, 1709–1716.'''
*:"The present study investigated whether first sexual intercourse was associated with subsequent changes in self-esteem. Data from a large, nationwide randomly sampled longitudinal study of adolescents and emerging adults in Germany (N = 1678, 53% female) of whom 39% experienced sexual debut during the study period were used. Fixed-effects regression models were applied to estimate the effect of sexual debut on self-esteem. Findings indicated a significant positive effect of sexual debut on subsequent self-esteem. This effect was not moderated by age at sexual debut or gender. Together, the results emphasize the developmental significance of sexual experiences for personal growth in adolescents and emerging adults."

*'''Corpuz, R., Kotov, D. A., & Donovan, R. L. (2023) [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1199735/abstract Earlier sexual debut predicts higher (not lower) levels of father care measured across twelve weeks: An experience sampling study.] ''Frontiers in Psychology'', 14, 1199735. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1199735'''
*:“They reported on ages of sexual debut, thorarche [age of first ejaculation], and the years between thorarche and first reproduction (i.e., current age) was calculated. Only age of sexual debut had a relationship with time allocated toward infants. Importantly however, this small effect was in a direction opposite of our LHT derived hypothesis. Males with earlier sexual debut spent more time with their infants.“

*'''McKee, Alan (2010). [https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41858/1/41858.pdf Does pornography harm young people?] ''Australian Journal of Communication'', 37(1), pp. 17-36.'''
*:"[...]longitudinal research and retrospective studies have consistently shown that similar-aged, consensual sexual experiences among children have no impact on adult sexual adjustment, either positive or negative (Greenwald and Leitenberg, 1989; [[Allie_C._Kilpatrick|Kilpatrick, 1992]]; Okami et al, 1997, p. 340). Lamb and Coakley’s research with adults who recalled childhood sexual games noted that: ‘Statistical analysis showed that these subjects did not differ from those who did not remember any childhood sexual games’ (Lamb and Coakley, 1993, p. 520).
*:"It is important that we distinguish between normal childhood sexual play and sexual abuse, and not simply collapse the two of them together (Lamb and Coakley, 1993). As noted above, an extensive tradition of research over many decades has established that sexual play – including looking at naked bodies, or pictures of naked bodies – can be a normal, healthy part of children’s development. But any form of coerced sexual practice – including being forced to look at pornography – can be destructive."

*'''Yin Xu, Sam Norton & Qazi Rahman (2021). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353849073_Adolescent_Sexual_Behavior_Patterns_Mental_Health_and_Early_Life_Adversities_in_a_British_Birth_Cohort Adolescent Sexual Behavior Patterns, Mental Health, and Early Life Adversities in a British Birth Cohort]". ''The Journal of Sex Research'', 59(1):1-12.'''
*:"This study tested adolescent sexual behavior patterns at age 14, their association with mental health at age 17 (psychological well-being, substance use, and self-harm attempts), and the influence of early life adversities upon this association. A British birth cohort (5,593 boys and 5,724 girls from the Millennium Cohort Study) was used. Latent class analysis suggested five subgroups of adolescent sexual behaviors: a “no sexual behavior” (50.74%), a “kisser” (39.92%), a “touching under clothes” (4.71%), a “genital touching” (2.64%), and an “all sexual activities” class (1.99%). Adolescents from the “kisser,” “touching under clothes,” “genital touching,” and “all sexual activities” classes reported significantly more substance use and self-harm attempts compared to adolescents from the “no sexual behavior” group. The associations became weaker after controlling for early life adversities (reducing around 4.38% to 37.35% for boys, and 9.29% to 52.56% for girls), and reduced to a smaller degree after further controlling for mental health variables at 14. The associations between sexual behaviors and psychological well-being became nonsignificant after controlling for early life adversities. Adolescents who have engaged in low-intensity sexual activities at early age may have poorer reported mental health, a pattern that is stronger for girls and early life adversity may partially explain this association."

*'''Nicholas, L., & Tredoux, C. (1996). "[https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114783 Early, late and non-participants in sexual intercourse: A profile of black South African first-year university students]". ''International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling'', 19 (2), 111–117'''
*:NewgonWiki: In this study 267 students experienced first sexual intercourse at or before 15 years. 370 students experienced first sexual intercourse at or after 18 years. The authors report this result: "Seventy-six percent of early starters reported greater satisfaction with their first sexual intercourse than did late starters (55%) (i.e., greatly enjoying, or simply enjoying sex).“

*'''Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (2001). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1023/a:1015252903931 "Sexual experiences in childhood: young adult's recollections,"] ''Arch Sex Behav'', 31(3):263-73'''
*:In a 2002 study of 269 Swedish students, 30% of those who had a sexual experience with a peer before the age of 13 assessed the activity as having had a positive effect on them as an adult, 66% thought it had no positive or negative effects, and 4% reported a negative effect. Except one, all of the subjects who reported a negative effect were involved in coercive activities.

*'''Donahue, K. L., Lichtenstein, P., Långström, N., & D’Onofrio, B. M. (2013). [https://sci-hub.se/10.1037/a0028922 Why does early sexual intercourse predict subsequent maladjustment? Exploring potential familial confounds.] ''Health Psychology'', 32(2), 180–189.'''
*:"'''Conclusions:''' Early intercourse may be associated with poor psychosocial health largely due to shared familial influences rather than through a direct causal connection. Therefore, effective and efficient interventions should address other risk factors common to early intercourse and poor psychosocial health"

*'''[[Judith Levine|Levine, J.]] (1996). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20090129100152/http://motherjones.com/news/feature/1996/07/levine-2.html A Question of Abuse]," ''Mother Jones''.'''
*:"What's wrong with these things? "They make parents nervous," says [[Allie_C._Kilpatrick|Allie Kilpatrick]], a social work professor at the University of Georgia who conducted a massive review of the literature on childhood sexual experiences, both wanted and unwanted, and administered her own 33-page questionnaire to 501 Southern women. Most of Kilpatrick's subjects had kissed and hugged, fondled and masturbated as adolescents, and more than a quarter had had vaginal intercourse. Her conclusion: "The majority of young people who experience some kind of sexual behavior find it pleasurable, without much guilt, and with no harmful consequences." A similar study of 526 New England undergraduates revealed "no differences...between sibling, nonsibling, and no-[sexual]-experience groups on a variety of adult sexual behavior and sexual adjustment measures."
[[File:Exclaim-ippf.jpg|thumb|In 2023, conservative groups reacted with outrage, after a document by the International Planned Parenthood Federation made factual statements about young peoples' sexuality<ref>Exclaim! A Declaration by IPPF, opens with: "Young people are sexual beings. They have sexual needs, desires, fantasies and dreams. It is important for all young people around the world to be able to explore, experience and express their sexualities in healthy, positive, pleasurable and safe ways. This can only happen when young people’s sexual rights are guaranteed." Later on, it is stated that "Young people’s sexual rights are different and more complex than adults’ sexual rights. One reason for this is the widespread denial of young people’s sexuality. There is a common misconception that young people are not, or should not be sexual beings with the exception of certain groups, such as married young people or young people above a certain age. Sexuality is a central aspect of being human during all phases of each person’s life. Another reason why young people’s sexual rights are particularly complex is because of the need to both protect and empower young people. There is a common assumption that young people are incapable of making decisions for themselves, so parents or other adults should have full authority over decisions related to their sexuality. Resistance to recognize young people’s sexuality and their decision- making abilities makes the realization of young people’s sexual rights all the more challenging. One of the most fundamental challenges of working from a rights-based perspective is finding the balance between young people’s right to be protected and their right to participate and take responsibility for exercising their own rights. Since each young person develops at their own pace, there is no universal age at which certain sexual rights and protections gain or lose importance. Therefore, striking the balance between protection and autonomy should be based on the evolving capacities of each individual young person."</ref>]]
*'''Harden, K., Mendle, J., Hill, J., Turkheimer, E., and Emery, R. (2008). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20201028141000/http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles%20for%20Online%20CV/(1)Harden%20et%20al%20(in%20press).pdf Rethinking timing of first sex and delinquency]," ''Journal of Youth and Adolescence'', 37(4), 373-385.'''
*:"The relation between timing of first sex and later delinquency was examined using a genetically informed sample of 534 same-sex twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, who were assessed at three time points over a 7-year interval. [...] After controlling for these genetic and environmental confounds using a quasi-experimental design, earlier age at first sex predicted lower levels of delinquency in early adulthood. [...]
*:Although the current results are contrary to embedded assumptions, they are actually consistent with previous research. Specifically, three quasi-experimental (longitudinal or behavior genetic) studies that examined whether timing of first sex influences subsequent psychosocial functioning, controlling for psychological differences that precede sexual initiation, have all failed to find adverse effects for sexual timing. [...]
*:The current study suggests that there may be positive functions for early initiation of sexual activity, in that the co-twin with earlier age at first sex demonstrated lower levels of delinquency in early adulthood. This result echoes a small but important body of previous research. In one of the first pieces of sex research, Kinsey et al. (1953) concluded that premarital sexual activity resulted in minimal "psychological disturbance" and may result in healthier non-romantic relationships and greater happiness later in life. More recent research has indicated that early sexual timing is associated with popularity (Prinstein et al. 2003); high self-esteem (for a review see Goodson et al. 2006; Paul et al. 2000); positive self-concept (Pedersen et al. 2003); high levels of body pride (Lammers et al. 2000), and increasing closeness to the same-sex best friend (Billy et al. 1988). [...] In the domain of adult sexual functioning, earlier age at first sex was found to predict greater coital orgasmic capacity in adult women (Raboch and Bartak 1983) and to discriminate sexually functional versus non-functional older men (age 64 years; Vallery-Masson et al. 1981). Women reporting an earlier age at first sex demonstrate less reactivity and faster recovery (as measured by cortical response) in response to stress (Brody 2002)."

*'''Arreola, Sonya; Neilands, Torsten; Pollack, Lance; Paul, Jay; Catania, Joseph (2008). "Childhood Sexual Experiences and Adult Health Sequelae Among Gay and Bisexual Men: Defining Childhood Sexual Abuse," ''Journal of Sex Research'', 45(3), pp. 246 - 252.'''
*:"Those who had forced sex were significantly more likely to be depressed or have suicidal ideation than those who had consensual sex and those who had no sex before age 18. There was no difference between the consensual sex group and those who had no sex before age 18. The level of well-being was significantly higher for the consensual group compared with the no sex before 18 group and the forced sex group. The latter two groups did not differ from each other on well-being. [...] Interestingly, the forced sex group and the no sex group were statistically indistinguishable in their level of well-being, while the consensual sex group was significantly more likely to have a higher level of well-being than either of the other two groups. This suggests that consensual sex before 18 years of age may have a positive effect, perhaps as an adaptive milestone of adolescent sexual development." This study was inclusive of both minor-minor relations and adult-minor relations; no distinctions were made.

*'''Meier, A. M. (2007). [https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1086/512708 "Adolescent First Sex and Subsequent Mental Health."] ''American Journal of Sociology'', 112(6), 1811–1847.'''
*:Editor note: A more up-to date analysis of this study's findings would surely do a better job of identifying confounds of negative outcomes.
*:"While some adolescents experience mental health decrements, the majority of those who had first sex did not. This finding highlights the importance of considering contingencies when investigating the effects of life events on mental health. [...] With respect to policy concerned with adolescent sexual activity, recall that welfare reform legislation’s “abstinence only” initiative suggests that nonmarital sex negatively impacts psychological well-being. This study finds mixed evidence on this assertion. On the one hand, I find support for statistically significant negative mental health effects of first sex for those in the aforementioned subgroups. On the other hand, a substantial majority of those who had sex in this sample did not experience changes in mental health. Among those who did see changes in mental health, on the individual level those changes are moderate in size—one-third to three quarters of an SD on the scales of their respective outcome. While relatively few adolescents who had sex exhibit changes in mental health, and the changes are not huge where they exist, changes of this size in these subgroups could amount to substantial shifts in population-level mental health. [...] For example, if those who had sex prior to time 1 did so in part because they had weaker norms against sex, then perhaps first sex would be less consequential for their mental health. If this is the case, the effects of first sex reported by this study may overestimate the true effects among adolescents."

*'''Bauserman, Robert, and Davis, Clive (1996). "Perceptions of Early Sexual Experiences and Adult Sexual Adjustment," ''International Journal of Sexual Health'', 8(3), 37-59.'''
*:"Results supported the hypotheses that positively evaluated early sexual experiences would be associated with greater erotophilia, more acceptance of various sexual behaviors for self and others, and greater sexual satisfaction." (From [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J056v08n03_03 abstract].)

===Prevalence and diversity===
Most prevalence data is limited to parentally-observed behaviour. Surveys show decreasing rates of sexual intercourse before age 13 in America.<ref>[https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/factsheets/2019_sexual_trend_yrbs.htm YRBS]</ref>

[[File:First_arousal_and_orgasm_in_males.jpg|thumb| 400px| ''“orgasm is not at all rare among pre-adolescent boys”'' [[Alfred Kinsey]] (1948)<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/sexual_behavior_in_the_human_male_1948_-_chapter5_-_early_sexual_growth_and_activity.pdf Early Sexual Growth and Activity], in: [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=CB631307547C3F42D3EF6322A1708CAD Sexual Behavior in the Human Male] (1948) [[Alfred Kinsey]] - notable statistics on pre-adolescent and adolescent male sexual behaviours (first orgasm, homosexual and heterosexual activities, etc.)</ref>]]
*'''McKee, Alan (2010). [https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41858/1/41858.pdf Does pornography harm young people?] ''Australian Journal of Communication'', 37(1), pp. 17-36.'''
*:"In a 1996 study 59% of adults surveyed said that they ‘recalled at least one sexual experience with another child during their childhood’ (Haugaard, 1996, p. 86). A 1993 retrospective study of 128 women found that 85% described ‘a childhood sexual game experience’ (Lamb and Coakley, 1993, p. 515)."
*:"And in a 2002 study in Sweden 64% of girls aged 3-6 looked at other children’s genitals occasionally, sometime or often; 20% showed their genitals to children; 8% tried to look at nude pictures; 48% played doctors; 18% masturbated; 21% tried to touch other children’s genitals; and 43% touched their genitals at home (Larsson and Svedin, 2002, p.255). Meanwhile, in the same study, 65% of 3-6 year old boys looked at other children’s genitals; 50% tried to look at people undressing; 34% showed their genitals to other children; 8% tried to look at nude pictures; 37% played doctors; 28% masturbated; and 71% touched their genitals at home (Larsson and Svedin, 2002, p. 256)."

[[File:First_arousal_in_girls.jpg|thumb| 400px| ''““0.3 per cent of the females in the total sample masturbating to the point of orgasm by three years of age, and 8 per cent by ten years of age (Table 25, Figure 13)

Psychologic reactions or physical contacts with other girls were, in a few instances, the sources of sexual arousal at three years of age. About 3 per cent had been aroused by other girls by eleven years of age, and 6 per cent by thirteen years of age ( Table 13, Figures 4, 82).

Reactions to or contacts with boys had brought similar arousal in a fraction of one per cent at three years of age, but in about 7 per cent of the sample by eleven, and in 12 per cent of the sample by thirteen years of age ( Table 13, Figure 4 )
[...]
In those cases in which the child had failed to reach orgasm, the failure may have been due to lack of a physiologic capacity to respond to that point, but in many instances it may have been due to the child's failure to discover the necessary physical techniques for effective self-stimulation.”'' [[Alfred Kinsey]] (1953)<ref> Pre-adolescent sexual development, in: [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=9A7BCB943B7D39A05E0CC86DD8A63295 Sexual Behavior in the Human Female] (1953) [[Alfred Kinsey]] - statistics on pre-adolescent female sexual behaviours (first orgasm, arousal, significance of sex play, etc.)</ref>]]

*'''Veraa, A. (2009). ''[http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume18/j18_4.htm Child Sexual Abuse: The Sources of Anxiety Making and the Negative Effects]''. IPT Journal, vol 18.
*:"Much research since then has strongly supported the notion that children are sexual beings. It has been shown that children, without prompting by adults, think sexually, may engage in a wide range of sexual activities, and enjoy them despite sanctions imposed by adults. (Langfelt, 1981; Martinson, 1981; Goldman and Goldman, 1982<ref>[http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED224562.pdf Goldman and Goldman's 1982 study]</ref>; 1988; Haugaard and Tilly, 1988; Okami, 1992; Paris, 1997; Sandfort, 2001; Bancroft, 2003; Denov, 2003). It has also been long known that adult/child sexual activities in other cultures, such as routine stimulation of infant’s and children’s genitals and actively instructing them as to the pleasure of sex, has produced positive rather than negative effects on children. (Ford and Beach, 1951; Yates, 1978; Herlihy, 1993; Barr, 1996; Paris, 1997). Also see [[James Kincaid|Kincaid, (1998).]] The distaste of child sexuality in our culture seems therefore induced and not intrinsic; culturally or religiously relative, in other words."

*'''[[Floyd Martinson|Martinson, Floyd M.]] (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.
*:"By twelve years of age, approximately one boy in every four or five has tried at least to copulate with a female and more than ten percent of preadolescent boys experience their first ejaculation in connection with heterosexual intercourse, according to Kinsey. Ramsey reported that about one-third of his sample of middle-class boys had attempted sexual intercourse."

*'''Ford. C. S.. & Beach. F. A. (1951). ''Patterns of sexual behavior''. New York: Harper & Row.'''
*:"As long as the adult members of a society permit them to do so, immature males and females engage in practically every type of sexual behavior found in grown men and women. [p. 197] [...] After reviewing the cross-species and cross-cultural evidence, we are convinced that tendencies toward sexual behavior before maturity and even before puberty are genetically determined in many primates, including human beings."

*'''Reynolds, M.A., Herbenick, D. L., & Bancroft, J. (2003). The nature of childhood sexual experiences: Two studies 50 years apart. In J. Bancroft (Ed.), ''Sexual Development in Childhood'' (pp. 134-155). Indiana: Indiana University Press.'''
*:Editor: In a 1999 study of undergraduate students, 5.2% of females and 12.8% of males reported having engaged in sex play with their peers involving genital contact before elementary school, and that 1.3% of girls and 4.0% of boys had engaged in sex play involving anal/genital insertion (with objects or fingers) or oral-genital intercourse before elementary school. By the end of elementary school, the numbers increased to 29.2% for females and 32.9% for males for genital contact and 12.3 for girls and 10.1% for boys for insertion or oral sex. Very little pressure and almost no coercion were reported.

*'''Thigpen, Jeffry W. (2009). "Early Sexual Behavior in a Sample of Low-Income, African American Children," ''Journal of Sex Research'', 46(1), pp. 67-79.'''
*:"Some recent studies of primarily White, middle-class children have expanded our knowledge of the types of sexual behavior observed in children without known or suspected histories of sexual abuse. These studies show that children engage in sexual play (Lamb & Coakley, 1993; Leitenberg, Greenwald, & Tarran, 1989; Okami, Olmstead, & Abramson, 1997); show interest in viewing the bodies of others, as well as displaying their own (Friedrich, Fisher, Broughton, Houston, & Shafran, 1998; Friedrich, Grambsch, Broughton, Kuiper, & Beilke, 1991; Phipps-Yonas, Yonas, Turner, & Kauper, 1992; Shafran, 1995); and have knowledge of sexual anatomy and function (Gordon, Schroeder, & Abrams, 1990a,b; Grocke, Smith, & Graham, 1995). Taken with the findings from earlier descriptive studies that document the occurrence of such sexual behavior as penile erections in male infants, genital manipulation and play, and [[masturbation]] (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948; Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953; Moll, 1913; Spitz, 1949), non-abused children are suggested to display a wide range of sexual behavior. Behavioral differentiation by gender has been suggested, as genital manipulation and masturbatory behavior have been reported to be more common among boys (Friedrich et al., 1998; Gagnon, 1985; Rutter, 1971). Older children are suggested to be more knowledgeable than younger children about sexual behavior, pregnancy, and sexual abuse prevention (Gordon et al., 1990a), whereas hugging and kissing, self-stimulation, and exhibitionism are reported to be more common among younger children (Friedrich et al., 1991; Kinsey et al., 1948). The findings of some studies have noted an inverse relation between age and childhood sexual behavior, suggesting that the sexual behavior of children becomes covert over time (Friedrich et al., 1998; Friedrich et al., 1991; Gagnon, 1985)."

*'''Yates, A. (2004). "Biologic perspective on early erotic development," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 479-496.'''
*:"Eighty-five percent of young university women recalled erotic games and 44% recalled erotic games that involved boys [79]. Most remembered feeling sexually aroused or excited at the time. Most of the play involved exposing or touching the genitals. Insertion of objects in the vagina and oral contact was distinctly unusual. Other studies confirmed that most young adult students recalled early sex play that they viewed in a positive light as pleasurable and exciting [40, 80 and 81]."

*'''Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach (1951) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=EDFEA6F931F7829028850C4ADCF1356E Patterns of Sexual Behavior]. ''New York: Harper and Row'''''
*: In their examination of 191 cultures, Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach concluded that as “long as the adult members of a society permit them to do so, immature males and females engage in practically every type of sexual behavior found in grown men and women.”

*'''Bhugra, D. (2000). [https://sci-hub.ru/10.1080/14681990050001574 Disturbances in objects of desire: Cross-cultural issues.] Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 15(1), 67–78. doi:10.1080/14681990050001574'''
*:"In their cross-cultural study of the sexual thoughts of children, [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED224562.pdf Goldman and Goldman (1982)] found that 50% of boys [Editor: actually 5%, not 50%, check in the original paper, p.188] and 9.5% of girls expressed aversion to their biological sex. This reaction peaked in adolescence, with 30% of 13-year-old boys in Australia and 20% in the USA expressing such feelings which, by contrast, were virtually absent in Sweden. Bancroft (1989) suggests that the more rigid the sex role stereotypes in a society, the greater the likelihood of this gender dysphoria. Thus, rigid expectations could produce anxiety and insecurity about gender identity, for which transsexual ideas would offer one method of coping."

*'''Sandnabba, N. Kenneth, Pekka Santtila, and Niklas Nordling. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pekka-Santtila-2/publication/247525378_Sexual_behavior_and_social_adaptation_among_sadomasochistically-oriented_males/links/568d184d08aec2fdf6f63ff8/Sexual-behavior-and-social-adaptation-among-sadomasochistically-orien “Sexual Behavior and Social Adaptation among Sadomasochistically-Oriented Males.”] ''The Journal of Sex Research'' 36, no. 3 (1999): 273–82.'''
:: Table 3 demonstrates the age at which participants (164 of male sadomasochists) became aware of their sadomasochistic preference: 9.3% in the <10 age bracket; another 12.3% in the 11-13 age bracket; yet another 19.1% in the 14-17 age bracket.

*'''Walker, A.M., Kuperberg, A. (2022) [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alicia-Walker-2/publication/357834764_Pathways_and_Patterns_of_Entrance_into_BDSM/links/620413dc50d0b450188c52a8/Pathways-and-Patterns-of-Entrance-into-BDSM.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&_sg%5B1%5D=starte Pathways and Patterns of Entrance into BDSM]. ''Arch Sex Behav'' 51, 1045–1062 . doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02154-x'''
::"Almost one-ffth reported onset of fantasies before age 13, 76.4% reported onset before age 18, and 92.7% before age 22."

=== Factors of earlier sexual development ===
There is an assumption that cultural sexual restrictions are responsible for the timing of sexual development. While this may be true at some point, there are many other powerful factors that influence timing.
*'''Ellis, B. J., & Essex, M. J. (2007). [https://sci-hub.ru/10.2307/4620739 Family environments, adrenarche and sexual maturation: A longitudinal test of a life history model]. Child Development, 78, 1799–1817.'''
*:"Higher quality parental investment (from both mothers and fathers) and less father-reported Marital Conflict/Depression forecast later adrenarche. Older age at menarche in mothers, higher socioeconomic status, greater mother-based Parental Supportiveness, and lower third-grade body mass index each uniquely and significantly predicted later sexual development in daughters. Consistent with a life history perspective, quality of parental investment emerged as a central feature of the proximal family environment in relation to pubertal timing."

*'''Ellis, B. J., Figueredo, A. J., Brumbach, B. H., & Schlomer, G. L. (2009). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269820233_Fundamental_Dimensions_of_Environmental_Risk_The_Impact_of_Harsh_versus_Unpredictable_Environments_on_the_Evolution_and_Development_of_Life_History_Strategies The impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies.] Human Nature, 20, 204–268.'''
*:"The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH [life history] traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism's resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales.

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:"In a nutshell, dangerous and unpredictable environments tend to favor fast strategies characterized by early reproduction, sexual promiscuity, unstable relationships, impulsivity, risk taking, aggression, and exploitative tendencies, whereas safe and predictable environments tend to entrain slow strategies characterized by late reproduction, stable relationships, high selfcontrol, aversion to risk, and prosociality. Slow strategies are also favored by nutritional scarcity when danger is low (see Del Giudice et al., 2016; Ellis et al., 2009)"
*:"Another recent example is the finding that early adrenarche is associated with reduced white matter volume in the frontal lobe of children (Klauser et al., 2015). Again, the standard interpretation is that early DHEA exposure has a disruptive effect on neurodevelopmenal processes; however, it is also possible that different trajectories of brain development — and even associated “symptoms” such as anxiety and aggressive behaviors — may instead reflect alternative strategies on a fast-slow continuum of life history variation. Ellis and colleagues (2012) present an extended analysis of adolescent risk-taking from this perspective, and discuss several implications for the design of interventions."

* '''Poiani, A. (2010). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/animal-homosexuality/0352ED7E7645EE35B14FAAF3AE3A127B Animal homosexuality: A biosocial perspective.] ''Cambridge University Press''. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511762192'''
::"Sexual attraction develops slowly before puberty and by the age of about 10 years boys and girls have already experienced their first sexual attraction (McClintock & Herdt 1996). At 10, or before, the gonads are usually not fully mature; however, what does mature at that age are the adrenal glands, hence the naming of adrenarche for that stage of development (McClintock & Herdt 1996; Havelock et al. 2004). Adrenarche is a developmental process that is mainly confined to the Hominoidea (Havelock et al. 2004). Starting at about six years old, and therefore well before gonadarche, the adrenals begin to develop and by the age of 10 their steroid secretory activity is in full swing. One of the main steroids secreted by the adrenals is dehydroepiandrosterone (see, for example, Herdt & McClintock 2000), which is a precursor of both oestrogens and testosterone. Thyrotropin and cortisol are also secreted during this period (Ponton & Judice 2004). From this we may predict that stressful events that enhance the secretory activity of the adrenal glands may result in the early release of steroid hormones into the bloodstream that, in turn, could promote an early surge of sexual activity (see Ponton & Judice 2004 and references therein). Moreover, stress at around age 10 that increases the secretory activity of the adrenals may also affect the development of brain centres that control sexual behaviour and orientation and that are sensitive to steroids, at a time when sexual attraction is developing. Adrenarche, therefore, may be at the centre of a potential mechanism of prepubertal development of homosexuality in humans. Within this mechanism, changes in brain architecture may be modulated by stressful social experiences for instance, thus producing ontogenies leading to homosexuality."

==Early and middle childhood==

:''For a recent review, see [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345982853_Sexuality_Development_in_Childhood Li, 2020.] and perhaps combine with physical data and observations of Adrenarche as the dawn of advanced adult-like sexuality from our article on [[Research: Cognitive ability|cognitive ability]]. Below are some review highlights.''

*'''Li, Gu. (2022). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345982853_Sexuality_Development_in_Childhood Sexuality Development in Childhood]. 10.1007/978-3-030-84273-4_12. ''In book:'' Gender and sexuality development: Contemporary theory and research (pp.323-356) Chapter: 12 Publisher: Springer'''
*:new theoretic frame:
*::"[R]esearchers should abolish linear stage models, which incorrectly assume that there is emerging sexual abilities (e.g., kissing), which gradually evolve into full-blown sexual abilities (e.g., having sexual intercourse).[...] sexual activities do not always follow the linear order from kissing to coitus over time"
*:solitary activities:
*::"Around 40% to 60% of adults recalled having had masturbated in childhood (Bancroft, 2003), and up to 83% of young adults reported having had any type of solitary sexual behavior before adolescence. [...] masturbation in children seldom involves sexual fantasies or sexual attraction as in adults."
*:partnered activities ("doctor games"):
*::"Past research has suggested that a move as “trivial” as a touch on the hand can illicit physiological and emotional arousal in children that is similar to adults’ sexual experience.[..]These findings suggest that unlike adults, whose erotic feelings are centered around genitalia, children’s erotic feelings are not limited to this area. [...] [I]t is important to recognize that childhood sexual experience is overall positive for most people (Lamb, 2004; Lamb & Coakley, 1993; Larsson & Svedin, 2002a), and that when properly supervised, childhood sexual games could provide a safe context for children to gain sexual knowledge and could have a long-term positive impact on children’s sexuality development"
*:sexual arousability is independent from sexual attraction:
*:: "[C]hildren’s sexual behavior typically does not accompany sexual desire. [...] Surveying 119 boys and 116 girls aged 8 to 11 years, Cameron and Biber (1973) found that 4% of children reported that sex “had been the focus of their thought in the past 5 min [...] 3.9% of men and 2.8% of women recalled thinking a lot about sex between ages 6 to 10 years(Larsson & Svedin, 2002a) [...] young children can be aroused by physical stimulations but without the motivation to seek out sexual encounters and/or the capacity to experience sexual fantasies or sexual attraction. The cause of this dissociation has been attributed to two independent systems governing human sexuality: sexual arousability (i.e., the capacity to become sexually aroused) and sexual proceptivity (i.e., the motivation to have sex)[...] [C]hildren can experience sexual arousal even though they have low levels of endogenous androgens and estrogens"
*:onset of sexual attraction:
*::"LGB individuals on average have first same-sex sexual attraction at age 10 and heterosexual individuals on average experience first other-sex sexual attraction at the same time"
*:sexual orientation fluidity in childhood and early adolescence:
*::"[O]ver half of lesbian women and over one third of gay men reported that their first sexual attraction was towards the other sex rather than the same sex [...] Moreover, some self-identified completely heterosexual women and men may experience same-sex sexual attraction or sexual behavior in early adolescence but not in emerging adulthood"
*:adrenarche as a hormonal basis for prepubertal sexuality awakening:
*::"Adrenarche refers to the “awakening of adrenal gland,” which on average occurs in middle childhood (around 6- to 8-years-old) and is marked by the upsurge of adrenal androgens such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) [...] DHEA and its metabolite testosterone improve sexual desire and sexual arousal [...] The link between adrenarche and sexual proceptivity appears to hold universally: A cross-cultural study in New Guinea and the U.S. found that sexual attraction and other proceptive sexual experiences emerge around age 10 years in different cultures, shortly after the onset of adrenache"
*:safety or deprivation of intimate peer relationship:
*::"the general consensus among researchers is that the dynamics and atmosphere of sexual encounters (e.g., whether these encounters are mutually initiated; whether sexual coercion is involved; whether these encounters take place in a close relationship) have a larger impact on children’s future outcomes than the type of sexual activities (e.g., involving genital contact or not; Diamond et al., 2015; Lamb & Plocha, 2014). [...] Cross-species evidence further suggests that social deprivation of peer interactions in early life may result in persisting deficits in sexual behavior.[...] These findings raise the possibility that peer interactions in childhood, either with the same sex or the other sex, may be essential for the development of later sexual behaviors. However, this hypothesis has not been tested in humans"
*:sexual education:
*::"starting the discussions before children are in school, creating opportunities to talk, and taking a step-by-step strategy are associated with better communication quality (Gordon et al., 1990; Pluhar et al., 2006; Wilson et al., 2010).[...] In contrast, when parents adopt untrusting, intimidating, or antagonistic approaches or focus on persuading children into sexual abstinence, their children are more likely to hide information from parents"
*:promotion of sexual agency:
*::"It is widely yet incorrectly assumed that because children have immature self-regulatory systems, they do not exercise sexual reasoning or decision-making (reviewed in Jarkovská & Lamb, 2018). Yet, studies on sexualizing media and sexual scripts have suggested that children do regulate their own sexual behaviors, with their self-regulations being heavily influenced by sexual scripts (APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 2007). [...] Therefore, one fruitful future direction could be to develop educational, social, and psychological interventions to reduce sexual scripts that prescribe fixed gender and sexual norms and to encourage sexual agency in children."

*'''World Health Organization (2010) - [https://www.bzga-whocc.de/fileadmin/user_upload/BZgA_Standards_English.pdf Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe]'''
*:"Children have sexual feelings even in early infancy. Between the second and third year of their lives, they discover the physical differences between men and women.
*:[...]
*:During this time, children start to discover their own bodies (early childhood masturbation, self-stimulation) and they may also try to examine the bodies of their friends (playing doctor) […] from the age of three, they understand that adults are secretive about this subject. They test adults’ limits, for instance by undressing without warning or by using sexually charged language."

*'''Josephs, Lawrence (2015). "[https://www.ipce.info/library/journal-article/how-children-learn-about-sex How Children Learn About Sex: A Cross-Species and Cross- Cultural Analysis]," ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', 44:1059-1069, DOI: [https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1007/s10508-015-0498-0 10.1007/s10508-015-0498-0]'''
*:"Nevertheless, the existing but widely scattered primatological and anthropological data indicate that nonhuman primates, hunter-gatherer children, and children in various small tribal cultures from around the world learn about sex through observational learning and sexual rehearsal play prior to puberty. Psychological research in contemporary western contexts indicates that during early childhood children are sexually curious and appear to enjoy pleasure in genital stimulation but contemporary western parents tend to conceal parental sexuality, prohibit interactive sex play, and take a minimalist approach to early childhood sex education in the attempt to preserve childhood sexual innocence."

*'''Loretta Haroian, Ph.D. (2000, reprint). "[http://www.ejhs.org/volume3/Haroian/body.htm Child Sexual Development]," ''Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality'', Volume 3, Feb. 1, 2000'''
*:"Two year olds “love to be in the bathroom with other family members. They still like to be naked; they love to romp, flee and pursue, to taste, touch and rub.” [...] “In the later half of the third year, the child begins to feel great tension and expresses it through many compulsive patterns, such as thumb sucking, nose picking, masturbation [...] “Three-and-a-half shifts rapidly between extreme shyness and exhibitionism, all in the quest of positive attention [...] The intense need for attention, preoccupation with bodily functions, interest and curiosity about reproduction and increased ability to communicate verbally with adults can culminate in a pseudo-mature seductive posture, especially in female threes [...] It is quite common at a party of adults to see the 3-year-old daughter of the host comfortably curled up in the lap or laps of a succession of male guests capturing their attention with her interpersonal magnetism. “She may even request that her ‘new friend’ put her to bed and may hold thoughts of him and make reference to him for days or weeks after the party. This behavioral pattern is not exclusive to girls, but is somewhat more pronounced, is better tolerated in terms of gender role stereotypes and receives positive reinforcement from the involved adults [...] “The potential for sexual stimulation in this situation is obvious, and available data confirms the incidence of pedophilic genital fondling at this age [...] The sex histories of many adult men and women contain such experiences that were not traumatic or that caused little concern until the sexual activity escalated beyond looking and fondling or until the situation was discovered and responded to negatively by other adults. [...] Girls at this age are often in love with a considerably older boy or adult male [...] Most children feel that same-sex experimentation is normal and age appropriate, but that heterosexual coupling should be reserved for adulthood and reproduction.”

*'''Volbert, R. (1997). Sexuelles Verhalten von Kindern: Normale Entwicklung oder Indikator für sexuellen Mißbrauch?<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/images/Tabuzone.pdf Volbert, identified in Tabu Zone]</ref> In G. Amann & R. Wipplinger (Hrsg.), Sexueller Mißbrauch (S. 385-398). Tübingen: dgvt-Verlag'''
*:[translation] “(…I)n a survey of 211 nursery nurses and kindergarten teachers of the former GDR (Bach, 1993), they stated that they had observed genital games in 75% of boys and 60% of girls aged 2 to 6 years. In a study by Klein (1993), the Erzieherinnen surveyed said that 40% of girls and 19% of boys often played on their genitals. 27% of the Erzieherinnen stated that they had noticed clear states of arousal in the children; orgasms were observed in 13% of the boys and in 17% of the girls. In a Norwegian study (Gundersen et al., 1981), 85% of the Erzieherinnen surveyed stated that they had observed masturbation in the kindergarten children. About a quarter said that it comes to orgasm in the children. In accordance with this, 81% of 91 Erzieherinnen surveyed in a study by Volbert and Zellmer (in prev.), having observed genital games in the children under their care up to 7 years of age; 43% confirmed the observation of masturbation of children and 23% reported having observed that children masturbated to orgasm".

*'''Del Giudice M. (2014) [https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1853338/974935/DelGiudice_2018_middle-childhood_chapter_pre.pdf Middle childhood: an evolutionary-developmental synthesis.]; 8:193–200. doi:10.1111/cdep.12084. in: Halfon N, Forrest CB, Lerner RM, et al., editors. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543707/ Handbook of Life Course Health Development]. ''Cham (CH): Springer''; 2018. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47143-3'''
*:" It is no coincidence that the first sexual and romantic attractions typically develop in middle childhood, in tandem with the intensification of sexual play (Bancroft, 2003; Herdt & McClintock, 2000). By interacting with peers and adults, juveniles receive feedback about the effectiveness of their nascent behavioral strategies."
*:"Fetishistic attractions also tend to form in middle childhood, with the onset of pleasurable sensations toward the object of the fetish (e.g., rubber, shoes) that later become fully eroticized (Lawrence, 2009). The onset of fetishistic attractions is part of a generalized awakening of sexuality in middle childhood (Table 1) and illustrates the potential for rapid plasticity with long-lasting outcomes."
*:"While learning and play are relatively risk-free, they are not without consequences. The social position achieved in middle childhood is a springboard for adolescence and adulthood; popularity and centrality within the peer network put a child at a considerable advantage, with potentially long-term effects on mating and reproductive success (Del Giudice et al., 2009)."

* '''[[Gilbert Herdt]] and Martha McClintock, Ph.D, [https://www.ipce.info/sites/ipce.info/files/biblio_attachments/herdt_-_the_magical_age_of_10_2000.pdf The Magical Age of 10], ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', Vol. 29, No. 6, 2000.'''
*:"Middle childhood should no longer be viewed as a period of hormonal quiescence. Nor should we believe that for all children, there is an absence of sexual subjectivity before gonadarche. Rather, the accumulating evidence suggests that there is more sexual subjectivity occurring during childhood than previously believed, especially from the age of 6 onward, with the onset of adrenarche."
*:"It is tempting to argue that if attraction typically develops during adrenarche but is ignored or repressed by adults’ retrospection about sexual development, particularly before it becomes stabilized around the age of 10, the contemporary United States may be a good example of a society in which discontinuity in sexuality is a common developmental experience, and may affect the memory of earliest sexual attraction (Herdt, 1990). Because male and female, as well as homosexual and heterosexual experiences of attraction were found before the age of 10, the internal representation of sexual attraction is robust and memorable enough to overcome these societal constraints (McClintock and Herdt, 1996)."

==Fetal/infant sexual capacity==

Freud's theories are widely known for their references to autoerotic behaviors in infants.<ref>[https://nosubject.com/Auto-eroticism Auto-eroticism]</ref><ref>"That children were capable of autoerotic activity was never in doubt among nineteenth-century sexologists." See, Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes, ''Theorizing the Sexual Child in Modernity'' (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 79.</ref> Numerous studies have since revealed suspected epilectic seizures in infants to be masturbatory episodes.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/1059-1311(92)90026-W Wulff, C. H., Østergaard, J. R., & Storm, K. (1992). Epileptic fits or infantile masturbation? Seizure, 1(3), 199–201. doi:10.1016/1059-1311(92)90026-w]</ref><ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/BF02752422 Deda, G., Çaksen, H., Suskan, E., & Gümüs, D. (2001). Masturbation mimicking seizure in an infant. The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 68(8), 779–781. doi:10.1007/bf02752422]</ref><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289189248_Childhood_masturbation_Diagnosis_of_pseudoepileptic_seizures_in_children Childhood masturbation: Diagnosis of pseudoepileptic seizures in children]</ref><ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4912646/ Doust ZK, Shariat M, Zabandan N, Tabrizi A, Tehrani F. Diagnostic Value of the Urine Mucus Test in Childhood Masturbation among Children below 12 Years of Age: A Cross-Sectional Study from Iran. Iran J Med Sci. 2016 Jul;41(4):283-7. PMID: 27365549; PMCID: PMC4912646.]</ref> Further investigations have gone into greater detail, including in-utero obervations:

*'''Giorgi, Giorgio, and Siccardi, Marco (1996). "Ultrasonographic observation of a female fetus' sexual behavior in utero," ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology'', 175, 3(1, part 1), 753.'''
*:"We recently observed a female fetus at 32 weeks' gestation touching the vulva with the fingers of the right hand. The caressing movements were centered primarily on the region of the clitoris. Movements stopped after 30 to 40 seconds and started again after a few minutes. Furthermore, these slight touches were repeated and were associated with short, rapid movements of pelvis and legs. After another break, in addition to this behavior, the fetus contracted the muscles of the trunk and limbs, and then clonicotonic movements of the whole body followed. Finally, she relaxed and rested.
*:We observed this behavior for about 20 minutes. The mother was an active and interested witness, conversing with observers about her child's experience.
*:Evidence of male fetuses' excitement reflex in utero, such as erection or ″masturbation” movements, has been previously reported.
*:The current observation seems to show not only that the excitement reflex can be evoked in female fetuses at the third trimester of gestation but also that the orgasmic reflex can be elicited during intrauterine life. This would agree with the physiologic features of female sexuality: The female sexual response is separate from reproductive functions and doesn't need a full sexual maturity to be explicit."


*'''Thomson Salo, F. & Paul, C. (2011) [https://perspectives.waimh.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2017/05/Reconsidering-parental-sexuality-and-infant-sensual-excitement-and-greed-What-is-lost-in-infant-mental-health-without-these-concepts.pdf Reconsidering parental sexuality, and infant sensual excitement and greed: what is lost in infant mental health without these concepts?] World Association for Infant Mental Health.'''
*:"If infants enjoy breastfeeding and enjoy their body generally, this would be a good basis for their sense of identity, self esteem and enjoyable sexuality. The British psychoanalyst, Rosine Perelberg (2007), wrote that, “The ‘right’ amount of erotism is crucial, so that it is not too much, overexciting the child, or too little, without an erotic investment for the baby, which is also so crucial for its relationship with its own body.” [...] One father asked the Maternal and Child Health Nurse if his 4-month-old son could be jealous of the parents “being intimate” – when the baby was lying on the bed beside his parents he cried loudly whenever his father touched his wife’s breasts (McWilliams, pers. comm.14.8.07). Male observers have reported 15-week-old girl babies acting flirtatiously with them. And while gender often seems relatively ignored in Infant Mental Health in the first year, yet by 6 months there is often a difference in the quality of the sensual excitement with which babies respond to adults."

*'''Yates, A. (2004). "Biologic perspective on early erotic development," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 479-496.'''
*:"William Masters was an obstetrician before he became a sex researcher. He devised a game that he played while waiting for an infant to be born. He would bet that, if it were a boy, he could deliver the infant before the child could produce an erection. He won the game only half of the time."

*'''Yates, A. (1978). [http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/yates/sex/SexWithoutShame.html Sex without shame: Encouraging the child's healthy sexual development]. ''New York: William Morrow''.'''
*:"He also noted that all girl babies lubricated vaginally in the first four to six hours of life. Infants were born ready and fully equipped. During sleep, spontaneous erections or vaginal lubrications occur every eighty to, ninety minutes throughout the entire life span. (Masters, 1975) Throughout life, sleeping sexual function remains far more reliable. While awake, our conscious anxieties take their toll.
*:Masturbation culminating in climax may occur as early as the first month of life. The baby girl is the most enthusiastic and proficient. With unmistakable intent, she crosses her thighs rigidly. With a glassy stare she grunts, rubs, and flushes for a few seconds or minutes. If interrupted, she screams with annoyance. Movements cease abruptly and are followed by relaxation and deep sleep. This sequence occurs many times during the day, but only occasionally at night. The baby boy proceeds with distinct penis throbs and thrusts accompanied by convulsive contractions of the torso. After climax his erection (without ejaculation) quickly subsides and he appears calm and peaceful. Kinsey reports that one boy of eleven months had ten climaxes in an hour and that another of the same age had fourteen in thirty-eight minutes."

*'''[[Floyd Martinson|Martinson, Floyd M.]] (1973). [http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]. ''The Book Mark''.'''
*:"Before specifically discussing the affectional and sexual behavior of infants, we will more systematically and conclusively establish that infants have the somato-sensory capacity for erotic behavior. Boy babies are sometimes born with erections, and there is no reason to believe that the capacity for such marked physiological response develops any later in girls. In a study of nine male babies of ages three to twenty weeks, tumescence (penile erection) was observed at least once daily in seven of the nine. (Halverson, 1940). [...] Kinsey (1953, p. 142) reports one record of a seven-month-old infant and records of five infants under one year who were observed to masturbate. Twenty-three girls, three years or younger, appeared to reach orgasm in self stimulation. Kinsey's unpublished interview data contains notations from interviews with a small sample of two year olds and their mothers. One mother reported that her son had the habit of rubbing against a doll's head to masturbate. Another reported that her son's masturbating was deliberate, prolonged, and accompanied by an erection."
*:Later article: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3811331 Eroticism in Infancy and Childhood].

*'''[[Floyd Martinson|Martinson, Floyd M.]] (1981). “[http://library.lol/main/1EEA84D225F59C0B4853B57D604F82BB The Sex Education of Young Children]”, in ''Sex Education in the Eighties The Challenge of Healthy Sexual Evolution'', ed. by Lorna Brown (Plenum Press: New York), pp. 51-82.'''
*:“What sexual capacity, anatomical, physiological, or psychological, does the child possess that could result in sexual interest, behavior, and learning during the earliest years of life? Sexual capacities and their rehearsal are apparent in the infant long before the development of self-consciousness or erotic awakening. Knowledge of such capacity has existed for a very long time. For example, Pouillet reported research that showed the erectal capacity of infant boys almost 100 years ago, noting that all boys exhibited the faculty for erection if the edge of the foreskin of the penis was tickled with a feather (Pouillet, 1883, p. 99).
*:Parents, particularly mothers, are a major source of the knowledge that boy babies commonly have spontaneous erections under a variety of conditions-a full bladder, during bathing, during sleep (Conn & Kanner, 1947, p. 339). In a study of nine male babies aged 3 to 20 weeks, Halverson (1940) reported tumescence (penile erection) at least once daily in seven of the nine. Individual responses varied from 5 to 40 erections per day. Tumescence was often accompanied by restlessness, fretting, crying, stretching, and stiffly flexing the limbs. Following detumescence, behavior was in the nature of playful activity or relaxation. In many societies genital stimulation has been used to subdue and relax infants."

*'''Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes, [http://library.lol/main/8FFE60B6B39354A79CBFF671A7891AE2 Theorizing the Sexual Child in Modernity] (''Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan'', 2010), p. 79.'''
*:"Every physician conversant with nervous affections and diseases incident to childhood is aware of the fact that manifestations of the sexual instinct may occur in very young children. Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1892/1965) [...] That children were capable of autoerotic activity was never in doubt among nineteenth-century sexologists."

== See also ==
*'''[[Floyd Martinson]]''' - a pioneer in child sexuality research, contributing more to that field than anyone else in his lifetime
*:*Floyd M. Martinson, '''"[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/index.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]"''', ''The Book Mark'', USA, 1973.
*:* Floyd M. Martinson. (1974) '''[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/adolescent/Adolescent.html The Quality of Adolescent Sexual Experiences]'''. ''The Book Mark''
*:*Martinson, Floyd M. (1981). “'''[http://library.lol/main/1EEA84D225F59C0B4853B57D604F82BB The Sex Education of Young Children]'''”, in ''Sex Education in the Eighties The Challenge of Healthy Sexual Evolution'', ed. by Lorna Brown (Plenum Press: New York), pp. 51-82.
*:*Floyd M. Martinson. '''"[https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=16ABA69C5A0F45E04E97BD31A7CD26BE The Sexual Life of Children]"''', ''Bergin & Garvey'', 1994
*'''[[John Bancroft]]''' - a sexologist, former director in Kinsey's Institute who made great contribution into child and adolescence sexuality
*:*John Bancroft, June Machover Reinisch (1990) '''[https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F212BDB2C84220A1D4E56106B9AD8A6A Adolescence and Puberty]'''. ''Oxford University Press''
*:*John Bancroft (2003) '''[https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=C3F0A409AC9F1193E0BA75B847BC19E4 Sexual Development in Childhood] (Kinsey Institute Series)''' ''Indiana University Press''

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Youth Sexuality''' contains some useful information on this topic. Please feel free to right click, save and upload to your favored character-limited social media service.

{{Template:EGLYS}}

'''Sociocultural arguments''' are also somewhat related:

{{Template:EGLSC}}

==External links==

*[https://fstube.net/w/aXHNcMvrWkCtYQfezZ2Ax6 Sexual Development & Children with Sex Behavior Problems (Part 1 of 3)] - First in a series ([https://fstube.net/w/aQjNqSGjxTS99Bz6mysnWS 2], [https://fstube.net/w/7p2B6thkDV6wjKMgtq2TqD 3]) of videos hitting back at the medical culture of problematizing young people's sexuality.

*Goldman, Ronald; Goldman, Juliette (1982) [https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED224562 Children's Sexual Thinking: A Comparative Study of Children Aged 5 to 15 Years in Australia, North America, Britain and Sweden.] [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED224562.pdf pdf] - "The purpose of this cross-national descriptive study is to measure the extent of children's sexual knowledge and sexual understanding at various ages and to identify what processes of thought children use in trying to explain biological functions and the phenomena of their own bodies as they grow and change."

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T13:53:06Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref><ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. ''Arethusa'', 13(2), 279–298.</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

Also in ancient Sparta it was customary for adult noble women to have intercourse with beloved girls before their marriage. It may be considered proven that male paederasty in Sparta had a Lesbian counterpart in female initiation.<ref name= "bremmer1980"/> In the case of Sappho [Lesbos, 700 – 600 BCE] the same ritual background is visible with some evidence of erotic relationships between women and girls. Their relationships also expected to be nonexclusive, i.e. adult women had husbands and girls married men as they grew older.<ref> André Lardinois (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-3/lesbian-sappho-sappho-lesbos-andr%C3%A9-lardinois Lesbian Sappho and Sappho of Lesbos ]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BCE], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time [1st century BCE].<ref name= "bremmer1980"/>
</blockquote>

=== Celts ===
<blockquote>Regarding the Celts, there is general agreement in our sources that they practiced paederasty. Athenaeus [II–III CE] even tells us that they often slept with two boys at the same time, but this looks as if it is a typical Greek dream-wish. This is the only detailed report we have that goes beyond the pure mention of the practice [...]<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

=== Persians ===
See in detail in [[Pederasty_in_Islam#Persia|Pederasty in Islam]]
<blockquote>It seems reasonable then to accept the occurrence of paederasty among the Persians - although it was forbidden - but our sources do not connect the practice with initiation or men's societies<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T13:50:53Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref><ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. ''Arethusa'', 13(2), 279–298.</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

Also in ancient Sparta it was customary for adult noble women to have intercourse with beloved girls before their marriage. It may be considered proven that male paederasty in Sparta had a Lesbian counterpart in female initiation. In the case of Sappho [Lesbos, 700 – 600 BCE] the same ritual background is visible with some evidence of erotic relationships between women and girls. Their relationships also expected to be nonexclusive, i.e. adult women had husbands and girls married men as they grew older. <ref name= "bremmer1980"/><ref> André Lardinois (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-3/lesbian-sappho-sappho-lesbos-andr%C3%A9-lardinois Lesbian Sappho and Sappho of Lesbos ]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BCE], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time [1st century BCE].<ref name= "bremmer1980"/>
</blockquote>

=== Celts ===
<blockquote>Regarding the Celts, there is general agreement in our sources that they practiced paederasty. Athenaeus [II–III CE] even tells us that they often slept with two boys at the same time, but this looks as if it is a typical Greek dream-wish. This is the only detailed report we have that goes beyond the pure mention of the practice [...]<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

=== Persians ===
See in detail in [[Pederasty_in_Islam#Persia|Pederasty in Islam]]
<blockquote>It seems reasonable then to accept the occurrence of paederasty among the Persians - although it was forbidden - but our sources do not connect the practice with initiation or men's societies<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T08:36:33Z

Thorn: /* Celts */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref><ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. ''Arethusa'', 13(2), 279–298.</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BCE], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time [1st century BCE].<ref name= "bremmer1980"/>
</blockquote>

=== Celts ===
<blockquote>Regarding the Celts, there is general agreement in our sources that they practiced paederasty. Athenaeus [II–III CE] even tells us that they often slept with two boys at the same time, but this looks as if it is a typical Greek dream-wish. This is the only detailed report we have that goes beyond the pure mention of the practice [...]<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

=== Persians ===
See in detail in [[Pederasty_in_Islam#Persia|Pederasty in Islam]]
<blockquote>It seems reasonable then to accept the occurrence of paederasty among the Persians - although it was forbidden - but our sources do not connect the practice with initiation or men's societies<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T08:24:24Z

Thorn: /* Romans */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref><ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. ''Arethusa'', 13(2), 279–298.</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BCE], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time [1st century BCE].<ref name= "bremmer1980"/>
</blockquote>

=== Celts ===
<blockquote>Regarding the Celts, there is general agreement in our sources that they practiced paederasty. Athenaeus [II–III CE] even tells us that they often slept with two boys at the same time, but this looks as if it is a typical Greek dream-wish. This is the only detailed report we have that goes beyond the pure mention of the practice [...]<ref name= "bremmer1980"/></blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T08:17:29Z

Thorn: /* Antiquity */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref><ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. ''Arethusa'', 13(2), 279–298.</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BCE], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time [1st century BCE].<ref name= "bremmer1980"/>
</blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T08:15:13Z

Thorn: /* Romans */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BCE], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time [1st century BCE].<ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. Arethusa, 13(2), 279–298.</ref>
</blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-28T08:11:13Z

Thorn: /* Goths */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

=== Romans ===
<blockquote>
Valerius Maximus presents a number of stories, the earliest going back to the fourth century [BC], demonstrating that the practice was known to the Romans too, albeit disapproved of till the end of the Republic. By that time, paederastic friendships were frequently adopted in higher circles and even the moralistic Augustus had had his friend in his younger years. About the Empire we need not go into detail. Any reader of Juvenal, Martial and Petronius can find examples galore. [...] It is important to observe that the Romans explicitly forbid paederasty with free boys but not with slavess in the so-called lex Scantinia, a law dating probably from before Cicero's time.<ref name= "bremmer1980">Bremmer, J. (1980). An enigmatic Indo-European rite: Paederasty. Arethusa, 13(2), 279–298.</ref>
</blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-25T06:53:27Z

Thorn: /* Goths */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-25T06:53:10Z

Thorn: /* Goths */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
<blockquote>
The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear."<ref name="bremmer2021"/>
</blockquote>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-25T06:51:33Z

Thorn: /* Goths */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

=== Goths ===
::"The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear."<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-25T06:50:59Z

Thorn: /* Classical Antiquity */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

== Goths ==
::"The historian Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) [4th century CE] relates that among the Taifali, a tribe connected with the Goths, the boys lived in a state of pederasty until they had killed a boar or a bear."<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships

2026-04-24T18:11:09Z

Thorn: /* Melanesia */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Most societies which have not been influenced by the West have less, different, or virtually no sexual taboos. It is worth mentioning that absent modern western influence, anthropologists and historians have found far more societies where [[homosexuality]] is prohibited, than societies in which [[pedosexuality]] suffers similar censure. Many encourage intergenerational sex for various reasons. Due to ongoing Westernisation and cultural imperialism, much of what is listed here may already be consigned to history (see, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220225124148/https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.chc.2004.02.001 Nieto (2004), for an anthropological review]).

==GUS, a world atlas: Growing Up Sexually==

The range and detail of accounts involved in this page will only serve as a brief demonstration of non-western diversity in intergenerational relationships. Many examples from anthropology involve [[Sexual rites of passage]]. If readers are seeking a broader, more detailed and integrated study, they may find [[Diederik Janssen]]'s [http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GUS_MAIN_INDEX.HTM ''Growing Up Sexually''] ([http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GROWINGUPSEXUALLY1.ZIP entire Vol 1] in zipped PDF) more appropriate, or ''[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages]'', re. homosexuality.

==Brazil==

===Pirahã===

*'''Daniel Everett (2008). [https://books.feedvu.com/fullbook/dont-sleep-there-are-snakes-life-and-language-in-the-amazonian-jungle-pdf-2.html?page=16&part=1 ''Dont Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle'']. Chapter 16 of 34.'''
*:"Relations between men and women and boys and girls, whether married or not, are always cordial and often marked by light to heavy flirting. Sexually it is the same. So long as children are not forced or hurt, there is no prohibition against their participating in sex with adults. I remember once talking to Xisaoxoi, a Pirahã man in his late thirties, when a nine- or ten-year-old girl was standing beside him. As we talked, she rubbed her hands sensually over his chest and back and rubbed his crotch area through his thin, worn nylon shorts. Both were enjoying themselves. “What’s she doing?” I asked superfluously. “Oh, she’s just playing. We play together. When she’s big she will be my wife” was his nonchalant reply—and, indeed, after the girl went through puberty, they were married."

* '''Daniel Everett (2016). ''Dark matter of the mind : the culturally articulated unconscious.'' Chapter 3'''
::"Pirahã young people begin to engage sexually, though apparently not in full intercourse, from early on. Touching and being touched seem to be common for Pirahã boys and girls from about seven years of age on. They are all sexually active by puberty, with older men and women frequently initiating younger girls and boys, respectively. There is no evidence that the children then or as adults find this pedophilia the least bit traumatic."

==Argentina==

===Pilagá===

*'''Jules Henry and Zunia Henry (1944). [https://library.lol/main/2C825BAA5B73830492464813AF34FEC4 ''Doll Play of Pilagá Indian Children. An Experimental and Field Analysis of the Behavior of the Pilagá Indian Children'']. (American Orthopsychiatric Association), p. 72.'''
*:'''Note:''' The study explores the use of dolls among Pilagá children, including in a sexual context.
*:"Where children can see the adult sexual act, where sexual conversations and gestures are perfectly open, and child life is untrammeled by sexual taboos, it is reasonable to expect that the children should experiment with their sexual apparatus and attempt to imitate adult sexual behavior. This is the case among the Pilagá. Considering the extent of child knowledge about sex and the age at which this knowledge becomes articulate - 3 years - intercourse in the Pilagá household must not only be visible to the children, but carried on with little if any attempt to conceal the act from them. Absolutely no prohibition is placed on child sexual activity by the adults, so that the children are at liberty to do what they please. Under such circumstances the only limits to the child's sexual activity are his physiological capacities and the tolerance of his companions. [...] [S]ex is a strong and constant interest of Pilagá children."

==Australia==

===Tiwi===

*'''Davenport, William H. (1992). [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/File:Davenport_chapter.pdf Adult-Child Sexual Relations in Cross-Cultural Perspective], in W. O'Donohue & J. H. Geer (Eds.), ''The sexual abuse of children: Theory and research'' (Vol. 1, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 73-80), pp. 76-77.'''
*:"The best ethnographic description of this type of [gerontocratic] marriage is by Jane Goodale (1971) in her account of the Tiwi who live on Melville Island, North Australia. Betrothals of first marriages of most females are made even before those females are concieved. In fact, such a marriage contract is made when the as-yet-to-be-concieved girl's mother commences menstruation. [...] Once the marriage contract is made, the husband-to-be, who is an adult, works with his future mother and father-in-law as a member of that family, with the expectation that when a daughter is born to them, she will be given to him as a wife. There is no fixed chronological age at which the young girl is given to her designated husband, but it occurs after she is able to take on some household and other economic responsibilities, but well before her first menstruation. For the Tiwi she is still a child, albeit and older child. When her father decides that she is mature enough, the young girl is merely taken to her husband and instructed to reside and sleep with him. This is not an abrupt change [...] for the husband has been a part of the same family camp for some time, and the young wife is still surrounded by those with whom she has always lived. Goodale describes the process:
*::''Soon after the ''alinga'' [young girl] moves to her husband's fire he begins her sexual instruction. From all accounts this appears to be a very gradual process. He begins by deflowering her with his finger, and perhaps only after a year does he have actual intercourse with her. Sexual intercourse is considered by the Tiwi to be the direct and only cause of breast formation, growth of pubic and auxillary hair, menarche, and subsequent menstrual periods. (1971, p. 45)."''
*:"versions of this marriage were once found among many Australian Aborigine groups (Berndt & Berndt, 1951; Gale, 1970; Kaberry, 1939; Rose, 1960). From our ethnocentric [i.e. Western] perspective, one of the most notable aspects [...] is the abscence of trauma". (p. 77).

==Melanesia==

Melanesian societies have normalised the consumption of semen by prepubescent boys. This is thought to be in aid of their future status as warriors. Semen is received via oral or anal sex with an adolescent boy or man. Relationships are said to be free-flowing and affectionate among the Sambia of New-Guinea.

*'''Review of [[Gilbert Herdt]]'s famous fieldwork on the Sambia (by [[Walter L. Williams]] as quoted in our page on Herdt):'''
*:"Between the ages of about seven and thirteen, boys are taken from the maternal household and placed in a separate boys' house away from the village. For a period of several months to several years, depending on the culture, boys avoid all contact with females as they are prepared for manhood in elaborate initiations. It is the social duty of men to plant sperm in boys in order for them to grow. In some societies this is done by the boy performing oral sex upon the man, in others by him receiving anal intercourse, or in others by having the sperm rubbed on his body. The sexual act must always be with the boy receiving the older male's semen. To reverse roles is considered damaging to the boy's growth."

*'''Hyena, Hank (1999). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20131002090633/http://gettingit.com/article/56 Semen Warriors Of New Guinea]," Gettingit.com, September 16.'''
*:"Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood."

*'''Knauft, Bruce M. (1987). "Homosexuality in Melanesia," ''Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology'', 10, 155-91.'''
*:Melanesian boys "coquettishly initiated" homosexuality with grown men. Relationships were "grounded in personal affection rather than obligation".

*'''Anitei, Stefan (2007). "[http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Drink-Sperm-to-Become-a-Strong-Man-67804.shtml How to Drink Sperm to Become a Strong Man]," Softpedia, October 6.'''
*:"This power is transmitted between the members of the tribe by means of sex. That's why young boys, even at the age of 12, get it from the sperm of the older males. The boy gets "power" orally by a young man assigned to be his partner. Few years later, the teenager is formally involved in relationships with many male sex partners, after which he turns into an "inseminator" from an "inseminee.""

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/NEW_GUINEAWEB.HTM Papua New Guinea]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"...the “Sambia” value male-virgin contacts (1984:p177), while “sexual partners are perceived as having more “heat” and being more exciting the younger they are. A second factor is reciprocity: the more asymmetrical the sexual partners (youth/boy), the more erotic play seems to culturally define their contact” [sic]. Against the background of an utterly phallocentric ideology on the androtrophic properties of semen, “Sambia” prepubertal boys (7-12, on average 8.5) fellate post-pubertal adolescents to ejaculation in order to grow and turn seminarchic themselves, so that they may reverse roles. The boys do not have orgasms, and might have “vicarious erotic pleasure as indicated by erections” only “near puberty” ([[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]] and Stoller, 1990:p70-1)."
*:"Berndt (1962:p91): “As babies and small children their genitalia are fondled”. Mothers caress “the fleshy parts of [the infant's] body [...] and implanting breathy kisses over and over again in the region of its genital organs” (Hogbin, 1943:p298). Genital touching by older people was also noted by among the Marind-anim (Van Baal, 1966; cf. Money and Ehrhardt, 1973 [1996:p132]). Gillison (1993:p176) describes the process of masturbating infants among the Gimi:
*::The mother insists upon continued contact, interrupting her toddler's play repeatedly to offer the breast. Masturbation [...] with a baby girl [occurs when] the mother or amau holds her hand over the vulva and shakes it vigorously. She may kiss the vagina [sic], working her way up the middle of the body to the lips and then inserting her nipple (often when the child has given no sign of discontent). With a boy, she kisses the penis, pulls at it with her fingers and takes it into her mouth to induce an erection. Several women may pass a baby boy back and forth, each one holding him over her head as she takes a turn sucking or holding the penis in her mouth. When the child then pulls at his own organ, the women, greatly amused, offer squeezes and pulls of their own."

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea<ref>[http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=2E76D290FDCC06180F125CAF7336B2C0 Weiner, Annette B. (1988). ''The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.'' United States of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780030119194]</ref> have received attention in the Western Media for sexual customs in infancy and adolescence that confuse morally conflicted Westerners:<ref>[https://medium.com/the-story-in-history/the-culture-where-children-as-young-as-six-years-are-sexualized-d7afef2d2985 The Culture Where Children as Young as Six Years are Sexualized]</ref>
:<blockquote>Popularly referred to as “The Islands of Love”, the Trobriand Islands are a 174-square-miles group of islands on the east coast of New Guinea. The people are indigenous matrilineal people with a population of 12,000. ''[...]'' In the Trobriand culture, children aren’t allowed the chance to be just children. They are groomed to lose their innocence and start acting like adults at a very young age. By the age of six, they start participating in erotic games with each other. They start engaging in seductive activities. Their little girls are expected to start looking and acting sexy to attract little boys as well as older men. Then, by the time they turn 10, they are expected to start having sexual intercourse with as many sexual partners as they will. Since they are a matrilineal culture, the Trobriand woman has the right to have as many sexual partners as she pleases. And their primitive way of dressing doesn’t make it any harder to engage in sexual intercourse at will.</blockquote>

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"The cultural tradition of pedophilia may belong not just to a small enclave of a population but also to an entire community, as in the case of various tribal peoples scattered across the Pacific in Melanesia and New Guinea (Herdt, 1984). The Sambia of the New Guinea Highlands (Herdt, 1981) are such a tribe. Their ancient customs as fierce head-hunting warriors survived European contact until after World War II. According to their folklore concerning their children, a boy could not become a warrior if he stayed living with women and children after age 8. So, he was taken into the men's longhouse to remain in the company of males only, there to be subjected to the rituals of indoctrination and initiation. As a baby, he had been nourished by woman's milk. As a juvenile, he would have to be nourished with men's milk so that his body would mature in the way that maturation occurs during puberty. It was an obligation of youths still too young to be married not to waste their semen but to have it sucked out of their penises by the prepubertal boys who, once able to ejaculate themselves, would nourish those still younger. At age 19, the age of marriage, their two-way experience of androphilic pedophilia would cease, and their lives would become heterosexual with an adult partner."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

*'''Williams, F.E. (1969) Papuans of the Trans-Fly. ''Oxford'''''
::"It is actually regarded as essential to the growing boy to be sodomized.[...] In the meantime it is enough to note that every male adult in the Morehead district has in his time constantly played both parts in this perversion. The boy is initiated to it at the bull-roarer ceremony [...] When he becomes adolescent his part is reversed and he may then sodomize his juniors, the new initiates to the bull-roarer."
::"Gambadi informants describe the initial occasion more vividly. The father bids his son stoop to drink at a pool and as he does so catches him at a disadvantage. [...] It is to be noted that nowadays boys are not sodomized by their own fathers. The restriction of moiety exogamy is observed in sodomy as it is in marriage [...]"

*'''Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.]'''(available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|Option 2]])
::"This description [''see Williams' above''] is confirmed by more recent anthropological studies [See especially the many studies of [[Gilbert Herdt|G. Herdt]]] [...] the following points should be noted as important features: (1) we have here a case of pederasty, which should not be confused with modern homosexuality, as both initiators and novices normally marry afterwards; (2) the active pederasts are the novices of the previous initiation, and it may be of importance to note that it is these novices who usually play a prominent role in upholding discipline during the initiation; finally, (3) copulation, in which the novice is always the passive partner, takes place anally."

==Philippines==

*'''[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Claude_Burger Burger, G.C.] (Date unknown). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163437/https://youjo.love/media/8db97b489e84f14e500046445c113066d720c1e691df6cc7934220a7b565483f.pdf The Sexual Mistake of the West].'''''
*:"Enamored of travel, he went to a different country every year, and, that year, he visited the Philippines. Not wanting to stay in the capital, he had taken the bus in order to get closer to the population. He thus found himself next to a mother who had reserved only one seat for herself and her eight-year-old daughter. The child at first amused herself by running in the central aisle and approaching the other passengers, but after three hours on the way, she began to have enough. As she was becoming more and more cranky, the mother put her on her lap and asked our gentlemen from Bordeaux if it would bother him if she put her daughter’s legs on his knees, so that the little one could sleep better. He accepted, of course, when he noticed that the mother began masturbating the child, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. You can imagine him blushing, asking himself what he should do, looking all around him to see how the other passengers would react, feeling that he would be accused of complicity in incest. But all the neighbors watched with big calm smiles, as if it were obvious, and worthy of the greatest discretion. As soon as the little girl reached orgasm, she fell asleep like an angel..."

==Polynesia==

===Marquesas Islands===

For a range of sources on the Marquesas Islands, [[#Excerpt_Graphic_Library | see gallery below]], primarily ''Marquesan sexual behavior'' by Robert C. Suggs.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/marquesansexualb0000sugg/mode/2up Marquesan sexual behavior by Suggs, Robert C.]</ref>

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Sex play was common practice from the earliest ages among the Marquesa and not only tolerated but encouraged. (Kardiner, 1939, p. 205-206). They recognized the erotic impulse in childhood and accorded it the right of free exercise. They eroticized the child by masturbating it to keep it quiet. In the case of the girls, labia were manipulated as a placebo, but also to encourage the growth of large labia, which to the Marquesans was a mark of beauty. Such activity was, no doubt, also erotically stimulating. There was social recognition of all sexual activity in childhood, and there were no restrictions against encouragement to exercise it freely; it was allocated the same place in the child's world that it occupied in the adult's."

==Indonesia==

===Bali===

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Among the Balinese, play and teasing with the genitals is common. A mother will pat her baby girl on the vulva and exclaim, "Pretty! Pretty!" (Bateson and Mead, 1942, p. 26, 32, 131). A boy's penis will be stroked and rubbed. After he has urinated, he will be dried by a flick of his penis. As he grows older, his penis will be pulled and stretched and ruffled, and he will often attempt to keep his balance when learning to walk by holding on to it. Babies are comforted and quieted by manipulating their genital organs. In fact, in Bali, a baby, especially a baby's genital, is a toy with which to play. There is much delight taken in stimulating and playing with the baby to watch him respond."

==Nepal==

===Khumbo===

*'''Diemberger, H. (1993). Blood, sperm, soul and the mountain. In T. del Valle (Ed.), [https://library.lol/main/E2340CAF82B58307F2AA3CBD3D1F97C9 ''Gendered Anthropology''] (pp. 88). Routledge.'''
*:"Caili, an energetic and sensual woman, is playing with her youngest son, Migmar. I enter the house. Caili offers me a cup of barley beer and then continues to play with Migmar who does not really want to be disturbed. He drinks some milk from the breast and plays with his erect little penis. He offers it to his mother who sucks it tenderly and then continues to chat with me. Migmar is five years old."

==Nigeria==

===Kadar===

*'''Harris, M. [http://library.lol/main/98025ADB86EEFAF62B59DF2C3CA21CC7 ''Cultural Anthropology''] (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), p. 94.'''
*:"Among the Kadar of northern Nigeria, as reported by M. G. Smith (1968),<ref>M. G. Smith (1968). 'Secondary Marriage among Kadera and Kagoro.' In ''Marriage, Family, and Residence'', Bohannan, Paul and Middleton, J., eds. pp. 109-130. Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History by the Natural History Press.</ref> most marriages result from infant betrothals. These matches are arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom when the girl is 3 to 6 years old. Ten years or more may elapse before the bride goes to live with her betrothed. During this time, a Kadar girl is not unlikely to become pregnant. This will disturb no one, even if the biological father is a man other than her husband:
*::''Kadar set no value on premarital chastity'' (1968, p. 113)."

== Kenya and Tanzania ==

=== Massai ===
*'''Carles Feixa (2011). Past and present of adolescence in society: The ‘teen brain’ debate in perspective. ''Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews'', Volume 35, Issue 8'''
::"Sexual intercourse with [postpubertal] girls is admitted as long as they do not become pregnant."

==India==

===Muria===

*'''Elwin, V. (1947). ''[http://library.lol/main/F416733E30BB1A46214CC9AC38656FDE The Muria and their Ghotul]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.''' [Childhood of the Muria people of Bastar, in central India, as summarized here in scholarship by [[Tom O'Carroll]] (2018)].<ref>Thomas O'Carroll (2018). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9519-1 Childhood ‘Innocence’ is Not Ideal: Virtue Ethics and Child–Adult Sex.] ''Sexuality and Culture'', 22:1230–1262 (pp. 1254-1255).</ref>
*:"Anthropologist Verrier Elwin described the elaborate sexual apprenticeship children have, which takes place principally in a special house for the young, known as the ''ghotul''. Infants and toddlers sleep in their parents' house. There are no locked doors and these little children inevitably see something of their parents' intimacies. By the time the children are six or seven a new domestic arrangement is brought into play. The child goes of to the ghotul, a self-regulated domain with its own boy leader and girl leader. The little children are free to come and go as they please between the ghotul and the parental home. Within the ghotul the children are free to engage in sex rehearsal play. Adolescents are able to have intercourse as they choose, able to experiment with different partners and under no pressure to make a premature commitment (Elwin 1947). Elwin, who spent much of his life in India, thought the arrangement worked very well. [...] In 1982, to the surprise of the academic community, it was reported that the ghotul system was still in existence and even expanding (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1982). [...] Elwin says that in practice [girls becoming pregnant] was a rare occurrence in the ghotul, even in the absence of modern contraceptives."

==The Balkans==

===Albania===

*'''Zimmerman, Ann (1994). "[https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i-6404797 'Tell Mama Why You Cry' (Part I)]," [https://web.archive.org/web/20100926211411/http://www.dallasobserver.com/1994-11-17/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i/1 (archive)], ''Dallas Observer'', November 17.'''
*:An Albanian immigrant to the US is arrested for retaining his culture: "This harsh--and irreversible--punishment came at the end of a strange case that began in 1989 when several witnesses reported seeing Krasniqi fondle his daughter during a karate tournament in a Plano high school gymnasium in which his son was competing. Several years after the family court ruling, Krasniqi finally had his day in criminal court. Collin County Judge Nathan White acquitted him of the charge of indecency with a child primarily on the strength of testimony from Massachusetts anthropologist Barbara Halpern--one of the country's foremost authorities on the peasant culture of the Balkans. Halpern explained that Sam Krasniqi's actions were done not with sexual intent, but rather with playful affection--in keeping with his culture, which cherishes children and showers them with physical affection. [...]
*: Shortly after the tournament began, Taylor's attention was drawn to the spectator in front of her. She watched as a 50-year-old man with thinning gray hair repeatedly rubbed the underpants-clad buttocks and bare legs of a little girl who was laid out across his lap. He also slipped his hand under the girl's panties and caressed and squeezed her buttocks. "He lifted her to face him and rubbed her front chest under her little dress. He then put his hand inside her panties from the leg opening and squeezed her vagina," Taylor wrote in a statement she gave police. [...]
*:Wunderlich, who did not retrun calls to the Observer, had to explain to Kathy what molestation meant. "If you mean something sexual like with me and my husband, you are wrong," Kathy responded. "It is not a sexual thing and there is no harm to my children," Kathy told Wunderlich. [...]
*:"According to Wunderlich's case notes, he admitted touching Lima and Tim, that it was acceptable in his country and it was just a big misunderstanding. "He denied it was sexual at all and said that I could kill him if he was lying and if it was sexually gratifying to him." Krasniqi has since insisted that Wunderlich misconstrued what he was telling her. At the karate tournament, Krasniqi insists he was just playing a game with his daughter--touching the parts of her body and asking her to say their names. "I tell Wunderlich, How can you love your children and not touch them?" Krasniqi explains, sitting in his home, surrounded by pictures of his children when they were younger.
*:Nowhere in Wunderlich's case notes does it indicate that anyone in her department tried to research the Krasniqis' culture. If they had they might have learned what Barbara Halpern, the anthropologist from Massachusetts, testified to in Krasniqi's criminal trial. The Krasniqis come from "very physically demonstrative culture. Children are universally adored. Until they attain school age and venture beyond the household gates, they are the constant subjects of hugs, caresses and overt displays of affection.""

==Hawaii==

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HAWAII.HTM Hawaii]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"Karsch-Haack, (1901) stated that according to Richard Neuhauss, Hawai’ian “girls of 12 to 14 years are generally virgins no more and acts of impurity of father with daughter are no rarity[6] [...] For infant females in Hawai’i, “milk was squirted into her vagina, and the labia were pressed together (Diamond, 1990). The mons [veneris] was rubbed with kukui (candlenut) oil and pressed with the palm of the hand to flatten it and make it less prominent. The molding continued until the labia did not separate. This chore usually was done by the mother or by an “aunt” [...]”. The buttocks of infants, males more than females, were molded so that they became “rounded and not flat”, also clearly evolving from an aesthetic motive. A “blower” is designated for each male infant, ostensibly to prepare him for subincision of the foreskin: “the penis was blown into daily starting from birth. The blowing was said to loosen and balloon the foreskin [and] continued daily [...] until the young male was 6 or 7”, when penile subincision takes place. Diamond reports: “Individuals of both sexes were expected to initiate and participate in coitus at puberty, although sexual activity, play, instruction, and so forth occurred much earlier. For instance, as part of exploratory play, the young investigated each other’s genitals, and young males and females might masturbate each other heterosexually or homosexually. This activity occurred without adult disapproval, and it was considered to be an introduction to adulthood. Casual intercourse before adolescence was not an uncommon experience for males (Handy and Pukui, 1958) and females (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972)"

*'''Milton Diamond. (2004 [1990]). [https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2000to2004/2004-sexual-behavior-in-pre-contact-hawaii.html Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai'i: A Sexological Ethnography]. Published in: ''Revista Española del Pacifico''. 16: 37-58.'''
*:"Sex training was direct and firsthand. Young individuals learned of coitus and sex play from instruction, direct observation, and practice. As they slept in the family house (hale noa), they observed their parents having coitus. "Public privacy" among the Mangaian Islanders, as it was described by Marshall (1971, p. 108), probably is similar to the "privacy" that was found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Polynesia: "[A Mangaian may copulate], at any age, in the single room of a hut that contains from five to fifteen family members of all ages — as have his ancestors before him. His daughter may receive and make love with each of her varied nightly suitors in the same room."
*:The young observed dogs, pigs, and other animals mating, and these activities were discussed openly with parents or other adults. Parturition was not a secret event and was well attended by the young and by adults, all of whom observed traditions that included the washing and burying of the placenta and, usually, the disposing of the umbilical cord (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972, p. 16; Handy and Pukui, 1958, p. 78). The young Hawai‘ian also acquired sex education in day-by-day exposure to precepts, practices, and attitudes concerning sex. Traditionally, ... childish curiosity about sex was satisfied, with neither guilt nor shame instilled” (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 249). [...] Ellis (1782, Vol. 2, p. 153) wrote of sexual expression in Oceania: "The ladies are very lavish of their favors ... and some of their attachments seemed purely the effects of affection. They are initiated into this way of life at a very early period; we saw some, who could not be more than ten years old."
*:The time considered “right” to start coitus was not so much based on chronological age as on ability or maturity (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 78). [...] Suggs (1966) elaborated on the early sexual experiences of pubertal males with married females in their 30s and 40s in the Marquesas Islands, who “take special pains to be pleasing and patient with them ... a source of enjoyment for many Marquesan women” (p. 61). For young females of the Marquesas Islands, the first coital experience reportedly is earlier than it is for young males before menarche —and occurs unplanned with an adult male (Suggs, 1966, p. 63). [...] These adult/nonadult sexual interactions were socially approved behaviors. [...] For adults not to have given such practical education would have been unthinkable - a dereliction of duty.
*:Most important for Hawai‘ian society, the young learned of sexual humor. Among the Hawai‘ians, sex was and remains a rich source of humor and enjoyment. In everyday conversation and in song and story, it was considered to be an “art form” to speak using sexual double entendres (kaona). [...] Suggs (1966, p. 39) considered the early manifestations of infantile and childhood sexual behavior, including sexual behavior with adults, to be among the most distinguishing features of Marquesan sexual behavior. Many of the activities he described, however, are similar to activities that were present in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Oceania. Oliver (1974, pp. 458-459), for example, reported on adult/nonadult sexual behavior in Tahiti and quoted the missionary Orsmond from 1832: “In all Tahitians as well as officers who come in ships there is a cry for little girls,” and older females, when in a position to choose, preferred younger males. Marshall (1971, p. 126) described the routine early sexual encounters of young males and females in Mangaia as being with older, experienced males and females."

== Sudan ==

=== Azande ===
*'''Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1970). [https://sci-hub.st/10.2307/672861 Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American Anthropologist], 72(6), 1428–1434.'''
*: "It was the custom for members of bachelor companies, some of whom would always be living in barracks at court, to take boy-wives. [...] Most young men consequently married late--well into their twenties and thirties-and, because girls were engaged (in a legal sense married) very young, often at birth, the only way youths could obtain satisfaction from a woman was in adultery. [...] The boys performed many of the smaller services a woman performs daily for her husband [...] Also, the boywife carried his husband's shield when on a journey. It should be understood that he performed these services lest it might be thought that the relationship was entirely of a sexual nature; it will be appreciated that it had an educational side to it. With regard to the sexual side, at night the boy slept with his lover, who had intercourse with him between his thighs (Azande expressed disgust at the suggestion of anal penetration). The boys got what pleasure they could by friction of their organs on the husband's belly or groin. However, even though there was this side to the relationship, it was clear from Zande accounts that there was also the comfort of a nightly sharing of the bed with a companion."

== See also ==
* [https://wiki.yesmap.net/wiki/Walter_L._Williams#The_Spirit_and_the_Flesh_%281986%29 The Spirit and the Flesh (1986)] - the book by Walter L. Williams with a broad section on pederasty among non-western societies
* [[Gilbert_Herdt|Gilbert Herdt]] - anthropologist who studied ritualized intergenerational homosexuality in Melanesia

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]]

Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships

2026-04-24T18:08:32Z

Thorn: /* Melanesia */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Most societies which have not been influenced by the West have less, different, or virtually no sexual taboos. It is worth mentioning that absent modern western influence, anthropologists and historians have found far more societies where [[homosexuality]] is prohibited, than societies in which [[pedosexuality]] suffers similar censure. Many encourage intergenerational sex for various reasons. Due to ongoing Westernisation and cultural imperialism, much of what is listed here may already be consigned to history (see, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220225124148/https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.chc.2004.02.001 Nieto (2004), for an anthropological review]).

==GUS, a world atlas: Growing Up Sexually==

The range and detail of accounts involved in this page will only serve as a brief demonstration of non-western diversity in intergenerational relationships. Many examples from anthropology involve [[Sexual rites of passage]]. If readers are seeking a broader, more detailed and integrated study, they may find [[Diederik Janssen]]'s [http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GUS_MAIN_INDEX.HTM ''Growing Up Sexually''] ([http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GROWINGUPSEXUALLY1.ZIP entire Vol 1] in zipped PDF) more appropriate, or ''[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages]'', re. homosexuality.

==Brazil==

===Pirahã===

*'''Daniel Everett (2008). [https://books.feedvu.com/fullbook/dont-sleep-there-are-snakes-life-and-language-in-the-amazonian-jungle-pdf-2.html?page=16&part=1 ''Dont Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle'']. Chapter 16 of 34.'''
*:"Relations between men and women and boys and girls, whether married or not, are always cordial and often marked by light to heavy flirting. Sexually it is the same. So long as children are not forced or hurt, there is no prohibition against their participating in sex with adults. I remember once talking to Xisaoxoi, a Pirahã man in his late thirties, when a nine- or ten-year-old girl was standing beside him. As we talked, she rubbed her hands sensually over his chest and back and rubbed his crotch area through his thin, worn nylon shorts. Both were enjoying themselves. “What’s she doing?” I asked superfluously. “Oh, she’s just playing. We play together. When she’s big she will be my wife” was his nonchalant reply—and, indeed, after the girl went through puberty, they were married."

* '''Daniel Everett (2016). ''Dark matter of the mind : the culturally articulated unconscious.'' Chapter 3'''
::"Pirahã young people begin to engage sexually, though apparently not in full intercourse, from early on. Touching and being touched seem to be common for Pirahã boys and girls from about seven years of age on. They are all sexually active by puberty, with older men and women frequently initiating younger girls and boys, respectively. There is no evidence that the children then or as adults find this pedophilia the least bit traumatic."

==Argentina==

===Pilagá===

*'''Jules Henry and Zunia Henry (1944). [https://library.lol/main/2C825BAA5B73830492464813AF34FEC4 ''Doll Play of Pilagá Indian Children. An Experimental and Field Analysis of the Behavior of the Pilagá Indian Children'']. (American Orthopsychiatric Association), p. 72.'''
*:'''Note:''' The study explores the use of dolls among Pilagá children, including in a sexual context.
*:"Where children can see the adult sexual act, where sexual conversations and gestures are perfectly open, and child life is untrammeled by sexual taboos, it is reasonable to expect that the children should experiment with their sexual apparatus and attempt to imitate adult sexual behavior. This is the case among the Pilagá. Considering the extent of child knowledge about sex and the age at which this knowledge becomes articulate - 3 years - intercourse in the Pilagá household must not only be visible to the children, but carried on with little if any attempt to conceal the act from them. Absolutely no prohibition is placed on child sexual activity by the adults, so that the children are at liberty to do what they please. Under such circumstances the only limits to the child's sexual activity are his physiological capacities and the tolerance of his companions. [...] [S]ex is a strong and constant interest of Pilagá children."

==Australia==

===Tiwi===

*'''Davenport, William H. (1992). [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/File:Davenport_chapter.pdf Adult-Child Sexual Relations in Cross-Cultural Perspective], in W. O'Donohue & J. H. Geer (Eds.), ''The sexual abuse of children: Theory and research'' (Vol. 1, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 73-80), pp. 76-77.'''
*:"The best ethnographic description of this type of [gerontocratic] marriage is by Jane Goodale (1971) in her account of the Tiwi who live on Melville Island, North Australia. Betrothals of first marriages of most females are made even before those females are concieved. In fact, such a marriage contract is made when the as-yet-to-be-concieved girl's mother commences menstruation. [...] Once the marriage contract is made, the husband-to-be, who is an adult, works with his future mother and father-in-law as a member of that family, with the expectation that when a daughter is born to them, she will be given to him as a wife. There is no fixed chronological age at which the young girl is given to her designated husband, but it occurs after she is able to take on some household and other economic responsibilities, but well before her first menstruation. For the Tiwi she is still a child, albeit and older child. When her father decides that she is mature enough, the young girl is merely taken to her husband and instructed to reside and sleep with him. This is not an abrupt change [...] for the husband has been a part of the same family camp for some time, and the young wife is still surrounded by those with whom she has always lived. Goodale describes the process:
*::''Soon after the ''alinga'' [young girl] moves to her husband's fire he begins her sexual instruction. From all accounts this appears to be a very gradual process. He begins by deflowering her with his finger, and perhaps only after a year does he have actual intercourse with her. Sexual intercourse is considered by the Tiwi to be the direct and only cause of breast formation, growth of pubic and auxillary hair, menarche, and subsequent menstrual periods. (1971, p. 45)."''
*:"versions of this marriage were once found among many Australian Aborigine groups (Berndt & Berndt, 1951; Gale, 1970; Kaberry, 1939; Rose, 1960). From our ethnocentric [i.e. Western] perspective, one of the most notable aspects [...] is the abscence of trauma". (p. 77).

==Melanesia==

Melanesian societies have normalised the consumption of semen by prepubescent boys. This is thought to be in aid of their future status as warriors. Semen is received via oral or anal sex with an adolescent boy or man. Relationships are said to be free-flowing and affectionate among the Sambia of New-Guinea.

*'''Review of [[Gilbert Herdt]]'s famous fieldwork on the Sambia (by [[Walter L. Williams]] as quoted in our page on Herdt):'''
*:"Between the ages of about seven and thirteen, boys are taken from the maternal household and placed in a separate boys' house away from the village. For a period of several months to several years, depending on the culture, boys avoid all contact with females as they are prepared for manhood in elaborate initiations. It is the social duty of men to plant sperm in boys in order for them to grow. In some societies this is done by the boy performing oral sex upon the man, in others by him receiving anal intercourse, or in others by having the sperm rubbed on his body. The sexual act must always be with the boy receiving the older male's semen. To reverse roles is considered damaging to the boy's growth."

*'''Hyena, Hank (1999). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20131002090633/http://gettingit.com/article/56 Semen Warriors Of New Guinea]," Gettingit.com, September 16.'''
*:"Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood."

*'''Knauft, Bruce M. (1987). "Homosexuality in Melanesia," ''Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology'', 10, 155-91.'''
*:Melanesian boys "coquettishly initiated" homosexuality with grown men. Relationships were "grounded in personal affection rather than obligation".

*'''Anitei, Stefan (2007). "[http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Drink-Sperm-to-Become-a-Strong-Man-67804.shtml How to Drink Sperm to Become a Strong Man]," Softpedia, October 6.'''
*:"This power is transmitted between the members of the tribe by means of sex. That's why young boys, even at the age of 12, get it from the sperm of the older males. The boy gets "power" orally by a young man assigned to be his partner. Few years later, the teenager is formally involved in relationships with many male sex partners, after which he turns into an "inseminator" from an "inseminee.""

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/NEW_GUINEAWEB.HTM Papua New Guinea]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"...the “Sambia” value male-virgin contacts (1984:p177), while “sexual partners are perceived as having more “heat” and being more exciting the younger they are. A second factor is reciprocity: the more asymmetrical the sexual partners (youth/boy), the more erotic play seems to culturally define their contact” [sic]. Against the background of an utterly phallocentric ideology on the androtrophic properties of semen, “Sambia” prepubertal boys (7-12, on average 8.5) fellate post-pubertal adolescents to ejaculation in order to grow and turn seminarchic themselves, so that they may reverse roles. The boys do not have orgasms, and might have “vicarious erotic pleasure as indicated by erections” only “near puberty” ([[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]] and Stoller, 1990:p70-1)."
*:"Berndt (1962:p91): “As babies and small children their genitalia are fondled”. Mothers caress “the fleshy parts of [the infant's] body [...] and implanting breathy kisses over and over again in the region of its genital organs” (Hogbin, 1943:p298). Genital touching by older people was also noted by among the Marind-anim (Van Baal, 1966; cf. Money and Ehrhardt, 1973 [1996:p132]). Gillison (1993:p176) describes the process of masturbating infants among the Gimi:
*::The mother insists upon continued contact, interrupting her toddler's play repeatedly to offer the breast. Masturbation [...] with a baby girl [occurs when] the mother or amau holds her hand over the vulva and shakes it vigorously. She may kiss the vagina [sic], working her way up the middle of the body to the lips and then inserting her nipple (often when the child has given no sign of discontent). With a boy, she kisses the penis, pulls at it with her fingers and takes it into her mouth to induce an erection. Several women may pass a baby boy back and forth, each one holding him over her head as she takes a turn sucking or holding the penis in her mouth. When the child then pulls at his own organ, the women, greatly amused, offer squeezes and pulls of their own."

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea<ref>[http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=2E76D290FDCC06180F125CAF7336B2C0 Weiner, Annette B. (1988). ''The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.'' United States of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780030119194]</ref> have received attention in the Western Media for sexual customs in infancy and adolescence that confuse morally conflicted Westerners:<ref>[https://medium.com/the-story-in-history/the-culture-where-children-as-young-as-six-years-are-sexualized-d7afef2d2985 The Culture Where Children as Young as Six Years are Sexualized]</ref>
:<blockquote>Popularly referred to as “The Islands of Love”, the Trobriand Islands are a 174-square-miles group of islands on the east coast of New Guinea. The people are indigenous matrilineal people with a population of 12,000. ''[...]'' In the Trobriand culture, children aren’t allowed the chance to be just children. They are groomed to lose their innocence and start acting like adults at a very young age. By the age of six, they start participating in erotic games with each other. They start engaging in seductive activities. Their little girls are expected to start looking and acting sexy to attract little boys as well as older men. Then, by the time they turn 10, they are expected to start having sexual intercourse with as many sexual partners as they will. Since they are a matrilineal culture, the Trobriand woman has the right to have as many sexual partners as she pleases. And their primitive way of dressing doesn’t make it any harder to engage in sexual intercourse at will.</blockquote>

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"The cultural tradition of pedophilia may belong not just to a small enclave of a population but also to an entire community, as in the case of various tribal peoples scattered across the Pacific in Melanesia and New Guinea (Herdt, 1984). The Sambia of the New Guinea Highlands (Herdt, 1981) are such a tribe. Their ancient customs as fierce head-hunting warriors survived European contact until after World War II. According to their folklore concerning their children, a boy could not become a warrior if he stayed living with women and children after age 8. So, he was taken into the men's longhouse to remain in the company of males only, there to be subjected to the rituals of indoctrination and initiation. As a baby, he had been nourished by woman's milk. As a juvenile, he would have to be nourished with men's milk so that his body would mature in the way that maturation occurs during puberty. It was an obligation of youths still too young to be married not to waste their semen but to have it sucked out of their penises by the prepubertal boys who, once able to ejaculate themselves, would nourish those still younger. At age 19, the age of marriage, their two-way experience of androphilic pedophilia would cease, and their lives would become heterosexual with an adult partner."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

*'''Williams, F.E. (1969) Papuans of the Trans-Fly. ''Oxford'''''
::"It is actually regarded as essential to the growing boy to be sodomized.[...] In the meantime it is enough to note that every male adult in the Morehead district has in his time constantly played both parts in this perversion. The boy is initiated to it at the bull-roarer ceremony [...] When he becomes adolescent his part is reversed and he may then sodomize his juniors, the new initiates to the bull-roarer."
::"Gambadi informants describe the initial occasion more vividly. The father bids his son stoop to drink at a pool and as he does so catches him at a disadvantage. [...] It is to be noted that nowadays boys are not sodomized by their own fathers. The restriction of moiety exogamy is observed in sodomy as it is in marriage [...]"

*'''Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.]'''(available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|Option 2]])
::"This description [''see Williams' above''] is confirmed by more recent anthropological studies [See especially the many studies of G. Herdt] [...] the following points should be noted as important features: (1) we have here a case of pederasty, which should not be confused with modern homosexuality, as both initiators and novices normally marry afterwards; (2) the active pederasts are the novices of the previous initiation, and it may be of importance to note that it is these novices who usually play a prominent role in upholding discipline during the initiation; finally, (3) copulation, in which the novice is always the passive partner, takes place anally."

==Philippines==

*'''[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Claude_Burger Burger, G.C.] (Date unknown). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163437/https://youjo.love/media/8db97b489e84f14e500046445c113066d720c1e691df6cc7934220a7b565483f.pdf The Sexual Mistake of the West].'''''
*:"Enamored of travel, he went to a different country every year, and, that year, he visited the Philippines. Not wanting to stay in the capital, he had taken the bus in order to get closer to the population. He thus found himself next to a mother who had reserved only one seat for herself and her eight-year-old daughter. The child at first amused herself by running in the central aisle and approaching the other passengers, but after three hours on the way, she began to have enough. As she was becoming more and more cranky, the mother put her on her lap and asked our gentlemen from Bordeaux if it would bother him if she put her daughter’s legs on his knees, so that the little one could sleep better. He accepted, of course, when he noticed that the mother began masturbating the child, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. You can imagine him blushing, asking himself what he should do, looking all around him to see how the other passengers would react, feeling that he would be accused of complicity in incest. But all the neighbors watched with big calm smiles, as if it were obvious, and worthy of the greatest discretion. As soon as the little girl reached orgasm, she fell asleep like an angel..."

==Polynesia==

===Marquesas Islands===

For a range of sources on the Marquesas Islands, [[#Excerpt_Graphic_Library | see gallery below]], primarily ''Marquesan sexual behavior'' by Robert C. Suggs.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/marquesansexualb0000sugg/mode/2up Marquesan sexual behavior by Suggs, Robert C.]</ref>

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Sex play was common practice from the earliest ages among the Marquesa and not only tolerated but encouraged. (Kardiner, 1939, p. 205-206). They recognized the erotic impulse in childhood and accorded it the right of free exercise. They eroticized the child by masturbating it to keep it quiet. In the case of the girls, labia were manipulated as a placebo, but also to encourage the growth of large labia, which to the Marquesans was a mark of beauty. Such activity was, no doubt, also erotically stimulating. There was social recognition of all sexual activity in childhood, and there were no restrictions against encouragement to exercise it freely; it was allocated the same place in the child's world that it occupied in the adult's."

==Indonesia==

===Bali===

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Among the Balinese, play and teasing with the genitals is common. A mother will pat her baby girl on the vulva and exclaim, "Pretty! Pretty!" (Bateson and Mead, 1942, p. 26, 32, 131). A boy's penis will be stroked and rubbed. After he has urinated, he will be dried by a flick of his penis. As he grows older, his penis will be pulled and stretched and ruffled, and he will often attempt to keep his balance when learning to walk by holding on to it. Babies are comforted and quieted by manipulating their genital organs. In fact, in Bali, a baby, especially a baby's genital, is a toy with which to play. There is much delight taken in stimulating and playing with the baby to watch him respond."

==Nepal==

===Khumbo===

*'''Diemberger, H. (1993). Blood, sperm, soul and the mountain. In T. del Valle (Ed.), [https://library.lol/main/E2340CAF82B58307F2AA3CBD3D1F97C9 ''Gendered Anthropology''] (pp. 88). Routledge.'''
*:"Caili, an energetic and sensual woman, is playing with her youngest son, Migmar. I enter the house. Caili offers me a cup of barley beer and then continues to play with Migmar who does not really want to be disturbed. He drinks some milk from the breast and plays with his erect little penis. He offers it to his mother who sucks it tenderly and then continues to chat with me. Migmar is five years old."

==Nigeria==

===Kadar===

*'''Harris, M. [http://library.lol/main/98025ADB86EEFAF62B59DF2C3CA21CC7 ''Cultural Anthropology''] (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), p. 94.'''
*:"Among the Kadar of northern Nigeria, as reported by M. G. Smith (1968),<ref>M. G. Smith (1968). 'Secondary Marriage among Kadera and Kagoro.' In ''Marriage, Family, and Residence'', Bohannan, Paul and Middleton, J., eds. pp. 109-130. Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History by the Natural History Press.</ref> most marriages result from infant betrothals. These matches are arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom when the girl is 3 to 6 years old. Ten years or more may elapse before the bride goes to live with her betrothed. During this time, a Kadar girl is not unlikely to become pregnant. This will disturb no one, even if the biological father is a man other than her husband:
*::''Kadar set no value on premarital chastity'' (1968, p. 113)."

== Kenya and Tanzania ==

=== Massai ===
*'''Carles Feixa (2011). Past and present of adolescence in society: The ‘teen brain’ debate in perspective. ''Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews'', Volume 35, Issue 8'''
::"Sexual intercourse with [postpubertal] girls is admitted as long as they do not become pregnant."

==India==

===Muria===

*'''Elwin, V. (1947). ''[http://library.lol/main/F416733E30BB1A46214CC9AC38656FDE The Muria and their Ghotul]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.''' [Childhood of the Muria people of Bastar, in central India, as summarized here in scholarship by [[Tom O'Carroll]] (2018)].<ref>Thomas O'Carroll (2018). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9519-1 Childhood ‘Innocence’ is Not Ideal: Virtue Ethics and Child–Adult Sex.] ''Sexuality and Culture'', 22:1230–1262 (pp. 1254-1255).</ref>
*:"Anthropologist Verrier Elwin described the elaborate sexual apprenticeship children have, which takes place principally in a special house for the young, known as the ''ghotul''. Infants and toddlers sleep in their parents' house. There are no locked doors and these little children inevitably see something of their parents' intimacies. By the time the children are six or seven a new domestic arrangement is brought into play. The child goes of to the ghotul, a self-regulated domain with its own boy leader and girl leader. The little children are free to come and go as they please between the ghotul and the parental home. Within the ghotul the children are free to engage in sex rehearsal play. Adolescents are able to have intercourse as they choose, able to experiment with different partners and under no pressure to make a premature commitment (Elwin 1947). Elwin, who spent much of his life in India, thought the arrangement worked very well. [...] In 1982, to the surprise of the academic community, it was reported that the ghotul system was still in existence and even expanding (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1982). [...] Elwin says that in practice [girls becoming pregnant] was a rare occurrence in the ghotul, even in the absence of modern contraceptives."

==The Balkans==

===Albania===

*'''Zimmerman, Ann (1994). "[https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i-6404797 'Tell Mama Why You Cry' (Part I)]," [https://web.archive.org/web/20100926211411/http://www.dallasobserver.com/1994-11-17/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i/1 (archive)], ''Dallas Observer'', November 17.'''
*:An Albanian immigrant to the US is arrested for retaining his culture: "This harsh--and irreversible--punishment came at the end of a strange case that began in 1989 when several witnesses reported seeing Krasniqi fondle his daughter during a karate tournament in a Plano high school gymnasium in which his son was competing. Several years after the family court ruling, Krasniqi finally had his day in criminal court. Collin County Judge Nathan White acquitted him of the charge of indecency with a child primarily on the strength of testimony from Massachusetts anthropologist Barbara Halpern--one of the country's foremost authorities on the peasant culture of the Balkans. Halpern explained that Sam Krasniqi's actions were done not with sexual intent, but rather with playful affection--in keeping with his culture, which cherishes children and showers them with physical affection. [...]
*: Shortly after the tournament began, Taylor's attention was drawn to the spectator in front of her. She watched as a 50-year-old man with thinning gray hair repeatedly rubbed the underpants-clad buttocks and bare legs of a little girl who was laid out across his lap. He also slipped his hand under the girl's panties and caressed and squeezed her buttocks. "He lifted her to face him and rubbed her front chest under her little dress. He then put his hand inside her panties from the leg opening and squeezed her vagina," Taylor wrote in a statement she gave police. [...]
*:Wunderlich, who did not retrun calls to the Observer, had to explain to Kathy what molestation meant. "If you mean something sexual like with me and my husband, you are wrong," Kathy responded. "It is not a sexual thing and there is no harm to my children," Kathy told Wunderlich. [...]
*:"According to Wunderlich's case notes, he admitted touching Lima and Tim, that it was acceptable in his country and it was just a big misunderstanding. "He denied it was sexual at all and said that I could kill him if he was lying and if it was sexually gratifying to him." Krasniqi has since insisted that Wunderlich misconstrued what he was telling her. At the karate tournament, Krasniqi insists he was just playing a game with his daughter--touching the parts of her body and asking her to say their names. "I tell Wunderlich, How can you love your children and not touch them?" Krasniqi explains, sitting in his home, surrounded by pictures of his children when they were younger.
*:Nowhere in Wunderlich's case notes does it indicate that anyone in her department tried to research the Krasniqis' culture. If they had they might have learned what Barbara Halpern, the anthropologist from Massachusetts, testified to in Krasniqi's criminal trial. The Krasniqis come from "very physically demonstrative culture. Children are universally adored. Until they attain school age and venture beyond the household gates, they are the constant subjects of hugs, caresses and overt displays of affection.""

==Hawaii==

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HAWAII.HTM Hawaii]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"Karsch-Haack, (1901) stated that according to Richard Neuhauss, Hawai’ian “girls of 12 to 14 years are generally virgins no more and acts of impurity of father with daughter are no rarity[6] [...] For infant females in Hawai’i, “milk was squirted into her vagina, and the labia were pressed together (Diamond, 1990). The mons [veneris] was rubbed with kukui (candlenut) oil and pressed with the palm of the hand to flatten it and make it less prominent. The molding continued until the labia did not separate. This chore usually was done by the mother or by an “aunt” [...]”. The buttocks of infants, males more than females, were molded so that they became “rounded and not flat”, also clearly evolving from an aesthetic motive. A “blower” is designated for each male infant, ostensibly to prepare him for subincision of the foreskin: “the penis was blown into daily starting from birth. The blowing was said to loosen and balloon the foreskin [and] continued daily [...] until the young male was 6 or 7”, when penile subincision takes place. Diamond reports: “Individuals of both sexes were expected to initiate and participate in coitus at puberty, although sexual activity, play, instruction, and so forth occurred much earlier. For instance, as part of exploratory play, the young investigated each other’s genitals, and young males and females might masturbate each other heterosexually or homosexually. This activity occurred without adult disapproval, and it was considered to be an introduction to adulthood. Casual intercourse before adolescence was not an uncommon experience for males (Handy and Pukui, 1958) and females (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972)"

*'''Milton Diamond. (2004 [1990]). [https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2000to2004/2004-sexual-behavior-in-pre-contact-hawaii.html Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai'i: A Sexological Ethnography]. Published in: ''Revista Española del Pacifico''. 16: 37-58.'''
*:"Sex training was direct and firsthand. Young individuals learned of coitus and sex play from instruction, direct observation, and practice. As they slept in the family house (hale noa), they observed their parents having coitus. "Public privacy" among the Mangaian Islanders, as it was described by Marshall (1971, p. 108), probably is similar to the "privacy" that was found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Polynesia: "[A Mangaian may copulate], at any age, in the single room of a hut that contains from five to fifteen family members of all ages — as have his ancestors before him. His daughter may receive and make love with each of her varied nightly suitors in the same room."
*:The young observed dogs, pigs, and other animals mating, and these activities were discussed openly with parents or other adults. Parturition was not a secret event and was well attended by the young and by adults, all of whom observed traditions that included the washing and burying of the placenta and, usually, the disposing of the umbilical cord (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972, p. 16; Handy and Pukui, 1958, p. 78). The young Hawai‘ian also acquired sex education in day-by-day exposure to precepts, practices, and attitudes concerning sex. Traditionally, ... childish curiosity about sex was satisfied, with neither guilt nor shame instilled” (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 249). [...] Ellis (1782, Vol. 2, p. 153) wrote of sexual expression in Oceania: "The ladies are very lavish of their favors ... and some of their attachments seemed purely the effects of affection. They are initiated into this way of life at a very early period; we saw some, who could not be more than ten years old."
*:The time considered “right” to start coitus was not so much based on chronological age as on ability or maturity (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 78). [...] Suggs (1966) elaborated on the early sexual experiences of pubertal males with married females in their 30s and 40s in the Marquesas Islands, who “take special pains to be pleasing and patient with them ... a source of enjoyment for many Marquesan women” (p. 61). For young females of the Marquesas Islands, the first coital experience reportedly is earlier than it is for young males before menarche —and occurs unplanned with an adult male (Suggs, 1966, p. 63). [...] These adult/nonadult sexual interactions were socially approved behaviors. [...] For adults not to have given such practical education would have been unthinkable - a dereliction of duty.
*:Most important for Hawai‘ian society, the young learned of sexual humor. Among the Hawai‘ians, sex was and remains a rich source of humor and enjoyment. In everyday conversation and in song and story, it was considered to be an “art form” to speak using sexual double entendres (kaona). [...] Suggs (1966, p. 39) considered the early manifestations of infantile and childhood sexual behavior, including sexual behavior with adults, to be among the most distinguishing features of Marquesan sexual behavior. Many of the activities he described, however, are similar to activities that were present in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Oceania. Oliver (1974, pp. 458-459), for example, reported on adult/nonadult sexual behavior in Tahiti and quoted the missionary Orsmond from 1832: “In all Tahitians as well as officers who come in ships there is a cry for little girls,” and older females, when in a position to choose, preferred younger males. Marshall (1971, p. 126) described the routine early sexual encounters of young males and females in Mangaia as being with older, experienced males and females."

== Sudan ==

=== Azande ===
*'''Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1970). [https://sci-hub.st/10.2307/672861 Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American Anthropologist], 72(6), 1428–1434.'''
*: "It was the custom for members of bachelor companies, some of whom would always be living in barracks at court, to take boy-wives. [...] Most young men consequently married late--well into their twenties and thirties-and, because girls were engaged (in a legal sense married) very young, often at birth, the only way youths could obtain satisfaction from a woman was in adultery. [...] The boys performed many of the smaller services a woman performs daily for her husband [...] Also, the boywife carried his husband's shield when on a journey. It should be understood that he performed these services lest it might be thought that the relationship was entirely of a sexual nature; it will be appreciated that it had an educational side to it. With regard to the sexual side, at night the boy slept with his lover, who had intercourse with him between his thighs (Azande expressed disgust at the suggestion of anal penetration). The boys got what pleasure they could by friction of their organs on the husband's belly or groin. However, even though there was this side to the relationship, it was clear from Zande accounts that there was also the comfort of a nightly sharing of the bed with a companion."

== See also ==
* [https://wiki.yesmap.net/wiki/Walter_L._Williams#The_Spirit_and_the_Flesh_%281986%29 The Spirit and the Flesh (1986)] - the book by Walter L. Williams with a broad section on pederasty among non-western societies
* [[Gilbert_Herdt|Gilbert Herdt]] - anthropologist who studied ritualized intergenerational homosexuality in Melanesia

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]]

Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships

2026-04-24T17:58:39Z

Thorn: /* Melanesia */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Most societies which have not been influenced by the West have less, different, or virtually no sexual taboos. It is worth mentioning that absent modern western influence, anthropologists and historians have found far more societies where [[homosexuality]] is prohibited, than societies in which [[pedosexuality]] suffers similar censure. Many encourage intergenerational sex for various reasons. Due to ongoing Westernisation and cultural imperialism, much of what is listed here may already be consigned to history (see, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220225124148/https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.chc.2004.02.001 Nieto (2004), for an anthropological review]).

==GUS, a world atlas: Growing Up Sexually==

The range and detail of accounts involved in this page will only serve as a brief demonstration of non-western diversity in intergenerational relationships. Many examples from anthropology involve [[Sexual rites of passage]]. If readers are seeking a broader, more detailed and integrated study, they may find [[Diederik Janssen]]'s [http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GUS_MAIN_INDEX.HTM ''Growing Up Sexually''] ([http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GROWINGUPSEXUALLY1.ZIP entire Vol 1] in zipped PDF) more appropriate, or ''[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages]'', re. homosexuality.

==Brazil==

===Pirahã===

*'''Daniel Everett (2008). [https://books.feedvu.com/fullbook/dont-sleep-there-are-snakes-life-and-language-in-the-amazonian-jungle-pdf-2.html?page=16&part=1 ''Dont Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle'']. Chapter 16 of 34.'''
*:"Relations between men and women and boys and girls, whether married or not, are always cordial and often marked by light to heavy flirting. Sexually it is the same. So long as children are not forced or hurt, there is no prohibition against their participating in sex with adults. I remember once talking to Xisaoxoi, a Pirahã man in his late thirties, when a nine- or ten-year-old girl was standing beside him. As we talked, she rubbed her hands sensually over his chest and back and rubbed his crotch area through his thin, worn nylon shorts. Both were enjoying themselves. “What’s she doing?” I asked superfluously. “Oh, she’s just playing. We play together. When she’s big she will be my wife” was his nonchalant reply—and, indeed, after the girl went through puberty, they were married."

* '''Daniel Everett (2016). ''Dark matter of the mind : the culturally articulated unconscious.'' Chapter 3'''
::"Pirahã young people begin to engage sexually, though apparently not in full intercourse, from early on. Touching and being touched seem to be common for Pirahã boys and girls from about seven years of age on. They are all sexually active by puberty, with older men and women frequently initiating younger girls and boys, respectively. There is no evidence that the children then or as adults find this pedophilia the least bit traumatic."

==Argentina==

===Pilagá===

*'''Jules Henry and Zunia Henry (1944). [https://library.lol/main/2C825BAA5B73830492464813AF34FEC4 ''Doll Play of Pilagá Indian Children. An Experimental and Field Analysis of the Behavior of the Pilagá Indian Children'']. (American Orthopsychiatric Association), p. 72.'''
*:'''Note:''' The study explores the use of dolls among Pilagá children, including in a sexual context.
*:"Where children can see the adult sexual act, where sexual conversations and gestures are perfectly open, and child life is untrammeled by sexual taboos, it is reasonable to expect that the children should experiment with their sexual apparatus and attempt to imitate adult sexual behavior. This is the case among the Pilagá. Considering the extent of child knowledge about sex and the age at which this knowledge becomes articulate - 3 years - intercourse in the Pilagá household must not only be visible to the children, but carried on with little if any attempt to conceal the act from them. Absolutely no prohibition is placed on child sexual activity by the adults, so that the children are at liberty to do what they please. Under such circumstances the only limits to the child's sexual activity are his physiological capacities and the tolerance of his companions. [...] [S]ex is a strong and constant interest of Pilagá children."

==Australia==

===Tiwi===

*'''Davenport, William H. (1992). [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/File:Davenport_chapter.pdf Adult-Child Sexual Relations in Cross-Cultural Perspective], in W. O'Donohue & J. H. Geer (Eds.), ''The sexual abuse of children: Theory and research'' (Vol. 1, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 73-80), pp. 76-77.'''
*:"The best ethnographic description of this type of [gerontocratic] marriage is by Jane Goodale (1971) in her account of the Tiwi who live on Melville Island, North Australia. Betrothals of first marriages of most females are made even before those females are concieved. In fact, such a marriage contract is made when the as-yet-to-be-concieved girl's mother commences menstruation. [...] Once the marriage contract is made, the husband-to-be, who is an adult, works with his future mother and father-in-law as a member of that family, with the expectation that when a daughter is born to them, she will be given to him as a wife. There is no fixed chronological age at which the young girl is given to her designated husband, but it occurs after she is able to take on some household and other economic responsibilities, but well before her first menstruation. For the Tiwi she is still a child, albeit and older child. When her father decides that she is mature enough, the young girl is merely taken to her husband and instructed to reside and sleep with him. This is not an abrupt change [...] for the husband has been a part of the same family camp for some time, and the young wife is still surrounded by those with whom she has always lived. Goodale describes the process:
*::''Soon after the ''alinga'' [young girl] moves to her husband's fire he begins her sexual instruction. From all accounts this appears to be a very gradual process. He begins by deflowering her with his finger, and perhaps only after a year does he have actual intercourse with her. Sexual intercourse is considered by the Tiwi to be the direct and only cause of breast formation, growth of pubic and auxillary hair, menarche, and subsequent menstrual periods. (1971, p. 45)."''
*:"versions of this marriage were once found among many Australian Aborigine groups (Berndt & Berndt, 1951; Gale, 1970; Kaberry, 1939; Rose, 1960). From our ethnocentric [i.e. Western] perspective, one of the most notable aspects [...] is the abscence of trauma". (p. 77).

==Melanesia==

Melanesian societies have normalised the consumption of semen by prepubescent boys. This is thought to be in aid of their future status as warriors. Semen is received via oral or anal sex with an adolescent boy or man. Relationships are said to be free-flowing and affectionate among the Sambia of New-Guinea.

*'''Review of [[Gilbert Herdt]]'s famous fieldwork on the Sambia (by [[Walter L. Williams]] as quoted in our page on Herdt):'''
*:"Between the ages of about seven and thirteen, boys are taken from the maternal household and placed in a separate boys' house away from the village. For a period of several months to several years, depending on the culture, boys avoid all contact with females as they are prepared for manhood in elaborate initiations. It is the social duty of men to plant sperm in boys in order for them to grow. In some societies this is done by the boy performing oral sex upon the man, in others by him receiving anal intercourse, or in others by having the sperm rubbed on his body. The sexual act must always be with the boy receiving the older male's semen. To reverse roles is considered damaging to the boy's growth."

*'''Hyena, Hank (1999). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20131002090633/http://gettingit.com/article/56 Semen Warriors Of New Guinea]," Gettingit.com, September 16.'''
*:"Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood."

*'''Knauft, Bruce M. (1987). "Homosexuality in Melanesia," ''Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology'', 10, 155-91.'''
*:Melanesian boys "coquettishly initiated" homosexuality with grown men. Relationships were "grounded in personal affection rather than obligation".

*'''Anitei, Stefan (2007). "[http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Drink-Sperm-to-Become-a-Strong-Man-67804.shtml How to Drink Sperm to Become a Strong Man]," Softpedia, October 6.'''
*:"This power is transmitted between the members of the tribe by means of sex. That's why young boys, even at the age of 12, get it from the sperm of the older males. The boy gets "power" orally by a young man assigned to be his partner. Few years later, the teenager is formally involved in relationships with many male sex partners, after which he turns into an "inseminator" from an "inseminee.""

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/NEW_GUINEAWEB.HTM Papua New Guinea]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"...the “Sambia” value male-virgin contacts (1984:p177), while “sexual partners are perceived as having more “heat” and being more exciting the younger they are. A second factor is reciprocity: the more asymmetrical the sexual partners (youth/boy), the more erotic play seems to culturally define their contact” [sic]. Against the background of an utterly phallocentric ideology on the androtrophic properties of semen, “Sambia” prepubertal boys (7-12, on average 8.5) fellate post-pubertal adolescents to ejaculation in order to grow and turn seminarchic themselves, so that they may reverse roles. The boys do not have orgasms, and might have “vicarious erotic pleasure as indicated by erections” only “near puberty” ([[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]] and Stoller, 1990:p70-1)."
*:"Berndt (1962:p91): “As babies and small children their genitalia are fondled”. Mothers caress “the fleshy parts of [the infant's] body [...] and implanting breathy kisses over and over again in the region of its genital organs” (Hogbin, 1943:p298). Genital touching by older people was also noted by among the Marind-anim (Van Baal, 1966; cf. Money and Ehrhardt, 1973 [1996:p132]). Gillison (1993:p176) describes the process of masturbating infants among the Gimi:
*::The mother insists upon continued contact, interrupting her toddler's play repeatedly to offer the breast. Masturbation [...] with a baby girl [occurs when] the mother or amau holds her hand over the vulva and shakes it vigorously. She may kiss the vagina [sic], working her way up the middle of the body to the lips and then inserting her nipple (often when the child has given no sign of discontent). With a boy, she kisses the penis, pulls at it with her fingers and takes it into her mouth to induce an erection. Several women may pass a baby boy back and forth, each one holding him over her head as she takes a turn sucking or holding the penis in her mouth. When the child then pulls at his own organ, the women, greatly amused, offer squeezes and pulls of their own."

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea<ref>[http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=2E76D290FDCC06180F125CAF7336B2C0 Weiner, Annette B. (1988). ''The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.'' United States of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780030119194]</ref> have received attention in the Western Media for sexual customs in infancy and adolescence that confuse morally conflicted Westerners:<ref>[https://medium.com/the-story-in-history/the-culture-where-children-as-young-as-six-years-are-sexualized-d7afef2d2985 The Culture Where Children as Young as Six Years are Sexualized]</ref>
:<blockquote>Popularly referred to as “The Islands of Love”, the Trobriand Islands are a 174-square-miles group of islands on the east coast of New Guinea. The people are indigenous matrilineal people with a population of 12,000. ''[...]'' In the Trobriand culture, children aren’t allowed the chance to be just children. They are groomed to lose their innocence and start acting like adults at a very young age. By the age of six, they start participating in erotic games with each other. They start engaging in seductive activities. Their little girls are expected to start looking and acting sexy to attract little boys as well as older men. Then, by the time they turn 10, they are expected to start having sexual intercourse with as many sexual partners as they will. Since they are a matrilineal culture, the Trobriand woman has the right to have as many sexual partners as she pleases. And their primitive way of dressing doesn’t make it any harder to engage in sexual intercourse at will.</blockquote>

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"The cultural tradition of pedophilia may belong not just to a small enclave of a population but also to an entire community, as in the case of various tribal peoples scattered across the Pacific in Melanesia and New Guinea (Herdt, 1984). The Sambia of the New Guinea Highlands (Herdt, 1981) are such a tribe. Their ancient customs as fierce head-hunting warriors survived European contact until after World War II. According to their folklore concerning their children, a boy could not become a warrior if he stayed living with women and children after age 8. So, he was taken into the men's longhouse to remain in the company of males only, there to be subjected to the rituals of indoctrination and initiation. As a baby, he had been nourished by woman's milk. As a juvenile, he would have to be nourished with men's milk so that his body would mature in the way that maturation occurs during puberty. It was an obligation of youths still too young to be married not to waste their semen but to have it sucked out of their penises by the prepubertal boys who, once able to ejaculate themselves, would nourish those still younger. At age 19, the age of marriage, their two-way experience of androphilic pedophilia would cease, and their lives would become heterosexual with an adult partner."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

*'''Williams, F.E. (1969) Papuans of the Trans-Fly. ''Oxford'''''
::"It is actually regarded as essential to the growing boy to be sodomized.[...] In the meantime it is enough to note that every male adult in the Morehead district has in his time constantly played both parts in this perversion. The boy is initiated to it at the bull-roarer ceremony [...] When he becomes adolescent his part is reversed and he may then sodomize his juniors, the new initiates to the bull-roarer."
::"Gambadi informants describe the initial occasion more vividly. The father bids his son stoop to drink at a pool and as he does so catches him at a disadvantage. [...] It is to be noted that nowadays boys are not sodomized by their own fathers. The restriction of moiety exogamy is observed in sodomy as it is in marriage [...]"

==Philippines==

*'''[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Claude_Burger Burger, G.C.] (Date unknown). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163437/https://youjo.love/media/8db97b489e84f14e500046445c113066d720c1e691df6cc7934220a7b565483f.pdf The Sexual Mistake of the West].'''''
*:"Enamored of travel, he went to a different country every year, and, that year, he visited the Philippines. Not wanting to stay in the capital, he had taken the bus in order to get closer to the population. He thus found himself next to a mother who had reserved only one seat for herself and her eight-year-old daughter. The child at first amused herself by running in the central aisle and approaching the other passengers, but after three hours on the way, she began to have enough. As she was becoming more and more cranky, the mother put her on her lap and asked our gentlemen from Bordeaux if it would bother him if she put her daughter’s legs on his knees, so that the little one could sleep better. He accepted, of course, when he noticed that the mother began masturbating the child, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. You can imagine him blushing, asking himself what he should do, looking all around him to see how the other passengers would react, feeling that he would be accused of complicity in incest. But all the neighbors watched with big calm smiles, as if it were obvious, and worthy of the greatest discretion. As soon as the little girl reached orgasm, she fell asleep like an angel..."

==Polynesia==

===Marquesas Islands===

For a range of sources on the Marquesas Islands, [[#Excerpt_Graphic_Library | see gallery below]], primarily ''Marquesan sexual behavior'' by Robert C. Suggs.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/marquesansexualb0000sugg/mode/2up Marquesan sexual behavior by Suggs, Robert C.]</ref>

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Sex play was common practice from the earliest ages among the Marquesa and not only tolerated but encouraged. (Kardiner, 1939, p. 205-206). They recognized the erotic impulse in childhood and accorded it the right of free exercise. They eroticized the child by masturbating it to keep it quiet. In the case of the girls, labia were manipulated as a placebo, but also to encourage the growth of large labia, which to the Marquesans was a mark of beauty. Such activity was, no doubt, also erotically stimulating. There was social recognition of all sexual activity in childhood, and there were no restrictions against encouragement to exercise it freely; it was allocated the same place in the child's world that it occupied in the adult's."

==Indonesia==

===Bali===

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Among the Balinese, play and teasing with the genitals is common. A mother will pat her baby girl on the vulva and exclaim, "Pretty! Pretty!" (Bateson and Mead, 1942, p. 26, 32, 131). A boy's penis will be stroked and rubbed. After he has urinated, he will be dried by a flick of his penis. As he grows older, his penis will be pulled and stretched and ruffled, and he will often attempt to keep his balance when learning to walk by holding on to it. Babies are comforted and quieted by manipulating their genital organs. In fact, in Bali, a baby, especially a baby's genital, is a toy with which to play. There is much delight taken in stimulating and playing with the baby to watch him respond."

==Nepal==

===Khumbo===

*'''Diemberger, H. (1993). Blood, sperm, soul and the mountain. In T. del Valle (Ed.), [https://library.lol/main/E2340CAF82B58307F2AA3CBD3D1F97C9 ''Gendered Anthropology''] (pp. 88). Routledge.'''
*:"Caili, an energetic and sensual woman, is playing with her youngest son, Migmar. I enter the house. Caili offers me a cup of barley beer and then continues to play with Migmar who does not really want to be disturbed. He drinks some milk from the breast and plays with his erect little penis. He offers it to his mother who sucks it tenderly and then continues to chat with me. Migmar is five years old."

==Nigeria==

===Kadar===

*'''Harris, M. [http://library.lol/main/98025ADB86EEFAF62B59DF2C3CA21CC7 ''Cultural Anthropology''] (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), p. 94.'''
*:"Among the Kadar of northern Nigeria, as reported by M. G. Smith (1968),<ref>M. G. Smith (1968). 'Secondary Marriage among Kadera and Kagoro.' In ''Marriage, Family, and Residence'', Bohannan, Paul and Middleton, J., eds. pp. 109-130. Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History by the Natural History Press.</ref> most marriages result from infant betrothals. These matches are arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom when the girl is 3 to 6 years old. Ten years or more may elapse before the bride goes to live with her betrothed. During this time, a Kadar girl is not unlikely to become pregnant. This will disturb no one, even if the biological father is a man other than her husband:
*::''Kadar set no value on premarital chastity'' (1968, p. 113)."

== Kenya and Tanzania ==

=== Massai ===
*'''Carles Feixa (2011). Past and present of adolescence in society: The ‘teen brain’ debate in perspective. ''Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews'', Volume 35, Issue 8'''
::"Sexual intercourse with [postpubertal] girls is admitted as long as they do not become pregnant."

==India==

===Muria===

*'''Elwin, V. (1947). ''[http://library.lol/main/F416733E30BB1A46214CC9AC38656FDE The Muria and their Ghotul]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.''' [Childhood of the Muria people of Bastar, in central India, as summarized here in scholarship by [[Tom O'Carroll]] (2018)].<ref>Thomas O'Carroll (2018). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9519-1 Childhood ‘Innocence’ is Not Ideal: Virtue Ethics and Child–Adult Sex.] ''Sexuality and Culture'', 22:1230–1262 (pp. 1254-1255).</ref>
*:"Anthropologist Verrier Elwin described the elaborate sexual apprenticeship children have, which takes place principally in a special house for the young, known as the ''ghotul''. Infants and toddlers sleep in their parents' house. There are no locked doors and these little children inevitably see something of their parents' intimacies. By the time the children are six or seven a new domestic arrangement is brought into play. The child goes of to the ghotul, a self-regulated domain with its own boy leader and girl leader. The little children are free to come and go as they please between the ghotul and the parental home. Within the ghotul the children are free to engage in sex rehearsal play. Adolescents are able to have intercourse as they choose, able to experiment with different partners and under no pressure to make a premature commitment (Elwin 1947). Elwin, who spent much of his life in India, thought the arrangement worked very well. [...] In 1982, to the surprise of the academic community, it was reported that the ghotul system was still in existence and even expanding (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1982). [...] Elwin says that in practice [girls becoming pregnant] was a rare occurrence in the ghotul, even in the absence of modern contraceptives."

==The Balkans==

===Albania===

*'''Zimmerman, Ann (1994). "[https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i-6404797 'Tell Mama Why You Cry' (Part I)]," [https://web.archive.org/web/20100926211411/http://www.dallasobserver.com/1994-11-17/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i/1 (archive)], ''Dallas Observer'', November 17.'''
*:An Albanian immigrant to the US is arrested for retaining his culture: "This harsh--and irreversible--punishment came at the end of a strange case that began in 1989 when several witnesses reported seeing Krasniqi fondle his daughter during a karate tournament in a Plano high school gymnasium in which his son was competing. Several years after the family court ruling, Krasniqi finally had his day in criminal court. Collin County Judge Nathan White acquitted him of the charge of indecency with a child primarily on the strength of testimony from Massachusetts anthropologist Barbara Halpern--one of the country's foremost authorities on the peasant culture of the Balkans. Halpern explained that Sam Krasniqi's actions were done not with sexual intent, but rather with playful affection--in keeping with his culture, which cherishes children and showers them with physical affection. [...]
*: Shortly after the tournament began, Taylor's attention was drawn to the spectator in front of her. She watched as a 50-year-old man with thinning gray hair repeatedly rubbed the underpants-clad buttocks and bare legs of a little girl who was laid out across his lap. He also slipped his hand under the girl's panties and caressed and squeezed her buttocks. "He lifted her to face him and rubbed her front chest under her little dress. He then put his hand inside her panties from the leg opening and squeezed her vagina," Taylor wrote in a statement she gave police. [...]
*:Wunderlich, who did not retrun calls to the Observer, had to explain to Kathy what molestation meant. "If you mean something sexual like with me and my husband, you are wrong," Kathy responded. "It is not a sexual thing and there is no harm to my children," Kathy told Wunderlich. [...]
*:"According to Wunderlich's case notes, he admitted touching Lima and Tim, that it was acceptable in his country and it was just a big misunderstanding. "He denied it was sexual at all and said that I could kill him if he was lying and if it was sexually gratifying to him." Krasniqi has since insisted that Wunderlich misconstrued what he was telling her. At the karate tournament, Krasniqi insists he was just playing a game with his daughter--touching the parts of her body and asking her to say their names. "I tell Wunderlich, How can you love your children and not touch them?" Krasniqi explains, sitting in his home, surrounded by pictures of his children when they were younger.
*:Nowhere in Wunderlich's case notes does it indicate that anyone in her department tried to research the Krasniqis' culture. If they had they might have learned what Barbara Halpern, the anthropologist from Massachusetts, testified to in Krasniqi's criminal trial. The Krasniqis come from "very physically demonstrative culture. Children are universally adored. Until they attain school age and venture beyond the household gates, they are the constant subjects of hugs, caresses and overt displays of affection.""

==Hawaii==

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HAWAII.HTM Hawaii]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"Karsch-Haack, (1901) stated that according to Richard Neuhauss, Hawai’ian “girls of 12 to 14 years are generally virgins no more and acts of impurity of father with daughter are no rarity[6] [...] For infant females in Hawai’i, “milk was squirted into her vagina, and the labia were pressed together (Diamond, 1990). The mons [veneris] was rubbed with kukui (candlenut) oil and pressed with the palm of the hand to flatten it and make it less prominent. The molding continued until the labia did not separate. This chore usually was done by the mother or by an “aunt” [...]”. The buttocks of infants, males more than females, were molded so that they became “rounded and not flat”, also clearly evolving from an aesthetic motive. A “blower” is designated for each male infant, ostensibly to prepare him for subincision of the foreskin: “the penis was blown into daily starting from birth. The blowing was said to loosen and balloon the foreskin [and] continued daily [...] until the young male was 6 or 7”, when penile subincision takes place. Diamond reports: “Individuals of both sexes were expected to initiate and participate in coitus at puberty, although sexual activity, play, instruction, and so forth occurred much earlier. For instance, as part of exploratory play, the young investigated each other’s genitals, and young males and females might masturbate each other heterosexually or homosexually. This activity occurred without adult disapproval, and it was considered to be an introduction to adulthood. Casual intercourse before adolescence was not an uncommon experience for males (Handy and Pukui, 1958) and females (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972)"

*'''Milton Diamond. (2004 [1990]). [https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2000to2004/2004-sexual-behavior-in-pre-contact-hawaii.html Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai'i: A Sexological Ethnography]. Published in: ''Revista Española del Pacifico''. 16: 37-58.'''
*:"Sex training was direct and firsthand. Young individuals learned of coitus and sex play from instruction, direct observation, and practice. As they slept in the family house (hale noa), they observed their parents having coitus. "Public privacy" among the Mangaian Islanders, as it was described by Marshall (1971, p. 108), probably is similar to the "privacy" that was found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Polynesia: "[A Mangaian may copulate], at any age, in the single room of a hut that contains from five to fifteen family members of all ages — as have his ancestors before him. His daughter may receive and make love with each of her varied nightly suitors in the same room."
*:The young observed dogs, pigs, and other animals mating, and these activities were discussed openly with parents or other adults. Parturition was not a secret event and was well attended by the young and by adults, all of whom observed traditions that included the washing and burying of the placenta and, usually, the disposing of the umbilical cord (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972, p. 16; Handy and Pukui, 1958, p. 78). The young Hawai‘ian also acquired sex education in day-by-day exposure to precepts, practices, and attitudes concerning sex. Traditionally, ... childish curiosity about sex was satisfied, with neither guilt nor shame instilled” (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 249). [...] Ellis (1782, Vol. 2, p. 153) wrote of sexual expression in Oceania: "The ladies are very lavish of their favors ... and some of their attachments seemed purely the effects of affection. They are initiated into this way of life at a very early period; we saw some, who could not be more than ten years old."
*:The time considered “right” to start coitus was not so much based on chronological age as on ability or maturity (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 78). [...] Suggs (1966) elaborated on the early sexual experiences of pubertal males with married females in their 30s and 40s in the Marquesas Islands, who “take special pains to be pleasing and patient with them ... a source of enjoyment for many Marquesan women” (p. 61). For young females of the Marquesas Islands, the first coital experience reportedly is earlier than it is for young males before menarche —and occurs unplanned with an adult male (Suggs, 1966, p. 63). [...] These adult/nonadult sexual interactions were socially approved behaviors. [...] For adults not to have given such practical education would have been unthinkable - a dereliction of duty.
*:Most important for Hawai‘ian society, the young learned of sexual humor. Among the Hawai‘ians, sex was and remains a rich source of humor and enjoyment. In everyday conversation and in song and story, it was considered to be an “art form” to speak using sexual double entendres (kaona). [...] Suggs (1966, p. 39) considered the early manifestations of infantile and childhood sexual behavior, including sexual behavior with adults, to be among the most distinguishing features of Marquesan sexual behavior. Many of the activities he described, however, are similar to activities that were present in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Oceania. Oliver (1974, pp. 458-459), for example, reported on adult/nonadult sexual behavior in Tahiti and quoted the missionary Orsmond from 1832: “In all Tahitians as well as officers who come in ships there is a cry for little girls,” and older females, when in a position to choose, preferred younger males. Marshall (1971, p. 126) described the routine early sexual encounters of young males and females in Mangaia as being with older, experienced males and females."

== Sudan ==

=== Azande ===
*'''Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1970). [https://sci-hub.st/10.2307/672861 Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American Anthropologist], 72(6), 1428–1434.'''
*: "It was the custom for members of bachelor companies, some of whom would always be living in barracks at court, to take boy-wives. [...] Most young men consequently married late--well into their twenties and thirties-and, because girls were engaged (in a legal sense married) very young, often at birth, the only way youths could obtain satisfaction from a woman was in adultery. [...] The boys performed many of the smaller services a woman performs daily for her husband [...] Also, the boywife carried his husband's shield when on a journey. It should be understood that he performed these services lest it might be thought that the relationship was entirely of a sexual nature; it will be appreciated that it had an educational side to it. With regard to the sexual side, at night the boy slept with his lover, who had intercourse with him between his thighs (Azande expressed disgust at the suggestion of anal penetration). The boys got what pleasure they could by friction of their organs on the husband's belly or groin. However, even though there was this side to the relationship, it was clear from Zande accounts that there was also the comfort of a nightly sharing of the bed with a companion."

== See also ==
* [https://wiki.yesmap.net/wiki/Walter_L._Williams#The_Spirit_and_the_Flesh_%281986%29 The Spirit and the Flesh (1986)] - the book by Walter L. Williams with a broad section on pederasty among non-western societies
* [[Gilbert_Herdt|Gilbert Herdt]] - anthropologist who studied ritualized intergenerational homosexuality in Melanesia

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]]

Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships

2026-04-24T17:50:41Z

Thorn: /* Melanesia */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Most societies which have not been influenced by the West have less, different, or virtually no sexual taboos. It is worth mentioning that absent modern western influence, anthropologists and historians have found far more societies where [[homosexuality]] is prohibited, than societies in which [[pedosexuality]] suffers similar censure. Many encourage intergenerational sex for various reasons. Due to ongoing Westernisation and cultural imperialism, much of what is listed here may already be consigned to history (see, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220225124148/https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.chc.2004.02.001 Nieto (2004), for an anthropological review]).

==GUS, a world atlas: Growing Up Sexually==

The range and detail of accounts involved in this page will only serve as a brief demonstration of non-western diversity in intergenerational relationships. Many examples from anthropology involve [[Sexual rites of passage]]. If readers are seeking a broader, more detailed and integrated study, they may find [[Diederik Janssen]]'s [http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GUS_MAIN_INDEX.HTM ''Growing Up Sexually''] ([http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GROWINGUPSEXUALLY1.ZIP entire Vol 1] in zipped PDF) more appropriate, or ''[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages]'', re. homosexuality.

==Brazil==

===Pirahã===

*'''Daniel Everett (2008). [https://books.feedvu.com/fullbook/dont-sleep-there-are-snakes-life-and-language-in-the-amazonian-jungle-pdf-2.html?page=16&part=1 ''Dont Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle'']. Chapter 16 of 34.'''
*:"Relations between men and women and boys and girls, whether married or not, are always cordial and often marked by light to heavy flirting. Sexually it is the same. So long as children are not forced or hurt, there is no prohibition against their participating in sex with adults. I remember once talking to Xisaoxoi, a Pirahã man in his late thirties, when a nine- or ten-year-old girl was standing beside him. As we talked, she rubbed her hands sensually over his chest and back and rubbed his crotch area through his thin, worn nylon shorts. Both were enjoying themselves. “What’s she doing?” I asked superfluously. “Oh, she’s just playing. We play together. When she’s big she will be my wife” was his nonchalant reply—and, indeed, after the girl went through puberty, they were married."

* '''Daniel Everett (2016). ''Dark matter of the mind : the culturally articulated unconscious.'' Chapter 3'''
::"Pirahã young people begin to engage sexually, though apparently not in full intercourse, from early on. Touching and being touched seem to be common for Pirahã boys and girls from about seven years of age on. They are all sexually active by puberty, with older men and women frequently initiating younger girls and boys, respectively. There is no evidence that the children then or as adults find this pedophilia the least bit traumatic."

==Argentina==

===Pilagá===

*'''Jules Henry and Zunia Henry (1944). [https://library.lol/main/2C825BAA5B73830492464813AF34FEC4 ''Doll Play of Pilagá Indian Children. An Experimental and Field Analysis of the Behavior of the Pilagá Indian Children'']. (American Orthopsychiatric Association), p. 72.'''
*:'''Note:''' The study explores the use of dolls among Pilagá children, including in a sexual context.
*:"Where children can see the adult sexual act, where sexual conversations and gestures are perfectly open, and child life is untrammeled by sexual taboos, it is reasonable to expect that the children should experiment with their sexual apparatus and attempt to imitate adult sexual behavior. This is the case among the Pilagá. Considering the extent of child knowledge about sex and the age at which this knowledge becomes articulate - 3 years - intercourse in the Pilagá household must not only be visible to the children, but carried on with little if any attempt to conceal the act from them. Absolutely no prohibition is placed on child sexual activity by the adults, so that the children are at liberty to do what they please. Under such circumstances the only limits to the child's sexual activity are his physiological capacities and the tolerance of his companions. [...] [S]ex is a strong and constant interest of Pilagá children."

==Australia==

===Tiwi===

*'''Davenport, William H. (1992). [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/File:Davenport_chapter.pdf Adult-Child Sexual Relations in Cross-Cultural Perspective], in W. O'Donohue & J. H. Geer (Eds.), ''The sexual abuse of children: Theory and research'' (Vol. 1, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 73-80), pp. 76-77.'''
*:"The best ethnographic description of this type of [gerontocratic] marriage is by Jane Goodale (1971) in her account of the Tiwi who live on Melville Island, North Australia. Betrothals of first marriages of most females are made even before those females are concieved. In fact, such a marriage contract is made when the as-yet-to-be-concieved girl's mother commences menstruation. [...] Once the marriage contract is made, the husband-to-be, who is an adult, works with his future mother and father-in-law as a member of that family, with the expectation that when a daughter is born to them, she will be given to him as a wife. There is no fixed chronological age at which the young girl is given to her designated husband, but it occurs after she is able to take on some household and other economic responsibilities, but well before her first menstruation. For the Tiwi she is still a child, albeit and older child. When her father decides that she is mature enough, the young girl is merely taken to her husband and instructed to reside and sleep with him. This is not an abrupt change [...] for the husband has been a part of the same family camp for some time, and the young wife is still surrounded by those with whom she has always lived. Goodale describes the process:
*::''Soon after the ''alinga'' [young girl] moves to her husband's fire he begins her sexual instruction. From all accounts this appears to be a very gradual process. He begins by deflowering her with his finger, and perhaps only after a year does he have actual intercourse with her. Sexual intercourse is considered by the Tiwi to be the direct and only cause of breast formation, growth of pubic and auxillary hair, menarche, and subsequent menstrual periods. (1971, p. 45)."''
*:"versions of this marriage were once found among many Australian Aborigine groups (Berndt & Berndt, 1951; Gale, 1970; Kaberry, 1939; Rose, 1960). From our ethnocentric [i.e. Western] perspective, one of the most notable aspects [...] is the abscence of trauma". (p. 77).

==Melanesia==

Melanesian societies have normalised the consumption of semen by prepubescent boys. This is thought to be in aid of their future status as warriors. Semen is received via oral or anal sex with an adolescent boy or man. Relationships are said to be free-flowing and affectionate among the Sambia of New-Guinea.

*'''Review of [[Gilbert Herdt]]'s famous fieldwork on the Sambia (by [[Walter L. Williams]] as quoted in our page on Herdt):'''
*:"Between the ages of about seven and thirteen, boys are taken from the maternal household and placed in a separate boys' house away from the village. For a period of several months to several years, depending on the culture, boys avoid all contact with females as they are prepared for manhood in elaborate initiations. It is the social duty of men to plant sperm in boys in order for them to grow. In some societies this is done by the boy performing oral sex upon the man, in others by him receiving anal intercourse, or in others by having the sperm rubbed on his body. The sexual act must always be with the boy receiving the older male's semen. To reverse roles is considered damaging to the boy's growth."

*'''Hyena, Hank (1999). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20131002090633/http://gettingit.com/article/56 Semen Warriors Of New Guinea]," Gettingit.com, September 16.'''
*:"Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood."

*'''Knauft, Bruce M. (1987). "Homosexuality in Melanesia," ''Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology'', 10, 155-91.'''
*:Melanesian boys "coquettishly initiated" homosexuality with grown men. Relationships were "grounded in personal affection rather than obligation".

*'''Anitei, Stefan (2007). "[http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Drink-Sperm-to-Become-a-Strong-Man-67804.shtml How to Drink Sperm to Become a Strong Man]," Softpedia, October 6.'''
*:"This power is transmitted between the members of the tribe by means of sex. That's why young boys, even at the age of 12, get it from the sperm of the older males. The boy gets "power" orally by a young man assigned to be his partner. Few years later, the teenager is formally involved in relationships with many male sex partners, after which he turns into an "inseminator" from an "inseminee.""

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/NEW_GUINEAWEB.HTM Papua New Guinea]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"...the “Sambia” value male-virgin contacts (1984:p177), while “sexual partners are perceived as having more “heat” and being more exciting the younger they are. A second factor is reciprocity: the more asymmetrical the sexual partners (youth/boy), the more erotic play seems to culturally define their contact” [sic]. Against the background of an utterly phallocentric ideology on the androtrophic properties of semen, “Sambia” prepubertal boys (7-12, on average 8.5) fellate post-pubertal adolescents to ejaculation in order to grow and turn seminarchic themselves, so that they may reverse roles. The boys do not have orgasms, and might have “vicarious erotic pleasure as indicated by erections” only “near puberty” ([[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]] and Stoller, 1990:p70-1)."
*:"Berndt (1962:p91): “As babies and small children their genitalia are fondled”. Mothers caress “the fleshy parts of [the infant's] body [...] and implanting breathy kisses over and over again in the region of its genital organs” (Hogbin, 1943:p298). Genital touching by older people was also noted by among the Marind-anim (Van Baal, 1966; cf. Money and Ehrhardt, 1973 [1996:p132]). Gillison (1993:p176) describes the process of masturbating infants among the Gimi:
*::The mother insists upon continued contact, interrupting her toddler's play repeatedly to offer the breast. Masturbation [...] with a baby girl [occurs when] the mother or amau holds her hand over the vulva and shakes it vigorously. She may kiss the vagina [sic], working her way up the middle of the body to the lips and then inserting her nipple (often when the child has given no sign of discontent). With a boy, she kisses the penis, pulls at it with her fingers and takes it into her mouth to induce an erection. Several women may pass a baby boy back and forth, each one holding him over her head as she takes a turn sucking or holding the penis in her mouth. When the child then pulls at his own organ, the women, greatly amused, offer squeezes and pulls of their own."

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea<ref>[http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=2E76D290FDCC06180F125CAF7336B2C0 Weiner, Annette B. (1988). ''The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.'' United States of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780030119194]</ref> have received attention in the Western Media for sexual customs in infancy and adolescence that confuse morally conflicted Westerners:<ref>[https://medium.com/the-story-in-history/the-culture-where-children-as-young-as-six-years-are-sexualized-d7afef2d2985 The Culture Where Children as Young as Six Years are Sexualized]</ref>
:<blockquote>Popularly referred to as “The Islands of Love”, the Trobriand Islands are a 174-square-miles group of islands on the east coast of New Guinea. The people are indigenous matrilineal people with a population of 12,000. ''[...]'' In the Trobriand culture, children aren’t allowed the chance to be just children. They are groomed to lose their innocence and start acting like adults at a very young age. By the age of six, they start participating in erotic games with each other. They start engaging in seductive activities. Their little girls are expected to start looking and acting sexy to attract little boys as well as older men. Then, by the time they turn 10, they are expected to start having sexual intercourse with as many sexual partners as they will. Since they are a matrilineal culture, the Trobriand woman has the right to have as many sexual partners as she pleases. And their primitive way of dressing doesn’t make it any harder to engage in sexual intercourse at will.</blockquote>

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"The cultural tradition of pedophilia may belong not just to a small enclave of a population but also to an entire community, as in the case of various tribal peoples scattered across the Pacific in Melanesia and New Guinea (Herdt, 1984). The Sambia of the New Guinea Highlands (Herdt, 1981) are such a tribe. Their ancient customs as fierce head-hunting warriors survived European contact until after World War II. According to their folklore concerning their children, a boy could not become a warrior if he stayed living with women and children after age 8. So, he was taken into the men's longhouse to remain in the company of males only, there to be subjected to the rituals of indoctrination and initiation. As a baby, he had been nourished by woman's milk. As a juvenile, he would have to be nourished with men's milk so that his body would mature in the way that maturation occurs during puberty. It was an obligation of youths still too young to be married not to waste their semen but to have it sucked out of their penises by the prepubertal boys who, once able to ejaculate themselves, would nourish those still younger. At age 19, the age of marriage, their two-way experience of androphilic pedophilia would cease, and their lives would become heterosexual with an adult partner."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

* '''Williams, F.E. (1969) Papuans of the Trans-Fly. ''Oxford'''''
::" It is actually regarded as essential to the growing boy to be sodomized.[...] In the meantime it is enough to note that every male adult in the Morehead district has in his time constantly played both parts in this perversion. The boy is initiated to it at the bull-roarer ceremony [...] When he becomes adolescent his part is reversed and he may then sodomize his juniors, the new initiates to the bull-roarer."

==Philippines==

*'''[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Claude_Burger Burger, G.C.] (Date unknown). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163437/https://youjo.love/media/8db97b489e84f14e500046445c113066d720c1e691df6cc7934220a7b565483f.pdf The Sexual Mistake of the West].'''''
*:"Enamored of travel, he went to a different country every year, and, that year, he visited the Philippines. Not wanting to stay in the capital, he had taken the bus in order to get closer to the population. He thus found himself next to a mother who had reserved only one seat for herself and her eight-year-old daughter. The child at first amused herself by running in the central aisle and approaching the other passengers, but after three hours on the way, she began to have enough. As she was becoming more and more cranky, the mother put her on her lap and asked our gentlemen from Bordeaux if it would bother him if she put her daughter’s legs on his knees, so that the little one could sleep better. He accepted, of course, when he noticed that the mother began masturbating the child, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. You can imagine him blushing, asking himself what he should do, looking all around him to see how the other passengers would react, feeling that he would be accused of complicity in incest. But all the neighbors watched with big calm smiles, as if it were obvious, and worthy of the greatest discretion. As soon as the little girl reached orgasm, she fell asleep like an angel..."

==Polynesia==

===Marquesas Islands===

For a range of sources on the Marquesas Islands, [[#Excerpt_Graphic_Library | see gallery below]], primarily ''Marquesan sexual behavior'' by Robert C. Suggs.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/marquesansexualb0000sugg/mode/2up Marquesan sexual behavior by Suggs, Robert C.]</ref>

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Sex play was common practice from the earliest ages among the Marquesa and not only tolerated but encouraged. (Kardiner, 1939, p. 205-206). They recognized the erotic impulse in childhood and accorded it the right of free exercise. They eroticized the child by masturbating it to keep it quiet. In the case of the girls, labia were manipulated as a placebo, but also to encourage the growth of large labia, which to the Marquesans was a mark of beauty. Such activity was, no doubt, also erotically stimulating. There was social recognition of all sexual activity in childhood, and there were no restrictions against encouragement to exercise it freely; it was allocated the same place in the child's world that it occupied in the adult's."

==Indonesia==

===Bali===

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Among the Balinese, play and teasing with the genitals is common. A mother will pat her baby girl on the vulva and exclaim, "Pretty! Pretty!" (Bateson and Mead, 1942, p. 26, 32, 131). A boy's penis will be stroked and rubbed. After he has urinated, he will be dried by a flick of his penis. As he grows older, his penis will be pulled and stretched and ruffled, and he will often attempt to keep his balance when learning to walk by holding on to it. Babies are comforted and quieted by manipulating their genital organs. In fact, in Bali, a baby, especially a baby's genital, is a toy with which to play. There is much delight taken in stimulating and playing with the baby to watch him respond."

==Nepal==

===Khumbo===

*'''Diemberger, H. (1993). Blood, sperm, soul and the mountain. In T. del Valle (Ed.), [https://library.lol/main/E2340CAF82B58307F2AA3CBD3D1F97C9 ''Gendered Anthropology''] (pp. 88). Routledge.'''
*:"Caili, an energetic and sensual woman, is playing with her youngest son, Migmar. I enter the house. Caili offers me a cup of barley beer and then continues to play with Migmar who does not really want to be disturbed. He drinks some milk from the breast and plays with his erect little penis. He offers it to his mother who sucks it tenderly and then continues to chat with me. Migmar is five years old."

==Nigeria==

===Kadar===

*'''Harris, M. [http://library.lol/main/98025ADB86EEFAF62B59DF2C3CA21CC7 ''Cultural Anthropology''] (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), p. 94.'''
*:"Among the Kadar of northern Nigeria, as reported by M. G. Smith (1968),<ref>M. G. Smith (1968). 'Secondary Marriage among Kadera and Kagoro.' In ''Marriage, Family, and Residence'', Bohannan, Paul and Middleton, J., eds. pp. 109-130. Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History by the Natural History Press.</ref> most marriages result from infant betrothals. These matches are arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom when the girl is 3 to 6 years old. Ten years or more may elapse before the bride goes to live with her betrothed. During this time, a Kadar girl is not unlikely to become pregnant. This will disturb no one, even if the biological father is a man other than her husband:
*::''Kadar set no value on premarital chastity'' (1968, p. 113)."

== Kenya and Tanzania ==

=== Massai ===
*'''Carles Feixa (2011). Past and present of adolescence in society: The ‘teen brain’ debate in perspective. ''Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews'', Volume 35, Issue 8'''
::"Sexual intercourse with [postpubertal] girls is admitted as long as they do not become pregnant."

==India==

===Muria===

*'''Elwin, V. (1947). ''[http://library.lol/main/F416733E30BB1A46214CC9AC38656FDE The Muria and their Ghotul]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.''' [Childhood of the Muria people of Bastar, in central India, as summarized here in scholarship by [[Tom O'Carroll]] (2018)].<ref>Thomas O'Carroll (2018). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9519-1 Childhood ‘Innocence’ is Not Ideal: Virtue Ethics and Child–Adult Sex.] ''Sexuality and Culture'', 22:1230–1262 (pp. 1254-1255).</ref>
*:"Anthropologist Verrier Elwin described the elaborate sexual apprenticeship children have, which takes place principally in a special house for the young, known as the ''ghotul''. Infants and toddlers sleep in their parents' house. There are no locked doors and these little children inevitably see something of their parents' intimacies. By the time the children are six or seven a new domestic arrangement is brought into play. The child goes of to the ghotul, a self-regulated domain with its own boy leader and girl leader. The little children are free to come and go as they please between the ghotul and the parental home. Within the ghotul the children are free to engage in sex rehearsal play. Adolescents are able to have intercourse as they choose, able to experiment with different partners and under no pressure to make a premature commitment (Elwin 1947). Elwin, who spent much of his life in India, thought the arrangement worked very well. [...] In 1982, to the surprise of the academic community, it was reported that the ghotul system was still in existence and even expanding (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1982). [...] Elwin says that in practice [girls becoming pregnant] was a rare occurrence in the ghotul, even in the absence of modern contraceptives."

==The Balkans==

===Albania===

*'''Zimmerman, Ann (1994). "[https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i-6404797 'Tell Mama Why You Cry' (Part I)]," [https://web.archive.org/web/20100926211411/http://www.dallasobserver.com/1994-11-17/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i/1 (archive)], ''Dallas Observer'', November 17.'''
*:An Albanian immigrant to the US is arrested for retaining his culture: "This harsh--and irreversible--punishment came at the end of a strange case that began in 1989 when several witnesses reported seeing Krasniqi fondle his daughter during a karate tournament in a Plano high school gymnasium in which his son was competing. Several years after the family court ruling, Krasniqi finally had his day in criminal court. Collin County Judge Nathan White acquitted him of the charge of indecency with a child primarily on the strength of testimony from Massachusetts anthropologist Barbara Halpern--one of the country's foremost authorities on the peasant culture of the Balkans. Halpern explained that Sam Krasniqi's actions were done not with sexual intent, but rather with playful affection--in keeping with his culture, which cherishes children and showers them with physical affection. [...]
*: Shortly after the tournament began, Taylor's attention was drawn to the spectator in front of her. She watched as a 50-year-old man with thinning gray hair repeatedly rubbed the underpants-clad buttocks and bare legs of a little girl who was laid out across his lap. He also slipped his hand under the girl's panties and caressed and squeezed her buttocks. "He lifted her to face him and rubbed her front chest under her little dress. He then put his hand inside her panties from the leg opening and squeezed her vagina," Taylor wrote in a statement she gave police. [...]
*:Wunderlich, who did not retrun calls to the Observer, had to explain to Kathy what molestation meant. "If you mean something sexual like with me and my husband, you are wrong," Kathy responded. "It is not a sexual thing and there is no harm to my children," Kathy told Wunderlich. [...]
*:"According to Wunderlich's case notes, he admitted touching Lima and Tim, that it was acceptable in his country and it was just a big misunderstanding. "He denied it was sexual at all and said that I could kill him if he was lying and if it was sexually gratifying to him." Krasniqi has since insisted that Wunderlich misconstrued what he was telling her. At the karate tournament, Krasniqi insists he was just playing a game with his daughter--touching the parts of her body and asking her to say their names. "I tell Wunderlich, How can you love your children and not touch them?" Krasniqi explains, sitting in his home, surrounded by pictures of his children when they were younger.
*:Nowhere in Wunderlich's case notes does it indicate that anyone in her department tried to research the Krasniqis' culture. If they had they might have learned what Barbara Halpern, the anthropologist from Massachusetts, testified to in Krasniqi's criminal trial. The Krasniqis come from "very physically demonstrative culture. Children are universally adored. Until they attain school age and venture beyond the household gates, they are the constant subjects of hugs, caresses and overt displays of affection.""

==Hawaii==

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HAWAII.HTM Hawaii]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"Karsch-Haack, (1901) stated that according to Richard Neuhauss, Hawai’ian “girls of 12 to 14 years are generally virgins no more and acts of impurity of father with daughter are no rarity[6] [...] For infant females in Hawai’i, “milk was squirted into her vagina, and the labia were pressed together (Diamond, 1990). The mons [veneris] was rubbed with kukui (candlenut) oil and pressed with the palm of the hand to flatten it and make it less prominent. The molding continued until the labia did not separate. This chore usually was done by the mother or by an “aunt” [...]”. The buttocks of infants, males more than females, were molded so that they became “rounded and not flat”, also clearly evolving from an aesthetic motive. A “blower” is designated for each male infant, ostensibly to prepare him for subincision of the foreskin: “the penis was blown into daily starting from birth. The blowing was said to loosen and balloon the foreskin [and] continued daily [...] until the young male was 6 or 7”, when penile subincision takes place. Diamond reports: “Individuals of both sexes were expected to initiate and participate in coitus at puberty, although sexual activity, play, instruction, and so forth occurred much earlier. For instance, as part of exploratory play, the young investigated each other’s genitals, and young males and females might masturbate each other heterosexually or homosexually. This activity occurred without adult disapproval, and it was considered to be an introduction to adulthood. Casual intercourse before adolescence was not an uncommon experience for males (Handy and Pukui, 1958) and females (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972)"

*'''Milton Diamond. (2004 [1990]). [https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2000to2004/2004-sexual-behavior-in-pre-contact-hawaii.html Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai'i: A Sexological Ethnography]. Published in: ''Revista Española del Pacifico''. 16: 37-58.'''
*:"Sex training was direct and firsthand. Young individuals learned of coitus and sex play from instruction, direct observation, and practice. As they slept in the family house (hale noa), they observed their parents having coitus. "Public privacy" among the Mangaian Islanders, as it was described by Marshall (1971, p. 108), probably is similar to the "privacy" that was found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Polynesia: "[A Mangaian may copulate], at any age, in the single room of a hut that contains from five to fifteen family members of all ages — as have his ancestors before him. His daughter may receive and make love with each of her varied nightly suitors in the same room."
*:The young observed dogs, pigs, and other animals mating, and these activities were discussed openly with parents or other adults. Parturition was not a secret event and was well attended by the young and by adults, all of whom observed traditions that included the washing and burying of the placenta and, usually, the disposing of the umbilical cord (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972, p. 16; Handy and Pukui, 1958, p. 78). The young Hawai‘ian also acquired sex education in day-by-day exposure to precepts, practices, and attitudes concerning sex. Traditionally, ... childish curiosity about sex was satisfied, with neither guilt nor shame instilled” (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 249). [...] Ellis (1782, Vol. 2, p. 153) wrote of sexual expression in Oceania: "The ladies are very lavish of their favors ... and some of their attachments seemed purely the effects of affection. They are initiated into this way of life at a very early period; we saw some, who could not be more than ten years old."
*:The time considered “right” to start coitus was not so much based on chronological age as on ability or maturity (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 78). [...] Suggs (1966) elaborated on the early sexual experiences of pubertal males with married females in their 30s and 40s in the Marquesas Islands, who “take special pains to be pleasing and patient with them ... a source of enjoyment for many Marquesan women” (p. 61). For young females of the Marquesas Islands, the first coital experience reportedly is earlier than it is for young males before menarche —and occurs unplanned with an adult male (Suggs, 1966, p. 63). [...] These adult/nonadult sexual interactions were socially approved behaviors. [...] For adults not to have given such practical education would have been unthinkable - a dereliction of duty.
*:Most important for Hawai‘ian society, the young learned of sexual humor. Among the Hawai‘ians, sex was and remains a rich source of humor and enjoyment. In everyday conversation and in song and story, it was considered to be an “art form” to speak using sexual double entendres (kaona). [...] Suggs (1966, p. 39) considered the early manifestations of infantile and childhood sexual behavior, including sexual behavior with adults, to be among the most distinguishing features of Marquesan sexual behavior. Many of the activities he described, however, are similar to activities that were present in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Oceania. Oliver (1974, pp. 458-459), for example, reported on adult/nonadult sexual behavior in Tahiti and quoted the missionary Orsmond from 1832: “In all Tahitians as well as officers who come in ships there is a cry for little girls,” and older females, when in a position to choose, preferred younger males. Marshall (1971, p. 126) described the routine early sexual encounters of young males and females in Mangaia as being with older, experienced males and females."

== Sudan ==

=== Azande ===
*'''Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1970). [https://sci-hub.st/10.2307/672861 Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American Anthropologist], 72(6), 1428–1434.'''
*: "It was the custom for members of bachelor companies, some of whom would always be living in barracks at court, to take boy-wives. [...] Most young men consequently married late--well into their twenties and thirties-and, because girls were engaged (in a legal sense married) very young, often at birth, the only way youths could obtain satisfaction from a woman was in adultery. [...] The boys performed many of the smaller services a woman performs daily for her husband [...] Also, the boywife carried his husband's shield when on a journey. It should be understood that he performed these services lest it might be thought that the relationship was entirely of a sexual nature; it will be appreciated that it had an educational side to it. With regard to the sexual side, at night the boy slept with his lover, who had intercourse with him between his thighs (Azande expressed disgust at the suggestion of anal penetration). The boys got what pleasure they could by friction of their organs on the husband's belly or groin. However, even though there was this side to the relationship, it was clear from Zande accounts that there was also the comfort of a nightly sharing of the bed with a companion."

== See also ==
* [https://wiki.yesmap.net/wiki/Walter_L._Williams#The_Spirit_and_the_Flesh_%281986%29 The Spirit and the Flesh (1986)] - the book by Walter L. Williams with a broad section on pederasty among non-western societies
* [[Gilbert_Herdt|Gilbert Herdt]] - anthropologist who studied ritualized intergenerational homosexuality in Melanesia

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]]

Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships

2026-04-24T17:48:29Z

Thorn: /* Melanesia */

__NOTOC__{{research}}
Most societies which have not been influenced by the West have less, different, or virtually no sexual taboos. It is worth mentioning that absent modern western influence, anthropologists and historians have found far more societies where [[homosexuality]] is prohibited, than societies in which [[pedosexuality]] suffers similar censure. Many encourage intergenerational sex for various reasons. Due to ongoing Westernisation and cultural imperialism, much of what is listed here may already be consigned to history (see, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220225124148/https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.chc.2004.02.001 Nieto (2004), for an anthropological review]).

==GUS, a world atlas: Growing Up Sexually==

The range and detail of accounts involved in this page will only serve as a brief demonstration of non-western diversity in intergenerational relationships. Many examples from anthropology involve [[Sexual rites of passage]]. If readers are seeking a broader, more detailed and integrated study, they may find [[Diederik Janssen]]'s [http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GUS_MAIN_INDEX.HTM ''Growing Up Sexually''] ([http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/GROWINGUPSEXUALLY1.ZIP entire Vol 1] in zipped PDF) more appropriate, or ''[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages]'', re. homosexuality.

==Brazil==

===Pirahã===

*'''Daniel Everett (2008). [https://books.feedvu.com/fullbook/dont-sleep-there-are-snakes-life-and-language-in-the-amazonian-jungle-pdf-2.html?page=16&part=1 ''Dont Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle'']. Chapter 16 of 34.'''
*:"Relations between men and women and boys and girls, whether married or not, are always cordial and often marked by light to heavy flirting. Sexually it is the same. So long as children are not forced or hurt, there is no prohibition against their participating in sex with adults. I remember once talking to Xisaoxoi, a Pirahã man in his late thirties, when a nine- or ten-year-old girl was standing beside him. As we talked, she rubbed her hands sensually over his chest and back and rubbed his crotch area through his thin, worn nylon shorts. Both were enjoying themselves. “What’s she doing?” I asked superfluously. “Oh, she’s just playing. We play together. When she’s big she will be my wife” was his nonchalant reply—and, indeed, after the girl went through puberty, they were married."

* '''Daniel Everett (2016). ''Dark matter of the mind : the culturally articulated unconscious.'' Chapter 3'''
::"Pirahã young people begin to engage sexually, though apparently not in full intercourse, from early on. Touching and being touched seem to be common for Pirahã boys and girls from about seven years of age on. They are all sexually active by puberty, with older men and women frequently initiating younger girls and boys, respectively. There is no evidence that the children then or as adults find this pedophilia the least bit traumatic."

==Argentina==

===Pilagá===

*'''Jules Henry and Zunia Henry (1944). [https://library.lol/main/2C825BAA5B73830492464813AF34FEC4 ''Doll Play of Pilagá Indian Children. An Experimental and Field Analysis of the Behavior of the Pilagá Indian Children'']. (American Orthopsychiatric Association), p. 72.'''
*:'''Note:''' The study explores the use of dolls among Pilagá children, including in a sexual context.
*:"Where children can see the adult sexual act, where sexual conversations and gestures are perfectly open, and child life is untrammeled by sexual taboos, it is reasonable to expect that the children should experiment with their sexual apparatus and attempt to imitate adult sexual behavior. This is the case among the Pilagá. Considering the extent of child knowledge about sex and the age at which this knowledge becomes articulate - 3 years - intercourse in the Pilagá household must not only be visible to the children, but carried on with little if any attempt to conceal the act from them. Absolutely no prohibition is placed on child sexual activity by the adults, so that the children are at liberty to do what they please. Under such circumstances the only limits to the child's sexual activity are his physiological capacities and the tolerance of his companions. [...] [S]ex is a strong and constant interest of Pilagá children."

==Australia==

===Tiwi===

*'''Davenport, William H. (1992). [https://www.newgon.net/wiki/File:Davenport_chapter.pdf Adult-Child Sexual Relations in Cross-Cultural Perspective], in W. O'Donohue & J. H. Geer (Eds.), ''The sexual abuse of children: Theory and research'' (Vol. 1, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 73-80), pp. 76-77.'''
*:"The best ethnographic description of this type of [gerontocratic] marriage is by Jane Goodale (1971) in her account of the Tiwi who live on Melville Island, North Australia. Betrothals of first marriages of most females are made even before those females are concieved. In fact, such a marriage contract is made when the as-yet-to-be-concieved girl's mother commences menstruation. [...] Once the marriage contract is made, the husband-to-be, who is an adult, works with his future mother and father-in-law as a member of that family, with the expectation that when a daughter is born to them, she will be given to him as a wife. There is no fixed chronological age at which the young girl is given to her designated husband, but it occurs after she is able to take on some household and other economic responsibilities, but well before her first menstruation. For the Tiwi she is still a child, albeit and older child. When her father decides that she is mature enough, the young girl is merely taken to her husband and instructed to reside and sleep with him. This is not an abrupt change [...] for the husband has been a part of the same family camp for some time, and the young wife is still surrounded by those with whom she has always lived. Goodale describes the process:
*::''Soon after the ''alinga'' [young girl] moves to her husband's fire he begins her sexual instruction. From all accounts this appears to be a very gradual process. He begins by deflowering her with his finger, and perhaps only after a year does he have actual intercourse with her. Sexual intercourse is considered by the Tiwi to be the direct and only cause of breast formation, growth of pubic and auxillary hair, menarche, and subsequent menstrual periods. (1971, p. 45)."''
*:"versions of this marriage were once found among many Australian Aborigine groups (Berndt & Berndt, 1951; Gale, 1970; Kaberry, 1939; Rose, 1960). From our ethnocentric [i.e. Western] perspective, one of the most notable aspects [...] is the abscence of trauma". (p. 77).

==Melanesia==

Melanesian societies have normalised the consumption of semen by prepubescent boys. This is thought to be in aid of their future status as warriors. Semen is received via oral or anal sex with an adolescent boy or man. Relationships are said to be free-flowing and affectionate among the Sambia of New-Guinea.

*'''Review of [[Gilbert Herdt]]'s famous fieldwork on the Sambia (by [[Walter L. Williams]] as quoted in our page on Herdt):'''
*:"Between the ages of about seven and thirteen, boys are taken from the maternal household and placed in a separate boys' house away from the village. For a period of several months to several years, depending on the culture, boys avoid all contact with females as they are prepared for manhood in elaborate initiations. It is the social duty of men to plant sperm in boys in order for them to grow. In some societies this is done by the boy performing oral sex upon the man, in others by him receiving anal intercourse, or in others by having the sperm rubbed on his body. The sexual act must always be with the boy receiving the older male's semen. To reverse roles is considered damaging to the boy's growth."

*'''Hyena, Hank (1999). "[http://web.archive.org/web/20131002090633/http://gettingit.com/article/56 Semen Warriors Of New Guinea]," Gettingit.com, September 16.'''
*:"Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood."

*'''Knauft, Bruce M. (1987). "Homosexuality in Melanesia," ''Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology'', 10, 155-91.'''
*:Melanesian boys "coquettishly initiated" homosexuality with grown men. Relationships were "grounded in personal affection rather than obligation".

*'''Anitei, Stefan (2007). "[http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Drink-Sperm-to-Become-a-Strong-Man-67804.shtml How to Drink Sperm to Become a Strong Man]," Softpedia, October 6.'''
*:"This power is transmitted between the members of the tribe by means of sex. That's why young boys, even at the age of 12, get it from the sperm of the older males. The boy gets "power" orally by a young man assigned to be his partner. Few years later, the teenager is formally involved in relationships with many male sex partners, after which he turns into an "inseminator" from an "inseminee.""

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/NEW_GUINEAWEB.HTM Papua New Guinea]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"...the “Sambia” value male-virgin contacts (1984:p177), while “sexual partners are perceived as having more “heat” and being more exciting the younger they are. A second factor is reciprocity: the more asymmetrical the sexual partners (youth/boy), the more erotic play seems to culturally define their contact” [sic]. Against the background of an utterly phallocentric ideology on the androtrophic properties of semen, “Sambia” prepubertal boys (7-12, on average 8.5) fellate post-pubertal adolescents to ejaculation in order to grow and turn seminarchic themselves, so that they may reverse roles. The boys do not have orgasms, and might have “vicarious erotic pleasure as indicated by erections” only “near puberty” ([[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]] and Stoller, 1990:p70-1)."
*:"Berndt (1962:p91): “As babies and small children their genitalia are fondled”. Mothers caress “the fleshy parts of [the infant's] body [...] and implanting breathy kisses over and over again in the region of its genital organs” (Hogbin, 1943:p298). Genital touching by older people was also noted by among the Marind-anim (Van Baal, 1966; cf. Money and Ehrhardt, 1973 [1996:p132]). Gillison (1993:p176) describes the process of masturbating infants among the Gimi:
*::The mother insists upon continued contact, interrupting her toddler's play repeatedly to offer the breast. Masturbation [...] with a baby girl [occurs when] the mother or amau holds her hand over the vulva and shakes it vigorously. She may kiss the vagina [sic], working her way up the middle of the body to the lips and then inserting her nipple (often when the child has given no sign of discontent). With a boy, she kisses the penis, pulls at it with her fingers and takes it into her mouth to induce an erection. Several women may pass a baby boy back and forth, each one holding him over her head as she takes a turn sucking or holding the penis in her mouth. When the child then pulls at his own organ, the women, greatly amused, offer squeezes and pulls of their own."

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea<ref>[http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=2E76D290FDCC06180F125CAF7336B2C0 Weiner, Annette B. (1988). ''The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.'' United States of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780030119194]</ref> have received attention in the Western Media for sexual customs in infancy and adolescence that confuse morally conflicted Westerners:<ref>[https://medium.com/the-story-in-history/the-culture-where-children-as-young-as-six-years-are-sexualized-d7afef2d2985 The Culture Where Children as Young as Six Years are Sexualized]</ref>
:<blockquote>Popularly referred to as “The Islands of Love”, the Trobriand Islands are a 174-square-miles group of islands on the east coast of New Guinea. The people are indigenous matrilineal people with a population of 12,000. ''[...]'' In the Trobriand culture, children aren’t allowed the chance to be just children. They are groomed to lose their innocence and start acting like adults at a very young age. By the age of six, they start participating in erotic games with each other. They start engaging in seductive activities. Their little girls are expected to start looking and acting sexy to attract little boys as well as older men. Then, by the time they turn 10, they are expected to start having sexual intercourse with as many sexual partners as they will. Since they are a matrilineal culture, the Trobriand woman has the right to have as many sexual partners as she pleases. And their primitive way of dressing doesn’t make it any harder to engage in sexual intercourse at will.</blockquote>

* '''Money, J. (1990). Pedophilia: A Specific Instance of New Phylism Theory as Applied to Paraphilic Lovemaps. In: Feierman, J.R. (eds) [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3CA15750CD7EC06C3052B55B5E16C76D Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions]. Springer, New York, NY. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9682-6_18'''
*:"The cultural tradition of pedophilia may belong not just to a small enclave of a population but also to an entire community, as in the case of various tribal peoples scattered across the Pacific in Melanesia and New Guinea (Herdt, 1984). The Sambia of the New Guinea Highlands (Herdt, 1981) are such a tribe. Their ancient customs as fierce head-hunting warriors survived European contact until after World War II. According to their folklore concerning their children, a boy could not become a warrior if he stayed living with women and children after age 8. So, he was taken into the men's longhouse to remain in the company of males only, there to be subjected to the rituals of indoctrination and initiation. As a baby, he had been nourished by woman's milk. As a juvenile, he would have to be nourished with men's milk so that his body would mature in the way that maturation occurs during puberty. It was an obligation of youths still too young to be married not to waste their semen but to have it sucked out of their penises by the prepubertal boys who, once able to ejaculate themselves, would nourish those still younger. At age 19, the age of marriage, their two-way experience of androphilic pedophilia would cease, and their lives would become heterosexual with an adult partner."
*:"The universal male/male pedophilia of the Sambia demonstrates the sexological plasticity of the human organism and the making of pedophilia into the social norm."

* '''F.E. Williams (1969) Papuans of the Trans-Fly'''
::" It is actually regarded as essential to the growing boy to be sodomized.[...] In the meantime it is enough to note that
every male adult in the Morehead district has in his time constantly played both parts in this perversion. The boy is initiated to it at the bull-roarer ceremony [...] When he becomes adolescent his part is reversed and he may then sodomize his juniors, the new initiates to the bull-roarer."

==Philippines==

*'''[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Claude_Burger Burger, G.C.] (Date unknown). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163437/https://youjo.love/media/8db97b489e84f14e500046445c113066d720c1e691df6cc7934220a7b565483f.pdf The Sexual Mistake of the West].'''''
*:"Enamored of travel, he went to a different country every year, and, that year, he visited the Philippines. Not wanting to stay in the capital, he had taken the bus in order to get closer to the population. He thus found himself next to a mother who had reserved only one seat for herself and her eight-year-old daughter. The child at first amused herself by running in the central aisle and approaching the other passengers, but after three hours on the way, she began to have enough. As she was becoming more and more cranky, the mother put her on her lap and asked our gentlemen from Bordeaux if it would bother him if she put her daughter’s legs on his knees, so that the little one could sleep better. He accepted, of course, when he noticed that the mother began masturbating the child, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. You can imagine him blushing, asking himself what he should do, looking all around him to see how the other passengers would react, feeling that he would be accused of complicity in incest. But all the neighbors watched with big calm smiles, as if it were obvious, and worthy of the greatest discretion. As soon as the little girl reached orgasm, she fell asleep like an angel..."

==Polynesia==

===Marquesas Islands===

For a range of sources on the Marquesas Islands, [[#Excerpt_Graphic_Library | see gallery below]], primarily ''Marquesan sexual behavior'' by Robert C. Suggs.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/marquesansexualb0000sugg/mode/2up Marquesan sexual behavior by Suggs, Robert C.]</ref>

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Sex play was common practice from the earliest ages among the Marquesa and not only tolerated but encouraged. (Kardiner, 1939, p. 205-206). They recognized the erotic impulse in childhood and accorded it the right of free exercise. They eroticized the child by masturbating it to keep it quiet. In the case of the girls, labia were manipulated as a placebo, but also to encourage the growth of large labia, which to the Marquesans was a mark of beauty. Such activity was, no doubt, also erotically stimulating. There was social recognition of all sexual activity in childhood, and there were no restrictions against encouragement to exercise it freely; it was allocated the same place in the child's world that it occupied in the adult's."

==Indonesia==

===Bali===

*'''Martinson, Floyd M. (1973). ''[http://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/martinson/infant/InfantAndChildSexuality.html Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective]''. The Book Mark.'''
*:"Among the Balinese, play and teasing with the genitals is common. A mother will pat her baby girl on the vulva and exclaim, "Pretty! Pretty!" (Bateson and Mead, 1942, p. 26, 32, 131). A boy's penis will be stroked and rubbed. After he has urinated, he will be dried by a flick of his penis. As he grows older, his penis will be pulled and stretched and ruffled, and he will often attempt to keep his balance when learning to walk by holding on to it. Babies are comforted and quieted by manipulating their genital organs. In fact, in Bali, a baby, especially a baby's genital, is a toy with which to play. There is much delight taken in stimulating and playing with the baby to watch him respond."

==Nepal==

===Khumbo===

*'''Diemberger, H. (1993). Blood, sperm, soul and the mountain. In T. del Valle (Ed.), [https://library.lol/main/E2340CAF82B58307F2AA3CBD3D1F97C9 ''Gendered Anthropology''] (pp. 88). Routledge.'''
*:"Caili, an energetic and sensual woman, is playing with her youngest son, Migmar. I enter the house. Caili offers me a cup of barley beer and then continues to play with Migmar who does not really want to be disturbed. He drinks some milk from the breast and plays with his erect little penis. He offers it to his mother who sucks it tenderly and then continues to chat with me. Migmar is five years old."

==Nigeria==

===Kadar===

*'''Harris, M. [http://library.lol/main/98025ADB86EEFAF62B59DF2C3CA21CC7 ''Cultural Anthropology''] (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), p. 94.'''
*:"Among the Kadar of northern Nigeria, as reported by M. G. Smith (1968),<ref>M. G. Smith (1968). 'Secondary Marriage among Kadera and Kagoro.' In ''Marriage, Family, and Residence'', Bohannan, Paul and Middleton, J., eds. pp. 109-130. Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History by the Natural History Press.</ref> most marriages result from infant betrothals. These matches are arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom when the girl is 3 to 6 years old. Ten years or more may elapse before the bride goes to live with her betrothed. During this time, a Kadar girl is not unlikely to become pregnant. This will disturb no one, even if the biological father is a man other than her husband:
*::''Kadar set no value on premarital chastity'' (1968, p. 113)."

== Kenya and Tanzania ==

=== Massai ===
*'''Carles Feixa (2011). Past and present of adolescence in society: The ‘teen brain’ debate in perspective. ''Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews'', Volume 35, Issue 8'''
::"Sexual intercourse with [postpubertal] girls is admitted as long as they do not become pregnant."

==India==

===Muria===

*'''Elwin, V. (1947). ''[http://library.lol/main/F416733E30BB1A46214CC9AC38656FDE The Muria and their Ghotul]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.''' [Childhood of the Muria people of Bastar, in central India, as summarized here in scholarship by [[Tom O'Carroll]] (2018)].<ref>Thomas O'Carroll (2018). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9519-1 Childhood ‘Innocence’ is Not Ideal: Virtue Ethics and Child–Adult Sex.] ''Sexuality and Culture'', 22:1230–1262 (pp. 1254-1255).</ref>
*:"Anthropologist Verrier Elwin described the elaborate sexual apprenticeship children have, which takes place principally in a special house for the young, known as the ''ghotul''. Infants and toddlers sleep in their parents' house. There are no locked doors and these little children inevitably see something of their parents' intimacies. By the time the children are six or seven a new domestic arrangement is brought into play. The child goes of to the ghotul, a self-regulated domain with its own boy leader and girl leader. The little children are free to come and go as they please between the ghotul and the parental home. Within the ghotul the children are free to engage in sex rehearsal play. Adolescents are able to have intercourse as they choose, able to experiment with different partners and under no pressure to make a premature commitment (Elwin 1947). Elwin, who spent much of his life in India, thought the arrangement worked very well. [...] In 1982, to the surprise of the academic community, it was reported that the ghotul system was still in existence and even expanding (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1982). [...] Elwin says that in practice [girls becoming pregnant] was a rare occurrence in the ghotul, even in the absence of modern contraceptives."

==The Balkans==

===Albania===

*'''Zimmerman, Ann (1994). "[https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i-6404797 'Tell Mama Why You Cry' (Part I)]," [https://web.archive.org/web/20100926211411/http://www.dallasobserver.com/1994-11-17/news/tell-mama-why-you-cry-part-i/1 (archive)], ''Dallas Observer'', November 17.'''
*:An Albanian immigrant to the US is arrested for retaining his culture: "This harsh--and irreversible--punishment came at the end of a strange case that began in 1989 when several witnesses reported seeing Krasniqi fondle his daughter during a karate tournament in a Plano high school gymnasium in which his son was competing. Several years after the family court ruling, Krasniqi finally had his day in criminal court. Collin County Judge Nathan White acquitted him of the charge of indecency with a child primarily on the strength of testimony from Massachusetts anthropologist Barbara Halpern--one of the country's foremost authorities on the peasant culture of the Balkans. Halpern explained that Sam Krasniqi's actions were done not with sexual intent, but rather with playful affection--in keeping with his culture, which cherishes children and showers them with physical affection. [...]
*: Shortly after the tournament began, Taylor's attention was drawn to the spectator in front of her. She watched as a 50-year-old man with thinning gray hair repeatedly rubbed the underpants-clad buttocks and bare legs of a little girl who was laid out across his lap. He also slipped his hand under the girl's panties and caressed and squeezed her buttocks. "He lifted her to face him and rubbed her front chest under her little dress. He then put his hand inside her panties from the leg opening and squeezed her vagina," Taylor wrote in a statement she gave police. [...]
*:Wunderlich, who did not retrun calls to the Observer, had to explain to Kathy what molestation meant. "If you mean something sexual like with me and my husband, you are wrong," Kathy responded. "It is not a sexual thing and there is no harm to my children," Kathy told Wunderlich. [...]
*:"According to Wunderlich's case notes, he admitted touching Lima and Tim, that it was acceptable in his country and it was just a big misunderstanding. "He denied it was sexual at all and said that I could kill him if he was lying and if it was sexually gratifying to him." Krasniqi has since insisted that Wunderlich misconstrued what he was telling her. At the karate tournament, Krasniqi insists he was just playing a game with his daughter--touching the parts of her body and asking her to say their names. "I tell Wunderlich, How can you love your children and not touch them?" Krasniqi explains, sitting in his home, surrounded by pictures of his children when they were younger.
*:Nowhere in Wunderlich's case notes does it indicate that anyone in her department tried to research the Krasniqis' culture. If they had they might have learned what Barbara Halpern, the anthropologist from Massachusetts, testified to in Krasniqi's criminal trial. The Krasniqis come from "very physically demonstrative culture. Children are universally adored. Until they attain school age and venture beyond the household gates, they are the constant subjects of hugs, caresses and overt displays of affection.""

==Hawaii==

*'''Janssen, D.F. (2002). "[http://www.sexarchive.info/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/HAWAII.HTM Hawaii]," ''Growing Up Sexually, Volume I: World Reference Atlas''.'''
*:"Karsch-Haack, (1901) stated that according to Richard Neuhauss, Hawai’ian “girls of 12 to 14 years are generally virgins no more and acts of impurity of father with daughter are no rarity[6] [...] For infant females in Hawai’i, “milk was squirted into her vagina, and the labia were pressed together (Diamond, 1990). The mons [veneris] was rubbed with kukui (candlenut) oil and pressed with the palm of the hand to flatten it and make it less prominent. The molding continued until the labia did not separate. This chore usually was done by the mother or by an “aunt” [...]”. The buttocks of infants, males more than females, were molded so that they became “rounded and not flat”, also clearly evolving from an aesthetic motive. A “blower” is designated for each male infant, ostensibly to prepare him for subincision of the foreskin: “the penis was blown into daily starting from birth. The blowing was said to loosen and balloon the foreskin [and] continued daily [...] until the young male was 6 or 7”, when penile subincision takes place. Diamond reports: “Individuals of both sexes were expected to initiate and participate in coitus at puberty, although sexual activity, play, instruction, and so forth occurred much earlier. For instance, as part of exploratory play, the young investigated each other’s genitals, and young males and females might masturbate each other heterosexually or homosexually. This activity occurred without adult disapproval, and it was considered to be an introduction to adulthood. Casual intercourse before adolescence was not an uncommon experience for males (Handy and Pukui, 1958) and females (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972)"

*'''Milton Diamond. (2004 [1990]). [https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2000to2004/2004-sexual-behavior-in-pre-contact-hawaii.html Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai'i: A Sexological Ethnography]. Published in: ''Revista Española del Pacifico''. 16: 37-58.'''
*:"Sex training was direct and firsthand. Young individuals learned of coitus and sex play from instruction, direct observation, and practice. As they slept in the family house (hale noa), they observed their parents having coitus. "Public privacy" among the Mangaian Islanders, as it was described by Marshall (1971, p. 108), probably is similar to the "privacy" that was found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Polynesia: "[A Mangaian may copulate], at any age, in the single room of a hut that contains from five to fifteen family members of all ages — as have his ancestors before him. His daughter may receive and make love with each of her varied nightly suitors in the same room."
*:The young observed dogs, pigs, and other animals mating, and these activities were discussed openly with parents or other adults. Parturition was not a secret event and was well attended by the young and by adults, all of whom observed traditions that included the washing and burying of the placenta and, usually, the disposing of the umbilical cord (Pukui, Haertig and Lee, 1972, p. 16; Handy and Pukui, 1958, p. 78). The young Hawai‘ian also acquired sex education in day-by-day exposure to precepts, practices, and attitudes concerning sex. Traditionally, ... childish curiosity about sex was satisfied, with neither guilt nor shame instilled” (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 249). [...] Ellis (1782, Vol. 2, p. 153) wrote of sexual expression in Oceania: "The ladies are very lavish of their favors ... and some of their attachments seemed purely the effects of affection. They are initiated into this way of life at a very early period; we saw some, who could not be more than ten years old."
*:The time considered “right” to start coitus was not so much based on chronological age as on ability or maturity (Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, 1972, p. 78). [...] Suggs (1966) elaborated on the early sexual experiences of pubertal males with married females in their 30s and 40s in the Marquesas Islands, who “take special pains to be pleasing and patient with them ... a source of enjoyment for many Marquesan women” (p. 61). For young females of the Marquesas Islands, the first coital experience reportedly is earlier than it is for young males before menarche —and occurs unplanned with an adult male (Suggs, 1966, p. 63). [...] These adult/nonadult sexual interactions were socially approved behaviors. [...] For adults not to have given such practical education would have been unthinkable - a dereliction of duty.
*:Most important for Hawai‘ian society, the young learned of sexual humor. Among the Hawai‘ians, sex was and remains a rich source of humor and enjoyment. In everyday conversation and in song and story, it was considered to be an “art form” to speak using sexual double entendres (kaona). [...] Suggs (1966, p. 39) considered the early manifestations of infantile and childhood sexual behavior, including sexual behavior with adults, to be among the most distinguishing features of Marquesan sexual behavior. Many of the activities he described, however, are similar to activities that were present in Hawai'i and elsewhere in Oceania. Oliver (1974, pp. 458-459), for example, reported on adult/nonadult sexual behavior in Tahiti and quoted the missionary Orsmond from 1832: “In all Tahitians as well as officers who come in ships there is a cry for little girls,” and older females, when in a position to choose, preferred younger males. Marshall (1971, p. 126) described the routine early sexual encounters of young males and females in Mangaia as being with older, experienced males and females."

== Sudan ==

=== Azande ===
*'''Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1970). [https://sci-hub.st/10.2307/672861 Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American Anthropologist], 72(6), 1428–1434.'''
*: "It was the custom for members of bachelor companies, some of whom would always be living in barracks at court, to take boy-wives. [...] Most young men consequently married late--well into their twenties and thirties-and, because girls were engaged (in a legal sense married) very young, often at birth, the only way youths could obtain satisfaction from a woman was in adultery. [...] The boys performed many of the smaller services a woman performs daily for her husband [...] Also, the boywife carried his husband's shield when on a journey. It should be understood that he performed these services lest it might be thought that the relationship was entirely of a sexual nature; it will be appreciated that it had an educational side to it. With regard to the sexual side, at night the boy slept with his lover, who had intercourse with him between his thighs (Azande expressed disgust at the suggestion of anal penetration). The boys got what pleasure they could by friction of their organs on the husband's belly or groin. However, even though there was this side to the relationship, it was clear from Zande accounts that there was also the comfort of a nightly sharing of the bed with a companion."

== See also ==
* [https://wiki.yesmap.net/wiki/Walter_L._Williams#The_Spirit_and_the_Flesh_%281986%29 The Spirit and the Flesh (1986)] - the book by Walter L. Williams with a broad section on pederasty among non-western societies
* [[Gilbert_Herdt|Gilbert Herdt]] - anthropologist who studied ritualized intergenerational homosexuality in Melanesia

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-24T17:29:19Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships were structured by age and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-24T17:28:09Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age (600-800 BC). It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It should not be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, since the relationships in question were structured by age hierarchy and social asymmetry, and the younger participants were expected to marry later. Regarding sexual aspect, the younger participant occupied the passive role. On earlier black-figure vases, the scenes are much more explicit with the predominance of anal intercourse. On later red-figure vases, couples are often represented in an intercrural position, with contact between the thighs rather than a depicted anal act, but anal intercourse still appears to be implicitly assumed. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-23T14:24:54Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, as both initiators and novices normally marry afterwards. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

In the late Archaic period the male intergenerational institution was no longer dominated by mature adult men initiating adolescents into the adult male world. Younger men increasingly replaced older, adolescents were replaced by younger boys. At the same time, their courtship was represented less directly and more cautiously.<ref name="bremmer2021"/>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

User talk:Thorn

2026-04-22T18:06:00Z

Thorn: /* Email */

==Position==

Hi. Would you like me to add you as an editorial lead on the [[Newgon Support Team]] (''Quantitative Research and Public Health'', or ''Psychology and Science Communication'')? The role is a membership role, entails no responsibilities, but just describes the general purview of an editor's work. --[[User:The Admins|The Admins]] ([[User talk:The Admins|talk]]) 19:55, 25 March 2023 (UTC)
: Hi! Yes I would! [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 06:47, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

==Califia==

Lets entertain which of those should be in the chronological archive. --[[User:The Admins|The Admins]] ([[User talk:The Admins|talk]]) 09:33, 9 July 2023 (UTC)
:I suppose the 1st edition [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 18:33, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

== Minor attraction in popular culture edits ==

Hi Thorn.

As someone who contributed much of the content in the '''Minor attraction in popular culture''' article, I appreciate that you added new entries for it as well as your effort in general.

But I do have some issues with you. Hear me out:

I saw that you added entries that were already present, meaning that the title in the list were repeated but with different descriptions, which may cause confusion. Matter of fact, you did it two times (notably, with the '''Death in Venice''' and '''Pretty Baby''' titles) in the live-action sub-section. So, next time you add any entry for the pop culture article, make sure to check if it was already added in the first place. You are free to add hyperlinks to the titles, and edit the description for any entry as long as you spell out the relevancy to MAPs. Just make sure to not repeat the same mistake, alright?
: Yes, I am sorry! I occasionally skipped checking, but I'll be more attentive to that, thank you! [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 07:16, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

==Percy Wiki==

Pretty sure Percy's Wiki will not come back online as Percy is sadly dead. I finished copying all of the info on Thorstad a while ago, and it was useful in the chronological archive. I'm sure they have info on other scholars and activists (far from all of the listed, it is predominantly a gay site that leads towards pederasty) that would be useful in building profiles and adding to the archive.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200924025231/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Scholars_and_Activists --[[User:The Admins|The Admins]] ([[User talk:The Admins|talk]]) 02:31, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
: Ok, I'll take care of that! [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 07:48, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

==Book by Filip Schuster==

[https://www.ipce.info/host/lexikon/lexikon.pdf This] book (in German) maybe has some useful information in studying and profiling historical "pedophiles". --[[User:The Admins|The Admins]] ([[User talk:The Admins|talk]]) 02:15, 18 November 2024 (UTC)
:Thank you, I'll check this [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 15:26, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

==Update on doll research==

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380114150_Berichtete_Konsequenzen_des_Verbots_von_Sexpuppen_mit_kindlichem_Erscheinungsbild_Eine_Inhaltsanalyse_von_Betroffenenaussagen --[[User:Jim Burton|Jim Burton]] ([[User talk:Jim Burton|talk]]) 18:20, 16 March 2025 (UTC)

==Tromovitch survey research==

https://boychat.org/cgi/deref.cgi?url=https://doshisha.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000821/files/023065040009.pdf --[[User:Jim Burton|Jim Burton]] ([[User talk:Jim Burton|talk]]) 18:12, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

==MAPTorrent Project==

I notice on Matrix, someone has set up a large archive that goes beyond the original files saved by Peace. Would you be interested in copying any unsaved documents to our cloud storage and starting the process of publishing them in a useful order (via the chronological archive)? --[[User:Jim Burton|Jim Burton]] ([[User talk:Jim Burton|talk]]) 11:03, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

==Children, kink, fetishes==

I found this useful review which may interest you, particularly the Brown, 2019 study and it's conclusions about children and BDSM. May be useful for the childhood sexuality review.

https://sexedrescue.com/children-kink-fetishes/

--[[User:Jim Burton|Jim Burton]] ([[User talk:Jim Burton|talk]]) 17:37, 25 July 2025 (UTC)
: Interesting! Thanks! [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 15:37, 31 July 2025 (UTC)

==Effects of pornography==

I recently did a very brief sweep of literature for our effects of pornography review. I located one paper that might be useful for a deep read.

https://www.academia.edu/11604002/Saving_the_Children_Pornography_Childhood_and_the_Internet --[[User:Jim Burton|Jim Burton]] ([[User talk:Jim Burton|talk]]) 21:12, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

::thank you![[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 14:48, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

== Fallacy List ==

There is a [https://forum.map-union.org/viewtopic.php?t=3339 forum thread] where a user has added some fallacies - a percentage of them are not covered on our list. Some of them also demonstrate how the fallacious argument might be used to argue in support of the subject.

Perhaps they could be added to our list, or integrated somehow. --[[User:Jim Burton|Jim Burton]] ([[User talk:Jim Burton|talk]]) 21:23, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
: Thank you! I'll think about it. [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 10:18, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

==Email==

:''Hello! I have been researching the topic of ACSC for quite a bit and i would love if the wiki could respond to these two articles (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213402003174 and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12151287/#:~:text=Men%20who%20reported%20sexual%20molestation,range%3D1.3-5.2)., availible on Annas Archive). They have been shown to me as counter-arguments against rind, claiming to show that, even if adult child sexual contact is viewed positively, they leads to increased negative mental health problems. Unsure what to make of it, if its caused by secondary victimization or not.If an article is ever written, or if a rebuttal is added to the wiki, please email me. Thanks a lot!''
:: I looked at these articles. The first study is weak due to small sample, the second is better, but didn't add news to the topic. The researchers themselves wrote about inability to make causal evidence, consent is a predictor of '''lesser''' disturbance compared to abuse, and although consented childhood experiences predicted more selfharm compared to control group, it should be kept in mind that multiple third factors which accompany sexual experiences weren’t considered in this study. I'd recommended our [[Research: Methodological flaws and syndrome construction]] In addition I recommend a good illustration of this topic: ''Peer contacts were associated—at magnitudes and significance levels comparable to adult-child sexual contacts—with overall well-being and sexual adjustment during adulthood.'' see study Edward O. Laumann, Christopher R. Browning, 2003 in [[Research:_Prevalence_of_Harm_and_Negative_Outcomes#Outcomes_and_"severity"]] section. These studies don't stand out as particularly strong compared to thousands of others with the same low level of evidence. But if there is need of a detailed analysis of these studies specifically, I can go into more detail, and probably add them to [[Research: Methodological flaws and syndrome construction]] as examples of low quality counter arguments [[User:Thorn|Thorn]] ([[User talk:Thorn|talk]]) 18:06, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T09:40:11Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, as both initiators and novices normally marry afterwards. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally. Males generally quitted playing the passive role when their beards appeared.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T09:32:24Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It had strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, as both initiators and novices normally marry afterwards. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T09:31:47Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It has strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality, as both initiators and novices normally marry afterwards. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T09:12:24Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It has strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021"/><ref>Jan N. Bremmer (1989) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T08:53:37Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It has strong institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021" /> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T08:53:04Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It has string institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally.<ref name="bremmer2021"> Jan N. Bremmer (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.] (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]],<ref name="bremmer2021" /> Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History

2026-04-21T08:48:47Z

Thorn: /* Ancient Greece */

{{research}}
There have existed a wide range of western and non-western societies that have tolerated or encouraged intergenerational sexuality. More recent examples are generally ''subcultures'' which run counter to modern sexual morality.
__NOTOC__
==Classical Antiquity==

Much has been written about the '''Ancient Greeks''' and their age-structured pederastic relationship ideals, yet there are many other past civilizations that loved boys.

*[https://greek-love.com/ Greek Love: Pederasty throughout the ages], gives a historical context on Ancient Greece and many other cultures
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships Historical BL Relationships] - BoyWiki - Historical BL Relationships
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Rome Rome]
:*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_Japan Japan]
*[https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Pederastic_relationships_in_classical_antiquity Pederastic relationships in classical antiquity] - Fandom
*[[Pederasty in Islam]]

===Ancient Greece===

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece Wikipedia]
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece BoyWiki]
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20100309132321/http://www.truthtree.com/pederasty.shtml Truthtree]

To certain parts of Greek society, relationships between men and adolescent boys were not only acceptable, but a desirable form of mentorship and (military) training towards the masculine ideal. As accounts reveal, rules and regulations within this model were particularly strict - arguably more so than in modern societies that condemn pederasty as pathological.

Many Greek men waited until they were about 30 years of age to marry. When they did marry, their partner would often be a girl of 12 or 14.<ref name="bullough">[[Vern Bullough|Bullough, Vern L.]] (2004). "Children and adolescents as sexual beings: a historical overview," ''Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America'', 13(3), 447-459.</ref>

It is certain that pederasty was already widespread in Greek culture in the early Archaic Age. It has string institutional character in Crete and Sparta and educational connotations in Athens, and seemingly was derived from earlier initiatory practices in history. It was definitively intergenerational practice which shouldn't be confused with modern adult-adult homosexuality. The active pederasts were the novices of the previous initiation, and copulation, in which the novice was always the passive partner, took place anally.<ref>Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''[https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.]''' (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])</ref>

Historians including Christian Laes,<ref>[https://www.christianlaes.be/ Christian Laes - Personal site]</ref><ref>[https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/oezg/article/view/3327 Laes, C. (2017). When Classicists Need to Speak Up: Antiquity and Present Day Pedophilia – Pederasty. ''Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften'', 28(3), 49–70].</ref><ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011).</ref><ref>; Christian Laes and Johan Strubbe, ''Youth in the Roman Empire: The Young and the Restless Years?'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014)</ref><ref>Christian Laes, 'Children and Sexuality: Roman World', in: Julia M. O'Brian (ed.), ''Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies'' (Oxford University Press, 2014), 38–42.</ref> [[wikipedia:Andrew Lear|Andrew Lear]],<ref>[https://library.lol/main/53872FCED674EC41DFC6B26B198D1F7F Eva Cantarella and Andrew Lear, ''Images of Pederasty: Boys Were Their God'' (Routledge, 2008)].</ref><ref>Andrew Lear, 'Was Pederasty Problematized? A Diachronic View', in: Mark Masterson/Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz/James Robson (eds.), ''Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World'' (London/New York, 2015), pp. 115–136.</ref><ref>[https://library.lol/main/35E193AC1C1DADA75905ADD4DE8E0098 Andrew Lear, ''Noble Eros: the idealization of pederasty from the Greek dark ages to the Athens of Socrates'' (2004, PhD Thesis)].</ref> [[Thomas Hubbard]], [[Beert Verstraete|Beert C. Verstraete]],<ref>[https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.09.61/ Beert Verstraete, Review of 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece', ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 3. Nov. 2009].</ref> and [[William Percy]], have conducted extensive research on Greek Pederasty and the life of children / young people in Greco-Roman society.

==10th to 20th Century China==

An act similar to the "[[Age of Consent]]" was seen in ancient China. The punishment was quite severe, exile for misdemeanors, and hanged or beheaded for serious crimes.
In the Song Dynasty, the legal clause that "intercourse with young women is regarded as rape" began to appear.<ref>[https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%85%92%E7%AB%A5%E6%80%A7%E8%99%90%E5%BE%85?oldformat=true#%E5%8F%A4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B Chinese Wikipedia]</ref>

One historical study <ref>[http://library.lol/main/B05B07B0134835C2F53D030224C75608 Hinsch, Bret. (1990). ''Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China'' (Berkeley: University of California Press).]</ref> of male same-sex love in China from the Zhou dynasty (start date of 1045/6 BC) to the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century, dated as starting around 249 BC. Quoting a 1993 review thereof<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499309551712 Review of 'Passions of the Cut Sleeve'']</ref>:

<blockquote>
''"Hinsch found that, before 1900, the dominant social construction for males in China was bisexual. Most Chinese men did not see themselves as being divided into strict categories of "homosexuals" and "heterosexuals" but evidenced a relaxed erotic attraction to both sexes. Wealthy married men or unmarried scholars often had a boy (ranging in age from as young as 9 to as old as 25 years) as a concubine, or they patronized boy prostitutes. Chinese philosophers wrote that it was better for a boy to sell his body, as a favorite or a prostitute, than to languish in poverty. Prostitution/concubinage represented one of the few opportunities for lower class boys to raise their economic status and to support their parents comfortably. If a boy became a beloved of a wealthy older man, he was some times offered material wealth or political office when he matured. His patron/lover might even arrange a heterosexual marriage for him and serve as best man at his wedding. Individuals who enjoyed male-male sex were not seen as distinct personality types but merely partook of certain "passions." These passions were termed "passions of the cut sleeve," after the devotion shown by Emperor Ai (ruler 6 B.C.E.-l C.E.), who cut the sleeve off his shirt rather than disturb the sleep of his beloved boy lover Dong Xian."''
</blockquote>

===600BC-1860===

From a [[Text of Pedo history: China|summary of historical research]], [[Edward Brongersma]] identified sadomasochistic trends and a dominant model of concubinage in pre-communist China. Some men were also invested in the boy achieving pleasure, and climax.

=== Until the first half of the last century ===
From the article of Emil M.L.Ng:<ref>Emil M.L.Ng (December 2002) [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm Pedophilia from the Chinese Perspective] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135819/http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/pedochin.htm web.archive]); Probably from the book 'Pedophilia: Concepts and Controversy, Special Section of Archives of Sexual Behavior' by Kenneth J. Zucker (ed); Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 465-510</ref>
<blockquote>
''Depictions of “child-romance” in ancient or modern Chinese literature are not difficult to find. They include passages on joyous heterosexual or homosexual activities by children as young as 12 to13 years old with one another or with adults. [...] Until the first half of the last century, there was still the practice of the “child bridegroom” in, but not restricted to, the Hubei region of China (Lou 1970). A male child of any age, even before birth, could by parental arrangement take an adult woman as a wife. The purpose could be to consolidate family status and relationship, or simply to have someone to help taking care of the child. After marriage, the couple slept in one bed like all other husbands and wives. No one would pay attention to what type of sexual relationship they might have and when. In the normal course of events, they would begin with those sex plays they were capable of and wanted, until one day, when the child was old enough to desire and do it, they had coitus. After the boy grew still older, he usually took a second wife closer to his age, but he would continue to keep, love and respect the first wife.''
</blockquote>

==15th Century Florence==

Florence was famed for its widespread homosexual culture, which manifested as a normative pederasty involving boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen in relationship with adult men.<ref>At the margins: minority groups in premodern Italy By Stephen J. Milner; p62</ref> This reputation was so much that in 1432 the city established "Gli Ufficiali di Notte" (The Officers of the Night) to root out the practice of sodomy. From that year until 1502, the number of men charged with sodomy numbered greater than 17,000, of which 3,000 were convicted. However this number also includes heterosexual sodomy. This also gave rise to a number of proverbs illuminating the views of the common people towards the practice. Among them are ''If you crave joys, tumble some boys.'' <ref>Florentine proverb, ca. [[1480]]. After [[Sabadino degli Arienti]] in ''Le Porretane.''Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996; p.87</ref> This reputation is also reflected in the fact that the Germans adopted the word ''Florenzer'', when they were talking about a pederast.<ref>Rocke, Michael, (1996), ''[https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forbidden+Friendships%3A+Homosexuality+and+male+Culture+in+Renaissance+Florence&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence]'', ISBN 978-0195122923</ref><ref>Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), ''The Boundaries of Eros'', ISBN 978-0195056969</ref> The Neapolitans on the other hand when speaking of pederasty, called it ''Il vizio inglese,'' "the English vice".<ref>[[Sir Richard Burton|R. F. Burton]], ''Terminal Essay''</ref>

From John A. Garrity's research:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200807005522/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jack_Garridy Sexuality in the Lives of Florentine Renaissance Artists] by John A. Garrity (Jack Garridy) (in pdfs archived from Percy Wiki)</ref>

<blockquote>
''"Rocke concludes that up to two-thirds of all sexually active males in Florence were at least rumored to be involved in sodomitical activity. ''[...]'' Sodomy was so much the norm in Renaissance Florence that Rocke finds no “subculture” ''[...]'' the norm should be characterized as bisexual activity, a two or three on Kinsey scale. By the age of sixteen, a typical male was taking the passive role in sodomy with an older partner ''[...]'' Citizens accepted passivity as a normal part of adolescence to such an extent that eventually it was not even prosecuted. ''[...]'' The oldest active partners recorded were in their seventies. The youngest passives were eight years old. ''[...]'' By age thirty most men gave up their passion for youths and married women. ''[...]'' Overall, Rocke’s finds are surprisingly similar to the ancient Greeks ''[...]'' These male relationships were often mutual and romantic."''<ref>See Michael Rocke, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/ac0dab2ba53be8a3a5b6d8967749d7b7 ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence''] (Oxford University Press, 1998).</ref>
</blockquote>

From the article by Isabella Paduano:<ref>[https://www.theflorentine.net/2022/10/24/queer-history-florence/ The queer history of Florence] by Isabella Paduano (2022)</ref>

<blockquote>"[F]''or the people of Renaissance Florence, a man’s sexuality could be quite fluid, as long as it didn’t threaten his masculinity. This is why a practice now known as pederasty prevailed, where “mature” men (those over 20) would have sex with adolescent boys. Today, this age imbalance seems unacceptable, but at the time it was the norm, with any deviation threatening a man’s masculinity. This was an ancient tradition, dating back to the Greeks and Romans.''[...]'' The papers show that an outright majority of men in the city were incriminated for sodomy at least once: 17,000 men out of the city’s total population of 40,000 people."''
</blockquote>

==14th-16th Century Japan==

In medieval [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]] (14th–16th centuries), it was customary for elite families to entrust their young sons to the care of renowned Buddhist priests from whom they received a premier education in Buddhist scriptures, poetry, music, and dance. When the boys reached adolescence, some underwent coming-of-age rites, others entered the priesthood, and several extended their education, becoming chigo, or Buddhist acolytes. Chigo served their masters as personal attendants and as sexual partners. During religious ceremonies—adorned in colorful robes, their faces made up and hair styled in long ponytails—they entertained local donors and pilgrims with music and dance.<ref>[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1133 See the original and the William Percy Foundation's review of: Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives, by Sachi Schmidt-Hori]</ref>

''Nanshoku'' is the Japanese word for eroticism between adolescent and adult males during this time period and after, and such relationships are well-documented amongst the samurai and in literature. For example, Ihara Saikaku's collection of stories ''Nanshoku ōkagami: honchō waka fūzoku'' (The Great Mirror of Male Love: the Custom of Boy Love in Our Land). Nanshoku was depicted in erotica known as ''shunga'' (spring pictures). Kitagawa Utamaro produced shunga artwork, and although the government took relaxed attitude toward regulating visual art, one image earned Utamaro 50 days in manacles. ''Machiba Hisayoshi'' (c.1803-4) is a colored woodblock print of the ruler Hideyoshi leaning toward a pageboy, caressing the youth's wrist, with Utamaro being punished not because of the late shōgun's conduct but because representations of high nobility were forbidden. One of Japanese literature's great lovers was Ariwara no Narihira, protagonist of the classic ''Ise monogatari''. As a boy he was the subject of what became a well-known love poem, 'Iwatsutsuji' (Azaleas on the Cliffs), written by an unknown priest in the 9th century. Seven hundred and fifty years later, the shōgunate's poetry tutor, Kitamura Kigin, compiled an anthology intended to show this long tradition of idealized relations between male youths and men, naming it after the poem.<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/nanshoku_en.htm Nanshoku, Male-Male Eroticism in Japan. Koinos Magazine #40 (2003/4) and #41 (2004/1).]</ref>

Other scholarly sources for this time period include.<ref>Gary Leupp. ''Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan''. Gregory Pflugfelder. ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950''.</ref> Another notable book is ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality'' (1989), which details the institutionalized boy-love/pederasty of the Japanese samurai.<ref>''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality''. By Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata. Translated by D. R. Roberts.
Gay Men's Press, London, 1989.</ref> As one scholar summarized:

<blockquote>
''Each samurai took a pubescent boy as a page and assistant, and many of these wakashu youths became the lovers of their adult samurai sponsors. Since the samurai trained his wakashu to become a samurai (by about age 23), this homosexual relationship also fulfilled an educative function similar to the teacher-student Buddhist tradition.''

''Under the shoguns a new art form emerged which celebrated male beauty. In 1374 an eleven year old boy dancer ''[Zeami Motokiyo]''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeami_Motokiyo Wiki page for Motokiyo]</ref> became the lover of the shogun, and under the shogun’s loving patronage he became a genius playwright and founder of the No theater for the shogun’s court.''<ref>[https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0101.71 Walter L. Williams, 'From Samurai to Capitalist: Male Love, Men’s Roles, and the Rise Of Homophobia in Japan', ''Men's Studies'', Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1992), p. 73.]</ref>
</blockquote>

==15th-17th Century Europe==

[[Helmut Kentler]] observes:<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1634288.htm CHILDREN’S SEXUALITY, by Helmut Kentler], in the German edition of the book [[Show Me!]]. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DD05vy-WuM_-BH5tfbSswOXEQQt5OnYS37zhAtyx0x0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.r733n6h5ens]</ref>

<blockquote>
''Scientific research has, in the last decades, rediscovered and evaluated evidence from numerous sources, showing that in Central Europe through the 17th century a pro-sexual attitude prevailed that today – despite a liberalizing trend – would be seen as alien and dangerous and its revival prevented at all costs. J. van Ussel, one of the best authorities on pro-sexual manners and customs of that time, gives the following sketch:''

:''It was generally accepted that the satisfaction of the sex drive was necessary for good health. In some cities, brothels were set up by the authorities. Physicality was practiced in a way that we have forgotten today. People commonly touch, caress, hug and kiss; nurses and parents masturbate young children, to calm them. Older people have contact with young people that we would today call sexual. This self-satisfaction begins to be fought only at the start of the 18th Century by doctors and later by many clergy. Premarital and extramarital sexual relations are mainstreamed. Insufficient contraception (birth control) is condemned by the churches. The rulers and the aristocracy practice promiscuity, which is hardly ever criticized. Students and soldiers do what they please. The clergy are not exactly celibate. At home folks sleep naked, the whole family and the employees together in one room. Even in the bath house you’re naked. On ceremonial occasions the prettiest girls in the city are naked on display. A rich vocabulary for the sexual is available. The young people do not need sex education because they see the world of adults, experiencing and learning what they need to know.”''

''As a matter of course young children already knew sexual facts; this appears most clearly from a collection of dialogues, written in Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam and published in 1522, dedicated to his then six-year-old godson. The title indicates the intention of the book: “Dialogues, not only put together to refine the Latin of the children, but above all for the purpose of education for life.”''
</blockquote>

==18th Century England==
Girls as young as 12 were highly-valued for their attractiveness as prostitutes in England during the 18th century. Young, pubescent boys were also popular. The [[Age of Consent]] was not raised from 10 until the 19th century.<ref name="bullough" />

==16th-17th Century Russia==
There is a lot of evidence of quite tolerant attitude toward boylove in some periods of the past in Russia:
<blockquote>
According to the Englishman Perry, who served in Russia under Peter I for several years, "the dreadful sin of sodomy is hardly considered a crime in this country; when drunk, they are very inclined to it." [...] It is likely that sodomy, which became widespread in Russian society during the 16th and 17th centuries, was borrowed by Russians from the Muslim East, particularly from Persia and Turkey. [Despite the fact that], as a precaution against this vice, a moral code for monks, introduced as early as the 14th century, included a provision stating that they should "not befriend young children or teach them from books." In the monastic rule of Joseph Volotsky, it was forbidden to keep "beardless youths" in monasteries. [editor's translation] <ref>[https://libgen.li/ads267edbd1c32fbbe3cd644e38adc1e285RC85NHNN Averkiyev S.S. (2015) Influence of the Tatars on the Life of the Russian People. pp. 175-180]</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Russia==

The Chuckchee in Northern Siberia - sex with boys was considered normal and in no way kept secret.

<blockquote>Young, handsome boys adorn themselves and flirt openly with their admirers. This is all the more striking because nothing impedes sex with girls and the boys themselves start to have heterosexual intercourse from ten years on.” (Wrangel, quoted by Erman 1871, 164).<ref>[https://brongersma.info/Loving_boys_I 'Loving Boys I'] by [[Edward Brongersma]]; 1986</ref></blockquote>

==19th Century Albania==

From Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Islamic+Homosexualities Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe - ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature'', New York University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8147-7468-7.]</ref>

<blockquote>
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by numerous Western travellers in the nineteenth century including Edvard Westermarck, John Cam Hobhouse, who in his travel diary, reports that pederasty was "openly practised," and Johann Georg von Hahn, also known as "the father of Albanian studies." According to such reports it was commonly and socially accepted that young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four would woo children aged twelve to seventeen.<ref>[http://www.archiviolgbtq.it/fileadmin/documenti/luglio2006/naecke.pdf], [https://archive.org/details/warmbrothersquee00tobi], [https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederastia_albanese#CITEREFRobert_Elsie_(2000)], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pEKOOuRWu00C]</ref>

In literature, the oldest lover is called ashik (from the Arabic word ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from the Turkish dilber, "beautiful"). A Gheg Albanian married at the age of 24 or 25, and then usually, but not always, gave up love with boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/nationalhealthsg0000unse]</ref>
</blockquote>

Murray's original quote included more references which could not be found online.

==America (Mid 19th-20th) Century ==

The ''Huffington Post'' wrote about Thomas Lowry's "The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War":

:''"Chapter 11 of Lowry's book opens the closet door on gender-bending and same-sex trysts. And Lowry reveals that during the Civil War conventional gender roles and sexual behavior could not be strictly tethered to a heterosexual paradigm. With men outnumbering women, especially at social events like balls, "Drummer Boys" -- children as young as 9 and 10 years old -- dressed in drag. And in some occasions, the intimacy between soldiers and Drummer boys reached beyond just a public waltz. For example, Lowry references a ball put on by a Massachusetts regiment stationed in Virginia in 1864 about young drummer boys dressed as women. One man wrote to his wife: "Some of the real women went, but the boy girls were so much better looking that they left. ...We had some little Drummer Boys dressed up and I'll bet you could not tell them from girls if you did not know them. ...Some of ''[the Drummer Boys]'' looked good enough to lay with and I guess some of them did get laid with. ...I know I slept with mine.""''<ref>[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-gay-confederate-_b_851815 HuffPo - American Civil War]</ref>

==Native America, 1930s and prior==

George Devreux wrote in 1937:

:''"Casual homosexual relations in childhood were frequent in the past, and according to my informants, seem to be on the increase ''[...]'' Complete nudity and any lack of supervision, especially for boys, who remained naked until they reached puberty, combined with incessant sexual talk on the part of adults, must have furthered the desire for sex experience. ''[...]'' Adults seldom had sexual intercourse with children of their own sex, although betrothal of young girls to old men or seduction of very young boys by adult women was not rare."''<ref>Devereux, George. (1937). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41447338 Institutionalized homosexuality of the Mohave Indians]. ''Human Biology'', 9, pp. 498–527.</ref>

==Prewar (and postwar) Siwa, Egypt==

:''"In 1937 the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other. All Siwans know the matings which have taken place among their sheiks and their sheiks' sons....Most of the boys used in sodomy are between twelve and eighteen years of age." After an expedition to Siwa, the archaeologist Count Byron de Prorok reported in 1937 "an enthusiasm [that] could not have been approached even in Sodom... Homosexuality was not merely rampant, it was raging...Every dancer had his boyfriend...[and] chiefs had harems of boys"."''<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwa_Oasis De Porok, Count Byron (1936). In Quest of Lost Worlds. New York: Dutton. p. 64.]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/siwa-oasis-robin-maugham-pederasty THE OASIS OF SIWA IN 1947-8, BY ROBIN MAUGHAM]</ref><ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/egypt/the-people-of-siwah-by-walter-cline NOTES ON THE PEOPLE OF SIWAH BY WALTER CLINE]</ref>

The socialist Gay/[[Boylove|BL]] activist and independent scholar [[David Thorstad]], wrote of his experience of Siwa for ''Gayme Magazine''.<ref>[http://williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Siwa_today.pdf Siwa Today - David Thorstad]</ref> He wrote:

:''"Probably the most stricking feature of Siwan sexuality is the traditional practice of men lending their sons to other men. Prior to 1928, this was sometimes accompanied by a written aggreement (known as a "marriage contract"), a dowry (much greater than the dowry for a girl), banquets and celebrations. ''[...]'' One investigator earlier in the century claimed that male children were preferred because they cost less to raise than girls, and that the boy was "a very fruitful source of profit for the father, not for the work he does, but because he is hired by his father to another man to be used as a catamite [i.e. a boy who has sex with men]. Sometimes two men exchange their sons. If they are asked about this, they are not ashamed to mention it".''

For this quote, Thorstad cites a source which is now used on Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Siwa_Oasis|Siwa page]]: Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harvardafricans01deptgoog Mahmud Mohammad Abd Allah, (1917). Siwan Customs]. In ''Harvard African Studies'', 7, p. 7.</ref>

==Traditional Islam, and present Afghanistan==

As detailed in [[Pederasty in Islam]], Afghanistan is one of many Islamic cultures in which pederasty is practised with feminized boys. This derives from the strict gender segregation in Afghan society, and gives rise to the famous saying "women are for children, boys are for pleasure".<ref>[https://fuf.se/magasin/magapril-women-are-for-children-boys-are-for-pleasure/ Women are for children, boys are for pleasure]</ref>

==1960s, 1970s, Baltimore==

During these decades there were notable gay subcultures in America where young boys were allowed to have sexual interactions with men with little fear of ostracism or psychological trauma. Baltimore is one often recalled example of this.

==1960s, 1970s, Hippie Communes==

Inter- and intra-generational sex with minors was accommodated in late 20th century American hippie communes, but for children, sex was a pleasant distraction and not central to their leisure time. Details on these subcultures are covered by researchers such as Berger, Constantine and Johnston, cited in our [[Research: Activating Janssen|review project of Janssen's ''Growing Up Sexually'']].

==1960s, 1970s England==

As is common, when the sources of scandalous allegations are further investigated at a later date, the banality of the situation reveals itself. For example, with reference to Duncroft (Girls School), [[Mark Smith]] and Ros Burnett note "Accounts of the girls’ sexual experience and behaviour indicate a degree of agency in sexual activity, which challenges the current orthodoxy of them as victims of predatory adults. The former residents we spoke to did not regard themselves as victims and any sexual activity they might have entered into was considered to have been [[consent|consensual]] and in some cases initiated by the girls (although none claimed to have any knowledge of Savile being involved sexually with girls at Duncroft)."<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1108/ijssp-03-2017-0029 The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal]</ref>

Girls' (12-15) relationships with older boys and men were a cause for concern in the 70s, but were in most cases chalked off as cautions when they came to the attention of police. This was because the relationships were seen as normative/traditional or otherwise willingly engaged in by the girls.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-1971(79)80005-6 Mawby, R. I. (1979). Policing the age of consent. Journal of Adolescence, 2(1), 41–49]</ref>

==1970s, 1980s, Netherlands==

The Netherlands is a fairly recent example of a culture in which intergenerational sexual relationships were partially tolerated during a particularly liberal period of history. For some time, sexual relationships between a child above the age of 12 and an adult would remain legally immune to prosecution for as long as the younger partner, their parents or a welfare entity did not complain. Such authorities were much less inclined to lodge complaints during this period, leading to a markedly non-hysterical climate in which many such relationships succeeded. One writer to document such positive relationships was [[Theo Sandfort]], whose most famous study <ref>[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/ Sandfort Study]</ref> remains an outstanding example of this unique period in time.

==1980s, 1990s, Thailand==

Professor Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chang Mai University emphasizes that, 'In Thai society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'"<ref>Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia, 1999</ref>

==1980s, 1990s, Mexico==

In a [[Media:A pueblo homosexuality David Thorstad 1988.pdf|1988 Christopher Street Feature]], [[David Thorstad]] immerses himself in a rural Mexican community and finds that homosexuality is very much part of everyday life for younger men and boys. Sex work is also engaged in, but this is peripheral.

==General==
:''"As mentioned earlier, our Western civilization has not always believed that children should be protected from all sexual contact. In medieval Europe, children were still freely touched, caressed, and fondled by every member of the household. Particularly in rural areas, parents, nurses, or servants were accustomed to masturbating small children to please them or to keep them quiet. (This practice is also found in many non-European societies. In the United States today, it is still alive among the Hopi Indians.)"''<ref>[[Erwin Haeberle|Haeberle, Erwin J.]] (1983). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419005050/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/childhood_sex_play.html The Sex Atlas]''. The Continuum Publishing Company.</ref>

''Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History'' by [[Paul Knobel]]<ref>[http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/hombib/ Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History] by [[Paul Knobel]] - free access encyclopedia at the Sexarchive by [[Erwin Haeberle]]; also see the work with Overview entries from this encyclopedia - [http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/knobelworld.htm A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry] </ref> contains hundreds of mentions of dancing and singing boys tradition, along with sexual and romantic themes in poetry dedicated to them, in different cultures in history.

==Excerpt Graphic Library==

The EGL on '''Broader Perspectives''' has some relevant information. Just right click/save and reproduce by uploading in short-form media to bypass character limits.

{{Template:EGLBP}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]]

Gert Hekma

2026-04-04T11:27:42Z

Thorn: /* Selected Publications */

[[File:Gert Hekma library.jpg|thumb|220px|left|An elderly Gert Hekma pictured amongst his enormous book collection]]__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''Gert Hekma''' (24 September 1951 – 19 April 2022) was a Dutch anthropologist and sociologist, known for his research, publications, and public statements about (homo)sexuality, including pedophilia and sadomasochism. He taught gay and lesbian studies at the University of Amsterdam from 1984 to 2017. He served as editor or editorial board member of many periodicals, including ''Sexualities'' (1998-death), founded by [[Ken Plummer]], [[Paidika|''Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia'']] (1988-1997), ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'' (1993-2005), and the ''[[Journal of Homosexuality]]'' (1985-death), ran until recently by the MAP ally psychologist [[John P. De Cecco]].

In his youth, Hekma was a member of the radical "Red Faggots" (Dutch: "Rooie Flikkers"). Hekma was a prolific book collector, and had a fetish for satin. Hekma advocated against masculinity, paternalism, traditional gender roles, and for a return to sexual practice over sexual identity.

==Hekma and MAP politics==

In the book reviews section for ''Sexualities'', Hekma wrote on relevant authors including [[Bruce Rind]], historian [https://en.ua1lib.org/book/13428246/825aac Phillip Jenkins], and [[Rudiger Lautmann]]. On the [[Rind_et_al|Rind et al. (1998) controversy]], Hekma wrote:

<blockquote>''The conclusions are clear. There are victims but for most boys sex with adults does not create damage. Relations with adult women are experienced as a form of sexual initiation. Those with men are more problematic because boys will often start to feel insecure about sexual orientation and gender identity. These problems are not inherent in the relation but ''[exist]'' in a social context that abhors unmasculinity and homosexuality.'' (Book Ends, [https://doi.org/10.1177/136346000003003005 Vol. 1, No. 4, 1999, p. 505]).</blockquote>

After Rind et al. was unanimously condemned (but not refuted) by the United States Congress, Hekma wrote: "''It is incredible that there was not one sane and thinking member of Congress to oppose this resolution.''" (Book Ends, [https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Book%20Ends%204.pdf?target=%20blank Volume 3, No. 3, 2000, p. 368]).

Hekma wrote an obituary for [[Frits Bernard]] (died May 2006), a Dutch psychologist, sexologist, homosexual activist, and key figure of the 1st wave of the [[MAP Movement]], in ''Sexualities'' (2007, below).

===Media scandals===

In an interview with Martijn for ''OK Magazine'' (2004)<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/Interview_with_Gert_Hekma_(Gay-_%26_Lesbian_Teacher) Brongersma.info: Interview with Gert Hekma]</ref>, Hekma recalls that he had erotic dreams about Santa Claus at 6 years of age, and said of his childhood:

<blockquote>''I was a happy child, that is beyond dispute. But, of course, it was a life without sex though. I masturbated many, many times and extensively and played with friends in the attic. It was erotic, but not sexual. It was a repressive milieu, so in that sense I do not look back at it that positively. I think that when you look at boys and yearn for them and that you don't know that you are gay or what it is; that is terrible.''</blockquote>

In the same interview, however, he gave controversial commentary on the [[Marquis de Sade]] and [[pedophilia]], arguing that Sade's philosophy demonstrates that pressure can be a benevolent force in sexual relations. He said:

<blockquote>''Sade gives you the impression that actually people need to be forced to enjoy sexual pleasure. De Sade's small book ''Philosophie dans le boudoir'' (1795) ''[...]'' is a lesbian novel ''[...]'' about a woman who has fallen in love with a girl. This woman invites this girl to her and she is then given lessons in love by a number of gentlemen and by the woman herself. And within one day she knows then that this entire Catholic faith which she adhered to so much, and which especially her mother adhered to; that it is talking total nonsense. [... T]his sexual initiation happens under a certain pressure, by both the Catholics and Sade. There is the idea that if it is about sex, no pressure may happen. That is the big problem with [[pedophilia]], because this involves unequal balances of power, and these men, they force boys to sex they do not want. As for Sade it is like''[,]'' you need to be forced a bit to learn what you like. We accept this in many, many areas. You are forced to go to school. You are forced as a child to eat your food. You are forced to crap and pee neatly at certain times. The child is being forced endlessly, but as for sex it suddenly is not allowed anymore. Sade indicates: exactly with a little pressure you learn how nice sex is.''</blockquote>

In 2007, Hekma received media coverage and death threats after supporting the idea proposed by a group of adolescents, to include a canal boat for gay youth at the Amsterdam Gay Pride. Hekma's discussion and response to these scandals can be found here.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20200807015936/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Scandal_2007 Archive of Percy Wiki: 2007 Scandal]</ref> In 2014, he co-created a petition addressed to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, requesting that the Dutch Supreme Court not ban the MAP association [[Vereniging MARTIJN]]. His support of MARTIJN resulted in death threats and an attempted burglary.

===Broader perspective===

Hekma was not himself a pedophile, and was in a lifelong adult-adult partnership with sociologist Mattias Duyves (b. 1953). The couple were together for more than 40 years, with Hekma meeting Duyves in 1977 and marrying in 2007. Previously, Duyves had once been a sexual partner of [[Michel Foucault]].
[[File:Gert Hekma (left) and partner Mattias, in Portugal, 1984.jpg|thumb|220px|Gert Hekma (left) and partner Mattias, in Portugal, 1984]]

In a 2013 book chapter "Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History", co-authored with [[Donald Mader]] (linked in publications below), they argued that expansive child pornography law inhibits modern scholars from observing the evidence for pederastic homosexual visual culture which has been open to scholars of the early 20th century, but is now increasingly gatekept in highly restricted archives due to the risk of criminalization and destruction of archival material. This has the added consequence of "''eliminating material culture that could be evidence that “pederasts” or “pedophiles” had a culture and history''" to begin with, "''precisely the tactic that was used against colonial peoples in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ''[...]'' or the tactic of Nazi Germany in its effort to destroy all remnants of Jewish culture to justify their destruction''" (p. 180). Through an extensive survey of past scholarly investigation into homosexuality, they argued that [[pederasty]] comprised the vast majority of homosexuality's recorded history:

<blockquote>''Nowhere in this alphabet soup is there a P for Pederasts — who, on the basis of our survey, have as much right if not more to be part of it. We are well aware that discourses create realities — or rather, rearrange them, making them comprehensible — and that it is the perfect prerogative of the LGBTTTQQI to define (homo)sexuality in terms of equal and symmetrical relations only. But there is a certain dialectic here: discourses can change realities by reshaping their dynamics, but they cannot create them out of the whole cloth. The history of pederasty is to a large extent the history of homosexuality, and vice versa ''[... and]'' desire that transcends age differences remains stubbornly alive in the LGBT community.'' [e.g. age-play and legal age-disparate sex - Newgon] (p. 187).</blockquote>

In a 2014 conference paper available to watch on YouTube (external link below), later published as "Kinderen, seks en zelfbepaling" [En: Children, sex and self-determination] - read in his absence by [[Thomas Hubbard]] - Hekma gave a historical overview of Dutch movements around pedophilia and pederasty. He proposes explanations for "the surprising demonization of pedophilia".

Hekma was PhD supervisor to Rachel Mosbacher, whose thesis was titled ''A Generation Silenced: The Role of Children as Seen Through the Discourse on Age of Consent Legislation'' (2007).<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library/thesis/generation-silenced-role-children-seen-throug A Generation Silenced (IPCE, external link)]</ref>

==External links==

*[https://youtu.be/4zF6xwIlEoI?t=2159 Children, sex and self-determination] - Read (from 36.00) by [[Thomas Hubbard]].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20220420042651/https://marthijn.nl/p/231 Gert Hekma Overleden] - In Dutch by [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard]].

==Selected Publications==
[[File:Hekma sexuality book cover.jpg|thumb|220px|''A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Modern Age'' (2014), edited by Gert Hekma]]
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Wrong%20lovers%20in%2019th-century%20Netherlands.pdf?target=_blank Wrong lovers in 19th-century Netherlands], in: [[''Journal of Homosexuality'']] 13:2-3 (1987), pp. 43-54 (Also in the book: A.X. van Naerssen (ed), ''Gay life in Dutch society'' (New York: Harrington Press, 1987).
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Sodomites%20Platonic%20Lovers%201989.pdf?target=_blank Sodomites, platonic lovers, wrong lovers. The backgrounds of the modern homosexual], in ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 16:1/2 (1988/89); also in Kent Gerard & Gert Hekma (eds), ''The Pursuit of Sodomy: Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe'' (New York 1989, pp. 433-455).
*[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704465 Rewriting the history of Sade], in: ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'' 1:1 (July 1990), pp. 131-136.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/A%20Female%20Soul%20in%20a%20Male%20Body%20-%20Sexual%20Inversion%20as%20Gen%C2%ADder%20Inversion%20in%20Nineteenth-Century%20Sexology.pdf?target=_blank "A Female Soul in a Male Body": Sexual Inversion as Gender Inversion in Nineteenth-Century Sexology], in: [[Gilbert Herdt]] (ed), ''Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History'' (New York: Zone Books, 1994).
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20200807015936/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sexual_Minority_Rights_in_Europe Sexual Minority Rights in Europe]
*[http://Queering%20Anthropology Queering Anthropology], in: Jan Willem Duyvendak, Theo Sandfort, Judith Schuyf & Jeffrey Weeks (eds), ''Lesbian and Gay Studies'' (London: Sage, 2000), pp. 81-97.
*The decline of sexual radicalism in the Netherlands (in English, published in Gert Hekma (ed) ''Past and Present of Radical Sexual Politics'' (Amsterdam: Mosse Foundation, 2004).
*[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31403935_Queer_The_Dutch_Case Queer: The Dutch case], in: ''GLQ'' 10:2 (2004), pp. 276-280.
* [https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460706075843 Obituary: Frits Bernard (28 August 1920–23 May 2006)], in ''Sexualities'', 10:1 (February 2007), pp. 127-128.
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20200807015936/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pro-Gay_and_Anti-Sex._Sexual_Politics_at_a_Turning_Point_in_The_Netherlands_(2008) Pro-Gay and Anti-Sex. Sexual Politics at a Turning Point in The Netherlands (2008)]
*[http://‘The%20Drive%20for%20Sexual%20Equality’ ‘The Drive for Sexual Equality’], in: ''Sexualities'' 11:1 (2008), 51-55.
*Gert Hekma & Jan Willem Duyvendak, [https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/The%20Netherlands%20Depoliticization%20of%20Homosexuality%20and%20Homosexualization%20of%20Politics%20-%20Gert%20Hekma.pdf?target=_blank ‘The Netherlands: Depoliticization of Homosexuality and Homosexualization of Politics’]. In: Manon Tremblay, David Paternotte & Carol Johnson (eds), ''The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State'' (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 103-118.
*Gert Hekma and Jan Willem Duyvendak, [https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Queer%20Netherlands%20A%20puzzling%20example.pdf?target=_blank Queer Netherlands: A puzzling example], in Sexualities, 14:6 (2011), pp. 625–631 (see p. 628 - Newgon).
*D.H. Mader and Gert Hekma, "Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History", in ''[https://archive.org/details/censoringsexresearch Censoring Sex Research: The Debate Over Male Intergenerational Relationships]'', ed. by Thomas K. Hubbard and Beert Verstraete (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2013), pp. 161-193.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/pedofilie%20sociologie.pdf?target=_blank Kinderen, seks en zelfbepaling: Praten over pedofilie [EN: Children, sex and self-determination Talking about pedophilia<nowiki>]</nowiki>], in ''Sociologie'', 9:3-4 (2013), pp. 276-293.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Jacob%20Israe%CC%88l%20de%20Haan.%20Pederast%20poet%20between%20Amsterdam%20and%20Jerusalem.pdf?target=_blank Jacob Israël de Haan: Pederast poet between Amsterdam and Jerusalem], in: [[Beispiel_Peter_Schult|Florian Mildenberger]] (ed), ''Die andere Fakultät. Theorie, Geschichte, Gesellschaft'' (Hamburg: Männerschwarm Verlag, 2015), pp. 90-110.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/docs/the-relevance-of-sade-for-society-today.html The relevance of Sade for society today], in: Gert Hekma & Lode Lauwaert (eds), ''De Sade Symposia'', in: ''Journal of the International Network of Sexual Ethics and Politics'' 3:1, (2015), 5-6.
*[[Tony Duvert]]: The sad ending of a promising writer. ''Gay News'' (Dutch and English magazine), No. 307; March 2017.
* [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-11/history-sexology-gert-hekma?context=ubx&refId=ebd52a5a-519e-48bf-ab8b-157f87a2fa75 A history of sexology. Social and historical aspects of sexuality]. in: [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]] (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade

== Additional list of publications ==
From the archived Gert Hekma page at Williamapercy.com.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210122072449/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gert%20Hekma Gert Hekma] - Williamapercy.com</ref>
*An introduction of the George Mosse Foundation, in English and in Dutch
*Mosse Lectures Spring 2004
*Die schwule Bewegung in die Niederlände, 1912-1970 (in German published in Goodbye to Berlin. Hundert Jahre schwule Bewegung, Berlin Rosa Winkel 1997)
*Male prostitution (in Dutch) (published in Gay 2001)
*Porn panic (in Dutch)
*Sexual education in multicultural schools (published in Thamyris 7:1/2 (2000)
*A report of his stay in San Francisco (in Dutch published in Gay 2001)
*Edmund White (in Dutch)
*Sade, masculinity and sexual humilitation partly published in German in Oesterreichische Zeitschrift fuer Geschichtswissenschaften 11:3 2001
*Gay and lesbian sports in Holland, in English published in Journal of Homosexuality 35:1 1998.
*Review of a book about Islamic homosexuality (in Dutch)
*A critical comment on the Spanner case, in which British gay men were condemned for having sadomasochistic sex with mutual consent. (in Dutch)
*A paper on contemporary Dutch sexual cultures ("How liberal are the NL?; fc. in English).
*A proposal for a research project about gay culture in five different cities (in English).
*Review of a book by Igor Kon about the sexual revolution in Russia.
*Three little articles for the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality:
::About the Dutch gay organization COC
::About Amsterdam
::About sadomasochism
*An article about the history of the gay bar culture in Amsterdam (unpublished)

==Notes==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Sociological Theory]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Deceased]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Sympathetic Activists]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]

Gert Hekma

2026-04-04T11:26:08Z

Thorn: /* Selected Publications */

[[File:Gert Hekma library.jpg|thumb|220px|left|An elderly Gert Hekma pictured amongst his enormous book collection]]__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''Gert Hekma''' (24 September 1951 – 19 April 2022) was a Dutch anthropologist and sociologist, known for his research, publications, and public statements about (homo)sexuality, including pedophilia and sadomasochism. He taught gay and lesbian studies at the University of Amsterdam from 1984 to 2017. He served as editor or editorial board member of many periodicals, including ''Sexualities'' (1998-death), founded by [[Ken Plummer]], [[Paidika|''Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia'']] (1988-1997), ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'' (1993-2005), and the ''[[Journal of Homosexuality]]'' (1985-death), ran until recently by the MAP ally psychologist [[John P. De Cecco]].

In his youth, Hekma was a member of the radical "Red Faggots" (Dutch: "Rooie Flikkers"). Hekma was a prolific book collector, and had a fetish for satin. Hekma advocated against masculinity, paternalism, traditional gender roles, and for a return to sexual practice over sexual identity.

==Hekma and MAP politics==

In the book reviews section for ''Sexualities'', Hekma wrote on relevant authors including [[Bruce Rind]], historian [https://en.ua1lib.org/book/13428246/825aac Phillip Jenkins], and [[Rudiger Lautmann]]. On the [[Rind_et_al|Rind et al. (1998) controversy]], Hekma wrote:

<blockquote>''The conclusions are clear. There are victims but for most boys sex with adults does not create damage. Relations with adult women are experienced as a form of sexual initiation. Those with men are more problematic because boys will often start to feel insecure about sexual orientation and gender identity. These problems are not inherent in the relation but ''[exist]'' in a social context that abhors unmasculinity and homosexuality.'' (Book Ends, [https://doi.org/10.1177/136346000003003005 Vol. 1, No. 4, 1999, p. 505]).</blockquote>

After Rind et al. was unanimously condemned (but not refuted) by the United States Congress, Hekma wrote: "''It is incredible that there was not one sane and thinking member of Congress to oppose this resolution.''" (Book Ends, [https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Book%20Ends%204.pdf?target=%20blank Volume 3, No. 3, 2000, p. 368]).

Hekma wrote an obituary for [[Frits Bernard]] (died May 2006), a Dutch psychologist, sexologist, homosexual activist, and key figure of the 1st wave of the [[MAP Movement]], in ''Sexualities'' (2007, below).

===Media scandals===

In an interview with Martijn for ''OK Magazine'' (2004)<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/Interview_with_Gert_Hekma_(Gay-_%26_Lesbian_Teacher) Brongersma.info: Interview with Gert Hekma]</ref>, Hekma recalls that he had erotic dreams about Santa Claus at 6 years of age, and said of his childhood:

<blockquote>''I was a happy child, that is beyond dispute. But, of course, it was a life without sex though. I masturbated many, many times and extensively and played with friends in the attic. It was erotic, but not sexual. It was a repressive milieu, so in that sense I do not look back at it that positively. I think that when you look at boys and yearn for them and that you don't know that you are gay or what it is; that is terrible.''</blockquote>

In the same interview, however, he gave controversial commentary on the [[Marquis de Sade]] and [[pedophilia]], arguing that Sade's philosophy demonstrates that pressure can be a benevolent force in sexual relations. He said:

<blockquote>''Sade gives you the impression that actually people need to be forced to enjoy sexual pleasure. De Sade's small book ''Philosophie dans le boudoir'' (1795) ''[...]'' is a lesbian novel ''[...]'' about a woman who has fallen in love with a girl. This woman invites this girl to her and she is then given lessons in love by a number of gentlemen and by the woman herself. And within one day she knows then that this entire Catholic faith which she adhered to so much, and which especially her mother adhered to; that it is talking total nonsense. [... T]his sexual initiation happens under a certain pressure, by both the Catholics and Sade. There is the idea that if it is about sex, no pressure may happen. That is the big problem with [[pedophilia]], because this involves unequal balances of power, and these men, they force boys to sex they do not want. As for Sade it is like''[,]'' you need to be forced a bit to learn what you like. We accept this in many, many areas. You are forced to go to school. You are forced as a child to eat your food. You are forced to crap and pee neatly at certain times. The child is being forced endlessly, but as for sex it suddenly is not allowed anymore. Sade indicates: exactly with a little pressure you learn how nice sex is.''</blockquote>

In 2007, Hekma received media coverage and death threats after supporting the idea proposed by a group of adolescents, to include a canal boat for gay youth at the Amsterdam Gay Pride. Hekma's discussion and response to these scandals can be found here.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20200807015936/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Scandal_2007 Archive of Percy Wiki: 2007 Scandal]</ref> In 2014, he co-created a petition addressed to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, requesting that the Dutch Supreme Court not ban the MAP association [[Vereniging MARTIJN]]. His support of MARTIJN resulted in death threats and an attempted burglary.

===Broader perspective===

Hekma was not himself a pedophile, and was in a lifelong adult-adult partnership with sociologist Mattias Duyves (b. 1953). The couple were together for more than 40 years, with Hekma meeting Duyves in 1977 and marrying in 2007. Previously, Duyves had once been a sexual partner of [[Michel Foucault]].
[[File:Gert Hekma (left) and partner Mattias, in Portugal, 1984.jpg|thumb|220px|Gert Hekma (left) and partner Mattias, in Portugal, 1984]]

In a 2013 book chapter "Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History", co-authored with [[Donald Mader]] (linked in publications below), they argued that expansive child pornography law inhibits modern scholars from observing the evidence for pederastic homosexual visual culture which has been open to scholars of the early 20th century, but is now increasingly gatekept in highly restricted archives due to the risk of criminalization and destruction of archival material. This has the added consequence of "''eliminating material culture that could be evidence that “pederasts” or “pedophiles” had a culture and history''" to begin with, "''precisely the tactic that was used against colonial peoples in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ''[...]'' or the tactic of Nazi Germany in its effort to destroy all remnants of Jewish culture to justify their destruction''" (p. 180). Through an extensive survey of past scholarly investigation into homosexuality, they argued that [[pederasty]] comprised the vast majority of homosexuality's recorded history:

<blockquote>''Nowhere in this alphabet soup is there a P for Pederasts — who, on the basis of our survey, have as much right if not more to be part of it. We are well aware that discourses create realities — or rather, rearrange them, making them comprehensible — and that it is the perfect prerogative of the LGBTTTQQI to define (homo)sexuality in terms of equal and symmetrical relations only. But there is a certain dialectic here: discourses can change realities by reshaping their dynamics, but they cannot create them out of the whole cloth. The history of pederasty is to a large extent the history of homosexuality, and vice versa ''[... and]'' desire that transcends age differences remains stubbornly alive in the LGBT community.'' [e.g. age-play and legal age-disparate sex - Newgon] (p. 187).</blockquote>

In a 2014 conference paper available to watch on YouTube (external link below), later published as "Kinderen, seks en zelfbepaling" [En: Children, sex and self-determination] - read in his absence by [[Thomas Hubbard]] - Hekma gave a historical overview of Dutch movements around pedophilia and pederasty. He proposes explanations for "the surprising demonization of pedophilia".

Hekma was PhD supervisor to Rachel Mosbacher, whose thesis was titled ''A Generation Silenced: The Role of Children as Seen Through the Discourse on Age of Consent Legislation'' (2007).<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/library/thesis/generation-silenced-role-children-seen-throug A Generation Silenced (IPCE, external link)]</ref>

==External links==

*[https://youtu.be/4zF6xwIlEoI?t=2159 Children, sex and self-determination] - Read (from 36.00) by [[Thomas Hubbard]].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20220420042651/https://marthijn.nl/p/231 Gert Hekma Overleden] - In Dutch by [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard]].

==Selected Publications==
[[File:Hekma sexuality book cover.jpg|thumb|220px|''A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Modern Age'' (2014), edited by Gert Hekma]]
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Wrong%20lovers%20in%2019th-century%20Netherlands.pdf?target=_blank Wrong lovers in 19th-century Netherlands], in: [[''Journal of Homosexuality'']] 13:2-3 (1987), pp. 43-54 (Also in the book: A.X. van Naerssen (ed), ''Gay life in Dutch society'' (New York: Harrington Press, 1987).
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Sodomites%20Platonic%20Lovers%201989.pdf?target=_blank Sodomites, platonic lovers, wrong lovers. The backgrounds of the modern homosexual], in ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 16:1/2 (1988/89); also in Kent Gerard & Gert Hekma (eds), ''The Pursuit of Sodomy: Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe'' (New York 1989, pp. 433-455).
*[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704465 Rewriting the history of Sade], in: ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'' 1:1 (July 1990), pp. 131-136.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/A%20Female%20Soul%20in%20a%20Male%20Body%20-%20Sexual%20Inversion%20as%20Gen%C2%ADder%20Inversion%20in%20Nineteenth-Century%20Sexology.pdf?target=_blank "A Female Soul in a Male Body": Sexual Inversion as Gender Inversion in Nineteenth-Century Sexology], in: [[Gilbert Herdt]] (ed), ''Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History'' (New York: Zone Books, 1994).
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20200807015936/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sexual_Minority_Rights_in_Europe Sexual Minority Rights in Europe]
*[http://Queering%20Anthropology Queering Anthropology], in: Jan Willem Duyvendak, Theo Sandfort, Judith Schuyf & Jeffrey Weeks (eds), ''Lesbian and Gay Studies'' (London: Sage, 2000), pp. 81-97.
*The decline of sexual radicalism in the Netherlands (in English, published in Gert Hekma (ed) ''Past and Present of Radical Sexual Politics'' (Amsterdam: Mosse Foundation, 2004).
*[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31403935_Queer_The_Dutch_Case Queer: The Dutch case], in: ''GLQ'' 10:2 (2004), pp. 276-280.
* [https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460706075843 Obituary: Frits Bernard (28 August 1920–23 May 2006)], in ''Sexualities'', 10:1 (February 2007), pp. 127-128.
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20200807015936/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pro-Gay_and_Anti-Sex._Sexual_Politics_at_a_Turning_Point_in_The_Netherlands_(2008) Pro-Gay and Anti-Sex. Sexual Politics at a Turning Point in The Netherlands (2008)]
*[http://‘The%20Drive%20for%20Sexual%20Equality’ ‘The Drive for Sexual Equality’], in: ''Sexualities'' 11:1 (2008), 51-55.
*Gert Hekma & Jan Willem Duyvendak, [https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/The%20Netherlands%20Depoliticization%20of%20Homosexuality%20and%20Homosexualization%20of%20Politics%20-%20Gert%20Hekma.pdf?target=_blank ‘The Netherlands: Depoliticization of Homosexuality and Homosexualization of Politics’]. In: Manon Tremblay, David Paternotte & Carol Johnson (eds), ''The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State'' (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 103-118.
*Gert Hekma and Jan Willem Duyvendak, [https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Queer%20Netherlands%20A%20puzzling%20example.pdf?target=_blank Queer Netherlands: A puzzling example], in Sexualities, 14:6 (2011), pp. 625–631 (see p. 628 - Newgon).
*D.H. Mader and Gert Hekma, "Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History", in ''[https://archive.org/details/censoringsexresearch Censoring Sex Research: The Debate Over Male Intergenerational Relationships]'', ed. by Thomas K. Hubbard and Beert Verstraete (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2013), pp. 161-193.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/pedofilie%20sociologie.pdf?target=_blank Kinderen, seks en zelfbepaling: Praten over pedofilie [EN: Children, sex and self-determination Talking about pedophilia<nowiki>]</nowiki>], in ''Sociologie'', 9:3-4 (2013), pp. 276-293.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/ewExternalFiles/Jacob%20Israe%CC%88l%20de%20Haan.%20Pederast%20poet%20between%20Amsterdam%20and%20Jerusalem.pdf?target=_blank Jacob Israël de Haan: Pederast poet between Amsterdam and Jerusalem], in: [[Beispiel_Peter_Schult|Florian Mildenberger]] (ed), ''Die andere Fakultät. Theorie, Geschichte, Gesellschaft'' (Hamburg: Männerschwarm Verlag, 2015), pp. 90-110.
*[https://www.gerthekma.nl/docs/the-relevance-of-sade-for-society-today.html The relevance of Sade for society today], in: Gert Hekma & Lode Lauwaert (eds), ''De Sade Symposia'', in: ''Journal of the International Network of Sexual Ethics and Politics'' 3:1, (2015), 5-6.
*[[Tony Duvert]]: The sad ending of a promising writer. ''Gay News'' (Dutch and English magazine), No. 307; March 2017.
* Gert Hekma (1989) A history of sexology. Social and historical aspects of sexuality. in: [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]] (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade

== Additional list of publications ==
From the archived Gert Hekma page at Williamapercy.com.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210122072449/http://williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gert%20Hekma Gert Hekma] - Williamapercy.com</ref>
*An introduction of the George Mosse Foundation, in English and in Dutch
*Mosse Lectures Spring 2004
*Die schwule Bewegung in die Niederlände, 1912-1970 (in German published in Goodbye to Berlin. Hundert Jahre schwule Bewegung, Berlin Rosa Winkel 1997)
*Male prostitution (in Dutch) (published in Gay 2001)
*Porn panic (in Dutch)
*Sexual education in multicultural schools (published in Thamyris 7:1/2 (2000)
*A report of his stay in San Francisco (in Dutch published in Gay 2001)
*Edmund White (in Dutch)
*Sade, masculinity and sexual humilitation partly published in German in Oesterreichische Zeitschrift fuer Geschichtswissenschaften 11:3 2001
*Gay and lesbian sports in Holland, in English published in Journal of Homosexuality 35:1 1998.
*Review of a book about Islamic homosexuality (in Dutch)
*A critical comment on the Spanner case, in which British gay men were condemned for having sadomasochistic sex with mutual consent. (in Dutch)
*A paper on contemporary Dutch sexual cultures ("How liberal are the NL?; fc. in English).
*A proposal for a research project about gay culture in five different cities (in English).
*Review of a book by Igor Kon about the sexual revolution in Russia.
*Three little articles for the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality:
::About the Dutch gay organization COC
::About Amsterdam
::About sadomasochism
*An article about the history of the gay bar culture in Amsterdam (unpublished)

==Notes==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Sociological Theory]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Deceased]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Sympathetic Activists]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T11:12:05Z

Thorn:

__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)'' (with [[Gert Hekma]] among co-authors). The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.

== Selected publications ==
*Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''[https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.]''' (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])
:: The volume contains historical data on rituals of initiation and pederasty including chapters with the following titles: "Initiation and Greek Pederasty", "Adolescents, Symposion and Pederasty"
*Jan N. Bremmer (1989) '''[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]'''. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])
:: Bremmer's article summarizing data on Antique pederasty and rituals of initiation for boys, with evidence of pederastic practices among Papuans, Germans, and Albanians. He argues that pederasty is social institution shaped by age difference and should not be simply equated with modern homosexuality.
*Jan N. Bremmer (1980) '''[https://www.academia.edu/download/35460686/JanPaederasty.pdf An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty.]'''
:: The article explores whether institution of Greek pederasty may preserve elements of an older Indo-European rite.

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]][[Category:Publications & Documents]][[Category:Pubs: Books]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T11:09:44Z

Thorn: /* Selected publications */

__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)''. The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.

== Selected publications ==
*Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''[https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.]''' (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])
:: The volume contains historical data on rituals of initiation and pederasty including chapters with the following titles: "Initiation and Greek Pederasty", "Adolescents, Symposion and Pederasty"
*Jan N. Bremmer (1989) '''[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315770055-2/greek-pederasty-modern-homosexuality-jan-bremmer Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality]'''. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])
:: Bremmer's article summarizing data on Antique pederasty and rituals of initiation for boys, with evidence of pederastic practices among Papuans, Germans, and Albanians. He argues that pederasty is social institution shaped by age difference and should not be simply equated with modern homosexuality.
*Jan N. Bremmer (1980) '''[https://www.academia.edu/download/35460686/JanPaederasty.pdf An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty.]'''
:: The article explores whether institution of Greek pederasty may preserve elements of an older Indo-European rite.

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]][[Category:Publications & Documents]][[Category:Pubs: Books]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T11:06:55Z

Thorn: /* Selected publications */

__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)''. The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.

== Selected publications ==
*Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''[https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Man-Ancient-Greece-Rome/dp/3161590082 Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.]''' (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])
:: The volume contains historical data on rituals of initiation and pederasty including chapters with the following titles: "Initiation and Greek Pederasty", "Adolescents, Symposion and Pederasty"
*Jan N. Bremmer (1989) '''Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality'''. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality. (available via [[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 2]])
:: Bremmer's article summarizing data on Antique pederasty and rituals of initiation for boys, with evidence of pederastic practices among Papuans, Germans, and Albanians. He argues that pederasty is social institution shaped by age difference and should not be simply equated with modern homosexuality.
*Jan N. Bremmer (1980) '''[https://www.academia.edu/download/35460686/JanPaederasty.pdf An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty.]'''
:: The article explores whether institution of Greek pederasty may preserve elements of an older Indo-European rite.

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T10:59:40Z

Thorn: /* Selected publications */

__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)''. The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.

== Selected publications ==
*Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.'''
:: The volume contains historical data on rituals of initiation and pederasty including chapters with the following titles: "Initiation and Greek Pederasty", "Adolescents, Symposion and Pederasty"
*Jan N. Bremmer (1989) '''Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality'''. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality.
:: Bremmer's article summarizing data on Antique pederasty and rituals of initiation for boys, with evidence of pederastic practices among Papuans, Germans, and Albanians. He argues that pederasty is social institution shaped by age difference and should not be simply equated with modern homosexuality.
*Jan N. Bremmer (1980) '''[https://www.academia.edu/download/35460686/JanPaederasty.pdf An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty.]'''
:: The article explores whether institution of Greek pederasty may preserve elements of an older Indo-European rite.

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T10:59:02Z

Thorn: /* Selected publications */

__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)''. The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.

== Selected publications ==
*Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.'''
:: The volume contain historical data on rituals of initiation and pederasty, contains chapters with the following titles: "Initiation and Greek Pederasty", "Adolescents, Symposion and Pederasty"
*Jan N. Bremmer (1989) '''Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality'''. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality.
:: Bremmer's article summarizing data on Antique pederasty and rituals of initiation for boys, with evidence of pederastic practices among Papuans, Germans, and Albanians. He argues that pederasty is social institution shaped by age difference and should not be simply equated with modern homosexuality.
*Jan N. Bremmer (1980) '''[https://www.academia.edu/download/35460686/JanPaederasty.pdf An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty.]'''
:: The article explores whether institution of Greek pederasty may preserve elements of an older Indo-European rite.

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T10:51:40Z

Thorn: /* Selected publications */

__NOTOC__{{Template:Ac}}
'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)''. The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.

== Selected publications ==
*Jan N. Bremmer (2021) '''Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece and Rome. Essays on Myths and Rituals of Initiation.'''
:: The volume contain historical data on rituals of initiation and pederasty, contains chapters with the following titles: "Initiation and Greek Pederasty", "Adolescents, Symposion and Pederasty"
*Jan N. Bremmer (1989) '''Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality'''. in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.) (1989) From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality.
:: Bremmer's article summarizing data on Antique pederasty and rituals of initiation for boys, with evidence of pederastic practices among Papuans, Germans, and Albanians.
*Jan N. Bremmer (1980) '''An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty.'''

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Dutch]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T10:24:59Z

Thorn:

Jan Bremmer

2026-04-04T10:14:34Z

Thorn: Created page with "''' Jan N. Bremmer''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theo..."

'''[[wikipedia:Jan_N._Bremmer| Jan N. Bremmer]]''' (born 18 December 1944 in Groningen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch historian and scholar of religion known for his work on ancient Greek religion, mythology, early Christianity, and the history of religious ideas. He studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and later taught at Utrecht University before becoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, where he also served as dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

He is known for his work on history of sexuality, including his publications on pederasty. He was the editor of and a contributor to ''From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (1989)''. The volume moves across antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modern Europe, and modern sexology, treating homosexuality, intergenerational sexuality, incest, prostitution, sexual education, and other topics as historically variable formations.