Research

These pages present a collection of scientific research and other demonstrative references on matters relevant to minor sexuality. Other sources for reading, development or general use can be found here.

Key Social Concepts

• Secondary Harm: Does social interpretation of adult-minor sex create or compound the harm attributed to it?
• Sexual Repression: Can sexual neglect and desexualization cause harm?
• Family Environment: Do family factors associated with 'CSA' inflate the negative effects reported in most studies of it?

In Relation to the Child

• Prevalence of Harm and Negative Outcomes: How often do these factors occur in different age groups of "sexually abused" children?
• Childhood Sexual Innocence: Is the cultural hypothesis of innate sexual "innocence" supported by the literature?
• Cognitive Ability: At what age do young people develop certain abilities, qualities, and is there a "peak"?
• Profiling the Child Victim: Do children who have been sexually involved express a typical set of symptoms?
• Body Count: What proportion of children have been "sexually abused"? How does this depend upon our definitions?
• Youthful Sexual Behaviour: Where research has been carried out into so-called "sex play", what are the outcomes?
• Association or Causation: Is the association between adult mental health and child sexual abuse causative?

In Relation to the Child's Older Partner

• Recidivism: When compared to other criminal categories, how often do child sex offenders reoffend?
• Abused-Abuser: Is the idea that "abused" children go on to perpetrate empirically sound?
• Immaturity: Are the adult partners retarded or lacking in intelligence?
• Pedophiles in the Criminal Population: How often do child sex offenders have a pedophilic preference?

Anthropology and Zoology

• Intergenerational Sexual Behaviors in Animals: Does sex between juveniles and adults occur in other species?
• Intergenerational Relationships in History: Is adult-child sex culturally and historically ubiquitous?
• Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships: How do nonrepressive tribal societies conceptualise their relationships?

In Relation to Minor-Attraction

• Cognitive Distortion: Is the evidence for a significant degree of distortion in the beliefs of pedophiles sound?
• Child Pornography: What is the nature of child pornography, and the effect of its use?
• Psychopathy and abnormal Psychology: Are the prevailing assertions about minor-attracted persons supported in the population?
• Prevalence: How common is pedophilia? How many pedophiles "act out"?
• A "cure" for pedophilia?: To what extent is pedophilia a choice? Can it be "cured"?
• Pedophilia as a Sexual Orientation: Does paedophilia constitute an orientation?