Introduction
According the reasonable expectation, people get the sexual attraction to people of the opposite sex and a relative age to theirs. However, some of the people suffer from a psychological problem that changes the perception of the people on sexual issues. To such people, the sexual attraction goes to the underage children of mostly below eleven years of age.
For a person to be a pedophile the minimum age is sixteen years and the difference in the age must be at least five years. In the United Arab Emirates, the young boys in their teenage lives are starting a culture of having sexual relationships with the under age children. The primary function of this paper is to consider the psychological effects that pedophiles have on the children.
Psychological Effects of Pedophiles on Children
The relationship between pedophiles and children aims at satisfying the sexual urges of the pedophile without consideration of the effects the actions will have on the child (Seto, Cantor & Blanchard, 2006, p. 610). The child experiences trauma from the physical injuries and the emotional damage resulting from the actions.
In most cases, the pedophiles entice the young children with things that attract their attention for the chance to trust them. With such an early experience, the social future of the child faces extreme threats. The child will no longer be in a position to associate freely with grownups due to the constant fear of the repeat of the previous encounters. Pedophiles affect the freedom of the children of movement. The child is no longer able to be comfortable in any place without the presence of an adult like a parent or a relative (Olson, Daggs, Ellevold & Rogers, 2007, p. 240).
When children are growing up, the events in their early lives will handle their confidence in life. When a child experiences traumatic conditions in the early life, the events become responsible for most of the decisions that the child makes while growing up (Hanson, 2011, p. 675) Pedophiles make children have little confidence in life.
The child is no longer able to stand neither up among the peers nor be in a position to make decisions without fear. Such actions lead to poor performances in school since the child does not have the confidence to believe that he can be good in anything in life. In case the other kids know of the experience and perform actions that threaten the trust of the child, the child may result in suicidal thoughts due to the inability to handle the pressure associated with the experience.
Some of the children may try to find comfort in some behaviors that will tend to bring back the confidence. Whenever young children are experiencing situations that they are not in a position to eliminate, they end up getting addicted to vices that give their minds the comfort of having to deal with the situation. Such actions include the use of drugs and excessive drinking of alcohol.
By using such substances, the children feel they are in a position to stand up for themselves in case of a situation involving pedophiles. Pedophiles give children the urge to take in substances that increase the confidence of the children prompting them to find substances that increase the confidence such as the drugs. Such actions ruin the lives of the children since they are not in a position to be responsible in future due to the high dependence on the substances as a source of confidence.
After an encounter with the pedophiles, the children tend to weaken their defense on such characters. The child tends to believe that the actions are reasonable and that he or she does not have any control over that. The child continues with the association with the pedophiles repeating the process. Pedophiles capture the thinking of the child to make the child susceptible.
Such actions make the child unable to resist future encounters with other pedophiles in life. After the first meeting, the child stands high chances of getting into the practice in future. The psychological damage of the practice makes the child lack the will power of making crucial decisions in future. Pedophiles ruin the lives of the children from all angles of life but mostly from the social perspective (Mann, 2009, p. 255).
Pedophiles make the mind of the children incline towards the sexual practices (Blanchard, 2010, p. 310). After an encounter with the pedophile, the curiosity in the mind of the child drives the child into researching and wanting to experiment more. Children are curious people who are not in a position to differentiate immediately between a good and an evil practice.
The child, therefore, will go out of her way to cure the curiosity through the acquisition of the information. Such interests increase the chances of the child in indulging in the practice in future. The psychological damage leads the high chances of the child indulging in criminal activities in future such as being a pedophile. The addictive nature of the practice especially after many encounters results in the addiction of the child exposing the child.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the places in the world with booming sex trade. The high demand is due to strong demand for sex by the foreigners’ in the area some of whom are pedophiles. Due to the large number of tourists in the area and with the great cultural diversities, people get into the business of supplying the young children to the pedophiles in the area. The leading region in the world is North America.
Recommendations
Young children with encounters with the pedophiles should undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine the extent of damage to the child. After the evaluation, the children will undergo rehabilitation to ensure the elimination of the effects (Sanderson, 2006, p. 70). During the early days of the child in school, the curriculum should be such that the children learn how to avoid interaction of a sexual nature with older people. The parents should make it their duty to protect the innocence of the child.
The parents should be closer to their children to be in a position to establish when the child is undergoing hard times. Without the close ties between the child and the parent, the child will not be in a position to open up to the parent about encounters that affect the child. Without the tight connection, the child will resolve into different ways of dealing with the issue and such issues may worsen the situation especially without the help from a responsible adult.
Conclusion
The psychological effects that pedophiles have on children affect the lives of the children now and later in life. Such effects include the poor ability of the child to interact well with other children and the constant fear of the child to the experiences. The situations worsen with the adoption of behaviors by the children to deal with the situation such as drug abuse and alcoholism.
Without rectification of the effects, the child may grow into an adult of the same characters reducing the productivity of the persons in their lifetime. Parents and teachers should make it their duty to protect the children from such practices through teaching them how to engage in responsible behaviors. With the counseling and guidance services, the effects of the practices will reduce, and the children will be in a position to gain back the confidence lost.
References
Blanchard, R. (2010). The DSM diagnostic criteria for pedophilia. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(2), 304-316.
Hanson, E. (2011). The Child as Pornographer. South Atlantic Quarterly, 110(3), 673-692.
Mann, B. L. (2009). Social networking websites–a concatenation of impersonation, denigration, sexual aggressive solicitation, cyber-bullying or happy slapping videos. International Journal of Law and Information Technology,17(3), 252-267.
Olson, L. N., Daggs, J. L., Ellevold, B. L., & Rogers, T. K. (2007). Entrapping the innocent: Toward a theory of child sexual predators’ luring communication.Communication Theory, 17(3), 231-251.
Sanderson, C. (2006). Counselling adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Seto, M. C., Cantor, J. M., & Blanchard, R. (2006). Child pornography offenses are a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology,115(3), 610.