The biology of paedophilia, or why there might not be one

Paedophiles, it turns out, are also three times more likely than the rest of the population to be left handed. [Professor James Cantor:] 'Now there's only one thing that determines a person's handedness and that's brain organisation and it happens before birth. So the only way that there could be a difference in handedness among the paedophiles is if whatever the chain of events was, the first link of that chain also had to be before birth.' [...]

[Professor Stephen Smallbone:] 'It's really the social rules that have changed not the potential of sexual interest in children,' he says. 'If we take a broad perspective across human history we see example after example after example of human societies where sexual contact with children has been normal. Human societies up until recently have regarded the onset of puberty and not the end of puberty as the signal for sexual maturity. A hundred and fifty years ago the age of consent in England was 10, so as a society our concern about protecting children from sexual exploitation is a relatively new thing.'

source: Article 'The biology of paedophilia, or why there might not be one' by Lynne Malcolm; www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/4732810; ABC Radio National; 4 June 2013