"The Making of a Molestor'

This New York Times Magazine article made for very tough reading (tougher to imagine how hard it was to research!) last weekend, but it points out some important facts from people who study child sexual exploitation, as well as how little we know about its causes. We know that it's "committed against perhaps 20% of girls and 5-10% of boys under the age of consent in the United States," the Times reports, but that's based on figures culled from many studies whose numbers "range widely" - e.g., "10-40% for girls and 2-15% for boys." As for causes of this behavior in adults, "what parts are played by biology, by an abuser's own childhood, by aspects of isolation in his (for males make up around 90% of offenders) current life - or by the powerful arrival of the Internet into the world of Eros?" The "quick answer" one specialist in sexual disorders gave writer Daniel Bergner was, "We don't know." But some useful questions about the Internet's role are emerging. "Over the past decade, with the surge in Internet use, there has been no spike in the overall number of cases of sexual abuse against children," Bergner writes." However, psychologists are finding that the Net - with its "abundant porn and disembodied chat-room conversation" can be a "disinhibitor," as well as "a catalyst for fantasy and dangerous if the control over behavior is markedly impaired."