Young children in early puberty not pedophilies per the American Psychiatric Manual

What is it about?

This article discusses the implications of the DSM-5-TR criteria for pedophilic disorder, particularly regarding the adultification of young Black girls and the need for diagnostic revision. Adultification is the perception that children are older than their chronological age and a form of racial bias against young Black girls. • The American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic Manual limits pedophilic disorder to children with no sexual development (Tanner Stage 1); it rejected inclusion of sexual contact with children with early signs of puberty or pedohebephilia (Tanner Stages 2, 3) to be a mental disorder. • The insistence on prepubescence ignores research showing that young Black girls often reach puberty earlier than their White counterparts, leading to potential misdiagnosis and increased vulnerability to sexual exploitation. • This rejection has significant consequences for sex offender risk assessments, as it requires a predisposing mental disorder for civil commitment under sexually violent predator laws. A perpetrator sexually assaulting Black girls as young as eight or nine who are at Tanner Stages 2 or 3 would not under current DSM-5-TR criteria be considered to suffer from a mentally abnormality. • When children are sexualized they are at risk for further sexual exploitation and child sexual trafficking is enhanced by societal normalization of buying sex from children, tolerance of such behavior and absence of heavy social stigma. In this regard, as sex with pubertal children is not considered a mental disorder by the DSM-5 committee, it may be assumed that it is normal behavior. • The American Psychiatric Organization needs to revise the diagnostic manual so that pedophilic disorder includes children both pre-puberty and young children in the early stages of puberty.

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Why is it important?

• Research indicates that Black girls are more likely to exhibit signs of precocious puberty, with many reaching Tanner Stage 2 or 3 by ages 8 or 9. • This adultification process contributes to racial bias, as young Black girls are often viewed as less innocent and more sexually experienced, increasing their risk of victimization. • The current DSM-5-TR criteria perpetuate this bias by failing to account for the early sexual maturation of these girls, effectively normalizing the sexualization of young Black girls. • The narrow focus on prepubescence in the DSM-5-TR criteria for pedophilic disorder may lead to the release of high-risk offenders who target pubescent children, as their actions are not classified as a mental disorder.

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