Common misconceptions about maps
From MAP Wiki
This post is intended to be used as an informative and educational tool by anyone who encounters these misconceptions and wishes to correct them.
The nature of minor attraction
"Pedophilia is a mental illness"
TL;DR: There is a difference between the diagnosis of pedophilic disorder and pedophia, and this difference is acknowledged by professionals.
Pedophilia is frequently equated to the diagnosis of pedophilic disorder. In reality, currently both the International Classification of Diseases (maintained by the World Health Organization) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (maintained by the American Psychiatric Association) recognize the difference between having an attraction to children and having a mental disorder.
"If individuals also complain that their sexual attractions or preferences for children are causing marked distress or psychosocial difficulties, they may be diagnosed with pedophilic disorder. However, if they report an absence of feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety about these impulses and are not functionally limited by their paraphilic impulses (according to self-report, objective assessment, or both), and their self-reported and legally recorded histories indicate that they have never acted on their impulses, then these individuals have a pedophilic sexual interest but not pedophilic disorder."
"In addition, in order for Pedophilic Disorder to be diagnosed, the individual must have acted on these thoughts, fantasies or urges or be markedly distressed by them."
"Pedophilia is defined as an ongoing sexual attraction toward pre-pubertal children (Freund, 1963, 1967; Seto, 2009). In the new DSM-5, pedophilia is de-pathologized by differentiating between the sexual preference for prepubescent children (i.e., pedophilia) and the disorder in case of additional factors. These factors include experiencing significant distress and impairment by fantasies and urges, or the acting out on behavioral level, including child pornography consumption and/or committing hands-on CSA offenses."
Similar changes were made to diagnoses, related to other paraphilias.
"'Map' is a politically correct term made up to normalize pedophilia"
TL;DR: "Map" is a term that was invented by a journalist and is actively used by researchers and mental health professionals. It is not simply another word for "pedophile", but covers a range of attractions where pedophilia is only one of them: infantophilia, nepiophilia, pedophilia, hebephilia, and, sometimes, ephebophilia. Maps who do fall under the scientific definition of "pedophilia" overwhelmingly tend to accept the pedophile identity.
The term "minor attraction" in a construction "minor attracted adults" was first introduced by a non-map journalist Heather Elizabeth Peterson in 1998.
"So what do you think of the term 'minor-attracted adults'? It sounds a bit silly to my ears, but maybe that's just because I hate neologisms. It certainly says what I'm trying to say. It's more accurate than 'child-attracted adult' because there's a lot of dispute over what constitutes a child, and though it does leave teenage boylovers out of the picture, one could always use the term 'minor-attracted person' if one wanted to include them."
Map Wiki, part of H.E. Peterson's message to a map forum on October 19, 1998
"The discussions of biblical and theological issues associated with pedophilia were brief, the statements did not mention the place of minor-attracted adults in society, and no pastoral guidance was offered to pedophiles who wished to follow church rules."
"Not an Oxymoron" by H.E. Peterson, Greenbelt Interfaith News, Philia, December 1998
The term has since been incorporated by mental health organizations.
"We started using the term MAP around 2007. The late Michael Melsheimer, our co-founder, introduced "minor-attracted person" as an alternative to "minor-attracted adult," to reflect that most MAPs realize these attractions before they are adults themselves."
B4U-ACT official account on Twitter
"We use this term to refer to adults who experience feelings of preferential sexual attraction to children or adolescents under the age of consent, as well as adolescents who have such feelings for younger children. It is important to realize that these sexual feelings are usually accompanied by feelings of emotional attraction, similar to the romantic feelings most adults have for other adults."
In addition to that, "map" has come to cover more than just "pedophile". Pedophilia does not actually mean attraction to anyone under 18, it refers to an attraction to prepubescents.
"Pedophilia is defined clinically as a recurrent, intense sexual attraction to prepubescent children."
"In this article, I briefly review research on nepiophilia (infant/toddlers), pedophilia (prepubescent children), hebephilia (pubescent children), ephebophilia (postpubescent, sexually maturing adolescents), teleiophilia (young sexually mature adults, typically 20s and 30s), mesophilia (middle-aged adults, typically 40s and 50s), and gerontophilia (elderly adults, typically 60s and older) in the context of a multidimensional sexual orientations framework."
"The phrase “minor attraction” acts as an umbrella term to describe a range of chronophilic orientations. A chronophilia is a distinct type of sexual attraction pattern that varies as a function of the ages of preferred sexual targets (Seto, 2017). The most studied chronophilic category is pedophilia, which is defined as a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to pre-pubertal children, typically between the ages of 3 and 10 years (Blanchard et al., 2009). However, Seto’s (2017) model of chronophilias takes a much broader view and acknowledges that some people may have sexual preferences for younger infants (nepiophilia), pubescent children aged 11–14 years (hebephilia), or older minors who, depending on the legal code of a given jurisdiction, may be below the age of consent (ephebophilia). This latter category is controversial, in that some argue how some level of sexual attraction to post-pubescent minors who are approaching the age of consent is a normative form of sexuality (for a discussion, see Stephens & Seto, 2016). Seto’s (2017) chronophilias continue to encompass attractions to adults of traditional reproductive age (teleiophilia), middle age (mesophilia), and older age (gerontophilia). For the purposes of this paper, we consider “minor attraction” to encompass the nepiophilic, pedophilic, and hebephilic attraction categories."
Most pedophiles do not object to being identified as pedophiles and use this label alongside calling themselves maps.
"Overall, quantitative data showed acceptance of “pedophile/hebephile” as well as a range of alternative labels in a personal (Labeling Oneself) and a professional context (Being Labeled by Others). “Minor-attracted person” and “pedophile/hebephile” received generally higher support than other terms and appeared to be least divisive across three major online fora."
"73% of maps who fit the definition of pedophilia had a positive attitude towards this label, while 23% were neutral and 4% were negative. Among maps who do not fit the definition of pedophilia these numbers were 42%, 45%, and 12% accordingly."
"DSM listed pedophilia as a sexual orientation by mistake"
TL;DR: In 2013 DSM-5 used to refer to pedophilia with words "pedophilic sexual orientation", and after pressure from the public, the phrase was changed to "pedophilic sexual interest". The change was done due to harassment and did not reflect any actual change of opinion among researchers, who still continue exploring it as an orientation.
"In the face of significant criticism of its inclusion in the DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has stated its intention to remove the term Pedophilic Sexual Orientation from the diagnostic manual.2 Removing that term in response to public criticism would be a mistake. Experiencing ongoing sexual attractions to prepubescent children is, in essence, a form of sexual orientation, and acknowledging that reality can help to distinguish the mental makeup that is inherent to Pedophilia, from acts of child sexual abuse."
"By the above definition of sexual orientation — and most common definitions of sexual orientation — pedophilia can be viewed as a sexual age orientation based on the more limited evidence available regarding its age of onset, associations with sexual and romantic behavior, and stability over time. Though there are clearly differences in some respects, there are also striking similarities in the research literature on pedophilia."
"Maps do not experience romantic feelings"
TL;DR: While it is common to depict mapness as solely a sexual "urge", most maps are romantically attracted to children and teenagers in their preferred age range.
"The majority (72%) of participants reported they had fallen in love with a child in their lifetime. Participants reported greater feelings of attachment to children than feelings of infatuation. Though sexual attraction and falling in love were strongly correlated, they were not synonymous."
"Overall, romantic attraction to minors resembles romantic attraction to adults."
Maps and sexual abuse
"Pedophilia is illegal"
TL;DR: Pedophilia by itself is not illegal the way child sexual abuse is.
"While pedophilia itself does not give rise to criminal liability, acting on it does."
Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, Pedophilia
"Pedophilia is often confused with pedosexuality. Pedosexuality refers to sexual behavior or acts towards children. The distinction is crucial: pedophilia as a sexual preference itself is not illegal; however, engaging in pedosexual acts with minors is."
From Sensation to Precision: DGDM Lawyers Demystify Sexual Offenses, Child Pornography, Pedophilia, and Sexual Abuse in the Media, note: usage of "pedosexuality" to refer to sexual acts with children is specific to several European countries and not universal.
"All child molesters are pedophiles"
TL;DR: Many people mistakenly believe that everyone who sexually abuses children is automatically a pedophile, but in reality most abusers are not pedophiles, since "pedophilia" refers to attraction, not actions.
"Not all individuals who sexually assault children are pedophiles. Pedophilia consists of a sexual preference for children that may or may not lead to child sexual abuse (e.g., viewing child pornography), whereas child sexual abuse involves sexual contact with a child that may or may not be due to pedophilia (Camilleri & Quinsey, 2008)."
"The terms ‘paedophile’ and ‘child sex offender’ are often used interchangeably (Nellis 2009). It is important to understand, however, that the two terms have different meanings; not all child sex offenders are paedophiles and conversely, not all paedophiles are child sex offenders. <...> paedophiles are those individuals who are sexually attracted to young children; these individuals may or may not act on this attraction. Conversely, while some child sex offenders are attracted to children, others may have sexual interest in and/or offend against both children and adults, and/or may act out of opportunity rather than an exclusive sexual interest in children."
In addition to that, people without an attraction to children make up a majority of offenders.
"Those showing no sexual preference disorder, but who, for different reasons, sexually abuse children seeking a surrogate. This group comprises e.g. sexually inexperienced adolescents, mentally retarded persons, those with anti-social personality disorders and perpetrators within general traumatizing family constellations – and accounts for approximately 60% of officially known offenders."
"Are all offenders paedophiles? No. Paedophilia is a stable sexual preference for children. It is one of the so-called ‘paraphilias’ or sexual preferences that differ from what is regarded as normal. Other paraphilias are exhibitionism and necrophilia. As shown in §7.2.1.2, 20% of suspects who undergo a personality assessment are found to have deviant sexual preferences, including preferences other than paedophilia; in other words, 80% do not have deviant sexual preferences."
"Only a small part (16,2 %) of sexual offenders against children meet the criteria (DSM-IV-TR) for pedophilia."
"Despite common misperceptions, pedophilia is neither a necessary nor sufficient precondition for sexual offending against children [5]. In fact, an unknown, but most likely substantial number of people with a sexual preference for children never commit sexual offenses [6], and an estimated 40–60 percent of sexual offenses against children are not committed by people with pedophilic interests [5,7,8,9]."
"All pedophiles offend"
TL;DR: Statistics, related to demographics and behavior of maps are still scarce, but it is reasonable to presume that most maps do not commit offenses.
87% of map participants did not commit any sexual offenses (infromation from slide 13).
"Men reporting that they had been convicted of either viewing child pornography or a sexual contact offense with a child aged 14 or younger comprised 12.2% (145/ 1189) of the sample."
"Stigma for maps is beneficial"
TL;DR: Experts agree that both stigma towards maps in the society and internalized self-hate don't benefit CSA prevention anyhow.
"There is an emerging consensus among researchers that having pedophilic interests is not synonymous with child sexual abuse or other amoral behavior. Nevertheless, misconceptions about pedophilia are highly prevalent among the general public and mental health practitioners. <…> We argue that stigmatization of people with pedophilic sexual interests has undesired indirect effects on risk factors for child sexual abuse, particularly on an emotional and social level. Also, fear of being rejected or treated unethically may prevent pedophilic individuals at risk for sexual offending from confiding in medical practitioners or psychotherapists. Psychologists working with pedophilic individuals in forensic or clinical settings should be aware that stigmatizing people with pedophilia may increase their risk of sexual offending, and provide help to deal with potential stigma-related repercussions."
"Stigmatization and societal punitiveness about pedophilia have a range of potential consequences, such as the social isolation of people with sexual interest in children, and the formation of policies that are not consistent with empirical research findings. Previous research has shown that people with pedophilic sexual interests use societal thinking to self-stigmatize, which in turn may actually serve to increase their risk of committing a sexual offense."
"Results revealed that the shame and secrecy resulting from stigma associated with pedophilic interests often prevented our respondents from seeking professional counseling, and only about 20% tried to talk to anyone about their sexual interests prior to their arrest. Barriers to seeking and receiving psychological services included concerns about confidentiality, fears of social and legal consequences, personal shame or confusion about the problem, affordability, and challenges finding competent therapists who were adequately equipped to help them. Understanding and ultimately reducing obstacles to help-seeking can improve the quality of life for people with harmful sexual interests and potentially prevent sexual abuse of children or other vulnerable individuals."
"In the general public however, it is to be expected that sexually abusive behavior towards children is often confused with pedophilia as a sexual preference. In the media, people with pedophile or other paraphile interests are often stereotypically portrayed as violent criminals (Diefenbach, 1997; Kitzinger, 2004). The public’s view of sexual offenders is extremely negative (Fortney, Levenson, Brannon, & Baker, 2007). Agreement with the stereotype that pedophilia often or always coincides with child sex offenses is likely to prompt a high degree of discrimination against people with pedophilia, regardless of their actual behavior. This may have a negative impact on the mental health of a person suffering from pedophilia, and unwanted indirect effects on the likelihood of this person seeking therapy when needed. Both potential consequences may, presumably, put children at risk of child sexual abuse."
"For instance, the societal rhetoric about people who abuse children (e.g., “monsters,” “predators,” and “deviants,” along with declarations that they are not amenable to treatment and will inevitably reoffend) is rather damaging to the self-concepts of MAPs, who internalize these stigmatizing perceptions (Buckman et al., 2016; Jahnke, 2018). The shame and secrecy that result from this stigma prevent MAPs from reaching out to find role models, professionals, or confidants who might offer support or advice about how to deal with minor attraction and achieve a satisfying and healthy life (Beier, 2016; Buckman et al., 2016; Piché et al., 2016)."
"Communication with children increases risk of offense"
TL;DR: Communication with children decreases beliefs in acting on the attraction.
"Results showed that both increased social and physical contact were significantly linked to fewer legitimizing beliefs toward sex with children, even when controlling for past psychotherapy, educational level, social desirability, and age."
Maps and therapy
"Therapy for maps involves rejecting and/or changing the attraction"
TL;DR: Mapness is immutable and cannot be changed by therapy. Good quality therapy offered to maps is centered around self acceptance.
"There are no compelling data to suggest that pedophiles might be converted into teleiophiles(persons with a primary sexual interest in adults). Multiple types of interventions have been attempted, including sex-drive-reducing medications and talk therapies informed by any of many theoretical orientations. Although there exist authors who have claimed that their interventions changed their clients’ fundamental sexual interests (e.g., Fedoroff, 1988, 1992), such reports do not include comparison groups, long-term follow-up, or any validated, objective measure to verify the claims of successful change."
Cantor, James. (2014). "Gold-star" pedophiles in general sex therapy practice.
"The (im)mutability of pedophilia is a key aspect of helping non-offending pedophiles manage their sexual arousal and to refrain from offending. The accrual of empirical data exploring this issue is central to understanding and providing treatment to non-offending pedophiles: If pedophilia is immutable, then treatments for these individuals need basically to focus on coping with and managing pedophilic interests while leading a meaningful and fulfilling life and not on changing the person’s basic orientation. Whereas some authors have claimed that pedophilic interests may remit [11, 12], reanalysis of these data and methodological and statistical issues identified by other authors suggest that no such changes in orientation actually occurred [13–16]. <...> Professionals helped some of these men accept their pedophilic interests by separating their sexual attraction from their sexual behavior and by managing their sense of selves (e.g., distancing themselves from stories of “child rapists” [25•, p. 8]). Engaging with other pedophilic individuals helped these men see that others with their interests were able to avoid offending, which brought a sense of hope. Having other social supports that knew about their interests helped because their supports could help them maintain boundaries with children, challenge potentially distorted thinking, and provide them with feedback regarding their behavior with children."
"The preferred model of treatment is LGBT affirmative psychotherapy, which treats sexual feelings as innate, unchangeable and subject to personal acceptance. The American Psychological Association provides guidelines on its website (see below). Applied to the minor-attracted person, affirmative therapy separates sexual orientation from its expression, emphasizing acceptance and personal growth. This in no way endorses sexual contact between adults and minors."
B4U-ACT guide Psychotherapy for Minor-Attracted Persons
"The primary aims of these approaches can be summarized as follows: 1. To accept MAPs’ sexual orientation as stable and unlikely to change; 2. To help MAP patients learn to live with their sexual feelings in a healthy way, most importantly without engaging in behavior that is illegal and/or harmful to children; 3. To help patients develop self-acceptance via a positive but realistic self-concept, without resorting to cognitions that rationalize and normalize adult–child sexual activity in a maladaptive strategy to protect self-esteem; and 4. To help patients learn to cope adaptively with the intense societal stigma against MAPs."
"On the contrary, an emergent body of work with community-based MAPs discusses the successful use of masturbatory fantasies as a coping mechanism, with this acting as a healthy sexual outlet that causes no direct harm to minors (e.g., Bailey, Bernhard, & Hsu, Citation2016; Dymond & Duff, Citation2020; Harper & Lievesley, Citation2022; Houtepen et al., Citation2016). Indeed, the achievement of sexual satisfaction is seen by some theorists as a primary human good, with its attainment being associated with a reduction in the likelihood that somebody will go on to commit a sexual offense (Ward & Marshall, Citation2004). As such there may be ethical and practical discussions to be had between MAPs and treatment providers in relation to the most effective ways to help service users to accept their sexual attractions as a pattern of arousal that is potentially unchangeable over time, and to work with them to develop effective ways of reducing sexual frustration and achieving sexual satisfaction in ways that do not create victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse."
"Maps don’t want to seek help"
TL;DR: Most maps would be interested in accessing therapy, yet there are barriers in place.
"A nonrandom, purposive sample of MAPs ( n = 293, 154 completed all questions) was recruited via an online survey. Results show that 75% of participants did seek formal help from a professional; however, just less than half of them found the experience to be helpful."
"Over half had wanted to see a mental health professional at some time but did not do so due to fear that a professional would react negatively, report them to others, or lack necessary knowledge."
24% clinicians would report a map client to law enforcement in absence of any indication of offense, 11.7% would report in absence of indication of offense and in absence of interactions with children.
Map demographics and society
"All maps are men"
TL;DR: While mapness is mostly known to the public through male maps, a statistically significant number of maps is women and nonbinary people.
"In a self-selected sample recruited online and through radio and newspaper advertisement (n = 1516; 52.7 % female), 1.8 % of the male and 0.8 % of the female respondents to an online, revised version of the Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire reported ever having fantasies involving sex with a child under the age of 12 years [3]."
"The current body of the literature studying minor-attracted persons (MAPs) predominantly focuses on the experiences of men who experience sexual attractions to children. To shed more light on the experiences of women within this population, we conducted anonymous semi-structured interviews with six self-identified female MAPs, who were recruited through online support forums for individuals with sexual attractions to children. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the interview transcripts. Two superordinate themes were identified from the dataset that highlighted the uniqueness of the experience of being a woman within the MAP community (“A minority within a minority”) and themes of social isolation and the effects of this on identity (“A lonely secret existence”). The findings reported here highlight how the experiences of female MAPs both converge with and diverge from their male counterparts in important ways. We discuss the implications of these experiences in relation to more effective service provision for women who are sexually attracted to children."
"Regarding women, little research is available about the prevalence of sexual interest in children. Early studies asking women about their sexual interest in children revealed prevalence rates ranging from 1 to 4%. <...> Among the total sample, the proportion of women who reported having sexual fantasies involving prepubescent children (n = 98 [7%], general websites: n = 92 [6.8%], SIC websites: n = 6 [11.1%]) was slightly smaller than the proportion of women who reported having sexual fantasies involving pubescent children (n = 136 [9.6%], general websites: n = 129 [9.5%], SIC websites: n = 7 [13.0%]). As the overlapping group among these 2 variables only included 54 women who reported on having sexual fantasies involving both prepubescent and pubescent children, the proportion of women among the total sample who indicated having sexual fantasies involving any children (ie, girls or boys at Tanner stage 1 or 2) reached 12.7% (n = 180, general websites: n = 173 [12.7%], SIC websites: n = 7 [13.0%]; Table 2)."
According to polls, conducted regularly over the span of 6 years on the map communities of Tumblr, Twitter, and fediverse, around one in three maps in these spaces is nonbinary.
Maps, LGBT, and strategic erasure
Map community demographics 2024
"Minors can’t be maps"
TL;DR: Most maps realize they are attracted to significantly younger teenagers and children in teenagehood, and these attractions persist throughout life.
"On average, participants recalled that they first realized their attraction to children ages 14 and younger at age 14.24 years (SD 5.36). They began to suspect that this attraction was unusual, compared with peers, at age 16.11 (SD 5.24). They knew their attraction was unusual at age 18.12 (SD 5.89). Only 2.5% met these milestones later than 29.73, 30, and 35 years, respectively. These ages did not differ significantly across the different age preference groups. <...> Because the average age of participants was 33.66, this implies that their attraction to children has persisted for an average of 19.42 (i.e., 33.66 – 14.24) years, representing more than half their lives, and their entire adulthoods."
Most common age of first realization is 14.
"The study reveals that minor-attracted people become aware of their sexuality at an early age, experience stress caused by real or perceived societal rejection, and encounter both positive and negative reactions upon disclosing their identities. The conclusion underscores the need for a new approach to dealing with minor-attraction in contemporary Western society. I offer eight recommendations for instituting a strategy which incorporates empathy, education, and anti-discrimination measures."
The most common age to realize you're a map (attracted to much younger youth) is 13-15, realization in adulthood is rare.
"Maps have brain matter anomalies and impulse control issues"
TL;DR: This stereotype, emerging from early research conducted solely on sex offenders, has been debunked when non-offending maps were studied.
"Neurobehavioral models of pedophilia and child sexual offending suggest a pattern of temporal and in particular prefrontal disturbances leading to inappropriate behavioral control and subsequently an increased propensity to sexually offend against children. However, clear empirical evidence for such mechanisms is still missing. Using a go/nogo paradigm in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we compared behavioral performance and neural response patterns among three groups of men matched for age and IQ: pedophiles with (N = 40) and without (N = 37) a history of hands-on sexual offences against children as well as healthy non-offending controls (N = 40). As compared to offending pedophiles, non-offending pedophiles exhibited superior inhibitory control as reflected by significantly lower rate of commission errors. Group-by-condition interaction analysis also revealed inhibition-related activation in the left posterior cingulate and the left superior frontal cortex that distinguished between offending and non-offending pedophiles, while no significant differences were found between pedophiles and healthy controls. Both areas showing distinct activation pattern among pedophiles play a critical role in linking neural networks that relate to effective cognitive functioning. Data therefore suggest that heightened inhibition-related recruitment of these areas as well as decreased amount of commission errors is related to better inhibitory control in pedophiles who successfully avoid committing hands-on sexual offences against children. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1092–1104, 2017."
"Our results are the first to demonstrate that executive dysfunctions are related to offense status rather than pedophilic preference."
"Consistent with the conceptualization of the DSM-5, which specifies CSO as most the prominent criterion that differentiates pedophilia from pedophilic disorder, there were no significant differences between the GM volumes of the non-offending pedophiles and the teleiophilic controls. In contrast, the pedophiles who had engaged in CSO showed a significantly reduced relative GM volume in the right TP compared with pedophiles who did not. This difference was not attributable to age, level of education, IQ, sexual orientation, drug misuse/dependence, other Axis I or II disorders or general criminality."
"In line with our expectations, pedohebephilic men in our sample were considerably more likely to be introverted and less emotionally stable compared to nonpedohebephilic controls but not more or less likely to be impulsive, agreeable, or open.<...> Among all personality domains, introversion and neuroticism are also the ones that are most likely to be affected by stigma.<...> In the general population, there still exists an image of pedophilic men as highly unstable, impulsive, unpleasant, and antisocial (McCartan, 2010). This image is linked to stigmatizing assumptions like the idea that pedophilic men are monsters unable and unwilling to control their sexual urges (Houtepen, Sijtsema, & Bogaerts, 2016; Jahnke, 2018). Therefore, it is of high importance to rigorously test such expectations, and, if disproven, correct them."
