So say Colorado-based researchers Sandy K. Wurtele and collegues in a new paper in the journal Sexual Abuse:
Nearly 10% of males and 4% of females reported some likelihood of having sex with children or viewing child pornography.
The study is an interesting attempt to probe the darkest depths of human nature, and raises questions about self-awareness.
danger_man
Wurtele et al recruited 435 participants who completed a fully anonymous online survey. They were either undergraduate psychology students or came via Amazon’s MTurk (handy for research).
The lucky volunteers got to answer a range of questions about their sexuality and childhood experiences, and were then asked to rate their agreement with three statements:
I am sexually attracted to little children; I fantasize about having sex with a child; I masturbate to fantasies about having sex with a child
Here, 4% of men gave some degree of endorsement to each question (see ...
