CANADA
BBC News
By Wesley Stephenson
BBC News
The Pope was recently reported to have said that about 2% of Catholic clergy are paedophiles. But how does this compare with society as a whole – is it more or less than average?
As soon as you give this question a moment’s thought, you realise that it’s not going to be an easy one to answer. Paedophiles are not easy to identify.
“Because paedophilia is so secretive and so few people are willing to admit it, there is no meaningful way to get a reliable estimate,” says Dr James Cantor, a psychologist and sexual behaviour scientist at the University of Toronto.
“There’s no meaningfully ethical way of taking 200 men, hooking them up to detectors, showing them pictures of adults and children and seeing how many respond most to children.”
One person who has attempted an estimate is Dr Michael Seto, a clinical and forensic psychologist at the Royal Ottawa Healthcare group.
In 2008 he wrote a book in which he put the prevalence of paedophilia in the general population at 5%.
The figure was based on surveys conducted in Germany, Norway and Finland in which men were asked whether they had ever had sexual thoughts or fantasies about children or engaged in sexual activity with children.
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