title: Leg Length Versus Torso Length in Pedophilia: Further Evidence of Atypical Physical Development Early in Life.
abstract: Adult men's height results from an interaction among positive and negative influences, including genetic predisposition, conditions in utero, and influences during early development such as nutritional quality, pathogen exposure, and socioeconomic status. Decreased height, reflected specifically as a decreased leg length, is strongly associated with increased risk of poorer health outcomes. Although prior research has repeatedly shown that pedophiles are shorter than nonpedophiles, the largest study to date relied on self-reported height. In the present study, pedophiles demonstrated reduced measured height and reduced leg length as compared with teleiophiles. Given the prenatal and early childhood origins of height, these findings contribute additional evidence to a biological, developmental origin of pedophilia. In addition, the magnitude of this height difference was substantially larger than that found in children exposed to a variety of early environmental stressors, but similar to that seen in other biologically based neurodevelopmental disorders.
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Rachel L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Fazio
authors.affiliation: 2 University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dyshniku
authors.affiliation: 3 University of New England, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Amy D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Lykins
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.|4 University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cantor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001827:Body Height / Q000502:physiology*; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006803:Human Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000254:growth & development*; D008297:Male; D010378:Pedophilia; D012742:Sex Offenses
keywords: anthropometry; height; pedophilia; phallometry; sex offenders