New Delhi, Dec. 2: Paedophilia might be the result of faulty wiring in the brain, says a new study that has challenged the common belief that childhood trauma or abuse causes people to sexually target children.

Medical researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brains of a group of paedophiles with the brains of non-sexual criminals.

Paedophiles examined in the study had significantly less white matter, a substance used in wiring the different parts of the brain, psychologist James Cantor and his colleagues said, reporting their findings in the Journal of Psychiatry Research.

“There is nothing in this research that says paedophiles should not be held criminally responsible for their actions,” said Cantor. “Not being able to choose your sexual interests doesn’t mean you can’t choose what you do,” he said.

Despite the observed differences in the white matter, the researchers believe paedophiles are still in complete control of their actions. “There were no differences in the region of the brain that determines the ability to control behaviour or actions,” Cantor told The Telegraph.

The Canadian team had shown earlier that the roots of paedophilia may lie in how the brain develops. Their studies have shown that paedophiles have lower IQ, are more likely to be left-handed and are usually physically shorter than non-paedophiles.

A government survey on child abuse in India earlier this year found that about 20 per cent children have been subject to severe sexual abuse, including sexual assault. One out of three victims was between 5 and 12 years.

The survey initiated by the ministry of women and child development had found that sexual abuse of children was greater among upper and middle classes than in lower socio-economic groups, and is prevalent in joint and nuclear families.

The American Psychiatric Association has classified paedophilia as a mental disorder, but its causes remain unclear. Paedophiles have often claimed that they were themselves victims of sexual abuse.

in their own childhood, giving rise to the notion that childhood sexual trauma gives rise to this mental disorder.

The Canadian study was based on an analysis of brain anatomy of 127 men — about half of them paedophiles and the other non-sexual offenders. The differences in the white matter in the paedophiles and non-sexual criminals occurred in small amounts at a large number of points within the brain.

Cantor said studies analysing brain anatomy might ultimately lead to strategies to prevent the development of paedophilia. “If we can find out why there is a decrease in the white matter in the first place, we might be able to address its cause,” Cantor said