More than one member of Team Truth has noticed Steven Sitler’s smirk, in his annual mugshot for the Idaho Department of Correction. I see a sexual predator laughing at society, knowing he got away with it. Others, I am sure, are more charitable.

Natalie K. Björklu earned a Ph.D. in human genetics and floats the possibility that genes could explain Steven Sitler’s grin. Here is an excerpt from her 2011 article. Scroll down to see a compilation of Sitler’s pedosmile.

“The Pedosmile: Do Pedophiles Have A Certain Smile?”
By Natalie K. Björklu, Ph.D.

I was busy doing some research on pedophilia when I came upon a fascinating website.The website claims that a person who is a pedophile can be spotted by looking for the “pedosmile” (see How to spot a pedophile). The pedosmile is widely recognized in our society and has even been defined in the “urban dictionary” as:

“Phenomenon where, when photographed, a pedophile will always have a creepy, lopsided grin which screams “I molest children”. Such pictures are in sharp contrast to those of normal people, who generally have a deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression, and conventional felons such as murderers, who always frown. Typical features of a pedosmile include tight, discoloured lips, visible tongue, concealed teeth, a cocked head, twisted facial features, a bald forehead, disheveled hair, and a general aura of faggotry. Used in conjunction with other indicators, the pedosmile is an excellent method of early pedophile identification.” (Urban Dictionary)

[Added due to comments: Note that I myself do not agree with the definition nor the obvious homophobia implied by words like ‘faggotry’. I am not calling for introduction of screening by “pedosmile”. I am calling for proper study of it since the idea is already ‘out there’. Please take the time to read the entire article before becoming hysterical and calling me a Nazi or making claims about what I do or do not say, thank you.]

The original website for the pedosmile includes a series of images of both pedophiles and non-pedophiles and asks the reader to guess which ones are which. After completing the quiz, you are assigned a score on your ability to detect pedophiles. The website’s owner is rather full of himself but, I have to admit I am wondering if he is on to something.

Before we go any further let me make something perfectly clear. First, I define a pedophile as a paraphilia in which an adult has recurrent, intense sexual urges or sexually arousing fantasies of engaging in sexual activity with a pre-pubertal child. Pedophilia, by itself, if not acted upon, is not a crime. There are a lot of adults out there who find children sexually attractive but never touch them sexually because they know how damaging it is to children. . . . Children are simply not old enough to be able to consent to the activity, their bodies aren’t physically ready for sex as +documented by the damage that pediatric surgeons are left trying to repair after a sexual assault. Children can suffer long term emotional and physical damage when used for sexual gratification by adults. People who engage in sex with children are people who are, well to be perfectly blunt, are utterly and absolutely repugnant and criminal. . . . Now that we have that clear, why do I think the “pedosmile” might be important? Active pedophiles, or child molesters as I prefer to call them to distinguish them from those pedophiles who do not sexually assault children, are a rarely studied criminal type about which we know little or nothing. We are not very good at spotting them before they do terrible damage. We don’t know much about protecting our children from them. We don’t know how to treat them when we do catch them. By the same token, our society’s near hysterical fear of child molesters, means innocent people have been damaged by the mere accusation of being one. Exploring the pedosmile and its implications might improve that sorry situation.

We know, for example, that specific genetic disorders are frequently marked by specific facial characteristics. In the old days, geneticists kept careful catalogues of specific characteristics and used these to diagnose genetic disorders. Today geneticists tend to diagnose by genetic testing. When today’s geneticist is trying to decide what tests to order, he or she takes into account those characteristics. For example, one abnormal gene on the X chromosome can cause “Chudley Syndrome” which includes an almond shape eye opening, forward tilted nostrils and an unusually wide mouth. Therefore, one possibility is that the “pedosmile” does exist and if it does it indicates that pedophilia has a purely genetic basis. If so, we could test for it and figure out what the gene is doing and maybe come up with a way to compensate for the faulty gene of the child molester other than prison yard euthanasia.

We also know that environmental insult in utero can cause a different facial appearance even if the genes are normal. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is an unfortunate example of this. Children who were exposed to alcohol during pregnancy have a characteristic facial appearance that includes an indistinct groove between the nose and upper lip. Therefore, if there is a “pedosmile”, it may be due not to some gene for pedophilia but rather to some environmental insult that occurred before birth. The pedosmile could thus be symptomatic, a measurable sign of some physical basis to pedophilia, such as a form of brain damage. If we knew that, we could potentially educate women to avoid this insult in pregnancy and possibly come up with some way to treat the damage. . . .

Alternatively the pedosmile could be explained simply as the defense mechanism of predatory child molesters that they develop over time because it works to disarm their prey, children. The smile is reminiscent of a young child’s toothless and endearing smile. Pulling the top lip over the top teeth may simply serve to make the offender seem less threatening to a child. This would allow the offender to more easily acquire the trust of a child and more easily gain access and compliance from the child. It may be that the pedosmile, if it exists, is simply a useful disguise child molesters employ that they learned works, consciously or unconsciously, by simple trial and error. . . . Continue Reading →