In regard to Snoozy's thread title question, I doubt that there is much change to the percentage of both those who seek such sexual adventures and those who suffer because of those adventures. But there can be no definitive answer to the question because there can be no statistics from the past (only examples) and contemporary statistics are likely to be slanted by the simple fact that instances of victimisation can only be known when exposed and clearly there must be instances that remain un-exposed.
Moreover, there have been changes in the way that society sees the difference between a child and an adult. In our contemporary world the definition of a child is being extended upwards, to what may have once been seen as a 'young adult.' In the past, a child on reaching sexual maturity may have been acknowledged as a young adult. And, the age of sexual maturity among humans seems to be variable. Some claim that the onset of puberty was later in some societies in the past, than it is now. It is also claimed by others that the young people (at least in the west) are becoming sexually mature at a younger age.
This extract from a Wikipedia entry on Age of Consent demonstrates how social/cultural custom has varied:
History and social attitudes
In traditional societies, the age of consent for a sexual union was a matter for the family to decide, or a tribal custom. In most cases, this coincided with signs of puberty, menstruation for a woman and pubic hair for a man. [3]
Ancient Greek poet Hesiod in "Works and Days" (c. 700BC) suggests that a man should marry around the age of thirty, and that he should take a wife who is five years past puberty.
Reliable data for when people would actually marry is very difficult to find. In England for example, the only reliable data on age at marriage in the early modern period comes from records involving only those who left property after their death. Not only were the records relatively rare, but not all bothered to record the participants' ages, and it seemed that the more complete the records are, the more likely they are to reveal young marriages. Additionally, 20th and 21st centuries' historians have sometimes shown reluctance to accept data regarding young ages of marriage, and would instead explain the data away as a misreading by a later copier of the records. [3]
The first recorded age-of-consent law dates to 1275, in England, as part of the rape law, a statute, Westminster 1, made it a misdemeanor to "ravish" a "maiden within age," whether with or without her consent. The phrase "within age" was interpreted by jurist Sir Edward Coke as meaning the age of marriage, which at the time was 12 years of age. [4]
In the 12th century Gratian, the influential founder of Canon law in medieval Europe, accepted age of puberty for marriage to be between 12 and 14 but acknowledged consent to be meaningful if the children were older than 7. There were authorities that said that consent could take place earlier. Marriage would then be valid as long as neither of the two parties annulled the marital agreement before reaching puberty, or if they had already consummated the marriage. It should be noted that Judges honored marriages based on mutual consent at ages younger than 7, in spite of what Gratian had said; there are recorded marriages of 2 and 3 year olds. [3]
The American colonies followed the English tradition, and the law was more of a guide. For example, Mary Hathaway (Virginia, 1689) was only 9 when she was married to William Williams. Sir Edward Coke (England, 17th century) "made it clear that the marriage of girls under 12 was normal, and the age at which a girl who was a wife was eligible for a dower from her husband's estate was 9 even though her husband be only four years old." [3]
In the 16th century, a small number of Italian and German states set the minimum age for sexual intercourse for girls, setting it at 12 years. Towards the end of the 18th century, other European countries also began to enact similar laws. The first French Constitution of 1791 established the minimum age at 11 years. Portugal, Spain, Denmark and the Swiss cantons, initially set the minimum age at 10–12 years. [5]
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent
Beginning in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century there was also agitation to raise the legal age of marriage
All those factors make the issue problematical, but more complexity is added by the cultrual factors imposed by religious belief. Generally Christianity has viewed concupiscence as undesirable. As the NT Letter of Jude tells Christians to:
"hate even the inner garment that has been stained by the flesh." Jude 23
This was likely based on Leviticus 15:16,17 (NIV):
If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening. Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean till evening.
Jude thus turns what was a nuisance, and attaches the much more profound emotional value of hate to semen emissions.
How much that attitude pervaded the early church is difficult to estimate, but there was certainly a persistent and strong dislike of sex and a advocacy of celibacy.
Such a view certainly colors the whole problem of child abuse.
--------------------------
Richard Sipe is a former Benedictine Monk who has been studying the sexual problems of the Catholic church since the 1960s. His web-site at
is worth examing on this issue. I doubt that the church in general has taken much notice of his commonsense suggestions.
Some of his other comments that I suggest are worth reading are:
How to Spot an Abuser: http://www.awrsipe.com/Comments/2006-01-30-Spot_an_Abuser.html
And particularly this essay, examining WHY abusers abuse children:
http://www.awrsipe.com/reports/1992-10-17-Sexual_Abuse_by_Priests.html
And a good outside link to a webMD entry on paedophilia is:
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/explaining-pedophilia