James Cantor

Career

Positions held

After completing his PhD, Cantor worked in a psychiatric hospital that contained a sexual-behavior clinic and "phallometric laboratory" to assess men for pedophilia. In 1998, he began his postdoctoral training at CAMH as an intern under Ray Blanchard. He went on to become a senior scientist with CAMH and an associate professor in the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. From 2010 to 2014, he was editor-in-chief of the journal Sexual Abuse. In 2019, Cantor left CAMH.

Cantor was a member of a research community called the Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Dysphoria Working Group (PAGDWG) alongside older sexological researchers such as Blanchard, Kenneth Zucker, and J. Michael Bailey. The PAGDWG was active between 2018 and 2020 and was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as helping "generate pseudoscientific support for denying gender-affirming care".

In August 2020, Cantor left the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS), after conflicts with other members over transgender issues. According to an article in the National Post, this occurred after Cantor was temporarily banned for an alleged pattern of bullying behavior. In an essay written to the organization, Cantor referenced J. K. Rowling's views on transgender topics. Cantor also resigned from an editorial position for the SSSS's Journal of Sex Research. The PinkNews article covering the events noted Cantor's support for LGB Alliance, often considered a transphobic or trans-exclusionary organization. As of January 2021, he sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sexual Aggression and Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Research

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he published a series of papers advancing Blanchard's transsexualism typology. At CAMH, he also authored a series of papers and editorials with Kenneth Zucker. In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center described him as a "stalwart" of an "old guard" of "anti-trans" sexology researchers centered around CAMH who advocated treating transgender identities as a mental illness and promoted conversion therapy style cures. The SPLC reported their influence began to wane in the 2010s.

Cantor's research centers on the development of sexual interests, including sexual orientation and paraphilias. He has published on sex addiction, and atypical sexualities, including masochism, furries, vorarephilia, and others. According to Laura Kane, writing in the Toronto Star, Cantor's work has "greatly influenced the view among researchers that pedophilia has a biological basis". Using magnetic resonance imaging to examine the brains of male pedophiles, Cantor reported differences between them and the brains of non-pedophile offenders. He found a significant decrease in the amount of white matter in their brains compared to control subjects, in addition to having lower IQ, and being shorter than average. This was interpreted as suggesting a link to early brain development. Cantor insists that these findings do not imply that pedophiles should not be held legally responsible for their actions.

Cantor is one of the co-authors of a 2008 paper by Ray Blanchard, which proposed replacing the pedophilia diagnosis in DSM-5 with pedohebophilic disorder, adding hebephilia as part of the definition, and differentiating it into three subtypes: pedophilic type (attracted to children younger than 11), hebephilic (attracted to children between 11–14), and pedohebephilic type (attracted to both age groups mentioned). The main argument for this addition was that the DSM-IV-TR definition of pedophilia is not sufficient to cover attraction to "physically immature persons". The proposal was criticized by Richard Green and Karen Franklin, mainly on the grounds that it pathologizes reproductively valid behavior in order to uphold current social and legal standards. The proposal did not appear in DSM-5.

Cantor's research suggests that sex addiction represents a variety of distinct problems, rather than a single unitary phenomenon. His typology of people seeking help for sex addiction includes paraphilic hypersexuals, avoidant masturbators, chronic adulterers, people with sexual guilt, and others.

Views

Pedophilia

On CNN in 2012, Cantor expressed the view that society should make it easier for persons who are sexually attracted to children but have never committed any sexual offenses to receive support and assistance in staying offense free. In his view, it is the sexual offenses (child molestation) and not the sexual attractions (pedophilia) that merit social sanctions. "One cannot choose to not be a pedophile, but one can choose to not be a child molester."

Cantor believes that pedophiles who commit sexual offenses against children "do so when they feel the most desperate—when they have nothing to lose, nothing in their lives worth protecting". He recommends that therapists use cognitive behavioral therapy and other techniques to reduce feelings of isolation and hopelessness so that pedophiles can lead "productive, offense-free lives". Cantor stated that the online group Virtuous Pedophiles—a group for pedophiles who acknowledge having a sexual interest in children, and whose members share the belief that sexual activity between adults and children is wrong and always will be—could help prevent child sexual abuse. He states that pedophiles "experience desire, affection, and heartbreak as strongly as anybody else. It is a deep, dark, long-lasting ache, and they can't tell a soul." He has rejected any linkage between homosexuality and pedophilia: "It's quite solidly shown in the scientific literature that there is absolutely no association between being a gay man and being a pedophile." He vocally opposed the Boy Scout bans on openly gay participants.

Sex addiction

In an interview about sex addiction and hypersexuality, Cantor expressed mixed views. When asked if he believed sex addiction should be considered a mental illness, he said yes, but added that it may be important to not misuse a concept and diagnosis. Cantor has expressed dislike for labels being used to describe sexual addiction. He has preferred to not assume one theory or another, and to instead use the term hypersexuality.

Gender dysphoria

Cantor has written that transsexuality is a phenomenon of the brain, saying that MRI research has verified the Blanchard typology of two different kinds of male-to-female transsexuals. One of these types (called "homosexual transsexuals") have brains like gay men, which possess some features more common among women, and another type (called "autogynephilic transsexuals" or "heterosexual transsexuals") which possess features that differ from typical brains, but not in a feminized direction.

BDSM

Referring to research comparing BDSM practitioners with non-BDSM counterparts, Cantor said what was interesting was "how few differences and how small the differences were between these groups." He added, "Overall, it doesn't look like there is anything special that makes a person curious about BSDM. Instead, it seems that people who are extroverted and open to experience in general will experiment with all kinds of things—sex being just one of them."

When asked by columnist Dan Savage to respond to a mother concerned about her son developing into a sexual sadist, Cantor wrote that having violent sexual fantasies, "doesn't mean anyone is likely developing into a psychopathic sex killer."

Transgender rights

In 2018, Cantor was hired as an expert witness by the Alliance Defending Freedom, on a case to ban trans girls from girls' school sports in the state of West Virginia.

In May 2022, the state of Alabama hired Cantor as an expert witness in defense of a law criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors with gender dysphoria. However, on cross-examination, the federal judge discovered that Cantor had no clinical experience diagnosing or treating minors with gender dysphoria, or in monitoring such patients for improvements. Cantor also lacked knowledge of the treatments and methods used in gender clinics in the state of Alabama. As a result, the judge wrote that he gave Cantor's testimony "very little weight".

In July 2022, the state of Texas similarly hired Cantor as an expert witness in defense of a directive from Texas Governor Greg Abbott to investigate parents of minors who receive gender-affirming care. The directive was challenged by Lambda Legal and the ACLU on behalf of PFLAG. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, Cantor said that for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, the condition would usually desist and they would become cisgender gay or lesbian people. The attorneys for the plaintiffs objected saying that the studies referred to "tomboys" and "effeminate" youth. They further argued that Cantor lacked practical experience treating minors with gender dysphoria, and most of the studies he cited were published before 1988.

In 2023, Cantor defended Florida governor Ron DeSantis's ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for adults.

According to an October 2023 report by CBC News, since 2021, Cantor has testified in over 25 cases, including bills to restrict transgender healthcare, to ban trans students from school sports, and to restrict student use of school bathrooms.

Public engagement

Cantor maintains a blog about sex research issues, Sexology Today. He has been quoted in the media about several high-profile cases of unusual sexual behavior. Such cases have included politician Anthony Weiner, entertainers Bill Cosby and Mark Salling, former Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle, and incel attacker Alek Minassian. Cantor delivered the keynote address at the founding of the Netherlands Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers in 2015.

In 2016, Cantor and his research were the subject of a documentary, I, Pedophile, which featured Cantor alongside interviews with male pedophiles. The program followed him to the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld in Berlin, the only other center in the world conducting research into the neurological basis of pedophilia. In 2017, the program was nominated for but did not win the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television award for best social/political documentary.

Personal life

Cantor is gay, and describes himself as politically liberal and as an atheist.