I don't know about that. I would think that some would just realize they are, in the eyes of many inside and outside the joint, the lowest of the low. If you murder someone, you could at least spin it as the other guy was stealing from you, sleeping with your wife, etc…
Well, again, I speak from the experience of having spent close to two decades living among some of these people. Many of them DO eventually make it in the general population. It takes years, but it does happen. Their cases fade over time and their faces are eventually forgotten and they are quietly placed in an area where there are others like them. In the medium security places, where there are more privileges that the cons can earn, the likelihood of them being attacked is greatly diminished. Many of them survive very long stretches living among other cons, even though they are social outcasts in there, they are left alone because no one wants to end up getting lugged to the hole and sent back to max or supermax for beating up a diddler.
Oh, sure, they realize they are the lowest of the low in prison society. They know their place. And they stay in their place. They are the last in line for everything. Last in line for chow, last in line at the commissary, last in line to see the doctor, etc.....they are ridiculed and ostracized, but they usually find compatriots in others who have their problem (pedophilia) and they tend to stick together in tight-knit little groups, kinda like Antelopes stick together in herds in the wild, because there is strength and perceived safety in numbers. Most of them are compelled to take part in groups and counseling, because the sad reality is, most of them are going to be getting out of the joint some day, and the vast majority of them re-offend. Recidivism rates among pedophiles are among the highest of all offenders. A big part of it is their denial that they have a problem or have done anything wrong.