Pedophilia

Pedophilia is the sexual attraction to prepubescent children by adults over the age of 16.

What Is Pedophilia?

Pedophilia is technically defined as sexual attraction to children who have not yet entered puberty. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, used by many mental health clinicians to make diagnoses, defines pedophilia as persistent and chronic attraction to children that the person with pedophilia has either acted upon or which has caused intense distress. However, the term has taken on broader cultural meaning and is now used to denote anyone who engages in inappropriate sexual behavior with or who has inappropriate sexual thoughts toward children of any age. Pedophilia and child molesting are often treated as interchangeable terms, even though their technical definitions are different. Hebephilia is the attraction to pubescent children between the ages of 11 and 14, and ephebophilia is attraction to children in late adolescence.

How Is Pedophilia Treated?

Although pedophilia is classified as a mental health condition, is has often been treated as a criminal orientation. For this reason, people with pedophilia often do not seek treatment and people are more likely to be labeled as pedophiles due to their dealing with the criminal justice system rather than as a result of a psychiatric diagnosis. The fact that children cannot give consent to sex with adults means that pedophilia cannot be treated as a normative sexual orientation. While some people with pedophilia engage in illegal behavior, such as sexual molestation of minors, not all people with pedophilia act on their sexual desires.

The possibility of rehabilitation for people with pedophilia has been hotly contested. There are limited treatment options for people with pedophilia in the United States, and these treatment methods have shown only limited success. Chemical castration, a once popular option for male sex offenders, has shown only a mild reduction in recidivism. In some cases, people with pedophilia who seek treatment end up incarcerated, which serves as a disincentive for seeking treatment.

References:

  1. Jenkins, P. (1998). Moral panic: Changing concepts of the child molester in modern America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  2. Savage, D. (n.d.). Gold star pedophiles. The Stranger. Retrieved from http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=3347526

Last Updated: 08-17-2015