PedophiliaPedophilia (US) or paedophilia / pædophilia (UK), from the Greek παιδοφιλια < παις "boy, child" and φιλια "friendship", ( ICD-10 F65.4) is the condition of people whose primary sexual attraction is toward prepubescent children. It is a chronophilia, i.e. a paraphilia in which the paraphile's sexuoerotic age is discordant with his or her actual chronological age and is concordant with the age of the partner. It is often used informally to describe people attracted to adolescents, or to describe child sex offenders. Pedosexuality is used as a synonym.
DefinitionsThe term "Paedophilia erotica" was coined in 1896 by the Vienna psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his writing Psychopathia sexualis. The following characteristics are given:
Occasionally definitions additionally require an age difference of at least five years. On the other hand, a pedophilic sexual orientation often develops during puberty or childhood. (See causes of sexual orientation) A person is not necessarily a pedophile simply because he can be sexually aroused by children. Pedophiles must have their primary sexual attraction towards them. There is evidence that at least a quarter of all adult men may have feelings of sexual arousal in connection with children (Freund & Costell 1970, Hall et al. 1995, Quinsey et al. 1975). Note that pedophilia can be diagnosed solely in the presence of fantasies or sexual urges on the subject's part — it need not involve sexual acts with children. Pedophilia is not a legal category or term, and although the acts pedophiles desire to carry out are criminal in most jurisdictions, they are not legally referred to as pedophilia. The term "pedophilia" has a variety of nonscientific meanings:
The persons in the first case are sometimes referred to as pseudo-pedophilies or situational offenders, whereas pedophiles primarily affected toward children are called structured pedophiles, as their orientation is fixed by the structure of their personality. In the second case, the term ephebophilia should be used if the attraction to adolescents is exclusive. It is defined as the primary attraction toward adolescents, whereas pederasty is only attraction toward male adolescents. (It must also be taken into account that unlike pedophilia, attraction to adolescents is not and has never been regarded as pathological by persons educated in human psychology.) Some researchers have suggested a distinction between pedophilia and infantophilia (also called nepiophilia), because interest in a 10-year old and a 2-year old seem rather different preferences. At the same time it is unusual for pedophiles to prefer toddlers. Pedophiles often refer to themselves as boylovers or girllovers, though most of them are not both. Bisexual childlovers are attracted to both boys and girls. Clinical definition of pedophiliaThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition, Text Revision, American Psychiatric Association includes a Diagnostic criteria for 302.2 Pedophilia:
EphebophiliaEphebophilia, also known as hebephilia or Lolita syndrome, is the condition of adults who are attracted to postpubescent adolescents. These terms are sometimes used in contrast with pedophilia; however pedophilia is often used to describe both ephebophilia and attraction to younger children. Sexual desires including youths are common among people with a heterosexual and homosexual orientation, though their attraction is not specifically to persons that young. Only when that is the case it can be reasonably labeled ephebophilia as a sexual condition or orientation. Cultural normsIn Japanese society the attraction towards teenage girls (high-school students) is a widespread cultural phenomenon. The manifestations of such attraction, such as lolicon art, school uniform fetishes and sexual relations with teenage girls (e.g. enjo kosai) are more tolerated by society than in the West, but are often illegal.
Underage sex and criminalitySexual acts between adults and children are both a taboo and a crime in almost all cultures because, among other reasons:
International studies indicate a recidivism rate for pedophiles of 40-50 percent, as opposed to only 22 percent for all sexual offenders (Egg 2001). The probability is much higher for those attracted to boys, as compared to those attracted to girls. The percentage of pedophile perpetrators in cases of child sexual abuse is estimated to be 2 to 10 percent (Kinsey-Report, Lautmann, Brongersma, Groth). Abuse is mainly a phenomenon of heterosexual and homosexual orientation. Statistics from the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm "5 percent of sex offenders rearrested for another sex crime within 3 years of prison release") indicate that while sex offenders in general reoffend 5.3 percent of the time, child molesters reoffend only 3.3 percent of the time (though the latter statistic only counts child sexual abuse as opposed to all sex crimes). Most cases of father-daughter incest are believed to involve fathers who are situational offenders, rather than pedophiles. Some have argued that these cases are triggered by the withdrawal of the mother from the family, often due to physical or mental illness. Advocacy of pedophiliaThere are a number of organisations who are working to remove the stigma from pedophilia and legalize adult sexual relationships with children and teenagers.
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da:Pædofili de:Pädophilie fr:Pédophilie nl:Pedofilie ja:ペド pl:Pedofilia fi:Pedofilia sv:Pedofili
Categories: Paraphilia | Pedophilia | Sexology | Sexual and gender identity disorder |
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