A sexual attraction felt either by an adult or adolescent towards prepubescent children.
Just to clear things up, the word *NEITHER* means "someone who has sex with children" *NOR* does it mean "someone above the age of consent who has sex with a person below the age of consent." the former is known as a child molester, and the latter is known as a statutory
rapist.
Why is it important to make a distinction? It's because pedophilia (paedophilia) is a PSYCHOLOGICAL condition - one for which MOST child molesters DO NOT fit the criteria. Most child molesters are known as surrogate/situational offenders, meaning they are primarilly attracted to adults, but choose children because they are available, vulnerable and less likely to resist unwanted sexual advances - the surrogate offenders are NOT truly attracted to their victims, they only want an available orifice to insurt their members in. They
don't care very much if it's a
woman, a
child or a horse - therefore, they do NOT fit the medical
definition of pedophilia.
A statutory rapists is anyone whose sexual partner is below the
local age of consent. That means if the age of consent in your part of the world is 17, and you're 17, but your
girlfriend's 17th
birthday happens just one minute after you'
ve had sex, your a statutory
rapist.
On the other hand, there are pedophiles who DO and pedophiles who DO NOT, and never will behave sexually with children.
THE MORAL: there are molesters who are pedophiles and pedophiles who are molesters, but one does NOT by ANY means automatically imply the other. You would not even come close to getting rid of
child sexual abuse by getting rid of pedophilia, and you would not get rid of pedophilia by getting rid of child molestation.
John
Smith died of in a car accident as a
virgin, but he was attracted to 10 year old
girls. His paraphilia is known as pedophilia.
