Essay On Pedophilia

1464 Words6 Pages

The clinical term for sexual attraction to children is pedophilia, which is Greek for “child lover”. The DSM-IV describes pedophilia as recurrent and intense fantasies, urges, and/or behaviors of a sexual nature towards prepubescent children. Within this definition, there are two subcategories of pedophiles: the non-exclusive and the exclusive. The non-exclusive pedophile is an individual is attracted to children and adults. The exclusive pedophile is attracted to only children. Note that pedophilia itself is not a crime because it deals with the psychological state and thoughts of the individual. However, acting upon pedophilic thoughts is a crime. Other terms to describe sexual offenses against children are hebephilia and paraphilia. Hebephilia extends the definition to sexual contact by adult males with adolescents aged 13-15. Paraphilia is the all-encompassing definition that includes other behaviors along with sexual attraction to children. The key characteristics of paraphilia is …show more content…

Also, if they still have contact with their abuser, they are less likely to report due to the possible consequences of reporting. Related to this, the victim is also less likely to report if they are related to the offender. They may feel like if they do report, the other members of their family may not believe them, so what is the point? Another snafu with reporting is older children are less likely to report because of the consequences. They may fear that they will be harmed again before an arrest is made, so they choose not to report so they can protect themselves from their abuser. An issue with the NCVS is that it only collects information from children over the age of 12, when younger children are victimized, it is not reported and thus looked over. Younger children cannot look out for themselves, and most of the time, do not know what is going on if it is sexual