Free US Law Dictionary

Pedophiles

Pedophilia or paedophilia is the sexual preference of an adult for prepubescent children,[1][2][3][4] or, according to the DSM, a form of paraphilia in which a person either has acted on intense sexual urges towards children, or has sexual urges towards and fantasies about children that cause distress or interpersonal difficulty.[5] A person with this attraction is called a pedophile or paedophile.[6]

In some individuals, pedophilia may remain limited to sexual fantasies or urges only; in others, those urges may be expressed as child sexual abuse,[7] which is sometimes termed "pedophilic behavior." [8][9] Often, the impetus behind such "pedophilic behavior" is the belief (seen by some professionals as a delusion) held by the adult that their behavior is helpful and pleasurable to the child. However, they do often tell the children to keep the act secret from parents and authorities alike.[10]

The term "pedophile" is also used to describe those accused or convicted of child sexual abuse under sociolegal definitions of child (including adolescents younger than the local age of consent in addition to prepubescent children).[11] Some researchers have described this usage as improper and suggested it can confound two separate types of offenders, child molestors and rapists, thereby obscuring results of ongoing research.[2][11]