what is a pedophile?

[mitchtv]

I just saw a tv story on CNN about 'child sex trade' and they kept referring to pedophiles. But the " children" they kept showing were 16 &17yo, sexually active street hustlers, hardly being sold as sex slaves as the progam purported(in all honesty there were a few a bit younger.) I would call them 'jailbait' and the johns 'chickenhawks', but I believe there is another name more appropriate than pedophiles, (which I always believed was for those who liked pre-pubescents)

[JailForBush]

1. I ascribe two meanings to the word pedophile.

In the broadest sense, I define it as anyone who preys on people who are young and vulnerable - and not just sexually. I regard corporate executives and corrupt politicians as "corporate pedopohiles," because their exploitation can be truly ferocious, and they often create or protect conditions that foster true pedophilia.

Examples include Washington State's Wenatchee Witch-Hunt and just about any urban school district in America.

[bigwillq]

2. I saw that special too the other night

Crazy shit going on.

[Muddleoftheroad]

3. An interesting side item

Ind. Paper Stands Behind Sex Offender Coverage

By Joe Strupp

Published: February 20, 2004

NEW YORK Editors at The Star Press in Muncie, Ind., stood behind their controversial decision to publish names, addresses and Page One photos of local residents who are on the state's convicted sex offender registry, calling the approach a public service that has the most reader impact.

"It is public information and we felt people had the right to know who is living where," said Douglas Walker, the paper's metro editor. "Their own actions resulted in their being placed on the registry."

But the move drew criticism from some journalism ethics experts, who questioned whether the paper went too far in exposing the sex offenders to potential harm or retaliation.

"They are serving a portion of their public by seeking the truth and reporting it," said Gary Hill, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee, who compared the publicity to putting criminals in public stocks. "But if you believe that any of these people have a chance for rehabilitation, you are doing considerable harm."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2096073

[PaDUer]

4. Make a call to the WH...

there's a LOT of them there..

[OneBlueSky]

5. well . . . my understanding is . . .

a pedophile is someone who is sexually attracted to pre-pubescent children . . .

a pederast is someone who is sexually attracted to pubescent children and/or adolescents . . .

a child molester is someone who molests children . . . s/he may or may not be a pedophile or a pederast . . . conversely, being a pedophile or a pedarast does not necessarily make one a child molester since many (perhaps most) never act on their proclivities . . .

[arewethereyet]

6. 16 and 17 years olds are still children

despite their being forced into things inappropriate to their years.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. In the UK (and probably nearly all Europe)

16 is the legal age of consent (lower in some European countries), so this would not be regarded as an age problem at all. Some people are now suggesting lowering the voting age to 16 for that matter.

[sweetheart]

17. And yet...

The new laws in britain put a teenager on the sex-offenders
list for having sex with a person a year younger... (like a 16 with
a 15) and this is really a perversion of the law. It makes
underage kids permanently screwed for a lifetime for doing what a
good many people have done themselves if they're honest about
teenage sex.

Interestingly, at the thurso mothercare (city in britain maternity shop)
You can see a queue of underage mothers, and funnily, due to
a falling population, there are those who think 14 years old and
pregnant is good for the economy.

Young pregnancy hobbles womens lives and permanently relegates them
to low paid jobs and semi poverty (without family assistance). In
this regard, i am for comprehensive sex education and abortion
services to teenage men and women. Wanting to have sex is perfectly
natural, and healthy, like smelling flowers. Like drugs, there are
better ways to help kids mature without criminalization for being
alive.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. I agree the British laws aren't right

and should take into account age difference in some way for what is and isn't a sexual offence. Your analysis seems pretty good. I'd never heard the 'good for the economy' line before - scary.

[blondeatlast]

12. I agree, and it doesn't matter who does the forcing; corporationns

like Nike and A&F are just as guilty as the pimps.

[shooga]

16. ask GHWB ...

... I hear he likes the young'uns.

[bobthedrummer]

7. You might want to ask Dyn Corp

that question.

[nemo137]

8. ephebophile?

i remember hearing that term tossed around during some of the discussion of pedophile priests.

[mitchum]

10. That is the correct term

[mitchtv]

19. thanks,

I knew chickenhawk and jailbait were wrong. So was CNN's special- dishonest was more like it.

[Mairead]

9. You're right: paedophile is reserved for those fixated on pre-pube kids

Whoever wrote the script for the show is either confused or dishonest.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Technically speaking,

pedophilia refers to a preoccupation with pre-pubescent kids.

Hebephilia is an attraction to underage but pubescent/post-pubescent kids. The current DSM doesn't classify hebephilia as a disorder.

[sweetheart]

14. animal hormones

I have a female dog (bitch) coming in to her first heat. My dog (male) is interested in her. I'm making a special dog coat for her that he won't be able to shag her.

I think that with higher brain functions beyond dogs, that humans also experience a feremone attraction to "heat"... and that this is
entirely natural, just the "crime" is to act on ones animal instinct with someone younger than the legal age of choice.

My first sexual experience was with another kid in kindergarten, which we called "playing doctor" at the time. It was innocent as
we did not know it was even sexual. The kids involved in
the kindergarten "medical clinic" were just curious about their
bodies.

At age 15, i was molested by an adult 20 years my senior, and this
was an entirely less than positive experience, one that affected my
views towards sexuality quite negatively, and left me afraid. I
remember taking a long long shower afterwards trying to wash it off.
I would not wish that on any person, and agree that hebephilia is
a crime, but less one than with a young child.

That said, i see it as no crime for a 15 year old to make out with a
14 year old, as geesh, kids in puberty do that, and it does not
count in my eyes as a crime. That said, when an 18 years old has sex
with a 17 year old, i don't see that as a crime.

I think the relative age difference is quite important.

I also think the paedophilia thing has gone too far towards paranoia.
I will not touch a child, even though kids are very tactile... as all
contact with kids is potentially paedophila, and it is not worth
giving a kid a hug... this is really sad, the ultimate result, that
People who would help children and love them, are discouraged from
doing so, and geesh, of all things, a little more love is the best
healthy thing for kids.

[Nikia]

20. Being attracted to teenagers isn't probably a disorder

In reading the book "The Red Queen" about the evolution of sex and mating strategy in humans, men are usually attracted most to either women in prime fertility (mid 20's) or younger women who are just becoming fertile (which in many "primitive" cultures is around 15 or 16). Men who marry these teenagers are assured that their first child will be theirs. This is adaptive.
I don't think that it is right for adult, especially middle aged and above, to take advantage of young women this way though. They may physically ready and want to have sex at this age, but bad early experience with father figures can really mess them up.
Advertising in our culture seems to sexualize young women and encourage the idolization of teenagers. The instinct is there but I think that advertising and entertainment encourage this.
Physically depending on the teen, a 15 or 16 year may look older than an 18 year old. I think we are hypocritical if we encourage men to have sex with 18 and 19 year olds while saying they are wrong for wanting to sleep with 16 and 17 year olds.
It is wrong to use immature people, but it is not a mental illness if they are physically mature.

[Cannikin]

15. I think the American Family Association has some first hand expertise...

with pedophiles...since one of their anti-gay group founders was arrested for molesting a little girl.

Ask them!


www.afa.net