Pedophilia (alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.
Pedophilia is a paraphilia. In recent versions of formal diagnostic coding systems such as the DSM-5 and ICD-11, "pedophilia" is distinguished from "pedophilic disorder." Pedophilic disorder is defined a pattern of pedophilic arousal accompanied by either subjective distress or interpersonal difficulty, or having acted on that arousal. The DSM-5 requires that a person must be at least 16 years old, and at least five years older than the prepubescent child or children they are aroused by, for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilic disorder. Similarly, the ICD-11 excludes sexual behavior among post-pubertal children who are close in age. The DSM requires the arousal pattern must be present for 6 months or longer, while the ICD lacks this requirement. The ICD criteria also refrain from specifying chronological ages.
In popular usage, the word pedophilia is often applied to any sexual interest in children or the act of child sexual abuse, including any sexual interest in minors below the local age of consent, regardless of their level of physical or mental development. This use conflates the sexual attraction to prepubescent children with the act of child sexual abuse and fails to distinguish between attraction to prepubescent and pubescent or post-pubescent minors. Researchers recommend that these imprecise uses be avoided, because although some people who commit child sexual abuse are pedophiles, child sexual abuse offenders are not pedophiles unless they have a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children, and many pedophiles do not molest children.
Pedophilia was first formally recognized and named in the late 19th century.
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Paraphilia is the experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than conventional sexual intercourse with a consenting human partner. The exact number and taxonomy of paraphilia is under debate; one source lists as many as 549 types of paraphilia. Several sub-classifications of paraphilia have been proposed, although some argue that a fully dimensional, spectrum or complaint-oriented approach would better reflect the evident diversity of human sexuality.
A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature; however, some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the serious crimes which usually result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are sexual assault, statutory rape, bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, rape, and sexual imposition.
A sexual fantasy or erotic fantasy is an autoerotic or pattern of thought that stirs a person's sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual fantasy can be created by the person's imagination or memory, and may be triggered autonomously or by external stimulation such as erotic literature or pornography, a physical object, or sexual attraction to another person. Anything that may give rise to a sexual arousal may also produce a sexual fantasy, and sexual arousal may in turn give rise to fantasies.
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