Fluffy
A fool
Whilst I was searching for statistics to back up my argument that a lower age of consent would not reduce paedophilia, I came across a wealth of information (although not the statistics I was looking for) debunking common misconceptions on all kinds of sexual deviancy. I was, personally, surprised at some of the things I found out and was interested to know whether it was merely my ignorance or whether this kind of thing was more widely misconceived. So here are a few of the things I learnt.
The term paedophilia applies to the sexual attraction towards children under the age of 13 (or prepubescent). There is a move to introduce a seperate this from the attraction to children under the age of 2, under the name infantophilia or nepiophilia since many scientists believe this to be a different condition than that, for example, of being attracted to an 11 year old. The latter is also much more uncommon.
Ephebophilia or hebophilia is the sexual attraction towards postpubescent children. This is NOT paedophilia in any sense of the word even though it is always called this by the media. Whilst it is uncommon to develop the kind of dependancy on this sexual attraction which the term ephebophilia, sexual desires towards postpubescent children, under the age of 17 are common in society with most studies showing that, amongst men, 25% are attracted to children in this region.
This is further backed up by the case of Traci Lords of which I have copy and pasted a passage from www.wikipedia.org for those who are unfamiliar with her.
Furthermore a large proportion of illegal sexual assaults on children below the age of 13 are STILL not consider paedophilia in the eyes of the law, only in the eyes of the media. This is because much of child molestation is circumstantial, ie the rapist just wanted to rape somebody and the child happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or the rapist wanted to take advantage of the fact that the child might be less likely to come forward/easier to kidnap etc. These examples are not paedophilic in nature because the rapist does not have the condition (although he is certainly suffering from A condition).
My final thoughts were these. What if paedophilia was a treatable psychological disease (rather than the approach that is taken by the majority at the moment of control/contain but not cure)? What if there were far far far more people suffering from this condition than are known about because they are able to refrain from committing an offence but feel too isolated by social attitudes towards their condition to seek help?
The term paedophilia applies to the sexual attraction towards children under the age of 13 (or prepubescent). There is a move to introduce a seperate this from the attraction to children under the age of 2, under the name infantophilia or nepiophilia since many scientists believe this to be a different condition than that, for example, of being attracted to an 11 year old. The latter is also much more uncommon.
Ephebophilia or hebophilia is the sexual attraction towards postpubescent children. This is NOT paedophilia in any sense of the word even though it is always called this by the media. Whilst it is uncommon to develop the kind of dependancy on this sexual attraction which the term ephebophilia, sexual desires towards postpubescent children, under the age of 17 are common in society with most studies showing that, amongst men, 25% are attracted to children in this region.
This is further backed up by the case of Traci Lords of which I have copy and pasted a passage from www.wikipedia.org for those who are unfamiliar with her.
Countries such as France and Brazil are not only tolerant of ephebophilia but have made it legal. This seemed so odd to me since it sits in stark contrast with the media-fed fear of paedophilia which is certainly sweeping the UK and America.
Furthermore a large proportion of illegal sexual assaults on children below the age of 13 are STILL not consider paedophilia in the eyes of the law, only in the eyes of the media. This is because much of child molestation is circumstantial, ie the rapist just wanted to rape somebody and the child happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or the rapist wanted to take advantage of the fact that the child might be less likely to come forward/easier to kidnap etc. These examples are not paedophilic in nature because the rapist does not have the condition (although he is certainly suffering from A condition).
My final thoughts were these. What if paedophilia was a treatable psychological disease (rather than the approach that is taken by the majority at the moment of control/contain but not cure)? What if there were far far far more people suffering from this condition than are known about because they are able to refrain from committing an offence but feel too isolated by social attitudes towards their condition to seek help?
