The difference is actually important. Pedophilia is a mental disorder which may or may not result in harm to children depending on whether it’s diagnosed and treated properly. Ephebophilia not a disorder. Ephebophiles are people who choose to rape young people for fun.
I strongly, strongly dislike the way you are framing pedophilia. All CSA is based around the vulnerability of the victim. Child sexual abusers are aware of what they are doing. No one is driven by such strong compulsion that they must sexually assault someone. It’s exactly as evil and wrong no matter the age of their victim. All CSA is wrong. All sexual abuse is wrong.
Being a pedophile and being an abuser are not the same thing. Many pedophiles are disgusted with themselves, and one of the criteria for diagnosis is a sense of distress arising from inappropriate attraction. Some willingly live full-time in mental health facilities to ensure they have no access to children. It’s ableist and harmful to non-offending pedophiles to be conflated with rapists. I firmly believe that it poses an increased risk for CSA as they feel they need to hide their disorder instead of getting help and support.
It’s exactly as evil and wrong no matter the age of their victim.
That’s kind of my point. Insisting that someone who rapes a 15-year-old is a pedophile comes with the implication that it would have been less bad to rape them at 18.
As far as I know, pedophilia has not been classified as a mental disorder and is not recognized as such by any major health organization. It’s more likely to be a criminology classification like psychopathy.
aka, pedos trying to pretend it’s not as bad when they abuse minors
The difference is actually important. Pedophilia is a mental disorder which may or may not result in harm to children depending on whether it’s diagnosed and treated properly. Ephebophilia not a disorder. Ephebophiles are people who choose to rape young people for fun.
I strongly, strongly dislike the way you are framing pedophilia. All CSA is based around the vulnerability of the victim. Child sexual abusers are aware of what they are doing. No one is driven by such strong compulsion that they must sexually assault someone. It’s exactly as evil and wrong no matter the age of their victim. All CSA is wrong. All sexual abuse is wrong.
Being a pedophile and being an abuser are not the same thing. Many pedophiles are disgusted with themselves, and one of the criteria for diagnosis is a sense of distress arising from inappropriate attraction. Some willingly live full-time in mental health facilities to ensure they have no access to children. It’s ableist and harmful to non-offending pedophiles to be conflated with rapists. I firmly believe that it poses an increased risk for CSA as they feel they need to hide their disorder instead of getting help and support.
That’s kind of my point. Insisting that someone who rapes a 15-year-old is a pedophile comes with the implication that it would have been less bad to rape them at 18.
As far as I know, pedophilia has not been classified as a mental disorder and is not recognized as such by any major health organization. It’s more likely to be a criminology classification like psychopathy.
Both the DSM-5 and ICD-11 list diagnostic criteria for pedophilic disorder.