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.
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.