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Essay on Child Molesters
Americans have become more alarmed with the reports of sexual behavior between adults and children and as more cases have led to criminal action, the term pedophile has frequently been misused to label any individual who carries out inappropriate sexual interaction with a child. Pedophilia is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the sexual preference of the patient; the term child molester describes an individual who carries out a sexual interaction with a child, regardless of the reason. Thus, not all child molesters are pedophiles because some individuals molest children for reasons other than having recurrent, intense sexual urges and/or fantasies involving sexual activity with children. Conversely, not all pedophiles act upon their urges, and therefore these pedophiles cannot correctly be labeled as child molesters.
The term sex offender applies to all individuals who carry out any type of sexual offense, including rape, exhibitionism, and voyeurism, as well as child molestation. Rapist refers to individuals who use force to accomplish a sexual interaction with an adult, nonconsenting partner. The terms perpetrator, abuser, and victimizer identify the individual who initiates the inappropriate sexual act and may be applied to all types of sex offenders. Groth N. (1979)
This labeling problem is compounded in the media and the criminal justice system, where these terms are used indiscriminately and interchangeably without reference to the specific behavior being discussed. Legal terminology defining various forms of illegal sexual interaction varies tremendously from one state to another and is not consistent with the psychiatric terminology. For example, in the criminal justice system, sexual behavior between an adult and a child that would meet DSM-IV criteria for pedophilia may be labeled child rape, since, in many states, the legal terminology for sex with a partner who cannot consent is rape. Legally, the distinction between pedophilia and child molestation is irrelevant because the motive for the adult-child sexual interaction is not included in the legal definition of the offense......
