Pedophilia as a Mental Disorder: Why Pedophiles are not Criminals
A pedophile can be described as an adult person who gets sexually attracted to young people. Pedophiles exhibit behaviors which deviate from what the society expects-especially on sexual behavior. According to medical diagnosis, pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which people who are 16 years of age (and above) have exclusive or primary sexual interest in prepubescent young ones; mostly children of 13 years of age and below. For the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia, the prepubescent child must be younger than the adolescent by at least five years (Blaney & Millon, 2009). Although many people view pedophiles as ...
