Child Sexual Abuse
Offender Identification: Juvenile Officers who are aware of offender behavioral patterns and characteristics are more capable of recognizing perpetrators in their midst and, most importantly, protecting the children they victimize. When we seek to label perpetrators of child sexual abuse, the terms “molester” and “pedophile” are often used interchangeably when they are, in fact, two very different terms with distinctly separate meanings.
In order to use the term “pedophile” correctly, it is necessary to know the meaning of the word “paraphilia.” According the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a paraphilia is a recurrent, intense, and sexually arousing fantasy, urge, or behavior that generally involves nonhuman objects, the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one’s partner, or children or other nonconsenting persons and that occur over a period of at least six months. A few of the commonly known paraphilias include exhibitionism, voyeurism, and sexual masochism. Note that these are psychosexual disorders and not sex crimes.
