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Pedophilia, also spelled paedophilia, also called pedophilic disorder or pedophilia disorder, in conventional usage, a psychosexual disorder, generally affecting adults, characterized by sexual interest in prepubescent children or attempts to engage in sexual acts with prepubescent children. The term was used with that meaning in the psychiatric diagnostic literature prior to the publication of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013; DSM-5), which replaced pedophilia with pedophilic disorder. As in earlier editions, the DSM-5 classifies the disorder as one of several paraphilic disorders, involving atypical sexual interests, practices, or behaviours (paraphilias). Unlike the earlier editions, however, the DSM-5 explicitly distinguishes between paraphilias and paraphilic disorders, recognizing for the first time that individuals may exhibit or engage in a range of atypical sexual interests, desires, practices, or behaviours that do not, in themselves, constitute mental illnesses. Under this diagnostic scheme, a paraphilia is recognized as a paraphilic disorder only if one or more of the following criteria are met: (1) the interest or desire produces significant distress or social impairment in the affected individual, for reasons unrelated to society’s disapproval, and (2) the practice or behaviour inherently involves harm to others or is directed at unwilling persons or persons who are unable to give legal consent (e.g., because of their age). In the case of pedophilia, although the interest itself is no longer considered symptomatic of mental illness—unless it causes distress in the affected individual—any behavioral expression of the interest (e.g., any attempt at sexual contact with children) is sufficient to warrant a diagnosis of pedophilic disorder. The DSM-5 further stipulates that the interest or behaviour in question must be present for at least six months for clinical diagnosis, and the affected individual must be at least 16 years of age and at least 5 years older than the child (or children) at the centre of the individual’s sexual fantasies.

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Pedophilia may be distinguished from hebephilia (sexual preference for individuals who typically are between ages 11 and 14) and ephebophilia (sexual preference for late-stage adolescents, typically ages 15 and 16). In many countries an individual who is convicted in a court of law of child sexual abuse (seechild abuse), which involves sexual abuse of a prepubescent or postpubescent individual up to age 18, is known as a sex offender; some of those individuals are also later clinically diagnosed with pedophilia.

Some pedophiles are sexually attracted only to children, whereas others are attracted to both children and adults. Pedophiles may be attracted to children of only one sex or to children of either sex. Sexual encounters between individuals with pedophilic disorder and children are frequently traumatic for the latter, especially if force or violence, or the threat of force or violence, is involved. Most pedophiles are men; the condition is rare in women.

The underlying causes of pedophilic disorder are unclear. Although pedophilic behaviour has long been associated with sexual abuse or neglect experienced during childhood, recent studies have implicated certain alterations of brain structure and function that may be the result of neurodevelopmental problems occurring in utero or in early childhood.

An individual with pedophilic disorder who acts on his or her urges generally commits a serious sexual offense. Patients who are diagnosed with the disorder are expected to participate in treatment programs. To the extent that they are successful, however, such programs, involving both cognitive and behavioral therapies (seecognitive behaviour therapy), have served mainly to strengthen the affected individual’s ability to control his or her pedophilic urges rather than to eliminate the urges altogether. In some cases medications such as cyproterone that suppress the activity of testosterone in men can be effective in reducing aggressive behaviour and sex drive.