Discussion Paper:
Pedophilia or Statutory Rape

Around the world the age of consent is moving slowly upwards to sixteen, but not fast enough. For billions of people the age of consent is 13, 14 or lower. This contributes to an enormous sex-slavery industry that seems immune to prosecution. A low or non-existent age of consent also creates a foggy area of opportunity for paedophiles and countless numbers of men flock to Southeast Asia and India.

Global society needs to deal with pedophillia differently because the offenders are incurable and will re-offend whereas statutory sex crimes are most often not repeated (a statutory sex offence is consenting sex with a fully-developed person who is under the age of consent and is a crime in most countries).

Unfortunately the sensationalism around sex crime has led to light sentences and the mis-identification of people who are actually ill. Paedophiles are incurably ill and should not be treated as statutory sex offenders and handed light sentences. They need to be treated for life.
There is a huge market in parts of the world for under age sex workers. Adopting a universal age of sixteem would provide global law enforcement the tools for busting up child sex slave trading enterpises.

For some reason, when a man  is found to be having consenting sex with a fully developed teenaged person in the United States, police attempt to brand the accused person as a paedophile to get themselves more attention and to further vilify the accused above and beyond the truth of the case. When the allegations "go over the top", the case becomes unwinnable.

The strange and dangerously inaccurate fail  is that the crime is often described by police and local media as pedophilia to get more national attention from the shock and awe they have created, meanwhile the list of allegedly known paedophiles is further diluted by another indiscriminate skirt chaser with maybe with bad eyes or bad judgment or both. Because the hyperbolic allegations are so extreme from the outset in the hope of getting a plea bargain, any random public defender can bring the matter to trial and win.

Too many of these cases are lost after dragging witnesses and families through the sensational American media muck. But in the event the prosecutor wins because of the public's well-placed abhorrence for paedophiles, a statutory rapist is imprisoned as a paedophile and any data collected in the treatment of pedophillia is worthless and in fact corrupts the entire databank.

 The American Heritage Dictionary defines pedophilia as: The act or fantasy on the part of an adult of engaging in sexual activity with a child or children.  The children affected by pedophilia are prepubescent boys and girls (13 years old or younger). When post-pubescent teenagers are involved, the proper term is ephebophilia which is not criminal under circumstances where the participants are of the same age or where the persons have each reached the age of consent.

The term pedophilia is commonly, but incorrectly, used in America to refer to any sexual interest in minors below the legal age of consent, regardless of their level of physical, mental, or psychological development  Acting upon ephebophilic preference is illegal when the adolescent is below the legal age of consent (e.g. statutory rape) which corresponds to the second part of this paper: Pedophilia or Statutory Rape. 

Failing to make the  distinction, paedophiles are not properly sentenced. In the case of a genuine paedophile being sentenced the sentence must protect the public because neither punishment nor rehabilitation are guarantees against a paedophile re-offending.  A paedophile once convicted needs to be  locked up  for a prison term  and then closely supervised under parole if parole is to be granted for an indeterminate period of time--basically a lifetime or until the person becomes asexual or deemed safe by a good set of medical standards.   

One of the problems we face in getting stiff sentences for rapists is the correct understanding of the nature of the offender.  If the offender is a paedophile , unidentified and untreated, they will re-offend. Typically that is not the case in matters of statutory rape. The vast number of statutory rapists do not re-offend whereas seriously disordered individuals do re-offend.

It is better that the sentence include  periodic reviews and psychoanalysis within the prison system instead of the current proclivity to hand out the same light sentence to all offenders. Too many diseased offenders are released from prison only to re-offend immediately. 

Real Pedophiles are a SERIOUS RISK to the community. When they are caught by the system they need to be identified for what they are and brought into a programme of monitoring by the state even beyond the term of their incarceration. 

Sadly it is nearly impossible to identify which treatment programmes work best for real pedophiles in the U.S. because the USA is treating so many people who are NOT pedophiles but instead are guilty of Statutory rape. An example of this is the late Patrice O'Neal the comedian who made infamous rape jokes about Secretary of State C. Rice and who was charged and convicted of statutory rape: his wife whom he had sexual relatins with before her 16th birthday--hardly a pedophile.

Pedophilia is a very serious and dangerous disease and we know nothing accurately about it in the United States because real pedophiles are hidden among males who get their hormones over-pumped by Hollywood's focus on youth, sex, bare midriffs and promiscuity.

Pedophilia is a disease wherein the infected cannot be aroused by a fully developed post-pubescent person. A real pedophile will be found having extremely inappropriate and obsessive thoughts about and or contact with pre-pubescent children. Pedophilia is a serious illness not to be confused with men who like young women as sex partners but it's about men or women having sex with children prior to puberty who are  babies per se.   

The error is a typical American problem and it seriously skews statistics. 

Older than 14-year-old post-pubescent fully-developed females in many U.S. states may indeed have legal consenting sex if the person they are with is the same age. In Europe, in many countries, a 14 year old may have sex with anyone. Age of consent around the world ranges mostly from 13-16. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe)

The definition of pedophilia is unequivocal and the danger from real pedophiles is so extreme because in all their lives the will likely not have sex or be satisfied by sex with a post-pubescent person. A pedophile will seek out little children who are undeveloped, pre-pubescent. As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia (or paedophilia) is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents (persons age 16 or older) typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children (generally age 13 years or younger, though onset of puberty may vary). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophelia)

Pedophilia is a term that is misused in American States where education standards concomitantly are also very bad. Whenever American media describe a man charged with having sex with a young person and call it pedophilia, we make clear in our coverage the age and circumstance because the person deserves a fair trial and because The United States is a very bullying nation state that jails more of its people than any nation on earth and uses a bizarre set of religion-driven common laws that deviate from international law in the extreme and tend to deviate from the truth for the sake of rallying more bullies and winning their case rather than finding the facts of the matter.

Footnote: DSM IV vs Proposed DSM-5 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Definition of Pedophilia

The understanding of pedophilia has evolved over time, so each successive edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has defined this disorder in a slightly different way. The current edition, DSM-IV, categorizes pedophilia as a disorder only if the sexual fantasies or urges involve prepubescent children (defined as 13 or younger), if they last at least six months, if the individual has acted on them, or if they cause marked distress (including legal problems). The DSM-IV also specifies that a person be at least 16 years old and at least five years older than the prepubescent child. 

The draft version of DSM-5, now undergoing review, and still delayed because there is a lack of consensus, proposes several changes to the diagnosis of pedophilia. One is to expand the definition of this disorder to include hebephilia, an attraction to children who are going through puberty. The hybrid category, pedohebephilia, would consist of the pedophilic type (attracted to prepubescent children, generally younger than 11), the hebephilic type (attracted to pubescent children, usually ages 11 through 14), and the pedohebephilic type (attracted to both). In another significant change, the draft suggests that the use of pornography depicting prepubescent or pubescent children for six months or longer should be considered a symptom of pedohebephilia.

The proposed revisons for DSM-5 can be found here:

 http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=186

FOOTNOTE - AGE OF CONSENT VARIATIONS AROUND THE GLOBE

Whereas what comprises sex between and with children and the definition of a child itself varies around the world and while one nation state may disagree with another, each nation state sets its own laws based on culture, environment and presumably to some extent the will of the people.

 All sexual contact with children is rape as children (persons below the age of consent in most jurisdictions) are unable to consent by law and by their limited life experiences and understanding of the responsibilities, health issues, dangers and all other consequences.  In some cases that age of consent would seem too low. Different cultures have different characteristics and it is up to  each nation state to set their own laws accordingly. There is however a strong campaign to raise the age to 16 or older, universally, all around the world. That makes sense.

The age of consent  varies to a large degree around the world. In a large part of the world the age of consent is 13/14 years of age.  In some states it is younger. In some nations sex outside of marriage is a serious crime.

The age of consent in China is 14. That's 1.4 billion population and a significant percentage of global pop. Add Albania, Austria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia all of which have set an age of consent at 14 and you can conclude that most of the world is different from the UnitedKingdom and Canada where the age of consent is 16. (In the USA it varies from State to State ranging from 14 to 18)  

In Spain the age of consent is 13, the same is true of Argentina, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cypress, many prefectures  of Japan, Soth Korea, Syria and parts of India.