Terminology

Unfortunately, a clear understanding of adult-minor sexual attraction is hampered by the lack of precise, consistent definitions. Terms are used differently in science, law, and public discourse, as well as in different parts of the world.¹

We use the phrase male homosexual attraction to minors to refer to feelings of sexual attraction that some men have for underage boys.

Men with such feelings vary considerably:

• Some are primarily attracted to boys who have not yet entered puberty, while others are mainly attracted to adolescent boys.
• Some also have similar feelings for underage girls.
• Many are primarily or exclusively attracted to underage boys, while others have these feelings in addition to feelings for adult women (heterosexuality), adult men (homosexuality), or both (bisexuality).² This site is concerned with those who are preferentially or exclusively attracted to boys.

Few researchers have closely investigated the feelings of such men, but those who have say that their feelings for boys may resemble romantic feelings most men have for women, frequently involving feelings of affection and being "in love." ³

It is important to note that the phrase "male homosexual attraction to minors" does not necessarily indicate sexual activity with boys, but rather feelings of attraction. Men with such feelings may or may not act on them sexually. According to researchers:

• Some abstain from sex with boys.
• Others engage in sexual activity with willing boys.
• Still others pressure or coerce boys into sexual activity.⁴

However, researchers seem agreed that force or violence is rare.⁵

Regardless of the willingness of the boys, any type of sexual behavior between men and boys (or older and younger boys) raises important ethical issues, and any action other than celibacy is almost universally condemned by society.

Various terms are used for preferential sexual attraction to boys (and girls) who have reached puberty; that is, cases in which attraction to adolescents is stronger than attraction to adults or prepubescent children.

• Some North American researchers and clinicians, particularly those in Canada, refer to this as hebephilia .⁶
• Others, especially in the U.S., use the term ephebophilia .⁷
• Still other researchers, mainly those in Europe, do not use the terms at all.⁸
• Neither term appears in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR), the organization’s authoritative handbook for diagnosing mental disorders.⁹

Again, hebephilia and ephebophilia refer to feelings of attraction, not necessarily to sexual behavior with pubescents or adolescents. Sexual interaction between adults and adolescents is termed ephebosexual behavior .¹⁰

Some scholars, particularly historians, use the term pederasty in this context. The Greek word paiderastes originally referred to a man who fell in love with male adolescents. However, pederasty has acquired several meanings over time:

• sexual activity between men and adolescent boys
• sexual activity between adults and adolescents of any gender
• homosexual practice among males regardless of age¹¹

This site is concerned with hebephilia/ephebophilia in those cases involving men's preferential sexual feelings for boys.

Sexual attraction to boys (or girls) who have not yet entered puberty is termed pedophilia.

The term pedophile has its origins in ancient Greek as a synonym to pederast; that is, a man who falls in love with adolescent boys.¹²

However, it has acquired many different meanings in different parts of the world, and among different segments of society. Researchers and clinicians often use the term in inconsistent ways:

• North American researchers who have extensively studied adult attraction to minors limit pedophilia to the presence of enduring preferential feelings of sexual attraction for prepubescent children, not for adolescents. These feelings must be stronger than those for adolescents or adults, regardless of actual sexual behavior. Pedophiles may or may not act on these feelings.¹³
• Some researchers, especially those in Europe, extend pedophilia to include feelings for adolescents.¹⁴
• Some researchers incorrectly use the term to refer to anyone who has had even a fleeting sexual feeling for a child.¹⁵
• Others use it incorrectly to refer to anyone who has ever had sexual contact with a child, regardless of their sexual feelings.¹⁶
• The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV-TR defines pedophilia as "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children" where the adult has "acted on these sexual urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies caused marked distress or interpersonal difficulty."¹⁷

The DSM-IV-TR definition differs from that of many researchers in that it excludes cases where the adult has a preferential attraction to prepubescent children but does not act on it and does not experience distress or difficulty. There are unresolved issues in the DSM definition of pedophilia related to this fact, and to the fact that the definition may not meet the DSM’s own criteria for classification as a mental disorder.¹⁸

This site uses the term pedophilia as it is used by leading North American researchers (the first group above); that is:

• pedophilia is the presence of sexual feelings for children,
• the children have not reached puberty,
• children are preferred over adolescents and adults,
• these feelings are enduring, and
• it is not necessary that the adult has acted on these feelings or experiences distress or difficulty as a result of them.

Adult sexual interaction with prepubescent children is termed pedosexual behavior. The adult involved in such behavior need not be a pedophile; that is, not preferentially attracted to children.¹⁹

Ephebophilia vs. pedophilia

While ephebophilia (or hebephilia) is the preferential attraction to adolescents, pedophilia is the preferential attraction to children who have not reached puberty. According to some researchers, the two phenomena may be quite different in causes, characteristics, function, and prevalence.²⁰ Pedophilia is listed as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, but ephebophilia is not.²¹

Feelings vs. behavior

Ephebophilia and pedophilia refer to preferential feelings of attraction only, regardless of whether the adult has interacted sexually with adolescents or children. There is evidence that many do not behave sexually with minors.²² Ephebosexual and pedosexual behavior refer to actual sexual interaction with adolescents and children regardless of sexual preference.²³

Scientific vs. legal definitions

Thus, ephebophilia and pedophilia are not synonymous with sex offenses against minors or child molestation. In addition to the distinction between feelings and behavior, different age cut-offs are used by science and law.²⁴

Most studies find that only a small portion of convicted sex offenders against minors are actually preferentially attracted to children or adolescents.²⁵ Many sex offenders engage in sexual activity with minors because of situational factors such as marital problems, alcoholism, or unavailability of adults.²⁶

This site is concerned with sex offenses only when they involve preferential attraction to underage boys. However, criminological research usually does not make this distinction. This is one of the reasons that MHAMic relies mainly on psychological rather than criminological research.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a legal term rather than a scientific one. According to Cornell University researcher Jeffrey Haugaard, scientists have not yet resolved the fundamental issue of defining it. Different researchers, lawmakers, and clinicians define each word in the phrase child sexual abuse differently.²⁷

• They define children according to different ages. Some include adolescents, and others do not. They use age cut-offs varying from 12 to 18.
• They define sexual activity according to different behaviors. For example, some studies limit its definition to genital contact, while others include the viewing of pornography or verbal propositioning.
• There is no accepted scientific definition of abuse. A minority of researchers limit its definition to sexual behavior that is unwanted, violent, or over-intrusive. However, based on moral and legal considerations, most include any sexual activity involving an adult and someone under a certain age (depending on the jurisdiction), regardless of the willingness of the younger person.²⁸ For the same reason, they include any sexual activity among adolescents or children who differ sufficiently in age (usually by 2 to 5 years, depending on the jurisdiction).²⁹

Thus, CSA usually includes not only coerced or unwanted sexual experiences, but also recreational sex or sexual relationships between two people of sufficiently different ages. In fact, one study suggests that over 80% of activities classified as abuse may be consensual.³⁰ Some surveys are so over-inclusive that they conclude that only a minority of children in the general population are free from abuse.³¹

Similarly, related terms such as child molestation, exploitation, victimization, sexual aggression, and sexual assault are generally used not only to indicate sexual acts that are necessarily violent or coercive in a literal sense, but also those which violate ethical or moral standards prohibiting adult sexual interaction with children or adolescents, or sexual interaction among adolescents or children of different ages.³²

Many researchers have argued that such broad definitions of CSA and related terms obscure important issues, mislead the public into believing that all CSA is violent, and result in widely discrepant or erroneous conclusions. They favor restricting the use of terms such as CSA, exploitation, and assault to situations involving harm, violence, or coercion.³³

For the purposes of this website, it is important to remember the following:

1. CSA and related terms usually refer to a wide variety of behaviors, including assault, coerced interactions, unwanted advances, exhibitionism, consensual viewing of pornography, verbal propositioning, consensual touching or kissing, willing recreational sex, and ongoing sexual relationships, including consensual activity among children or adolescents who differ in age.
2. Studies of CSA vary considerably in what activities they are investigating.
3. Researchers may not specify what activities they are including in their definition of CSA.

Ames, A. & Houston, D.A., "Legal, social, and biological definitions of pedophilia," Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 19, 1990, pp. 333-342.

Researchers from Indiana University elaborate on the distinction between child molestation and pedophilia, writing that confusion of the two hinders scientific understanding.

Feierman, J., "Introduction and A Biosocial Overview," in Feierman, J., ed., Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990a, pp. 1-68.

Jay Feierman of the University of New Mexico defines pedophilia, pedosexual behavior, ephebophilia, hebephilia, and ephebosexual behavior. He also discusses the relationship between adult-minor sexual behavior and child sexual abuse in terms of consent and harm.

Fergusson, D.M. & Mullen, P.E., Childhood sexual abuse: An evidence based perspective, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1999.

David M. Fergusson and Paul E. Mullen describe the way in which CSA is defined based on normative moral standards, and explain why there can never be a single universal definition of CSA. They criticize the popular belief among professionals and the public that CSA is a syndrome identifiable by certain symptoms. They also find fault with "trite conclusions" about CSA that are "chanted like sacred mantras." They propose a straightforward scientific approach to definitional problems.

Freund, K., "Assessment of pedophilia," in Cook, M. & Howells, K. (Eds.), Adult sexual interest in children, London: Academic Press, 1981, pp. 139-179.

Kurt Freund of the University of Toronto makes a distinction between pedophilia and hebephilia, and describes misleading conclusions that result from criminological research which confuses pedophilia with pedosexual behavior.

Green, R., “Is pedophilia a mental disorder?”, Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 31, no. 6, 2002, pp. 467-471.

British sexologist Richard Green describes changing definitions of pedophilia in successive editions of DSM and writes that the current definition is logically incoherent. He writes that it fails to meet the DSM’s own criteria for classification as a mental disorder.

Haugaard, J.J. & Emery, R.E., "Methodological issues in child sexual abuse research," Child Abuse & Neglect, vol. 13, 1989, pp. 89-100.

University of Virginia researchers describe their study which found that the definition of CSA significantly affects findings regarding the prevalence and consequences of CSA.

Okami, P. & Goldberg, A., "Personality Correlates of Pedophilia: Are They Reliable Indicators?", Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 29, No. 3, 1992, pp. 297-328.

UCLA researchers describe common inconsistent usage of the terms child and pedophilia--usage based on law and morality rather than science. They explain in detail why sex offenders against children are most likely a very different group of people from pedophiles. They also criticize the use of terms that suggest violence to refer to adult-child sexual interactions when overwhelming data show a lack of force or violence in such interactions. They argue in favor of making a distinction between actual violence and moral violation.

Sandfort, T., Boys on their contacts with men: A study of sexually expressed friendships, New York: Global Academic Publishers, 1987.

University of Utrecht researcher Theodorus Sandfort defines children according to Dutch law as those under age 16, and accordingly defines pedophile and pedosexuality. He argues in favor of limiting the term abuse to situations in which the adult uses his power or some other method to compel the child to have sex with him.

West, D.J. & Woodhouse, T.P., "Sexual encounters between boys and adults," in Li, C.K., West, D.J., & Woodhouse, T.P., Children’s sexual encounters with adults, London: Duckworth, 1990, pp. 3-137.

British researchers describe varying definitions of "child" and "abuse" found among researchers, and argue against the use of the blanket term "abuse" for all sexual contacts between minors and adults.