#psychosexual_disorders

#pedophilia
#part1

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.