Theoretical Application on Pedophiles
Christopher Fowler
Lamar University















I. Introduction

A paraphilic disorder is defined as a disorder that is identified by abnormal sexual desires. patterns in paraphilias are considered pathologic when sexual arousal patterns are persistent and intense, it causes great distress in fundamental areas of functioning or has the potential to harm other people. While some studies have identified as many as 550 types of paraphilia. The DSM-5 has specific listings for eight paraphilic disorders. The eight paraphilic disorders DSM-5 acknowledges are exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism, pedophilia, sexual masochism, sexual sadism, transvestism, and voyeurism. Of the eight paraphilic disorders, one stands out as being the most deviant of them all according to society. While being a pedophile in the definition of having the sexual desire alone is not a crime, acting on those urges will have a traumatic lasting effect on the victim. While most paraphilic desires can be acted out with all parties being consented, pedophilic ventures will always by law involve a non-consenting individual.
Definitions of pedophilia include the typical definition of a person who is sexually attracted to children, DSM criteria specify that in order to be considered a pedophile a patient has either acted upon their urges or suffers distress due to urges (American Psychiatric Publishing. 2013) The medical, and legal construction of pedophilia is defined as a deviant behavior driven by a combination of psychopathy and antisocial tendencies, and modernly described as an orientation, in the same way, same-sex attraction is in heterosexuality.
There are two types of pedophiles, non-offending pedophiles, and offending pedophiles. Non-offending pedophiles are those who have the sexual desire to be with children, but they don't act on their urges. They commonly share the belief that sexual activity between ad...