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Old 09-27-2006, 08:50 AM   #8 (permalink)
C.C.Sinned
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Originally Posted by C.C.Sinned View Post
Defining Adult Attraction to Minors

Some academic writers who use "paedophilia" to refer to pre-pubescent children use the word

*hebephilia*, or sometimes * ephebophilia *, to refer to the sexual attraction of an adult to

an adolescent (ie. to someone between the stages of puberty and adulthood).



As Australia's Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime

Authority comments:





The Macquarie Dictionary defines "paedophilia" as: "sexual

attraction in an adult towards children". . . .



In the medical and sociological literature phrases such as "true paedophilia"

and "genuine paedophilia" are used to refer to biologically pre-pubescent children. . . .



Some academic writers who use "paedophilia" to refer to pre-pubescent children use the word

"hebephilia", or sometimes "ephebophilia", to refer to the sexual attraction

of an adult to an adolescent (ie. to someone between the stages of

puberty and adulthood). However, these terms appear to be rarely used

outside academic writings.





The above statement only begins to plumb the complexity of the problem

of finding adequate terminology for adult attraction to minors. Here, to

show the full intricacy, is a listing of the etymological, clinical/scholarly,

and lay definitions of words that are commonly used to refer to

minor-attracted adults. (The clinical/scholarly and lay meanings are given

according to how the words are commonly used, not how the words are

defined in the dictionary. Multiple meanings are due to different authors

using the same word in different ways.)



PEDOPHILE



Etymological meanings: Pedo- or paedo- is derived from the Greek word

paidos, meaning "boy" or "child." Paidophiles seems to have

been used in ancient times primarily to refer to a man who fell in love with male

adolescents.



Clinical meanings: An adult who is attracted to prepubescent children.

More narrowly, certain criteria are usually set forth to define the form that

attraction takes.



Lay meanings: An adult who is attracted to prepubescent children; an

adult who is attracted to minors; an adult who molests minors; an

adolescent who is attracted to or molests younger children.



HEBEPHILE



Etymological meanings: According to the Liddell-Scott Greek-English

Lexicon, the legal term hebe meant "the time before manhood, at Athens

sixteen years of age"; according to another ancient source cited by

Liddell-Scott, the time before fourteen, and according to an ancient source

on Sparta, the time before eighteen. More generally, the word meant

"youth."



Clinical meanings: An adult who is attracted to adolescents; an adult who

is attracted to adolescents younger than eighteen.



Lay meanings: The word is not commonly used in lay speech.



EPHEBOPHILE



Etymological meanings: According the Liddell-Scott Greek-English

Lexicon, the word ephebos meant "one arrived at adolescence" ≠ a youth



of eighteen years or older, according to most ancient sources. The word

was also used to mean "boy" or "young girl."



Clinical meanings: An adult who is attracted to adolescents; an adult who

is attracted to adolescents younger than eighteen; an adult who is

attracted to adolescents eighteen and older.



Lay meanings: The word is not commonly used in lay speech.



PEDERAST



Etymological meanings: As in the case of pedophile, pederast is derived

from the Greek word paidos, meaning "boy" or "child."

Paiderastes was a synonym of paidophiles, referring primarily to a man who fell in love with

male adolescents. SOURCE
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