• Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    Regardless of whether or not he was a pedophile, we should not be using that medical term the way we do. Most pedophiles don’t molest children. Most child molesters aren’t pedophiles. Sexual assault isn’t about sexual attraction and being sexually attracted to someone doesn’t make you a predator.

    • Semester3383@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Eh. Mostly right. Given that pedophilia is, by definition, sexual attraction to prepubescent children, and given that any sexual contact with a prepubescent child is sexual assault, a pedophile sexually assaulting a child is probably about sexual attraction. But not necessarily.

      But yeah, most child molesters aren’t pedophiles per se, but are assaulting children because they’re vulnerable. I don’t think that we can make any absolute claims about most pedos not assaulting children, simply because we don’t have a good grasp on how many people are pedos. I’ve heard that up to 25% of men (!!!) might have some level of sexual attraction to children, which is disturbing as fuck. (And no, I couldn’t give you a citation for that, I’m sorry. Just a weird claim that stuck in my head.)