This book provides a philosophical analysis of adult–child sex and pedophilia. It looks at how the law should respond to such sex given the above analyses.

This book provides a philosophical analysis of adult child sex and pedophilia. This sex intuitively strikes many people as sick, disgusting, and wrong. The problem is that it is not clear whether these judgments are justified and whether they are aesthetic or moral. By analogy, many people find it disgusting to view images of obese people having sex, but it is hard to see what is morally undesirable about such sex: here the judgment is aesthetic. This book looks at the moral status of such adult-child sex. In particular, it explores whether those who engage in adult-child sex have a disease, act wrongly, or are vicious. In addition, it looks at how the law should respond to such sex given the above analyses."

Paedophiles exist and we must develop ways of living with this fact whilst ensuring that children are kept safe. This ground-breaking book demystifies the field of adult sexual attraction to children, countering the emotionality surrounding the topic of paedophilia in the popular media by careful presentation of research data and interview material. Addressing how we can work together to reduce sexual offending in this population, this text bridges the gulf in understanding between those who want to protect children and those who feel sexual attraction to children – and recognises that they are sometimes the same people. Sarah D. Goode provides an overview of the topic by defining the term 'paedophile' and discussing how many adults there may be in the general population who find themselves sexually attracted to children. She looks at how the Internet has acted as an enabler, with an explosion of child pornography and 'pro-paedophile' websites. Drawing on data from a sample of fifty-six self-defined paedophiles living in the community, she explores themes including self-identity, the place of fantasy and the forms of support available to paedophiles. Her research highlights the scale of debate within the 'online paedophile community' about issues such as the morality of sexual contact with children and encouragement to maintain a law-abiding lifestyle. Throughout, she draws careful distinctions between sexual attraction to children and sexual contact with children. The book concludes with a valuable discussion on how adult sexual contact harms children and examples of a range of initiatives which work to protect children and prevent offending. Suitable for all professionals who work with children or sexual offenders, this book gives clear guidance on what one needs to know and do to ensure children are kept safe. It will also be of interest to students studying child protection, paedophilia and child sexual abuse within other social science disciplines.

This authoritative and comprehensive second edition summarizes and integrates advances in assessing and treating pedophilia and preventing sexual offending against children. It synthesizes current research and offers evidence-based recommendations for practice and policy reform.

The Reason for this Volume If we were to judge the seriousness of a psychosocial problem by the attention that the popular media give to it, we would have to conclude that the modem world is in the midst of an epidemic of pedophilic child sexual abuse. One can scarcely go more than a few weeks in any large metropolitan area without reading about one of the community's upstanding citizens discovered to have been sexually involved with children or adolescents. The attention that the popular media give this topic is paralleled by the attention that it receives in the social sciences, where literally dozens of books and more than a thousand articles have been published on it in the past few years. In fact, "child sexual abuse," along with "co-dependency" and "dysfunctional family," have become the avant-garde psychological cliches of the decade. However, most of the lay and professional literature, although voluminous, reflect a narrow anthropo-, ethno-, and chronocentrism that precludes any real understanding of the topic with anything more than the preconceptions of our times.

This book provides extensive information on pedophilia (sexual interest in the prepubescent body age), hebephilia (sexual interest in the early-pubescent body age) and sexual offenses against children, i.e., the various forms of child sexual abuse, including the use of child sexual abuse images, along with the current state of knowledge concerning offender groups. The book makes it clear that pedophilia or hebephilia do not inevitably lead to offenses against children – that there are those who keep their desires in their fantasies and do not act them out on the behavioral level. The World Health Organization classifies pedophilia as a mental disorder. It can be safely assumed that many pedophile men in a given community live their lives, unrecognized and adamant about hiding their sexual drives from society and from themselves, and who are genuinely motivated not to act upon their sexual fantasies. The numbers of exactly this particular group of pedophilically inclined non-offenders can be increased by preventive therapeutic measures. For this purpose, two treatment programs have been developed at the Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin (University Clinic) since the initiation of the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld in 2005 – First, the project involving adult participants (Berlin Dissexuality Therapy: BEDIT) and later, another for adolescents (BEDIT-A), who find themselves attracted to children. Both program manuals are completely integrated into this work, which reflects 15 years of assessment and treatment experience.

Based on original research with self-identified paedophiles in the community, this book challenges assumptions and destroys the sacred cows of both radical and conservative thinking on paedophilia and sexuality. Offering a humane and inspiring vision, the book goes beyond previous thinking to develop an inclusive new approach.