Following the recent Sandusky Sentencing, let’s shed light on  some of the existing theories about the development of pedophilia.  Child molester or child sexual abuser are criminal and legal terms for a person who may have committed a variety of sex crimes against children.

Pedophilia is a clinical and narrower-defined term. Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual –IV-TR published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2000, a pedophile had for six-month or longer urges or fantasies about or sexually engaged with a child 13 years old or younger.

The diagnosis stands if these urges led to significant agony and life disturbance or when the pedophile acted out sexually.  The pedophile has to be at least 16 years of age and the victim must be at least 5 years younger to meet criteria for the diagnosis.

Now let’s discuss some existing ideas about the development of pedophilia.

You can e-mail your podcast suggestions and questions to:

askdrd@drdaniela.com  Visit us as drdaniela.com.

Follow us on Twitter @doctordaniela to get your daily tweet!

Take care,     DrD