Definition of PEDOPHILIA

Just heard a Foley spokesman say on NPR that Foley isn't a pedophile as he didn't "have sex with a minor". Uh. So? That is not what defines a pedophile.

The following is the definition of Pedophilia from a number of online sources:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pedophilia

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1) - Cite This Source
pe‧do‧phil‧i‧a  /ˌpidəˈfɪliə/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun Psychiatry. sexual desire in an adult for a child.



Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source ped·o·phil·i·a (pd-fl-, pd-) Pronunciation Key
n.
The act or fantasy on the part of an adult of engaging in sexual activity with a child or children.

pedo·phili·ac (-k) adj. & n.

(Download Now or Buy the Book) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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WordNet - Cite This Source
pedophilia

n : sexual activity of an adult with a child

WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

just based on some of the perverted things he said to those kids---perhaps he junketed to the Dominican Republic like Rush does for his pedophilia fixes.

Whatever, even if he didn't he's definitely a pedophile.

by definition. Don't let them wriggle free of that word. AND, the pages are still coming forward on this one... would be surprised if there is no fire with that smoke.

People forget that its not just "acting upon" the thoughts that make him a pedophile...It's actually a clinical psychology definition too and Mr. Foley clearly was doing a whole lot of fantasizing....and my hunch is a lot more than that....

One can be a pedophile without ever once acting on it. It's a predisposition, not a behavior. Foley acted on it habitually by pestering boys for sex. He's a pedophile AND a serial harasser, possibly more than that if he was actually able to succeed.

still defined under the law as "minors"....

It's pedophilia in the eyes of the law...Statutory rape and "lewd" conduct with a minor if there was any sexual activity...

was no physical contact. But that's his story now... today. But its morning yet - relevations will break all day about this one, I bet.

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Anyone, as an adult, as a person in power, imposes himself on a minor in a sexual way is a predator.

I don't care what the sex is of the children he has abused - if they were girls, I would be just as upset and appalled.

Are you implying that people are upset about this because he is gay and that no law was broken? If he did have sexual or physical contact with a minor, that IS a crime and I don't think people here on DU give a rats ass that he is gay. Don't blur the issue with that.

"homophobes".... :eyes:

The right wingers heads are exploding...they are so freaked out about the homosexual part and they just can't get over the fact that Dems don't care about that and that we are focused on the real issue:

THE GOP HAS A SEXUAL PREDATOR/PEDOPHILE IN THE HALLS OF CONGRESS AND THEY COVERED FOR HIM!!!!

And now, the GOP is going down, and the right wingers are freaking out...they see the writing on the wall and they don't know what else to do...

Party over....

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This must really be a difficult time for you. Good luck!

Wow....you are a piece of work.....

Sorry...your flame-bait isn't going to last long here....You think that a grown man wanting to know the size of an adolescents cock is offensive to us because he's Gay???? You think its merely distasteful and we are being false in our outrage???

As a mother, I can tell you that if ANY Adult, Male or Female, Straight or Gay, was to approach my adolescent children as this man did, making lewd, vile, and sexually suggestive comments and requests as Mark Foley did, I'd personally take that person to the wood shed and they had wished they had never even thought of my kid!

The "true conservative" heartland vote is equally outraged by this outrageous behavior from an elected representative in Congress. Any parent, Republican or Democrat is sickened by this pedophilic and sexually predatory behavior. That's what its all about it.

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Nikolas, you are a hoot!

My "parent" in this case, my own mother specifically, left my Dad when I was young for another woman and I was raised by them along with my siblings. We were raised in a loving and healthy home where no one was molested and where if any of us had been "gay" it would have been okay.

None of my siblings are gay...we all are married to members of the opposite sex and have children and families of their own.

You see, being raised by a parent that is Gay has nothing to do with "becoming Gay". And if anything, I learned that a persons sexual preference has nothing, nothing to do with their being a good parent, friend or colleague.

So you couldn't be more wrong with your comment of me having "serious problems with the whole notion of homosexuality and that I am visibly salivating at the opportunity to kick a Republican queer in the groin".

No, as a parent, I would only want to kick the groin of a sexual predator of children. Period. Mr. Foley's sexual preference is really irrelevant to me. I'd feel the same way if it had been female pages.

was in a position to protect you at whatever young age you were abused - didn't do so effectively. Get some counseling. Really.

:hi: Bye Bye

"Twinks"? That is very offensive to refer to the young male pages as that...

Rampant Homophobia amongst Democrats???? Who are you kidding....In case you haven't noticed, no one here or in the Democratic party is even discussing the gender of the pages...

It's about their age and position - but I guess that isn't what is bothering YOU, is it???

The GOP is filled with morally bankrupt individuals and those who would follow them no matter what are just as morally bankrupt.

Yes, this has all been a gift to God....SHE works in very mysterious ways and SHE is pissed....

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Dude, it's not about Foley being gay. That might be the main issue for the far right who believe that being gay makes you a pedophile. Being gay doesn't make you automatically attracted to minors. He couldn't behave in a way a responsible Congressman should behave and too many people in his party knew about it but looked the other way.

It's not homophobia. We don't attack him for being gay. We attack him for being a pervert and that several pages asked for help from the Republicans in this matter that they didn't get.

to be protecting victimized children since he was the chairperson of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. That is what makes it an especially egregious offense. His being gay has absolutely nothing to do with my disgust at this man's actions.

They gay bash and equate being gay with pedophilia. Then they accuse others of gay bashing when one of their own is revealed to have a liking for boys.

I refuse to get sucked into it. They're the ones who have a problem with people being gay, not me. I remind them of it over and over.

Homosexuality does not equal pedophilia. A pedophile is one who goes after children--whether male or female. His gender preference is not the concern. These pages were children who deserved to be protected by adults. Both male and female children deserve protection. Instead they were used by Foley for his own sexual gratification, and used by Hastert for his party's political protection.

You indicate that we are ignoring the fact that he broke no laws as if that is the deciding factor in whether or not to condemn him. He broke a taboo. He was responsible for their wellbeing. He used his position of power, and his position of authority to victimize these kids.

You indicate: "anyone whose sexuality is not firmly founded on the most conservative heterosexual template can expect to be condemned as a predator." You haven't been paying attention to DU if you believe that of us. Perhaps you accidental hit the wrong address.

There are polygamous cults here in the U.S, where 13 year old girls are forced into "plural marriages" with old geezers and young boys are driven out of town in order to lessen the competition. These communities epitomize the conservative heterosexual template. The one where women are the exclusive property of alpha males who should, of course, have several to choose from.

and you're right, it is perfectly normal for gay teens to explore their sexuality with older men. They don't have the peer group support, or even enough choice in terms of dating in their own age group. My brothers partner of the last few years is listed as a sexual predator. When he was in his early twenties he had a relationship with a teen. My brothers first boyfriend was more than ten years older than he...and he would never describe that first love as inappropriate. I'm having real issues with this discussion...the reality is you can't compare straight and gay norms. Foley is no doubt a creep...just based on his republicanism, but sorry it ends there for me.

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And Foley helped write and pass some of the laws he may be charged under. Setting aside the gay/straight and age/power issues, the Right still cannot get around this:

1. They are the party of "family values" and "character matters."
2. The obvious hypocrisy is so glaring that as the facts unfold, it becomes more and more obvious.
3. Foley, if charged, will have to either plead guilty or fight the very laws he wrote/supported.

Even if Foley did not commit any crimes, say, for example, the chats were only "free speech" (which is often why Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" requires they act on the offense by visiting the house, where they are arrested) just that he faces a potential of up to 50 years or so cannot be spun by the Right.

While I agree with the majority that he would deserve criminal sanctions if guilty, I probably disagree with most in thinking that 50 years is too much if there was never any physical contact, or in some cases, even if there was. Most murderers do not get that much time.

But politically speaking, even the sentence doesn't matter. Whatever the facts the investigation reveals, the Right cannot get around this issue. Too many citizens have seen "To Catch a Predator" and have children or nieces or nephews of their own.

The District of Columbia is governed exclusively by federal law. A law that Foley himself sponsored makes is a felony to engage in sexual relations with anyone younger than 18. One of the published emails mentions a tryst with a 16 year old page in San Diego; California's age of consent is 18, so Foley is guilty of a gross misdemeanor in that state. A different email mentions a tryst in St. Petersberg, Florida; in that state, the encounter was felony conduct with a minor.

In addition, both federal law and the laws of the mentioned states and district make sexual harassment a crime; several of the pages to have come forward were repeatedly targeted by Foley as objects of unwanted sexual attention despite voicing disinterest and requests to stop.

The term paedophilia erotica was coined in 1886 by the Vienna psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his writing Psychopathia Sexualis.<3> He gave the following characteristics:

the sexual interest is toward children, either prepubescent or at the beginning of puberty
the sexual interest is the primary one, that is, exclusively or mainly toward children
the sexual interest remains over time
Strictly speaking, this definition would include many adolescents and prepubescents, for whom such an interest might be normal; thus, some experts add the criterion that the interest be toward children at least five years younger than the subject. However, according to some experts, a diagnosis of pedophilia can also be appropriate for a post-pubescent adolescent.<4> See entry for sexologist Dr. John Money.

Krafft-Ebing also categorized child molesters into three types:

a.) pedophile,
b.) surrogate (that is, the child is regarded as a surrogate object for a preferred, non-available adult object)
c.) sadistic.
Other researchers used their own terms for the Krafft-Ebing categories:

a.) preferential/structured/fixed (i. e. pedophile) type,
b.) situational/opportunistic/regressed/incest (i. e. surrogate) type
c.) sadistic (no change)
This three-type model as well as the fundamental mental and behavioural differences of the three types were empirically evidenced, among others, by Kinsey; Howells 1981;<5> Abel, Mittleman & Becker 1985;<6> Knight et al. 1985;<7> Brongersma 1990;<8> McConaghy 1993;<9> Ward et al. 1995;<10> Hoffmann 1996;<11> Seikowski 1999.<12>

Use of the term pedophile to describe all child sexual offenders is seen as problematic by some people,<13><14><15> especially when viewed from a medical standpoint, as the majority of sex crimes against children are perpetrated by situational offenders rather than people sexually preferring prepubertal children.<16><17><18> Nevertheless, some researchers, such as Howard E. Barbaree,<19> have endorsed the use of actions as a sole criterion for the diagnosis of pedophilia as a means of taxonomic simplification, rebuking the American Psychiatric Association's standards as "unsatisfactory".

Some individuals,<20><21> such as Dr. Fred S. Berlin,<22><23> assert sexual attraction to children to be a sexual orientation in itself. Berlins asserts, "I think it can be both a disorder and an orientation."<24> Dan Markussen, spokesman for Danish Pedophile Association, argues that "sexual orientation is defined as a lifelong attraction, which pedophilia obviously is."<24>

Diagnosis
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (F65.4) defines pedophilia as "a sexual preference for children, boys or girls or both, usually of prepubertal or early pubertal age."<25>

The APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition, Text Revision gives the following as its "Diagnostic criteria for 302.2 Pedophilia":<26>

Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger).
The person has acted on these urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.
The person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A.
Do not include an individual in late adolescence involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 12 or 13-year-old.

The actual boundaries between childhood and adolescence may vary in individual cases and are difficult to define in rigid terms of age. The World Health Organization, for instance, defines adolescence as the period of life between 10 and 19 years of age,<27> though it is most often defined as the period of life between the ages of 13 and 18.

The APA diagnostic criteria do not require actual sexual activity with a child. The diagnosis can therefore be made based on the presence of fantasies or sexual urges alone, provided the subject meets the remaining criteria

Ephebophilia, also known as hebephilia, is the condition of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to adolescents. These terms are used in contrast with pedophilia; however pedophilia is sometimes used more broadly in the western world to describe both ephebophilia and attraction to younger children, that is, any person younger than the legal age of consent. Ephebophilia is a term of recent coinage, and does not have broad academic acceptance as constituting a paraphilia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

Without offering my own opinion, you might find this interesting:

is that he brought these advances on with a compulsion. The affairs that the Right Wing are trying to compare Foley's criminal behavior with were consensual relations. In the next few weeks we will discover that this 16 y.o. whose parents told The Leadership of The House of Representatives to TELL Foley to LEAVE THEIR SON alone, will NOT be the only teen harassed for sex but merely one of many.

More than anything else, the constant sexual come-ons to minors over the Internet is a crime. It was not CONSENSUAL in all cases. The 17 y.o. that has had an affair with a Representative, is still having "their innocence" taken advantage of but these Congressmen were not predatory, i.e., didn't have a history of bedding underage Pages.

It's the obsession with minors that qualifies Foley as a Sexual Predator. Therefore, it is not a leap of logic to consider this man is a pedophile because it's the "youth - innocence" that draws him to repetitively IM young male pages. Heaven's knows what he may have done in real time. :scared:

Thus, the definition of pedophilia used by psychologists and other medical practitioners specifically refers to prepubescent children, not sexually mature young adults.

That does not make what Foley was doing any better -- sexual harassment of people who depend on you for their employment is illegal. Add the fact that in most states, the age of consent is 18 and that, in published emails, Foley committed crimes by having sexual encounters with young men in states where they were below that age of consent. Add then the fact that Foley is a hypocrite of the worst sort, who made it a federal crime to have sex with anyone below the age of 18 and then actively pursued sexual relations with people below that age.

But that does not make him a pedophile.

no reference to "child"...

These 15, 16 and 17 year old pages are still legally defined as "Minors". While many may not think of them as children (they are adolescents)they are legally "minors" in the eyes of the law.

Lewd and sexual behaviour and activity with a Minor is illegal.

That is the point I am making. Being guilty of the first does mean one guilty of the second.

What's the age of consent in DC? Or do Florida's laws apply? The age of consent may not be as high as 18 in either jurisdiction. And is the offense actually called "pedophilia" in the laws of Florida and DC, or do they use a different term?

You're talking about the legal definition of the crime, so we need to know exactly what the relevant legal definitions are.

A quick google returned this link: http://www.coolnurse.com/consent.htm

In the District of Columbia, AoC is 16.
In Florida, however, it is 18.
One email mentioned a "meet up" in San Diego; California's AoC is 18.

He is very mature for his age but I would hate to think of him in a position such as these pages found themselves.

Have you read any of the other emails from the other pages? This is harassment, yes. On that we agree. I just don't think that children, teens, under the age of 18 are in a position emotionally to defend themselves from these kind of advances esp when its an authority figure and the general atmosphere seemingly condones the acts as 'ok'.

The clinical definition of pedophilia is that the child is not yet sexually mature. Most 15 and 16 year olds are sexually mature, which means it is no longer pedophilia. A crime in most cases, yes, but not pedophilia.

not a Pedophile - is that your point??

Pedophilia is a very serious situation. Using that term inappropriately dilutes it.

Again, I am in no way defending Foley. I just think he should be accused of crimes he did commit and not crimes he did not commit. Until, that is, someone can provide emails or other evidence of inappropriate contact with people in the 12 to 14 year old age group.

what a child is. Not meaning to be snarky here - but do you have or have you had a teenage child? I think its one thing to think of this in clinical terms and another to think of actual teens you know put in this position. Sure, physically, my son is capable of having sex. But do I think he would be able to make consent in an adult and/or emotionally viable way to sex with an adult authority figure a few decades his elder? No.

Its abuse. Its wrong. What we call it is immaterial. I call it pedophilia. You call it harassment. We do probably agree that he needs to be investigated and behavior like this needs to be abolished in the page system.

Peace.

I'm not the one who created the definitions. Until evidence comes forth that Foley engaged in sexual contact with someone who was about 14 or younger, he does not meet the criteria of being a pedophile.

Edited to remove the word "inappropriate." Sexual contact by an adult with someone is 14 or younger is always inappropriate.

Tell me, what sort of doctor do fifeteen year olds usually see, a general practitioner or a pediatrician?

Unless a GP or pediatrician is a certified psychologist as well, in which case s/he is a psychiatrist and not a GP or pediatrician. And what is with the apparent "blame the victim" mentality? Unless you are speaking about a fifteen year old who is preying on younger children, your statement has no bearing.

Pedophilia is not something that's diagnosed. It's something that's noticed by, say, a doctor, then it goes to the police, and then a grand jury and so on.

I'm saying that 15 year olds go to pediatricians (notice the prefix) because they're children.

More over, that's the reason Foley was interested.

That makes Foley a pedophile.

For a person in a position of power to make sexual advances to someone who works for them is clearly inappropriate, and borders on sexual harassment.

But I agree with the gist of your post.