Also in relation to the "ick" factor - no it will probably never be accepted the way homosexuality is becoming more accepted becasue of the criminal nature involved of actually acting on pedophilic desires but hopefully it will become more accepted and understood as not being synonymous with molestation.

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be for people that are pedophiles and never molest anyone to hear on the evening news that another "pedophile" molested a child? It would be like being a diagnosed person with schizophrenic hearing the news say another schizophrenic murdered some one (that is just an example please do not slam me lol) You do not hear that though and rightly so!

Yeah, thanks for your replies, Advocate. Its a very complicated issue. The word "pedophile" is horribly abused...I mean misused (ha, ha). It really is a problem that people who discover, through the same way we all discover our sexuality, that they have a preference for underage children are so maligned. I can't imagine how it feels. I think I would be suicidal, to tell you the truth!

There certainly are female pedophiles. Think Mary Kay Letourneau or the woman who molested Lauren Book. I think they are rare, but they certainly exist.

Its a sad situation, but it has to be dealt with. There is too much suffering on both sides of the issue.

Great article! I agree with the earlier statement, that we as a society think locking all the pedophiles up will protect children, when it doesn't do anything. We need to start offering help to those who struggle with these desires. StopItNow! Is a great resource.

Rew, I do believe what you say about your cell mate. As it has been said many times, not all pedophiles are child molestors and not all child molestors are pedophiles. Hubby isn't a pedophile, he mostly likes older women (I was an exception as I was more mature for my age when we met in my 20's).

Advocate, I have been busy lately, but I also get late notices in my email on new topics.

But those women you mentioned - they abused but were they pedophiles? There in lies the question I guess ...

The reason I say that is becasue if I understand correctly Book's abuse took the form of torture? So that would not be the actions of a pedophile?

Well, and those are great questions because do we really know? I mean someone can be a psychopath, or a psychopath and a pedophile, or a psychopath and a borderline personality and a pedophile or just plain old psychopath, borderline personality with OCD.

Pedophiles are people with sexual attraction to children. We know that. But as far as any statistics on incidence, what therapies are needed to help, how families respond, how female pedophilia may differ from male pedophilia...we just don't know. And it goes back to the "willful ignorance" thing. There should have been good research on this dating back many years now. Knowledge of the facts is what is missing in this argument. If you look at the literature going back 20-30 years, any academic papers you find sort of dead out (don't lead to other research) or any books have a caveat about how the author was shunned by their academic community for even being interested in the topic.

It is incredibly sad. So, I don't have any answers to those questions.

But I do have a quote from the great Frank Zappa:

"The more you can escape from how horrible things really are, the less its going to bother you...and then, the worse things get."

Here's another applicable quote....

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory, which states that this has already happened..."

Douglas Adams, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

it amazes me that it really wasn't all that long ago that it was thought abnormal for 20-30yro men to marry girls aged even 14....

And so true...cultural change is evolving at such a fast pace no one can keep up! I agree with Douglas Adams. What a bizarre and inexplicable Universe we live in. Yeah, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin when he was 22. Jerry Lee is 80 now, so that was not so long ago. Heck, where I live there is a subcultural norm where some people believe that all girls should have babies by the time they are 16. Throw them daddies in jail, eh? (Sarcastically spoken) Great way to raise a kid.