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While this idea sometimes comes from a willful intention to vilify pedophilia, it is often the result of ignorance. But that is understandable. Most people only hear about pedophiles in the context of child sexual abuse, when there are news pieces on TV or online articles on the topic, and where the terms pedophile and child molester are oftenconflated. In the case of organizations dedicated to helping victims of child sexual abuse, law enforcement or mental health professionals that treat offenders, all the exposure they’ve ever had is to child molesters, who may or may not have been pedophiles to begin with. So their view of what they perceive to be pedophiles is naturallybiased,since they see pedophilia filtered through the lens of those who chose to commit acts of sexual abuse. It stands to reason to believe that those who crossed the line with children—whether pedophiles or not—may have been motivated by power, have an inherent lack of empathy towards the suffering of their victims or impulse control issues, although that may or may not be true on an individual case by case basis. But to attribute those characteristics as an inherent aspects of the sexual attraction of all pedophiles to children is simply misguided, and it justisn’t true.
