Pedophilia and child molesters

It is important to understand the differences between pedophiles and molesters.

Pedophilia

Pedophilia, which is a psychological disorder, is a distinct sexual preference for pre-pubescent children.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 111-R), which is published by the American Psychological Association, supplies this definition of pedophilia: “recurrent, intense, sexual urges and sexual arousing fantasies of at least six months duration involving sexual activity with a pre-pubescent child” (DSM, V.3, 1987).
Generally, this means the target of the fantasy will typically be less than 12 years old. Notice the definition does not require the person to actually engage in a sexual act. Pedophilia is a psychological disorder that does not require, and usually does not involve, a criminal act. The pedophile might keep his desires a secret.
He may never go public or share his fantasies with anyone. At times, they will even marry a single mother to gain or continue access to her children. Pedophiles can be very determined and single-minded in their efforts to stay close to children. Maintaining access to children at all costs is one of the defining trademarks of pedophilia.
Child molesters, however, can have many different motivations for their crimes. And those motives, surprisingly, are often not of a sexual origin

Child Molestation

A child molester is described as an older person, male or female, which experiences any type of sexual act with another person who is a child. The majority of child molesters, more than 95 percent, are male.

Molesters engage in sex with children for a variety of reasons and sometimes these reasons have little to do with sexual desires.
This type of offender, called a situational child molester, does not possess a genuine sexual preference for children. Rather, the motivational factors are criminal in nature.
In some cases, the offender’s sexual abuse of young people is a natural outgrowth of other forms of abuse in his life.
That abuse is a continuation of a process by which he has mistreated his friends, colleagues, spouse and family members.
He will have low self-esteem, maintain poor moral standards and view sex with children as an opportunity to prolong the violence that is already an active component of his existence.
Other situational offenders see children as a substitute for an adult partner. Although these types of offenders do not harbor a singular sexual desire for children, they may react to a built up sexual impulse or anger, that to them, is irresistible.
However, the victim is incidental. It could have been a store clerk, an elderly person or simply a woman walking down a lonely street.
Because of the circumstances at hand,the victim happened to be a child. His main criteria for a victim is availability.
The situational child molester will usually have few victims, sometimes only one, and never repeat the event again. He could be a social misfit or a psychopathic personality who harbors a seething resentment and hostility toward society in general.


Took from:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/pedophiles/