Child molestation

Child molestation is a term that was created by sexophobes and antisexual legislators in the early 1900s to criminalize adult-child sexual activity.

To "molest" means "to disturb or bother". The (false) assumption of the legislators was that children are usually (or always) "disturbed" or "bothered" when they engage in sexual activity with adults. The fact is, the majority of young children, if anything, are simply confused by this kind of sexual activity, as was demonstrated by Susan Clancy in her several-year-long study of adults who had engaged in adult-child sexual activity when they were as young as 5 or 6 years old.

Any action that violates a legal prohibition against sexual contact with children may come under the laws against "child molestation". Some applicable laws specifically use the term child molestation, while other laws use various terms such as lewd and lascivious acts or sexual conduct with a minor.

Some jurisdictions prohibit contact with certain areas of a child's body (such as the genitals), but make exceptions for situations such as medical examinations or bathing. Other jurisdictions have chosen to focus on motivations rather than specific actions. Those areas tend to have laws that prohibit any contact with a child when it is believed that the contact is for the purpose of sexual gratification.

Laws of the latter category are often considered to be more onerous, since they require a judge or a jury to make a determination about the defendant's motives, rather than simply to decide whether or not the defendant touched a particular part of the child's body.

A man in California was imprisoned under the state's motivation-based child molestation law for sucking on a boy's toes. While his conduct was clearly very sexualized and arguably inappropriate, the decision nonetheless raised concern among many boylovers, since the man's actions did not involve any contact with the traditional "private parts." More alarming still was the testimony of one expert witness in the trial, who suggested that a person could be subconsciously sexually aroused while touching a child, thereby committing a crime without even being aware of it.

Incidence in pedophile and non-pedophile populations

In the United States, the incidence of child molestation crimes has been estimated at a rate of 6.25 crimes per 1000 individuals per year for the population of pedophile males (or minor-attracted males; sources are not clear on this), and 1.5 crimes per 1000 individuals per year for the population of heterosexual males. This is approximately equal to the divergence in rape statistics between African-American and Caucasian males. (Sources: BC:1004582, BC:1004474)

See also

• Child molester
• Sexual abuse
• Sexual activity
• Adult-child sex
• Child abuse narrative
• Myths about pedophiles
• Psychobabble
• The Trauma Myth (Book)