Child molestation
Child molestation is any action that violates a legal prohibition against sexual contact with children. 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)
