Adult-child sex is a term referring to sexual intercourse[14] between an adult (a person over the age

of consent), and a child, usually viewed as a person below the age of consent (in other contexts,
specifically a pre-adolescent or pre-pubescent youth). In most industrialized societies, adult-child
sex is considered child sexual abuse by a large majority of people. Societal views and legal
ramifications have varied across cultures and throughout history.[15] In a less strict definition, it
may refer to a wider range of sexual activity.[14] People often colloquially, though inaccurately,
refer to all such activity as pedophilia.[16]

Historical views
The phenomenon of adult-child sex is observable throughout the animal kingdom and has served
different functions during the recorded history of mankind. In the late 19th century, early
industrialized Western societies discovered "youth" as a distinct period of life, and began
criminalizing sexual interaction between children and adults.[17] Modern Western cultures began to
deem harmful all sexual relations between adults and children, giving rise to the contemporary
concept of child sexual abuse.[18]
Very recently the topic of adult-child sex has become a topic of serious research apart from
assumptions of child sexual abuse, as well as entering mainstream entertainment and media as a
serious area of debate and research.[15]

Across cultures
While most Western societies condemn adult-child sex as child sexual abuse, not all cultures do so.
[19]
According to the 2001 Human Rights Watch World Report, in Yemen in 1999 the minimum
marriage age of fifteen for women, rarely enforced, was abolished; the onset of puberty, interpreted
by conservatives to be at the age of nine, was set as a requirement for consummation of marriage.
[20]

Ethnological/Anthropological
Nonhuman comparisons
It seems that sexual activity in many higher vertebrate species has evolved from simple procreation
to additionally serve purposes of social nature, and thus many species engage in a variety of sexual
activities beyond fertilization, or strict opposite-sex and adult-adult pairings. The displayal of sexual
interest towards fellow specimen tends to instantly end intra-species conflicts and aggressive
behavior, and to initiate sexual activity, however it is under dispute among academics[21] whether
these sexual displayals to end conflicts count as domination and submission or rather consensual
restoration of group peace by mutually enjoyed behavior.
Naming the common forms of intimate juvenile-adult sexual interactions in animals, German
psychologist, sociologist, ethnologist, Indo-European scholar, religious scholar, and philosopher
Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg writes[21]:
The 'fondling' connected with the reaction to the infant model in non-human primates, and in
those primitive peoples that have no taboos relating to this, includes caresses, smelling,
licking, 'romping', and the well-known 'grooming'. Touching and manipulation of the genitals
of children belong in this context among the acts of devotion, while in humans, as a result of
the heightened mobility of the hand, manual actions can supplement many of the forms of
devotion mentioned. Their own reaction to the encoded stimulus of the infant model brings to
those reacting an intensive experience of satisfaction (the 'reward' of nature, so to speak, for

the response to the encoded stimulus).

While also engaging in juvenile-adult sexual interactions, adult males "appear to limit penetration
and ejaculation to contacts with mature females", that is to procreative sexual activities.[22]
While it seems common for immature individuals to practice sexual interactions with mature ones
and thus most juveniles within populations seem to go through a stage at one time or another with
more or less frequent such behavior with adults, the percentage of mature individuals within a herd
or pack to engage in this behavior appears more limited, and these adults often do so in a
promiscious fashion.[21]
Many individual members of higher vertebrate species do not exhibit nurturing behavior towards
the young of their species independently of social factors, i. e. if they are separated from their group
early in life, growing up and reaching adulthood in isolation; even highly violent and murderous
behavior towards their own offspring is observed in, for instance, chimpanzee mothers that grew up
in isolation.[23] An unusually high correlation is however observed between adult desire for
practicing consensual juvenile-adult sexual interactions and obviously instinctly triggered nurturing
behavior towards juveniles even in case of prior isolation of the adult individual, a correlation so
high that it appears that adult individuals desiring juvenile-adult sexual interactions could be the
only individuals posessing a genetical nurturing instinct independent of social influence.[21]

Ethical considerations
Sex within adult-child marriage
Ibn Warraq writes that Muhammad's example encourages the practice of child marriage in Muslim
communities: "child marriages continue to be practiced, and the fact that the Prophet himself
married Aisha when she was only nine and he was fifty-three encourages Muslim society to
continue with this iniquitous custom."[24]

Sex as form of abuse

The widely-accepted view of adult-child sex among both legal experts and lay people is that it is an
inherently abusive practice by the adult against the child.[16] Supported by evidence from several
studies of child sexual abuse victims, psychologists argue that the inability of children to provide
full and informed consent to sexual acts necessarily makes all such acts abusive in regards to the
child. [25]
The American Psychiatric Association maintains the position that "children cannot consent to sexual
activity with adults",[26][27] and condemns the action of the adult in strong terms: "An adult who
engages in sexual activity with a child is performing a criminal and immoral act which never can be
considered normal or socially acceptable behavior."[26]
A paper by David Finkelhor argued for "the importance of a stronger ethical position" than the
belief that sex with adults causes harm to children. In his paper, Finkelhor calls into question what
he considers to be three common arguments relating to "intrinsic harm", "premature sexualization"
and "unnaturalness" of the act, describing them as both inadequate and lacking in solid empirical
footing. Instead, he draws a parallel between Adult-child sex and sex between a therapist and a
patient, stating that while there may be cases where the patient benefits, it should still be considered
wrong due to the fundamental asymmetry of the relationship.[5]He wrote: "It is suggested that
basing the prohibition of adult-child sex on the premise that children are incapable of full and
informed consent will provide a more solid and consistent approach to the problem."[28]

Sex as non-abusive
Those who have disagreed with the majority viewpoint include philosophers, academics, writers,
and pro-pedophile activists.[29][14] In the controversial 2002 book Harmful to Minors, the feminist
writer Judith Levine wrote that some scholars challenge the idea that all sexual activity between
adults and minors is necessarily harmful,[30] and that in some cases, "quite young" people can have
a positive sexual experience with an adult, referring specifically to "happy consensual sex among
kids under 12."[14]Psychologists Bruce Rind and Robert Bauserman argued in a 1998 study (Rind
et al.) that not all cases of adult-child sex should be termed child sexual abuse. Authors of the study
argued that "CSA does not cause intense harm on a pervasive basis regardless of gender.", and that
"an important reason why the assumed properties of CSA failed to withstand empirical scrutiny in
the current review is that the construct of CSA, as commonly conceptualized by researchers, is of
questionable scientific validity." This study was officially "condemned" by the United States
Congress, an event which marked the first time in U.S. history that Congress officially condemned a
study published in a major scientific journal.[31]

Impetus
Close-in-age
Strictly speaking, sex between a person just below the age of consent and a person just above it can
be termed (and considered by some) to be a form of adult-child sex. In these situations, legal
defenses are often available when the age difference is small.

Pedophilia
The American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization both define pedophilia as
attraction by adults and older youths toward prepubescent children (less than 13 years of age),
whether the attraction is acted upon or not.[32][33] Researchers like Howard E. Barbaree have
argued for a sharper focus on sexual activity over sexual attraction, asserting that the diagnosis of
pedophilia only apply to those who have sexual relations with children, rather than to all who
experience the desire.[34]
Some research indicates that most perpetrators of child sexual abuse are not primarily interested in
prepubescent youths.[35] In two studies designed to measure sexual preferences using phallometric
data, it was found that "30% of the [child sex] offenders tested did not show sufficient arousal [to
children] to derive a usable score." [36] Sociology professor Rdiger Lautmann, in his book on
pedophilia, stated: "In this book I am concerned exclusively with the first type [the true pedophile
who "has a general interest in social contact with children, including a sexual dimension"], which
constitutes approximately 5% of all pedosexually active men."[37] A survey of cases of fatherdaughter incest concluded that most involve fathers who are situational offenders, rather than
pedophiles.[38]

Ephebophilia
Template:Moreinfo

Initiation
A sexual initiation is a first experience of sexual intercourse by a child, usually a teenager or late
adolescent, with an adult, and is more common among boys and women than girls and men.

Prostitution
Template:Moreinfo

Legal implications
Issues
Sexual relations between adults and children are widely outlawed, although the definition of child
varies greatly between different cultures and jurisdictions. Adults violating these laws are generally
subject to severe criminal penalties, in some cases life imprisonment or capital punishment.
The popular consensus in defining the appropriate age of consent has moved upwards in modern
times, coincident with changes in scientific and moral views of human sexuality and the
psychological and social nature of childhood. In England, the legal age of consent was 10 for three
centuries, until the end of the 19th century.[39] By the turn of the 20th century, 14 to 18 had become
the norm in many places, particularly Western and Western-influenced countries.[40] In the 21st
century, sexual relationships between adults and minors aged 16 to 18 are now considered legal in
most countries, but legal variations exist allowing for ages of consent as young as 12 or as old as
21. A minority of countries either do not have any enforceable legal age of consent regulations, or
have abolished such regualtions entirely in favour of arbitrary societal judgement and local customs.
[41]. According to the 2001 Human Rights Watch World Report, in Yemen in 1999 the minimum
marriage age of fifteen for women, rarely enforced, was abolished; the onset of puberty, interpreted
by conservatives to be at the age of nine, was set as a requirement for consummation of marriage.
[42]
While sexual intercourse without consent is considered rape, adult's intercourse with a child below
the legal age of consent, either with or without consent, is punishable under law with varying
severity. In case of statutory rape, consent by the child is not considered as legal consent.

French petitions and letters

In 1977, a petition was addressed to the French Parliament calling for the repeal of several articles
of the age-of-consent law and the decriminalization of all consented relations between adults and
minors below the age of fifteen (the age of consent in France at the time). The document was signed
by the philosophers Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir,
as well as by novelist and gay activist Guy Hocquenghem, and by "people belonging to a wide
range of political positions".[43][44] Similar sentiments were expressed by 69 signers of an open
letter published January 26, 1977 in Le Monde concerning two men accused of violating France's
age of consent law.
Another open letter was published in Libration in March, 1979, this time signed by 63 prominent
French intellectuals, supporting a Frenchman accused of sexual relations with girls aged 6 to 12.
According to the letter, the girls' "blooming shows before the eyes of all, including their parents, the
happiness that they found with him."[45]

Academic research
Difficulty in researching
Psychiatrist Jay R. Feierman, describing what he considers to be the most common shortcomings of
literature on Adult-child sex, writes:
...most of the lay and professional literature, although voluminous, reflect a narrow anthropo-,

ethno-, and chronocentrism that precludes any real understanding of the topic with anything
more than the preconceptions of our times. The writing is anthropocentric because the topic
often is discussed as though humans were the only species in which sexual behavior between
adults and nonadults is found. The writing is ethnocentric because the behavior is discussed as
though it were, somehow, peculiar to Western industrialized societies. The writing is
chronocentric because the behavior is discussed as though it were a recent development in the
history of the human species. All of these -centrisms obscure the fact that the behavior is
seen in other species, societies, and times and has to be understood within these broader
contexts.[46]