The word comes from the Greek: παῖς (paîs), meaning “child,” and φιλία (philía), “friendly love” or “friendship”. This literal meaning has been altered toward sexual attraction in modern times, under the titles “child love” or “child lover,” by paedophiles who use symbols and codes to identify their preferences.

1. Infantophilia, or Nepiophilia, is used to refer to a sexual preference for infants and toddlers (usually ages 0–3)

2. Paedophilia is used for individuals with a primary sexual interest in prepubescent children aged 13 or younger

3. Hebephilia is defined as individuals with a primary sexual interest in 12-15 year old pubescents

The over-riding factor when sentencing a paedophile in a court of law is establishing the Aggravating & Mitigating Factors. By breaking this down I will try to explain the different types of paedophilic behaviour –

Paedophiles can be anyone — old or young, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, non-professional or professional, female/male and of any race.

Adults who sexually abuse children are paedophiles. Paedophilia is a real phenomenon, where adults get sexually excited by, and enjoy the total domination involved in, having sex with a child. They find the innocence and purity of the children sexually exciting and enjoy defiling them. They enjoy the absolute powerlessness of the child as they carry out their sexual abuse. They are sexual predators and are a danger to society. They are usually very manipulative, deceitful and conniving.

Over the last decade there has been a rise of female predators – As a society, we find women sex offenders difficult to acknowledge. But women are capable of terrible crimes against children – just as bad as men. Some female abusers remain hidden because they appeared before the family courts, where their cases were not publicised because of reporting restrictions. 

It’s hard enough for adult men to admit abuse but to admit to abuse by a woman is even harder because it challenges their masculinity, it challenges their sexuality

Paedophiles attempt to gain the child’s affection and interest by being friendly, often fixing on children who are otherwise deprived of affection. It is not uncommon for paedophiles to go to great lengths over considerable periods of time to place themselves in situations where they can access children.

Because paedophiles are, by definition, attracted to children, often of a fairly narrow age range, their attraction to any one child is only of limited duration.

As the child grows older, the paedophile ceases to be attracted and seeks a younger replacement. Thus there is an in-built tendency to commit offences against a large number of victims. 

Paedophiles work hard at stalking their targets and will patiently work to develop relationships with them. It is not uncommon for them to be developing a long list of potential victims at any one time.

Many of them believe that what they are doing is not wrong and that having sex with a child is actually “healthy” for the child.

Most Paedophiles that have been caught during their middle age for abusing a child will generally have at least one victim !

The majority of children who experienced sexual abuse had more than one sexually abusive experience; only indecent exposure was likely to be a single incident.

Three-quarters (72%) of sexually abused children did not tell anyone about the abuse at the time

27% told someone later.

Around a third(31%) still had not told anyone about their experience(s) by early adulthood.

Almost all paedophiles have a collection of child abuse images, which they protect at all costs. Many of them also collect “souvenirs” from their victims. They rarely discard either their porn or collections for any reason.

One factor that works against the paedophile is that eventually the children will grow up and recall the events that occurred. Often paedophiles are not brought to justice until such time occurs and victims are angered by being victimized/exploited and found the courage and strength to speak out and to protect other children from the same consequences.

Level 1 Paedophile

A paedophile may have sexual fantasy’s of children but never actually act on them urges, instead keeping them to themselves. (something which I do not personally believe)

Level 2 Paedophile

A level 2 paedophile will seek indecent images of children online. Viewing very low indecent images to start. But as time progress’s so does the urge for more indecent and graphic pictures/videos.

There have been cases in the UK where one paedophile has been found with over 1 million images on their computers. These images are graded by indecency – The copine scale –

Level one: Images of erotic posing, with no sexual activity;

Level two: Non-penetrative sexual activities between children, or solo masturbation by a child;

Level three: Non-penetrative sexual activity between adults and children;

Level four: Penetrative sexual activity involving a child or children, or both children and adults;

Level five: Sadism or involving the penetration of, or by, an animal (Bestiality)

Note: UK courts now use a new scale for images – Click this for more info

Level 3 Paedophile

As level 2 but outwardly seeking children to befriend, maybe online via social networking sites or by using webcam chat rooms. This is called “grooming”. Child sex abusers find the internet an easier place to participate in a range of child sexual abuse activity including contact with children due to the anonymity of the medium. They find a sense of security by operating from the safety of their own homes. It is easy for ‘groomers’ to find child victims online. They generally use chat rooms which are focussed around young people’s interests. They often pretend to be younger and may even change their gender. Many give a false physical description of themselves which may bear no resemblance to their real appearance – some send pictures of other people, pretending that it is them. Groomers may also seek out potential victims by looking through personal websites such as social networking sites.They will often use a number of grooming techniques including building trust with the child through lying, creating different personas and then attempting to engage the child in more intimate forms of communication including compromising a child with the use of images and webcams. Child sex abusers will often use blackmail and guilt as methods of securing a meeting with the child.

Level 4

Level 4 covers a wide range of paedophilic activitys. Physical sexual abuse is almost always the main aim of the offender. But also the power and control a paedophile will exert over the child will be a major factor. This is why the majority of children that are groomed are that of a age that will not challenge the behaviour of the offender – some examples are as follows –

• showing adult pornography to a child

• deliberately exposing an adult’s genitals to a child

• photographing a child in sexual poses

• encouraging a child to watch or hear sexual acts

• inappropriately watching a child undress or use the bathroom

Level 5

A level 5 paedophile is by far the most dangerous – This is commonly known as a child molester – one who acts on their fantasys, and is willing to take the final step to physical sexual abuse. Sexual abusers are more likely to be people we know, and could well be people we care about; after all more than 8 out of 10 children who are sexually abused know their abuser. They can be family members or friends, neighbours or babysitters and groomers online who have built up a trust with the victim – many hold responsible positions in society, such as scout leaders, teachers, clergymen,police etc….. Where they have access to children

Child sexual abuse includes a variety of sexual offenses, including:

• sexual assault – a term defining offenses in which an adult touches a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification; for example, rape (including sodomy), and sexual penetration with an object. Most countrys include, in their definitions of sexual assault, any contact of a minor’s body, however slight, if the contact is performed for the purpose of sexual gratification.

• sexual exploitation – a term defining offenses in which an adult victimizes a minor for advancement, sexual gratification, or profit; for example, prostituting a child, and creating or trafficking in child abuse images/videos.

• sexual grooming – defines the social conduct of a potential child sex offender who seeks to make a minor more accepting of their advances, for example in an online chat room

  The sexual abuse of children works in ways similar to drug addicts. First they start with the lower end indecent images but after a while they need to satisfy their urges more. And work their way up the indecency scale (copine scale). The pervert will want more fresh and explicit pictures. Finally ending in endless wanting of the real thing. This is ultimately the sexual abuse of a child. Once addicted to this world of perversion and evil they will find it almost impossible to stop the escalation of wanting and needing more until they are caught.

Characteristics of a Paedophile :

• Often the paedophile is male and over 30 years of age.

• Single or with few friends in his age group.

• If married, the relationship is more “companion” based with no sexual relations.

• He is often vague about time gaps in employment which may indicate a loss in employment for questionable reasons or possible past incarceration.

Paedophiles Like Child-like Activities:

• He is often fascinated with children and child activities appearing to prefer those activities to adult oriented activities.

• He will often refer to children in pure or angelic terms using descriptives like innocent, heavenly, divine, pure, and other words that describe children but seem inappropriate and exaggerated.

Paedophiles Often Prefer Children Close to Puberty:

• Paedophiles often have a specific age of child they target. Some prefer younger children, some older.

• Often his environment or a special room will be decorated in child-like decor and will appeal to the age and sex of the child he is trying to entice.

• Many paedophiles often prefer children close to puberty who are sexually inexperienced, but curious about sex.

Paedophiles Work Around Children:

The paedophile will often be employed in a position that involves daily contact with children. If not employed, he will put himself in a position to do volunteer work with children, often in a supervisory capacity such as sports coaching, contact sport instruction, unsupervised tutoring or a position where he has the opportunity to spend unsupervised time with a child.

The Target Child:

The paedophile often seeks out shy, handicapped, and withdrawn children, or those who come from troubled homes or under privileged homes. He then showers them with attention, gifts, taunting them with trips to desirable places like amusement parks, zoo’s, concerts, the beach and other such places.