It's a scary thought to know that a pedophile is moving into your neighborhood. Parents become suspicious and worried, because they will be devastated if anything were to ever happen to their child. They want to know everything about the pedophile, including past convictions. The person wonders how an individual could ever perform those sexual acts with a child, knowing very well the outcome of their choice. Their immediate assumption is that the pedophile is a torched human being, unworthy of acceptance and forgiveness. But what exactly happens in the pedophile's brain and why does he make these choices? And what exactly are the consequences of their acts for them and their victims? Pedophilia is a dangerous desire for the person and the child. What is pedophilia? Paraphilias and Sexual PerversionsWith the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit live shows, we think we automatically know as much as possible about pedophiles and sex offenders. In almost every episode they discuss psychological thought processes, personal history, and even reasoning. But it doesn't give us a complete picture of what pedophilia is, and Dr. George Haung doesn't always know all the answers. To truly understand what the characteristics of a pedophile are, you need to understand what that person's sexual desires are. Alan Goldman quotes “Sexual desire is the desire for contact with the body of another person and for the pleasure that such contact derives; sexual activity is the activity that tends to satisfy this desire of the agent” (Soble, 2008). So what exactly does Alan mean by this? The desire for some kind of pleasant, not necessarily sexual, contact drives our sexual desires. And then there are those desires to smell, or touch a...... middle of paper ......ciation.Finkelhor, D. (1981). Children sexually victimized. New York City: Free Press. Handbook of social work in sexual abuse of children and adolescents (1 ed.). (2008). New York: Haworth Press.Hershkowitz, I., Lamb, M., & Horowitz, D. (2007). Victimization of children with disabilities. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77(4), 629-635. doi:10.1037/0002-9432.77.4.629.Merriam-Webster. (2003). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition (book only) (11th revised edition). Springfield: Merriam-Webster.Soble, A. (2008). The philosophy of sex and love: an introduction (exemplary problems in philosophy) (2nd revised edition). New York: Paragon House Publishers. National Center for Victims of Crime - Library/Document Viewer. (n.d.). The National Center for Victims of Crime - Home. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&Doc