Ephebophiles

Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19 and showing Tanner stages 4 to 5 of physical development. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid-20th century. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term ''chronophilia.'' ''Ephebophilia'' strictly denotes the ''preference'' for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction. It is not a psychiatric diagnosis.

In research environments, specific terms are used for chronophilias: for instance, ''ephebophilia'' to refer to the sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, ''hebephilia'' to refer to the sexual preference for earlier pubescent individuals, and ''pedophilia'' to refer to the primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children.

Etymology and definitions

The term ''ephebophilia'' comes from the ''ephebos'' (from epi "upon" + hebe "youth", "early manhood") defined as "a youth of eighteen to twenty, particularly one who underwent his ''dokimasia'' and was registered as a citizen (Athens)", and ''-philia'' . It has been used in publications by Dutch psychologist Frits Bernard in 1950, and reprinted in 1960 in the gay support magazine ''Vriendschap'' under the pseudonym Victor Servatius, crediting the origin of the term to Magnus Hirschfeld with no exact date given. The word was in fact first published in French (), from Georges Saint-Paul's 1896 book, ''Tares et Poisons: Perversion et Perversité Sexuelles''.

The term was described by Frenchman Félix Buffière in 1980, and Pakistani scholar Tariq Rahman, who argued that ''ephebophilia'' should be especially used with regard to homosexuality when describing the aesthetic and erotic interest of adult men in adolescent boys in classical Persian, Turkish, or Urdu literature. The term was additionally revived by Ray Blanchard to denote men who sexually prefer 15- to 19-year-olds. The typical ephebophilic age range has also been given as ages 15–16. Women's sexual interest in adolescents has been studied significantly less than men's sexual interest in adolescents.

Although ephebophilia is not a psychiatric diagnosis, the term ''pedophilia'' is commonly used by the general public and the media, at least in the English-speaking world, to refer to any sexual interest by significantly older adults in minors below the local age of consent or even people below the local age of majority, regardless of their level of physical and/or mental development.

Characteristics

Mid-to-late adolescents typically have physical characteristics near or identical to that of legal adults. Because of this, scholars Skye Stephens and Michael C. Seto argue that ephebophilia contrasts what a paraphilia entails since "older adolescents are reproductively viable and the fact that typically men are sexually attracted to older adolescents, as reflected in self-report, psychophysiological, and pornography use studies." Psychiatrist and sexologist Fred Berlin states that most men can find persons in this age group sexually attractive, but that "of course, that doesn't mean they're going to act on it. Some men who become involved with teenagers may not have a particular disorder. Opportunity and other factors may have contributed to their behaving in the way they do". According to psychologist and sexologist James Cantor

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