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Attraction to adolescent boys

Various terms are used for preferential sexual attraction to boys (and girls) who have reached puberty; that is, cases in which attraction to adolescents is stronger than attraction to adults or prepubescent children.

Again, hebephilia and ephebophilia refer to feelings of attraction, not necessarily to sexual behavior with pubescents or adolescents. Sexual interaction between adults and adolescents is termed ephebosexual behavior .10

Some scholars, particularly historians, use the term pederasty in this context. The Greek word paiderastes originally referred to a man who fell in love with male adolescents. However, pederasty has acquired several meanings over time:

This site is concerned with hebephilia/ephebophilia in those cases involving men's preferential sexual feelings for boys.

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6. Freund, 1981.

7. Feierman, 1990a.

8. Sandfort, 1987; Wilson & Cox, 1983.

9. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM IV-TR, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000.

10. Feierman, 1990a.

11. Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R., Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1959; Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, New York: Merriam-Webster, 1998.