Putting Labels on Pedophilia

American Psychiatric Association members have been engaged in well-publicized academic brawls over the last 10 years about the contents of APA’s signature publication, “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” whose fifth edition (DSM-V) was released in May. However, despite the thorough airing of contentious viewpoints as to what is and isn’t a mental illness, its final “consensus” nevertheless labeled “pedophilia” as a sexual “orientation” rather than a “disorder.” Falling under outside criticism almost immediately, APA in October reopened the debate, calling the labeling a “mistake.” (A “sexual orientation” in many state and local jurisdictions affords anti-discrimination rights.)