pedophile
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17 November 2025
Journalist and podcaster Megyn Kelly became the subject of the news this past week when she repeated a claim on her podcast that Jeffrey Epstein was not a pedophile. Her exact words were:
As for Epstein, I’ve said this before but this is just a reminder, I do know somebody very, very close to this case who is in a position to know virtually everything, not everything, but virtually everything. And this person has told me from the start, years and years ago that Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile. This is this person’s view who was there for a lot of this, but that he was into the barely legal type. Like he liked fifteen-year-old girls.
What Kelly, and the person she is ventriloquizing, was doing is the common mistake (or in this case perhaps deliberate obfuscation or deception) of conflating a scientific or technical definition of a word with how it is used in common parlance. Perhaps the most pervasive occurrence of this mistake is with the word theory. In scientific circles a theory is an overarching explanation that takes into account all available evidence and that can be used to make predictions about future discoveries, as in the theory of relativity. But in common parlance a theory is a conjecture or hypothesis that has yet to be supported by evidence, as in I have a theory about that.
Words can have multiple meanings, and both definitions are “correct.” But it is a misuse to apply a definition to a context to which it is not intended. For instance, creationists often use the common definition of theory to cast doubt on the theory of evolution, which is not a mere hypothesis or conjecture but a well-supported explanation.
Just such a difference in definitions exists for pedophilia. Psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) gives the diagnostic criteria for pedophilic disorder as:
A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger).
B. The individual has acted on these sexual urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.
C. The individual is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A.
Note: Do not include an individual in late adolescence involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 12- or 13-year-old.
That’s a precise definition intended for the mental health community and contexts. There are two other terms commonly used in psychiatric/psychological circles that are not officially recognized as disorders by the DSM-5-TR. These are hebephila, that is a sexual preference for prepubescent/early adolescent children (roughly ages eleven to fourteen) and ephebophilia, that is a sexual preference for older adolescents (fifteen to eighteen). Neither of these terms are in widespread use by the general public.
While the distinction between these three psychiatric terms is relevant in the context of mental health, they are not relevant to moral or legal contexts, which center on the consent of the victim, not the sexual predilections of the abuser, and that is what most people are concerned with when they use the term pedophile. In common parlance, pedophile can refer to any adult who engages in sexual activity with a minor regardless of age.
Kelly’s error is in applying the psychiatric definition of pedophilia in a context of moral judgment. The DSM-5-TR does not make moral judgments, only diagnoses of mental disorders. Epstein may not have suffered from mental illness as defined by the DSM-5-TR, but his actions were still abhorrent and illegal.
Kelly is by no means the first to misuse these terms as a potential defense for what are morally objectional acts. I first heard this excuse used many years ago in the defense of “pedophile priests” by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, then the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, DC. McCarrick claimed the priests weren’t pedophiles, but rather ephebophiles. McCarrick, who died earlier this year, was later found himself to have abused underage boys and was removed from public ministry in 2018. This bogus defense continues to be used by Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, with Donahue claiming that “Kelly is right about Epstein.”
As a legal matter, none of these terms are relevant, at least in a US context. The terminology used in the law varies by jurisdiction, but the most common operative terms are sexual assault or sexual abuse of a minor, which is defined by the age of consent in that jurisdiction. But again, it is the ability of the victim to consent, not the state of mind of the abuser, that is relevant in the law.
The definitional problem with pedophilia is compounded by the fact that the definitions given in major dictionaries do not make a clear distinction between the psychiatric and general use, using child and children in the definitions without clarifying if and under what circumstances the use of those words extends to include teenagers.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines pedophilia as “the deriving of sexual gratification from sexual fantasies or acts involving a child.” And the Oxford English Dictionary Online defines it as “sexual desire directed towards children; sexual activity by an adult with a child.” But that latter dictionary also includes citations of use that indicate pedophiliac and pedophile are commonly used to include adolescents, which muddies the definition:
1993 There’s a crazy mixed up family in which the mother supplies her pretty adolescent son as a sex toy for paedophiliac visitors.
1995 A Milwaukee private detective […] posed on the Internet as a 14-year-old girl to ensnare paedophile computer users.
Merriam-Webster does much better with its definition of pedophilia, separating the psychiatric sense from the common one, although exactly what is meant by children in the common sense is still vague:
: sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object
specifically : a psychiatric disorder in which an adult has sexual fantasies about or engages in sexual acts with a prepubescent child
The OED also includes an entry for ephebophilia, defined as “sexual attraction in adults towards adolescents.” The other two dictionaries do not have entries for this term, and none of the three have entries for hebephilia.
It is common for words to have multiple, and sometimes even conflicting, definitions. And it can be an effective, if misleading, rhetorical strategy to misapply such definitions. In the case of pedophile, those who apply the psychiatric definition to moral or legal contexts are attempting to defend the abusers by making the abuse seem less offensive. In Kelly’s case, she would seem to be proactively shielding Donald Trump from accusations that he participated with Epstein in the abuse. In McCarrick’s and Donohue’s cases, they are seeking to shield priests accused of abusing children. While the strategy may be effective, it is morally indefensible.
Sources:
American Heritage Dictionary, fifth edition, 2022, s.v. pedophilia, n.
Donohue, Bill. “Megan Kelly Is Right about Epstein.” Catholic League, 14 November 2025.
“Hebephilia.” Psychology Today, accessed 15 November 2025.
McShane, Julianne. “Megan Kelly Suddenly Finds Pedophilia Very Hard to Define.” Mother Jones, 13 November 2025.
Merriam-Webster, accessed 15 November 2025, s.v. pedophilia, n.
Norman-Eady, Sandra, Christopher Reinhart, and Peter Martino. OLR Research Report: Statutory Rape Laws by State, 2003-R-0376, 14 April 2003. Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research.
Oxford English Dictionary Online, March 2005, s.v. paedophilia | pedophilia, n.; paedophiliac | pedophiliac, adj. & n.; paedophile | pedophile, adj. & n.; March 2006, s.v. ephebophilia, n.
“Paraphilic Disorders.” Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR), 18 March 2022. Psychiatry Online.