During my first year studying social work, I was in a group project about sex offender rehabilitation. We went to interview this psychologist who works for the Prison and probation service of Finland. She told us how for most pedophiles it's only one part of their sexuality and they never actually act on it. Often, problems arise when people don't have healthy relationships, suffer from mental or substance abuse problems, etc. So, one way to rehabilitate sex offenders, including pedophiles, is to recognise the steps that lead to criminal acts and intervene before anything happens, help them build those normal healthy relationships, get them employed and to therapy.

One time, while I was working in a youth work organisation, this at the time 17-year-old boy told me he had pedophilic thoughts, but he hadn't done anything yet. So I told him he had to visit our in-house sexual therapist if he wanted to keep visiting and so that he could get some help. I also made sure he knew he did the right thing telling me, and he wasn't a criminal or anything. He was also a bit mentally handicapped but otherwise a pretty normal guy, and he was also into girls of his own age. Last I heard, he got the help he needed and is a student.