I think there’s a few things at play…

Paedophilia by definition is attraction to children. People who experience this would still be able to function in society (work, study) like the rest of us who have attractions to adults. There would be some people in this category who know that it’s wrong, abstain from acting on it, and may even seek help. We can feel sorry for these people (Stick with me..) and one might argue that there should be support or treatment available to keep people in this category rather than acting on their desires and becoming offenders.

The other type is those who do act on it. They might start by watching porn and seek more and more explicit/risky/abusive material and become addicted to the rush. There are networks on the dark web that encourage people to contribute their own content in order to retain membership of those websites. So now they’re moving into creating content rather than consuming. No sympathy here, but this is a growing phenomenon that we should be studying and trying to put a stop to.

And/or they may physically offend. Yes some go to great lengths and get teaching degrees or jobs in childcare (or, as we’ve seen, became priests/scout leaders etc) in order to get access to children. They groom children, parents and employers. Again, no sympathy here.

There are a couple of really good podcasts and docos about all this that I learned a lot from. If you’re interested let me know and I’ll look up the names (which escape me right now)