According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition:
-Nepiophilia is attraction infants and toddlers (age 0-3). It s a sub-type of pedophilia.
-Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty (0-12) It is a mental illness.
-Hebephilia is attraction to children who are in the midst of puberty (11-15) It can be a mental illness, as not all hebephiles meet the clinical diagnosis standards.
-Ephebophilia is attraction to late-puberty (15-19)
-Teleiophilia is attraction to adults. This is the what most consider "normal", as the atraction is adults close to their age.
-Gerontophilia is the attraction to elderly people. Mostly considered a fetishistic impulse.
Approximately 2/3 of sexual abuse were committed by someone known to the victim. From U.S. Department of Justice. 2005 National Crime Victimization Study:
-73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger.
-38% of rapists are a friend or acquaintance.
-28% are an intimate.
-7% are a relative.
Basically speaking, sexual abusers can be placed into two typologies: fixated and regressed. Perpetrators in the first typology, having a more or less exclusive interest in children, have been labeled fixated; a temporary or permanent arrestment of psychological maturation resulting from unresolved formative issues which persist and underlie the organization of subsequent phases of development. Clinically speaking, fixated perpetrators are stuck at an early stage of psychological development.
Perpetrators of the other typology have been labeled as regressed; a temporary or permanent appearance of primitive behavior after more mature forms of expression had been attained, regardless of whether the immature behavior was actually manifested earlier in the individual's development. Regressed perpetrators develop an adult sexual orientation but under certain extreme conditions they regress to an earlier, less mature psychological state and engage in sexual contact with children.
The important point to remember is that many child molesters cannot be meaningfully described as homosexuals, heterosexuals, or bisexuals because they are not capable of a relationship with an adult man or woman. Instead of gender, their sexual attractions are based primarily on age. These individuals, most often fixated, are attracted to children, not to men or women.
Two researchers (Groth, A. Nicholas; Birnbaum, H. Jean (1978). "Adult sexual orientation and attraction to underage persons") conducted a study of 175 adult males who were convicted in Massachusetts of sexual assault against a child. None of the men had an exclusively homosexual adult sexual orientation. 83 (47%) were classified as "fixated;" 70 others (40%) were classified as regressed adult heterosexuals; the remaining 22 (13%) were classified as regressed adult bisexuals. Of the last group, Groth and Birnbaum observed that "in their adult relationships they engaged in sex on occasion with men as well as with women. However, in no case did this attraction to men exceed their preference for women....There were no men who were primarily sexually attracted to other adult males..."
Tons of reserch has been done, and nearly all of it points to the fact that homosexuals are not more likely to be perpetrators of sexual abuse to children. The previously mention Dr. Groth had this to say many years after his research: Dr. A. Nicholas Groth wrote:
"Are homosexual adults in general sexually attracted to children and are preadolescent children at greater risk of molestation from homosexual adults than from heterosexual adults? There is no reason to believe so. The research to date all points to there being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation. There appears to be practically no reportage of sexual molestation of girls by lesbian adults, and the adult male who sexually molests young boys is not likely to be homosexual."