Being drawn to this age category makes biological and evolutionary sense.
The typical attraction to young sexually mature adults is called teleiophilia. There is almost no research on mesophilia or gerontophilia, probably because acting on them is legal, as long as the other person consents. Other atypical chronophilias focus on middle-aged persons ( mesophilia) or the elderly ( gerontophilia). Surprisingly little research is available about these crimes, even though they are frequent, with approximately one in four rapes recorded by police in the U.S. Ephebophilia can explain some cases of statutory rape involving “consensual” relationships between adults and teens who are under the legal age of consent. There are other lesser-known chronophilias, including attraction to infants or toddlers (nepiophilia) and sexually maturing teens who are not yet adults (ephebophilia). Senate candidate Roy Moore and his alleged behavior toward teenaged girls. Many people first heard the term ‘ephebophilia’ when media used it in reports about U.S. This is quite different from the traditional way that psychologists view chronophilias, as sexual preferences that are distinct from someone’s identity. Recently, I’ve started to think about these age-specific attractions as sexual orientations for age, similar to how we understand sexual orientation for gender. My research focuses on chronophilias and sexual offending against children. These age-based attractions are called chronophilias. But a small minority of men are sexually attracted to other age groups, from infants to the elderly. Most men are sexually attracted to sexually mature young adults. But the description is representative of stories I’ve heard from the hundreds of individuals I’ve talked with as a psychologist and researcher over the past 25 years. Smith is actually a case composite from my first book on pedophilia. He later admitted he’d been attracted to boys since his own adolescence. He initially denied the charge, but eventually admitted to sexually abusing multiple youth. Smith was a 27-year-old man referred for psychological treatment after sexually offending against a 13-year-old boy.