Ephebophilia (in Greek 'ephebos' έφηβος = teenager and 'philia' φιλία = friendship), also known as hebephilia or Lolita syndrome, is the sexual attraction of an adult to adolescents. It is a chronophilia, i.e. belongs to a group of paraphilias of the stigmatic or eligibilic type in which the paraphile's sexuoerotic age is discordant with his or her actual chronological age and is concordant with the age of the partner. Pederasty is the attraction to male adolescents.
Some argue that only men who consistently prefer prepubescent girls are practicing an unsound reproductive strategy (pedophilia), while men who prefer postpubescent girls may practice a very sound reproductive strategy (Ephebophilia). Sociobiological research shows that all primate males prefer young females. A study on human male preferences showed that all males in the study from 7 years and up preferred the faces of 17-year-old girls.
In Japanese society the attraction towards teenage girls (high-school students) is a widespread cultural phenomenon. The manifestations of such attraction, such as lolicon art, school uniform fetishes and sexual relations with teenage girls (e.g. enjo kosai) are more tolerated by society than in the West, but are often illegal.
Often pedophilia and ephebophilia are confused. The reason for this is that definitions of the legal age and the biological age of a child conflict. According to some Catholics, the child abuse cases in the American church often are instances of ephebophilia rather than pedophilia. (See: Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal)
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