Besides the obvious problem, what it is also troubling is the fact that media outlets refer to the perpetrators as “pedophiles”. Defying presumptions that “pedophiles” are “old men”, the arrested perpetrators are underage and in their 20s.

What does pedophilia actually mean? When it is applied to this case, where is the confusion?   What is the impact of invoking this term if it is considered synonymous with child sexual abuse?

Let me be very clear on this point. There is no denying the serious harmful impacts of child sexual abuse. It is imperative to stop people using sex as a weapon to inflict pain and damage. But easily reducing, labeling and aligning individual sexual practice with sexual abuse prevents more constructive discussions that could enable a thorough understanding of the complexity of sexuality in our society.

When it comes to sexual offenses, to borrow from the scholar Roger N. Lancaster, Indonesia often acts as a “punitive” or carceral state” — overemphasizing  punishment rather than addressing the norms and institutions that provide fertile ground for crimes to flourish. Last year Indonesia introduced chemical castration for rapists, dismissing the fact that sexual violence can happen without genital penetration.

The term pedophilia remains under-examined. Being children, victims are silenced, hampering critical examination of the term.

Sexual categories emerged in a particular period, and were constructed by authorities powerful enough to develop knowledge, like psychiatry and medicine. Therefore, it is worth examining how the birth and application of pedophilia does not always capture the complexity of sexuality.

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