The paper deals with sex crimes against minors, focusing on the offenders and their social stigmatization. We discuss their characteristics, examining selected interpretations and classifications of the phenomenon of pedophilia. It is presented here from two perspectives, psychological and legal. First, pedophilia is presented as a complex psychiatric disorder which can cause “behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child” (DSM-V). Second, legal regulations concerning sexually-based crimes against minors are discussed as they are formulated in the Polish Criminal Code. Presenting the psychological and legal characteristics of this type of sex crime, we try to find the reasons for frequent recidivism among the offenders (stigmatization is believed to be one of them).
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