Not every pedophile is a rapist.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Being a child molester makes a person scum. I don't really care whether the motive is sexual attraction, power dynamics, drunkenness, or what-have-you.

But I'd be willing to bet that child rape is underreported, and therefore underprosecuted. Assumption? Sure. Unreasonable? Not at all.

And the point in that post of mine, that you cannot predict if or when a pedophile will give in to his or her urge, remains unanswered.

I'm lost at the relevance I suppose. Is a child molestor scum..sure but you're allowing your emotions to get in the way of the conversation. I'm only saying that being a child molestor doesn't make someone a pedophile and being a pedophile doesn't make someone a child molestor. And I think saying either one is unreasonable. That was my entire point. Everything else is just emotional baggage added in. Of course we protect our children. How is that relevant to the topic at hand though?

Here's the relevance. I wrote:

It's not self-selecting. It's selected by the efficiency of law-enforcement, the willingness and/or ability of victims to report the crime, and the ability of prosecutors to prove the incident happened.

I wouldn't call that conclusion "ridiculous".  "Unsupported"? Sure. "Erring on the side of caution"? Just as surely.

Because you cannot, and do not, know if and when any particular pedophile will give into his drive.

You replied:

I'd say it's highly a highly unreasonable assumption. Being a child molester doesn't even make a person a pedophile. Rapists don't usually seek out people based on sexual attraction. I'd say the vast majority of them seek out victims based on accessibility and likelihood of not being caught.

You didn't address this point of mine at all in your reply. I wrote that child molestation is probably underreported. You called it an unreasonable assumption, but you didn't explain why that might be so.

All I'm saying is that this assumption, that most pedophiles are not molesters, is equally questionable, because as has been noted already, there's a paucity of data.

And yes, I included my opinion that if someone molests a child they're scum.