Like most people, I am disgusted by child sex abuse, but as the article points out, not all child sex abusers are pedophiles nor do all pedophiles abuse children. In fact, when I think about most of the cases of sex abuse I have heard about in my life, it seems far more common that children are molested in a situation where a primarily heterosexual man takes advantage of an opportunity to offend (and often the abuse is enabled by the child’s mother unfortunately - cases like where the mom knows the stepfather is molesting the kid but chooses to ignore it and so on, which I find as evil as actually molesting the child).
I seriously think it would be nice if society would allow pedophiles who don’t want to offend to easily undergo chemical/physical castration - not as a punishment, but just to allow them to function without being troubled by these impulses. If I were a pedophile in our current society, I would probably just end up killing myself because I would feel like nobody would understand or want to help.
In the modern age, it should come as no shock to anyone that we are all victims of our genetics and our environments, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
While I think that is a compelling reason rethink our penchant to hate and revile certain people, I think it’s also a compelling reason to evaluate the goals of our justice system, and what we do with people inside it.
(The alienation and murder parts are possible if they publicize their desires, but murder is still rare.)
No one is imprisoned for admitting a desire to be involved with children sexually. It is probably a great tragedy for a person to be born to grow up with those desires, but to involve the law requires that one actively engage in the molestation of a child.
I am perfectly willing to feel sorry for such people, and I support finding medical and psychiatric ways to eliminate or reduce their impulses, but as long as they do not broadcast their desires they will not suffer alienation by other people, and as long as they do not act on those desires they are safe from the law (in the U.S.).
in his book Journey into Darkness retired FBI agent John Douglas writes there’s nothing wrong with having the desires of a pedophile as long as you do not exploit children in any way. He considers talking to or taking photos in public of children, using them and children’s toys to masturbate acceptable.
Child pornography or Internet sites is wrong and illegal.
I agree. There was a thread a while back where someone admitted to being a hebephile (attracted to those who are just starting puberty, around 11-12). He said he never acted on it which I assume is true otherwise I guess he wouldn’t have posted it on a message board.
A lot of people supported him, and I hope he got competent counseling to help keep his urges in check so no one gets hurt. But he said he tried seeing a therapist for it once and the therapist tried to report him to the police.
There are groups that try to get pedophiles who want to keep their urges from becoming something they actually act on though.
And, of course, there is the debate over drawings of naked children, created without any actual person serving as a model. Someone just sketches a picture. Many people say this should be acceptable, but some consider it a bad thing.
Another possibility would be a “child-sized” mannequin as a sex toy. Adult sized sex toys are getting better, and, of course, the future of robotics will likely be the future of sex-robotics.
My sympathies like with those who can only get sexual gratification by killing their sexual partners. Our society needs to be more open minded about such things. After all, it’s a victimless crime, isn’t it?
Whatever protects children. If a more “welcoming” environment, by reducing the stigma for coming out as attracted to children and seeking help, would reduce abuse of children, then I’m all for it. I don’t know if this is the case, but I do think it’s likely that there are people who are sexually attracted to children who never act on it. For borderline cases who might or might not act on their desires, I’d be for anything that might get them help to prevent the victimization of children.
There must be some who don’t act because they fear the consequences; reducing stigma frees them to act. And at the same time there is actual abuse that goes unreported, at least for a time; I don’t see how society shifting to view the perpetrators as less loathsome would protect those kids.
You might be right. But if we can focus the stigma on the action but not the desire- treat the desire as a terrible illness- then perhaps it might prevent a few of them from turning into monsters. But I don’t know. I could be totally off here.
The OP contains some words from a researcher who makes a leap from some evidence of conditions found later in life to a pre-natal condition. Based on the information provided there I would have to assume that pedophiles are stupid left-handed people. I see no mention of a genetic basis for pedophilia, or even that his conclusion of ‘crossed wiring’ is a pre-natal condition.
Men are attracted to signs of youth. For most cultures around the world, for most of human history, it was not just accepted, it was practically plan A for a man of any age to marry a teenage girl/woman.
So if you find girls of 14 or 15, say, attractive, I’d say that’s fairly normal for a guy, not a sign of brain damage.
That’s of course not to claim that it is morally OK to act upon such desires; a lot of things accepted in the past we now see as morally repugnant.
(Also, it’s largely irrelevant, but FTR I’m not very attracted to teens myself…in my case my taste in women has aged with me)
Nothing in the link indicates a claim for genetics. Neo-natal can suggest a lot of things. There could be trauma during pregnancy resulting from either direct insult or chemicals ingested by the mother or it could be simply a development misfire that is frequent enough to show up in the population but not sufficiently fatal to eliminate it from the population.
While we have identified connections between genetics and cleft palate, for example, we do not have a one-to-one genetic explanation and a number of cases of cleft palate have not yet had any genetic connection identified. Given the years that have been invested in studying cleft palate vs the brief period that the same sort of examination has been conducted on pedophilia, it is hardly surprising that we do not yet have a direct genetic connection.
(Bolding added by me.)
Perpetrators, yes, but what about people with urges but don’t act on them? Would we be best served if society was open enough that these people could get help?
I have a friend who is addicted to (adult) porn, which was putting a strain on his marriage, among other things. He was able to come forward with his addiction and got support from his friends and family, which now makes it easier for him to avoid porn. Perhaps we’d get lower incidences of child molestation if people could get the same kind of support.