Your problem is you re looking at pedophilia as a crime, but it’s not. Child molestation is.
Perhaps I would not commend a thief for not stealing because if he is a thief that means he has already stolen once before thus earning the label. I wouldn’t commend a child molester for not molesting a child.
I might commend someone with kleptomania if they didn’t steal something. It definitely is not something analogous, however, because the severity of the crime is quite different.
I might not care as much about the kleptomaniacs desire to steal. If a the kleptomaniac does steal thus earning the label thief, I might forgive that thief because they have a mental illness.
The same can not be said for pedophiles. If a pedophile crosses the line to become a child molester, that’s unforgivable, but even then I believe there are shades of gray.
No matter what Perverted Justice say, they are not acting like innocent adolescent children. I have a hard time buying that young girls would respond positively or even neutrally to some of the disgusting things these men say to them. Possibly these men do think that the girls they are talking to are truly underage and perhaps some have malicious intent. These people should go to jail, but I find it very difficult to swallow that these people are getting such harsh sentences for talking to what seem to be a willing or at the very least curious teenager.
My mom was 15 when she dated my dad who was 24. Today, my dad might as well be labelled a pedophile, but it was my mom who was the one who sought it out. It was consensual. She was not traumatized by the event in which I was conceived. Possibly because there wasn’t so much hysteria about it at the time. My grandmother didn’t prosecute my father and instead insisted they got married. There was no trauma because no one made my mother a victim!
So I don’t buy that ALL of these potential encounters are traumatic or harmful. In fact I sort of owe my life to one such encounter. I will say that I personally DO NOT CONDONE IT, but the sentencing and labeling seem harsh for the age these girls are.
It’s not like their completely oblivious to sex or what the consequences are at that age. I was well aware in elementary school what it was. i do not view 14 and 15yo girls the same way I view an 8yo. I think it is VERY different.
The fact that people are making it so black and white is disturbing in my opinion. When I was 18 and a senior I dated a 14 yo girl who was a freshman. We never had sex, but if I had consummated our relationship, would I have been labelled a pedophile? I am sure her parents wouldn’t have encouraged us having sex, but I don’t think they would have wanted me to go to jail either.
Again, that was only a four year difference. Perhaps we are at least able to accept that there should be some gradiation as to what is acceptable and what isn’t. In that respect I think it’s pretty disgusting that Rupert Murdoch has a wife who is young enough to be his granddaughter.