Are you kidding? Surely this hypothetical individual isn’t the only politician you could find to support what you support.
According to this site http://www.psych.org/public_info/pedfacts2.pdf treatment success for pedophilia is “guarded” so a pedophic act is likely at any time. Pedophilia is a felony so why vote for someone who fantasizes about committing a particularly reprehensible felony?
And I don’t really consider refusing to elect someone to politcal office as a form of punishment.
<nitpick>Pedophilia is not a felony, any more than thinking of shooting someone is. Child molestation is a crime, but finding children attractive (sexually) is not.</nitpick>
Tough call, overall. But, if he’s never acted on that, and considers it something wrong to do, then I don’t see anything wrong with it appart from the ickyness-factor so many people would have with it. So given that, yeah, probably. Though like was mentioned, it’d be a throw-away vote, so it might be better to vote for the second-best candidate.
Heck, I’ve got several friends with weird and/or sick fantasies (Me too, I guess), and none of them would do anything like them. And I know many other people that do, too.
Hell, I don’t vote for anyone as it is. But, in theory, a person being a pedophile doesn’t hold them out of office IMO. Now, if all the senators were girl and boy scouts… but I digress.
quote:
originally posted by robertliguori
Absence of evidence, as someone smarter than I once said, is not evidence of absence. Just because he’s not given evidence of intent to commit pedophilia doesn’t mean he’s not intending it. True, he hasn’t so far, but that’s not a promise that he won’t in the future.
I’d also like to clarify the phrase “about to act”. Does the OP mean:
or
That makes a difference, methinks.
Come to think of it, does “act” only imply an act of molestation, or does it include downloading/purchasing child pornography?
If he knows pedophilia is wrong, why doesn’t he seek a way to further ensure that he’ll never act on his fantasies? I’ve read about *at least one study which suggests pedophiliacs can be treated with some success.
If he says he knows pedophilia is wrong but doesn’t seek treatment to prevent/lessen feelings he knows could cause him to commit it, can he be trusted? If he were in treatment, I might feel slightly better about his promise.
I’d view his failure to seek treatment to be possibly suspicious & definitely imprudent, not to mention that it would just (perhaps illogically) give me the creeps. Hence, no vote for him.
*There’s an article in the NEJM (2/12/1998, Vol. 338, No. 7 Pages 416-422) about a study re: chemical treatment. I’ve read other articles (not from journals) that suggest talk therapy as well.
say it with me now…“Preview is my friend!”.
2)"…intent to commit pedophilia…" should read, “…intent to commit child molestation/other pedophilic acts…”
Oy.
The point I’m driving at is that people are conditioned to think pedophile = evil monster. So, I thought up a situation in which pedophilia would have no relavence to what job the pedophile is performing. Also, why are we assuming that pedophiles can’t control their desires without “treatment”? At any rate, what difference would someone’s sexual desires make in public office?
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I think that people missed the:
<quote>
person who would otherwise be your personal favorite candidate for the public office of your choice
</quote>
and
<quote>
assuming that you aren’t saving your vote for a politico because you believe that a known pedophile would never be elected.
</quote>
Also, that non-vote-wasting policy is self-fufilling.
So to reiterate, a candidate who is everything you want in a politician is also a pedophile. Would you vote for him/her, or not and WHY?
Also, why assume s/he’s male?
As has already been mentioned, people have all sorts of weird and wonderful fantasies that are never put into practice, so I would have no hesitation (on the premises offered) voting for someone who was self-declared. If anything, such a public declaration would make me trust someone MORE.
Your nitpick is right and it’s not exactly a nitpick. I need to be more precise. However in my defense, in the website I referenced from the American Psychiatric Assn., that organization ties pedophilia and acting on that pedophilia together pretty closely.
He might not feel like he needs it, and he could very well be right. Again, I think of the many people I know with weird fantasies that would never act on them, and none need counseling for it.
Ehh… I just didn’t really think it was something to make a big deal out of really, that’s why. Seemed more like a nitpick than anything to get worked up about, after all, just wanted to say something as polite as I could 
Especially since it seems to be a touchy topic sometimes.
Originally posted by robertliguori
Not to sound snotty, but why would we assume that they can control their desires without treatment? To my knowledge, pedophilia is classified in the DSM-IV as a mental disorder. Why not err on the side of caution & seek treatment?
To my knowledge, most pedophiles are indeed male. I don’t have a cite, I’m afraid, & if I turn out to be wrong, I shall sit corrected.
So to once again answer your general question; I wouldn’t vote for said politico (or politica? :)) because I would question the person’s judgement.
I am of the Humble Opinion that MOST people can control their desires.
The OP was quite clear that it was a confession of orientation rather than will.
There are all sorts of things we’d LIKE to do that we don’t.
(If the lady down the street is reading this, next time you rev your car to the buggery at 5.00 a.m. I would LIKE to smack you out. However, i am not predisposed to violence, so it is HIGHLY unlikely that I will attack you. As much as I’d love to disconnect your battery leads, I am able to control my desires…for now)
Would I vote for a pedophile? No.
Maybe if the other candidate was even more evil?
If the pedophile got a “chemical straight jacket”?
Hmm… Nope.
Ah, but the pedophile is predisposed to pedophilia.
Well, that’s kinda like saying someone with violent fantasies if predisposed to violent thoughts. Well, yeah, of course. Not necessarily violence, but violent thoughts. Along the same lines of the nitpick above
Yeah, but … as I said before, the American Psychiatric Assn. in this site Home │ psychiatry.org ties pedolphilic thoughts pretty closely with pedophilic action.
Maybe the difference is that most “violents thoughts” aren’t the result of a mental disorder while pedophilic thoughs are. My argument was with the implied claim that pedophiles could control their impulses to act if they would just, as my mother used to say, “apply themselves.” The available evidence doesn’t seems to indicate that to be true.
According to the site, the psychiatrists Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM-IV) “pedophilia involves sexual activity by an adult with a prepubescent child…” Apparently to a large degree the psychiatric consensus is that thought and the deed are nearly one and the same thing in pedophilia.
Depends on how one says it’s tied. It’s a pretty safe bet that most people who commit “pedophilic actions” think pedophilic thoughts. Much like people who commit violent actions probably think violent thoughts. Etc. The question is, though, how much they’re tied in the -other- direction; IE, how well the thoughts are tied to commiting the action.
And it also seems many people do consider recurrant violent thoughts to be a sign of being mentally disturbed.
The APA site seems to me to make it plain that the clinical experience is that most patients who think pedophilic thoughts also take action. Maybe I’m reading more into the site than others.
Could you direct us to a site that indicates who these “many people” are and what their expertise consists of?
It’s just that I think the OP makes the unrealistic assumption that the pedophilic candidate can be trusted when claiming that action doesn’t follow thoughts in this type of mental disturbance. My answer to the OP’s question was clear. Others may answer any way they choose. They are even free to disagree with me, and on rare occasions be right.
No, I wouldn’t vote for a pedophile. Nor would I vote for someone who admitted a sexual attraction to goats.
No.