Common misconceptions about pedophilia and attraction to minors.

[howard112211]

I decided to post this as an OP, due to this DU poll we currently have in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=922727&mesg_id=922727

This is a controversial topic. I am curious to what degree a civil discussion about it is possible here.

Here is a link to a power point presentation that seemingly summarizes the scientific consensus on to what degree male adults can find minors attractive, and also to what the degree the general idea that people have of "pedophilia" is wrong.

(I use the word "seemingly", since I have not done any further research, and the contents of the file may be inaccurate or wrong, but it does make the impression of being scientifically sound, references and all. Feel free to add and correct.)

http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=15&ved=0CDwQFjAEOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.b4uact.org%2FMythsAndFacts.ppt&rct=j&q=scientific%20study%20men%20find%20minors%20attractive&ei=k9mtTca_CY2Mswav6t3XDA&usg=AFQjCNEOoPzYqUi2jmCJAurP3G5mhohPdg&cad=rja

Summary:

Most adult males can in principle be sexually attracted to a prepubescent child. This attraction however is subordinate to their attraction to adults (this somewhat contradicts the results of the DU poll). Only an estimated 0.5 percent to 7 percent of adult males are attracted primarily to children. These are clinically defined as pedophiles.

There isn't sufficient data to make a similar statement about adult women.

Myth 1: Pedophiles molest children.

Most of them don't. Many simply have fantasies of the same kind that other people have about adults, and are aware of the fact that they should never be acted out.

Myth 2: Most child molesters are pedophiles.

Actually pedophiles who molest children are rare. Most child molesters are "regular" rapists who chose children because they are easy targets. The rape itsself, as in other cases where the target is an adult, is more about control than it is about attraction.

Myth 3: Pedophilia is a mental illness.

It appears to be something that is simply hard wired into someones psyche. The same form of "treatments" were tried that were used for homosexuality in the past, and they have proven to be equally ineffective.

....

[Gman]

1. These sound reasonable

When a 19 year old guy gets to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life for his relationship with a 16 year old, the system's gone too far. But then, ranting about 19 year olds "molesting" a 16 old will get you favorable percentage ratings with the electorate. And that's what counts isn't it?

[cliffordu]

2. disregard, wrong dude...

[slackmaster]

3. Unrec for citing work by an unabashed apologist for male homosexuals being attracted to children

Here is Richard Kramer's Web site:

http://www.mhamic.org/

[Warpy]

4. Very helpful and a lot of what I've always suspected in my dealings with them

after they've survived the suicide attempt when kiddie porn was found on the computer. Most of these guys are apple pie ordinary in every way except having a sexual screw loose. They all insisted their kink was completely confined to kiddie porn and masturbation with fantasy. I tend to believe them.

I've always felt the producers of kiddie porn are the ones the law should be after, not the married workadaddies with kinky stuff on the home computer. The producers are the ones who are harming children to make a buck.

Animated kiddie porn would seem to be the answer and is a burgeoning field. Any attempt to shut that down because nobody likes the idea of grown men being sexually attracted to kids would be in serious error, depriving such men of an outlet without harming a child or anyone else.

My kink fuses were blown in the late 60s when I had a short term job cleaning out student apartments in Boston and preparing for the new occupants. The breadth and depth of kinky porn out there is astonishing and just about every object and age group can be fetishized for one group or another. The students left the porn behind so Mom wouldn't find it. She'd have stroked out if she did.

The only guideline I can see is "don't harm another person." That still criminalizes raping anyone, especially raping a child to make a buck in the porn industry.

[PDJane]

5. It is quite true that child rape

is mostly a product of...well, let's call it control and opportunity. There are men who can only become sexually aroused by children, and they can be very dangerous. They are likely to murder to cover up what they know is a crime, and they are repeat offenders at high risk to re-offend.

No, there is no cure for pedophilia, and that has led to, in some cases, indefinite detention. Is it an illness? I suspect that the answer would vary, depending on whether you asked the abuser or the victim.

There are no statistics on the prevalence of true pedophiles; the same problems in identification of true pedophiles exists as the identification of true homosexuals. There are statistics on the prevalence of homosexuals,but estimates rus between 3% to 20%, depending on how the survey is conducted and compiled, i.e, whether the statistics cover self-identified homosexuals, or those who have admitted to occasional homo-erotic thoughts and fantasies. That covers a fairly wide continuum!

Until there we are able to define how many pedophiles are out there (and yes, there are female pedophiles), I'm unwilling to accept that it is not an illness. After all, depression is incurable in some cases, but it's considered abnormal. I'm quite sure that in clinical cases, depression is an abnormality, and the fact that it can't be cured doesn't make it any less so!

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I'm not sure I agree with #2.

I worked in a sex offender unit at one of our local prisons for a while (as a correction officer/counselor) and it seemed to me that the mental process that went on with child molesters was much different than that of rapists. Rapists seem to be purely about power and control while the child molesters simply had difficulty relating to adult women and honestly believed that they "loved" the child in a romantic way. The rapists often had prior convictions for especially burglary or other "taking" crimes while the child molesters were often squeaky clean as far as the law was concerned.