#is always better than punishment
hey quick psa if you get mad when people say all pedophiles should die, fuck off, dont follow me, and, in case i need to make this any more clear, if every pedophile suddenly dropped dead the world would indisputably be a better place. eat shit if you disagree
I disagree. I STRONGLY disagree, maybe because I live in a country without the death penalty, maybe because I live in a country where this argument is mostly used by Nazis.
Pedophiles acting on their desires need to be persecuted, they need to be put in prisons and/or psych wards to keep them away from the general population.
But there are also pedophiles fighting against their urges. People who go to therapy, take drugs to make them sterile. People who have a paraphilic disorder, a horrible mental illness and who try their best to NOT hurt anyone. In Germany this therapy is covered by our health care system and actually saves money and is counted as a success.
I get the sentiment of revenge. Survivors of child abuse have every right to feel that way.
Running around screaming “kill all pedophiles” does not help though. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Killing a perpetrator doesn’t make a crime undone, doesn’t make a trauma go away. Killing someone is just killing someone.
New York Times article on pedophilia: Source
Informationen on paraphilic disorders: Source
Article on the German “Don’t Offend”/“Kein Täter werden” program (from 2016): Source
Article on the success of the “Don’t Offend”/“Kein Täter werden” program (April 2018/in German): Source
In addition: this violent rhetoric may prevent people from actually getting the help they need in order to NOT endanger kids. It may prevent politicians from funding the kind of health care that is required for this. So who are you even helping.
CSA survivor here. Raped by my biological father from infancy to age five. Still dealing with it, and actually did some research on what causes pedophilia as part of my own healing.
Every word @igraine-ohnefurcht has said is 100% TRUE. Pedophilia is a paraphilia, one of the ones that makes it impossible to apply a blanket definition of “all paraphilias are kinks” or “all paraphilias are mental illnesses.” (For example: foot fetishes are also paraphilias. You might find them weird, but I think we can all agree there are worlds of difference between someone getting off on giving a foot massage to another consenting adult, and someone wanting to touch little kids. One of these is clearly a mental illness; the other is a pretty common kink. Where does the line get drawn? This is a question actual mental health professionals with actual degrees who study this stuff for a living are working on right now.)
Far from screaming “all pedophiles should die, pedophilia is not a mental illness, unfollow me if you disagree”–which is performative and melodramatic and factually incorrect and helps nobody–if you actually want to help protect kids, here’s something you can do:
PUSH FOR COMPREHENSIVE PREVENTATIVE MENTAL HEALTHCARE FOR NON-OFFENDING PEDOPHILES IN THE UNITED STATES.
The way our system works right now, non-offending pedophiles have zero way to seek help. If they go to a therapist and say “I keep having sexual fantasies about little kids and I know it’s wrong, and I want to avoid acting on them because I know that would constitute harm to a child, please help me,” that therapist is required to report them to law enforcement. And then they will be arrested … or, more likely, monitored until they’re pushed to offend by their own isolation, and then, after a child or children are harmed, they get arrested.
It’s very difficult, verging on impossible, to seek chemical or surgical castration for no apparent medical reason in the United States. And if you go to a doctor, and say “I want to be chemically castrated because I keep having sexual fantasies about little kids and castration will help me to not harm children,” guess what that doctor is required to do?
Did you take “call the police” for $200?
Yep. Involve law enforcement instead of providing medical care.
Now consider: okay, all this is true, but what about support groups? Like AA, but for pedophiles? “My name is Luke and I’m a pedophile, I committed to not offending 174 days ago”? Nope. It’s illegal. If any person in a position of trust (e.g. clergy, teachers, healthcare professionals) were to find out about said group, they would have to report it to law enforcement.
Do you see yet how this is not helping?
Now, let’s scratch that surface just a wee bit deeper:
A significant number of pedophiles were sexually abused as children and are using a form of projection to deal with it.
It’s a cycle of abuse. They literally abuse because they were groomed to abuse. Pedophiles who fall into this category, having sought mental health treatment, may be able to come to terms with what happened to them, and be able to seek healthy, consenting adult relationships. Not all pedophiles fall into this category, but enough of them do that we should absolutely be addressing it as a mental health crisis.
I’m not out here saying pedophiles are woobie little darlings. They’re not. They frighten me in no small part because of my own trauma, and I find their desires disturbing. However–I have also researched enough to know that they are human beings who are capable of rehabilitation, growth, and healing, and rather than screaming about how awful they are, we should be doing what we can to help them reach a place mentally (and potentially physically, if needed/desired) where they will not offend. A non-offending pedophile who has made a commitment to remaining non-offending, and who is offered adequate support to ensure they remain non-offending, is one less pedophile we have to worry about. A non-offending pedophile who is committed to their treatment is not on the internet buying child porn. A non-offending pedophile who is committed to their treatment is not being creepy by the school gates. A non-offending pedophile who is committed to their treatment is a pedophile who can tell other pedophiles “you know, there are options.”
We must do this. For the safety of our children.
