Further information on viewing conditions, site index and the site Google search facility

What is a paedophile?

19th 11 2006

The definition of a paedophile taken from 'Australian Parents for Megan's Law' is:

'Paedophile offences are framed in terms of rape, sexual assault, indecency, making or possessing child pornography and so forth. The Macquarie Dictionary defines paedophilia as "sexual attraction in an adult towards children". The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the word as: "sexual love directed towards children". Paedophiles come from virtually all social, income, racial, ethnic and age groups.'

"The typical paedophile molests an average of 117 children, most of who do not report the offence."
– Source: National Institute of Mental Health, 1988.

Paedophiles generally report an attraction to children of a particular age range. Some individuals prefer males, others females, and some are aroused by both males and females. Some paedophiles are sexually attracted only to children, whereas others are sometimes attracted to adults.

Surveys report that well over 90 per cent of perpetrators in child sex offences are males. Some suggest that there is serious under-reporting of female child-sex activity. Some suggest that female paedophiles (ie. preferential offenders) do not exist. When women are involved at all in such activity, their roles seem invariably to be subordinate ones, typically assisting their male partner.

Most paedophiles become aware of their sexual orientation during adolescence, though some say that they did not become aroused by children until middle age. A characteristic of some paedophile offenders, not shared with other types of criminals, is that they offend throughout their lives.

Paedophiles who commit offences rationalise their conduct and do not believe that they have done anything wrong.

Most paedophiles, it seems, do not act aggressively or violently towards children. Rather they attempt to gain the child's affection and interest by being friendly, often fixing on children who are otherwise deprived of affection. A small percentage, however, do not fit this description. It is not uncommon for paedophiles to go to great lengths over considerable periods of time to place themselves in situations where they can access children. Because paedophiles are, by definition, attracted to children, often of a fairly narrow age range, their attraction to any one child is only of limited duration. As the child grows older, the paedophile ceases to be attracted and seeks a younger replacement. Thus there is an in-built tendency to commit offences against a large number of victims.


Paedophilia

Pedophilia, paedophilia or pædophilia (see spelling differences) is the paraphilia of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to prepubescent or peripubescent children. Persons with this attraction are called paedophiles.

In contrast to the generally accepted medical definition, the term paedophile is also used colloquially to denote significantly older adults who are sexually attracted to adolescents below the local age of consent, as well as those who have sexually abused a child.


Definitions

The word comes from the Greek paidophilia. Paidophilia was coined by Greek poets either as a substitute for "paiderastia" (pederasty), or vice versa. As paederastia and pederasty were used in a derogatory manner since the time of ancient Rome until the mid-20th century.

The term paedophilia erotica was coined in 1886 by the Vienna psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his writing Psychopathia Sexualis. He gave the following characteristics:
  • the sexual interest is toward children, either prepubescent or at the beginning of puberty
  • the sexual interest is the primary one, that is, exclusively or mainly toward children
  • the sexual interest remains over time
Strictly speaking, this definition would include many adolescents and prepubescents, for whom such an interest might be normal; thus, some experts add the criterion that the interest be toward children at least five years younger than the subject.

Krafft-Ebing also categorized child molesters into three types:

a.) paedophile,
b.) surrogate (that is, the child is regarded as a surrogate object for a preferred, non-available adult object)
c.) sadistic.

Other researchers used their own terms for the Krafft-Ebing categories:

a.) preferential/structured/fixed (i. e. paedophile) type,
b.) situational/opportunistic/regressed/incest (i. e. surrogate) type
c.) sadistic (no change)

This three-type model as well as the fundamental mental and behavioural differences of the three types were empirically evidenced, among others, by Kinsey; Howells 1981; Abel, Mittleman & Becker 1985; Knight et al. 1985; Brongersma 1990; McConaghy 1993; Ward et al. 1995; Hoffmann 1996; Seikowski 1999.

Use of the term paedophile to describe all child sexual offenders is seen as problematic by some people, especially when viewed from a medical standpoint, as the majority of sex crimes against children are perpetrated by situational offenders rather than people sexually preferring prepubertal children.Nevertheless, some researchers, such as Howard E. Barbaree,have endorsed the use of actions as a sole criterion for the diagnosis of pedophilia as a means of taxonomic simplification, rebuking the American Psychiatric Association's standards as "unsatisfactory".

Some individuals, such as Dr. Fred S. Berlin, assert sexual attraction to children to be a sexual orientation in itself. Berlins asserts, "I think it can be both a disorder and an orientation." Dan Markussen, spokesman for Danish paedophile Association, argues that "sexual orientation is defined as a lifelong attraction, which pedophilia obviously is."


Diagnosis
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (F65.4) defines pedophilia as "a sexual preference for children, boys or girls or both, usually of prepubertal or early pubertal age."

The APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition, Text Revision gives the following as its "Diagnostic criteria for 302.2 Pedophilia":

Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger).

The person has acted on these urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.

The person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A.

Do not include an individual in late adolescence involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 12 or 13-year-old.

The actual boundaries between childhood and adolescence may vary in individual cases and are difficult to define in rigid terms of age. The World Health Organization, for instance, defines adolescence as the period of life between 10 and 19 years of age, though it is most often defined as the period of life between the ages of 13 and 18.

The APA diagnostic criteria do not require actual sexual activity with a child. The diagnosis can therefore be made based on the presence of fantasies or sexual urges alone, provided the subject meets the remaining criteria.


Extent of occurrence

The extent to which pedophilia occurs is not known with any certainty. Some studies have concluded that at least a quarter of all adult men may have some feelings of sexual arousal in connection with children. Freund et al. (1972) remarked that "with males who have no deviant object preferences, clearly positive sexual reactions occur to [nude] 6- to 8-year old female children."

In 1989 Briere and Runtz conducted a study on 193 male undergraduate students concerning pedophilia. Of the sample, 21% acknowledged sexual attraction to some small children; 9% reported sexual fantasies involving children; 5% admitted masturbating to these fantasies; and 7% conceded some probability of actually having sex with a child if they could avoid detection and punishment. These sexual interests were associated with negative early sexual experiences, masturbation to pornography, self-reported likelihood of raping a woman, frequent sex partners, and attitudes supportive of sexual dominance over women. The authors also noted that "given the probable social undesirability of such admissions, [one could] hypothesize that the actual rates ... were even higher."

A study by Hall et al. of Kent State University found that 32.5% of their sample — 80 adult male volunteers, 20% of whom reported some attraction to prepubescent girls — exhibited sexual arousal to heterosexual pedophilic stimuli that equaled or exceeded their arousal to the adult stimuli.

Occurrence in child sex offenders
A perpetrator of child sexual abuse is, despite all medical definitions, commonly assumed to be a paedophile, and referred to as such; however, there may be other motivations for the crime (such as stress, marital problems, or the unavailability of an adult partner), much as adult rape can have non-sexual reasons. Thus, child sexual abuse alone may or may not be an indicator that its perpetrator is a paedophile; most perpetrators of it are in fact not primarily interested in children.

Those who have committed sexual crimes against children, but do not meet the normal diagnosis criteria for pedophilia, are referred to as situational, opportunistic, or regressed offenders, whereas offenders primarily attracted toward children are called structured, preferential, or fixated paedophiles, as their orientation is fixed by the structure of their personality. It is estimated that only 2 to 10 percent of child sexual abuse perpetrators meet the regular criteria for pedophilia. (Kinsey-Report, Lautmann, Brongersma, Groth).

As noted by Abel, Mittleman, and Becker (1985) and Ward et al. (1995), there are generally large characteristical distinctions between the two types of offenders. Situational offenders tend to offend at times of stress; have a later onset of offending; have fewer, often familial victims; and have a general preference for adult partners. Pedophilic offenders, however, often start offending at an early age; often have a large number of victims who are frequently extrafamilial; are more appetitively driven to offend; and have values or beliefs that strongly support an offense lifestyle.

Most cases of father-daughter incest are believed to involve fathers who are situational offenders, rather than paedophiles.[35] Attempts have been made to use "profiling" to identify paedophiles, however, these methods have come under sharp criticism for making claims that are far in excess of what the evidence supports.

Treatment
A number of proposed treatment techniques for pedophilia have been developed. Many regard pedophilia as highly resistant to psychological interference and have dismissed as ineffective most "reparative strategies." Others, such as Dr. Fred Berlin, believe pedophilia can "indeed be successfully treated," if only the medical community would give it more attention. The reported success rate of modern "reparative" treatment on paedophiles is very low.

Non-medical therapies
Treatment strategies for pedophilia include a "12 step support system," parallel to addiction therapy, though such a system is generally regarded as the least efficacious method of treatment.

Another approach is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Usually, this is done by telling the paedophile to fantasize about sexual contact with children, and then, once aroused, they are given instructions to imagine the assumed legal and social consequences of such an action.

Medical therapies
Anti-androgenic medications such as Depo Provera may be used to lower testosterone levels, and are often used in conjunction with the non-medical approaches above. This is commonly referred to as "chemical castration."

Other programs induce an association of illegal behavior with pain by means of the more controversial aversion therapy, in which the paedophile is given an electric shock while fantasizing. A study by the Council on Scientific Affairs found that the success rate of aversion therapy was parallel to that of homosexual reparative therapy. This method is rarely used on paedophiles who have not offended.

Convicted sex offenders, including many paedophiles and homosexuals, have been treated by the psychosurgical procedure commonly known as lobotomization. Psychosurgery has long been controversial, particularly the historical use of surgical intervention on homosexuals given that homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness by the psychiatric community (see for instance Rieber et al. 1976; Sigusch 1977; Rieber & Sigusch 1979; Schorsch & Schmidt 1979)

Thalamotomy is an alternative surgical treatment of sex offenders in practice since the problems with leucotomy have been commonly known (see Greist 1990; Diering & Bell 1991; Hay & Sachdev 1992; Rappaport 1992; de la Porte 1993; Poynton 1993; Bridges et al. 1994; Cummings et al. 1995) and is increasingly advertized as an "effective therapy" for sex offenders (as well as for some children suffering from symptoms of child sexual abuse, since the 1980s (see for instance Andy 1970; Bradford 1988a; Wyre & Swift 1991; Abel et al. 1992; Bridges et al. 1994; Cummings et al. 1995). As Levey and Curfman have noted, however, given the availability of psychopharmacological treatment options, psychosurgical interventions are not likely to be employed given their extreme side effects and irreversible nature. See the same article for an in depth review of treatment options and diagnostic criteria. Additionally Reid 2002 writes that neurosurgery for sex offenders is "essentially unavailable" in the United States and that data on its use is sparse.

Criticisms of treatment strategies
Sigusch 2001 and others criticize the moral pressure put upon sex offenders continuously until the present day by offering them amnesty in return for such non-standardized brain surgery under whatever name where the surgeon is free to remove as much of the offender's cerebrum as he pleases, a therapy which according to Sigusch 2001 consecutively leads to complete physical destruction of the individual organism (or increasing exhibition of violent behaviour even if there was none before) since according to Sigusch 2001 no successes are observed after each single surgery and surgeons generally regard that the therapy will be more successful the more brain mass will be removed (see also Andy 1970). Balasubramaniam et al. 1969 speak of this neurosurgery used on sex offenders as a "sedative" strategy "where a patient is made quiet and manageable by an operation".

Criticisms of therapies for paedophiles as well as theoretical models of no potential for their therapy mostly stem from the finding of some studies that paedophiles exhibit no clinically pathological traits other than the direction of their sexual preference, a fact that is very rare among all other classified paraphilias and mental illnesses where the pathological aetiological characteristics causing deviant behaviour are commonly therapied. As these pathological aetiological characteristics cannot be evidenced in paedophiles, common therapy models fail on them.

Vogt 2006 states that even on an international scale only 2 scientific studies have ever been made on distinctly pathological mental characteristics of paedophiles before 2006 that were methodologically correct, naming these as Bernard 1982; Wilson & Cox 1983. Vogt 2006 re-confirmed identical results as Bernard 1982; Wilson & Cox 1983. No pathological characteristics could be found for paedophiles other than the direction of their sexual preference which all three studies explicitly suggest to be up for debate as not pathological especially in light of their findings. The only significant deviance from the norm other than sexual preference that could be found by all three studies was higher mean level of education of paedophiles compared to the average population, while all three studies also opt strongly for distinguishing between clinical and forensical studies made of individuals mostly stigmatized, often traumatized by their current surroundings, and non-clinical, non-forensical studies.

These conclusions are in conflict with those of other researchers, who have found that paedophiles exhibit "many psychiatric features beyond deviant sexual desire, including high rates of comorbid axis I disorders (affective disorders, substance use disorders, impulse control disorders, other paraphilias) as well as severe axis II psychopathology (especially antisocial and Cluster C personality disorders)." Beyond his criticism of clinical and forensic studies, Vogt 2006 replies to this that many, if not most studies diagnose pedophilia merely on the grounds of offenses instead of going through the effort of distinguishing the three categories of offenders via psychological examination and analysis.

Scientists supporting the declassification of pedophilia as paraphilia and mental illness due to the findings of the first two studies include Howitt 1998a; Green 2002; Ng 2002; Fiedler 2004.

Also Langevin 1983 and Okami & Goldberg 1992[68]; ("consistent" findings with Langevin 1983) found no pathological characteristics in paedophiles other than their sexual preference and that "None of the commonly held hypotheses were supported." The most likely reason why these two studies were rejected by Vogt 2006 as methodologically incorrect is that they relied upon clinical and/or forensical data.

Related terms

Ephebophilia, also known as hebephilia, is the condition of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to adolescents. These terms are used in contrast with pedophilia; however pedophilia is sometimes used more broadly in the western world to describe both ephebophilia and attraction to younger children, that is, any person younger than the legal age of consent. Ephebophilia is a term of recent coinage, and does not have broad academic acceptance as constituting a paraphilia.

Pederasty has historically been given sharply different meanings, sometimes referring to male homosexuality in general and sometimes specifically to homosexual male pedophilia. In academic usage the word has still a third meaning, referring specifically to the age-structured homosexuality practiced in classical Greece between older men and adolescents, and by extension to age-structured homosexuality in other cultures.

Lolita syndrome is sometimes used to refer to attraction to adolescent females. Shortened to Lolicon, it refers to manga-style pornography depicting neotonous female characters.

Nepiophilia, also called infantophilia, is the attraction to toddlers and infants (usually ages 0–3). Some researchers have suggested a distinction between pedophilia and nepiophilia, especially for same-sex pedophilia (see for example Bernard 1975, 1982; Lautmann 1994), as it is unusual for paedophiles to prefer toddlers. According to Howells 1981; Bernard 1982; McConaghy 1993; Lautmann 1994, male-oriented pedophilia more prevalently blends in with ephebophilia, while female-oriented pedophilia more prevalently blends in with nepiophilia.

Gerontophilia is the condition of being sexually attracted to older people.

paedophile activism
The paedophile activism movement, referred to by some supporters as the childlove movement, is a social movement that encompasses a wide variety of views, but generally advocates one or more of the following: social acceptance of adults' romantic or sexual attraction to children; social acceptance of adults' sexual activity with children; and changes in institutions of concern to paedophiles, such as changing age-of-consent laws and mental illness classifications. The movement is extremely controversial and has made little progress toward these goals. The most high profile paedophile activism group is NAMBLA. NAMBLA advocates the legalization of sexual relationships between older men and young boys.


Sex with under-16s 'grey area'
BBC 2006 11 19
 
A chief constable has said that young men who have sex with girls aged 13 or over should not necessarily be classed as paedophiles.

In a newspaper interview, Dyfed-Powys chief Terry Grange said he believed the word "paedophile" should only apply to men who have sex with prepubescents. He also said the term "child pornography" should apply to images of children aged below 13.

Under UK law anyone who has sex with an under-16 has committed an offence. If the child is 13 or older and consenting the offence is classed as "unlawful sexual intercourse". But if they are under 13 the offence is rape.

Issue

Mr Grange, chief constable of Dyfed-Powys police and spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers on child protection and managing sex offenders, said his views reflected this "grey area".

He told the Sunday Times: "Child porn is 12 and under. For me, that sort of thing, paedophilia, is [with] prepubescent children."

"It's much more of an issue for me if a child is under 13. I think the closer they get to 16, the more it becomes a grey area and I think everyone in the field of dealing with sexual health and sexual activity acknowledges that."

Circumstances

Asked how he would define paedophilia, Mr Grange said: "We are talking about very young people [when] it is paedophilia, and I wouldn't want to mix up kids who are just the wrong side of 16 with paedophiles.

"I don't actually personally adhere to the 15-year-old being with a 20-year-old boyfriend being paedophilia, or even if the boyfriend is 30."

Official government guidance on prosecuting suggests that teenagers who have sex when one of them is below 16 should not necessary be prosecuted.

Mr Grange, who stressed his views were personal, said: "You take a look at the circumstances and try to make the right decision for that case.

"It may be nothing, it may be formal warnings, it may be prosecution."


Megan's Law: USA
Protect Children From Sexual Predators

The parents of 7-year-old Megan Kanka of New Jersey were not aware that their neighbor was a twice-convicted sex offender until he was charged with the brutal rape and murder of their daughter. Nor were the parents of 4-year-old My Ly Nghiem of Binghamton, New York aware that a three-time convicted sex offender lived and worked in their building until he was charged with the rape and murder of their daughter.

These crimes coupled with many other heinous crimes against children, prompted the passage of federal and state laws mandating the release of information necessary to protect the public from high risk sex offenders. All 50 states were required to meet federal standards and in New York this was accomplished by the passage of The Sex Offender Registration Act of 1996, more commonly known as Megan's Law.

New York's version of Megan's Law establishes registration and notification provisions and requires the classification of convicted sex offenders using a three-tier system. The law establishes three levels of notification which increase as the offenders' risk to the community increases. Prior to an offender's release, a level of notification recommendation is made to the sentencing court: level 1 (low risk), level 2 (moderate risk) or Level 3 (high risk).

The risk level assigned establishes the level of notification to the public and/or law enforcement agencies. In other words, the risk level determines the amount of information law enforcement is authorized to release to the public using various types of community notification. The type of notification implemented is based upon an evaluation of the risk of reoffense the particular offender poses to the community. In addition, each police department in New York is required to have a publicly accessible book, known as a subdirectory, which can be viewed upon written request. The subdirectory provides detailed information, including photos of the highest risk sex offenders residing in New York State. The law also establishes a telephone number where you can call to determine whether a named person is a convicted sex offender.

MEGAN'S LAW IN NEW YORK: STATUS & BRIEF HISTORY

On June 9, 1995, 58-year-old George Miller raped and murdered 4-year-old My Ly Nghiem from Binghamton New York. Miller was a three time convicted child molester who lived and was the caretaker in her apartment building. My Ly's tragic death was one of the catalysts to the June 25, 1995 passage of New York State's version of sex offender registration and notification laws, more commonly known as Megan's Law. Local victim's families and national advocates such as Marc Klaas at Klaas Kids and Maureen Kanka at the Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation, and state lawmakers successfully fought for New York State parents' rights to be informed of known predatory sex offenders. However, in May of 1998, Megan's Law in NY was virtually taken away from its citizens when an injunction was granted by Supreme Court Judge Denny Chin (2nd. Circuit) that protected most convicted sex offenders from community notification.

Most New Yorkers have been under the false impression that they or their school district will be notified if one of the over 3,000 highest risk predatory sex offenders registered in NY move into their community. This is simply not the case. Of the over 10,000 registered sex offenders residing in New York, over 7,000 have been protected from community notification, many since May 1998. In fact, it was brought to our attention that two known registered sex offenders who the police could not notify the community about because of the injunction committed a rape of a 72-year-old woman in Long Island City and sexual abuse of a young child on Long Island. These are only two examples we were made aware of. You can bet that there are a lot more.

That is soon to be changed because we have been fighting back. Parents For Megan's Law has been informing our parents and residents, victims advocacy groups, child protection organizations, Governor Pataki and lawmakers across New York State about the false impression we have been under for nearly two years. On August 26, 1999 Governor Pataki made a special trip to Suffolk County to sign an amendment to Megan's Law that not only strengthens the law but will also subject those previously protected to notification beginning this year. Chris Morrison, Assistant Attorney General worked diligently with Susan Hendricks, Counsel For The Legal Aid Society, Ken Connolly, Counsel for the Division of Criminal Justice Services, Louis Raff, Counsel for the Queens District Attorney and the New York State District Attorney's Association to deliver the language our lawmakers needed to give Megan's Law notifications back to its citizens.

As they diligently worked to deliver the appropriate amendment language, Parents For Megan's Law members, victims advocacy groups and child protection organizations contacted lawmakers and Governor Pataki to express their great concern that one of the over 3,000 high-risk sex offenders could move in next door and they would not be informed. Lawmakers took action when they passed the Megan's Law amendment in both the Assembly and Senate. Thanks to our state lawmakers, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assembly Prime Sponsor Steven Englebright, Senate Speaker Joe Bruno, Senate Prime Sponsor Dean Skelos and Governor George Pataki, parents and residents across New York will soon have their rights under Megan's Law restored. We should expect to see a drastic increase in the number of high-risk community notifications implemented throughout this and next year. We urge you to continue to use this information responsibly as misuse will only undermine the tremendous effort to bring this information to you in the first place.

Our lawmakers sent a message to drunk drivers in New York that it is unacceptable to drive while intoxicated. Newspapers freely publish the names and addresses of drunk drivers without concern. However, if a convicted sex offender rapes a vulnerable child, defense attorney's, and even some police departments have vehemently argued that letting parents and residents know about their presence will compromise the sex offender's treatment. The shame and humiliation associated with a conviction of DWI does not measure up to the shame and humiliation associated with a grown man penetrating a little boy or girl, but that's the point. They should feel ashamed for what they have done.

The nature of sex offenders is that they violate the personal boundaries of others in order to satisfy themselves and further rely upon fear to manipulate us so as to continue to get what they desire, irregardless of the everlasting damage they cause, irregardless of what is moral and despite laws that are in place to punish them. It is that very same nature that brings many convicted sex offenders and their defense attorney's ferociously fighting against Megan's Law's notifications into the same court system which convicted them of committing horrible crimes. Those offenders unable to take responsibility for their actions (reoffending at rates of 52%) have found a means to perpetuate their denial and their nature of violating boundaries, this time it's not only our children being victimized it's some of our police departments who won't notify for fear of disturbing offenders during treatment and our court system that has to continue to hear arguments against Megan's Law. If these convicted sex offenders spent as much time fighting for their treatment as they do fighting against Megan's Law maybe their recidivism rates would decline.

This amendment to Megan's Law in New York will not guarantee community notification for sex offenders determined to have a high risk of reoffending and could be challenged at any time. If you are outraged that children are being raped and sexually assaulted by known sex offenders, take action. Our state laws and court decisions must reflect what our collective beliefs are and if you are not participating in the process by helping to support and defend these laws that are challenged in our courts, then take action... and register with Parents For Megan's Law. Register and send a message to our judges, elected and appointed government officials: We want to be made aware of the presence of those known sex offenders who pose a risk to our safety and to the safety of our children so that we may be proactive by taking necessary precautions.


UK Campaign

There is currently a big campaign in England inspired by the rape and murder of 9-year-old Sarah Payne by a convicted paedophile. This is being led by the girl's parents and the newspaper 'News of the World'. There is a web site at www.forsarah.com. The parents have met the Prime Minister and have been very public during the trial of the offender. (He got life.)

John Browne in England writes:

"Having worked as a social worker investigating child abuse on a specialist team with the police for three years in the past and having experienced the degree of manipulation that is involved I feel that offenders are beyond any kind of treatment and are all at risk of escalating their offending.

"I think this whole area needs reform and sentencing and supervision needs strengthening. I heard just yesterday of a man working in a holiday camp who has a history of sexual offences, but as a conviction had failed, which is often the case when children have to give evidence, he does not have to declare these offences. It's one thing knowing a paedophile lives in your area but paying to take your kids on holiday with one is something else!

"All of this is linked to a complete change in attitude to children and their rights, the attitude that ascribes children with low status and does not view them as complete people but just as potential adults is the worst kind of discrimination. So the civil rights lobby will go about the rights of the adult, even those that have committed the most terrible offences, but are willing to sacrifice the right of children and families to live in safety.

"The other argument that is used is that this kind of law would drive them underground and make supervision more difficult. Well this seems to be more about the weakness of the supervision agencies to track offenders, and that too many 'first time' or 'got caught this time' offenders are released back into communities.

"Regarding the 'rights' of paedophiles – offenders don't spontaneously decide to sexually abuse a child – it's not an opportunistic offence. The distorted thinking that leads to the desire to do this is embedded in the offenders personality – they will always be a risk to children. Governments are able to erode rights in the fight against terrorists in our midst, so what's the difference. Placing paedophiles near to children without giving parents the ability to protect, is like putting land mines on a playing field. You will be safe unless you tread on one, if you can't remove them then at least you should know where they are."

See also
No escaping sexulization of Young Girls
A paedophile party in the Dutch parliament?
War on internet child abuse
Foley follies
Backing for Mark's Law - Scottish Anatomy / National News

meditations
top