Political Crossfire Forums

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/miller/120911

I surprised myself when reading this article by actually agreeing more with the person she was talking about than with the author herself, who came across to me as religious to the point of cretinism.

The fact that she couldn't see the distinction between a 'paedophile' and a 'child molester' was telling (for those who don't know, the difference is between one of desiring to do something and actually carrying it out). And she seemed to me to have a medieval attitude to denying the very existence of brain disorders and mental illness and it all down to having a blackened soul.

Anyhow, my own opinion on the topic is this. Paedophiles, or at least the non-practicing ones, may well deserve our sympathy for being afflicted with something beyond their control, but that does not mean that such sympathy should transform itself into acceptance of them carrying out their fantasies. Perhaps in her own inarticulate way, this is the crux of what the author of the above article was trying to get at amidst all that stuff about Jesus...

The problem with just thinking of pedophiles as evil monsters rather than looking into the deeper psychological problem is not that it demonizes them so much as that it obstructs any ability that may exist to mitigate the problem. It kind of reminds me of the primitive attitude many have towards terrorists, that they're just sadistic idiots who envy our freedom. You can't effectively fight terrorism if you don't understand the real political, economic, social, and psychological factors that lead to it. Likewise, you can't fight child molestation by just furiously despising pedophiles and not attempting to understand what makes them the way they are.

Don't disagree, although I will say that people like that still need to be punished harshly for crossing the line, regardless of the 'underlying reasons'. We need to empathise with wrongdoers, but should be careful not to transform that empathy into sympathy...

Human beings are pan-sexual organisms. The sex roles that are allowed in western culture are artificial and require years of social conditioning. This doesn't always work right consequently sexual dysfunction is quite common in our society.

You aren't going to be able to punish sexual urges out of people. That is anti-science cultural superstition. It is observable that there is no rational basis for this attitude because the entire prison system we have built to enforce this worldview simply does not work.
It is a system that inadvertently literally creates worse criminals. That tells you it is based on wrong thinking. If it were based on right thinking it would work and society would be crime free.

People want to punish harshly because it makes them feel like serious action is being taken. But simply doesn't have the actual social effect they suppose it will.