Is there a pedophile epidemic ? (page 2)

Band on the Run

So far there is not a reliable brain scan that shows pedophilia orientation. The law punishes acts.

prologos

publishing these acts and those conviction is a very good restraining message to those born- in or aquired deviates.

Finkelstein

I wouldn't describe it as a epidemic but its seemingly become more of a social problem perhaps enhanced by the proliferation of child pornography.

.

One thing thats good to see is the exposing of religious organizations secretly hiding certain members clergy or layman from

the publics view as vain attempt to protect their own established public image.

EndofMysteries

One of the biggest problems is that there are too many things being classified as the same thing.

For example all of these scenarios I've seen classified as pedophile.....

Both consenual, one age 18 one age 15 or 16.

Non consenual one age 45 one age 9.

Non consenual one age 13 one age 6.

Both consenual, one age 38, one age 17.

Technically, pedophilia is prepubescence, so under the ages of 11 to 13. After puberty, depending on the country and it's laws, the age of consent throughout the world on average is age 16.

But you have all these different variables and they are combining every instance into the same title. Consenting, nonconsenting, porn only and within porn both pre and post puberty, a huge age gap, a minor age gap, technicality because of the law (for example a 17 year old and 18 year old where the 18 year old can get in trouble), etc.

If they stop classifying everything as the same thing, then it'll be easier to get an idea of where the real problems are really at.

sir82

But what if, by the same token, research proves that paedophiles are also born that way?

You are comparing apples and antimatter.

Homosexual acts between 2 consenting adults should bother no one.

A child is, by law, incapable of giving consent. Sex with a child is always, 100% of the time, rape.

Bella15

They can not hide anymore. Victims are feeling empowered to talk about it, it is not tabu anymore. Everything hidden will be exposed eventually.

To solve a problem it has to come to the surface, all this child abuse has been in the dark for too long, NOT ANYMORE and I hope that the new generations will not tolerate this anymore and will run to tell an adult. That's why I always talk about child abuse whenever I can to people, so collectively the Universe gets impregnated with the message of NO TO ANY KIND OF SEXUAL ABUSE.

If someone in your family suffered from sexual abuse, expose the perpetrators. Deal with the situation with the intention of HEALING the emotions.

prologos

sir82 comparing antimatter with all fruit (not just apples)

a certain portion of pedophiles are also homosexuals, making it even harder for the general population to understand and

raising the "we are born that way" idea to a dual level.

DogGone

Band on the Run, while I do not know of a brain scan that can "show" or diagnose pedophilia, there has been some interesting brain scan studies which demonstrate clear differences. I can't speak to the credibility of these studies, but they are interesting:

Pedophilic perpetrators showed a significant decrease of right amygdalar volume, compared with healthy
controls (P=.001). We observed reduced gray matter in the right amygdala, hypothalamus (bilaterally), septal regions,
substantia innominata, and bed nucleus of the striae terminalis. In 8 of the 15 perpetrators, enlargement of
the anterior temporal horn of the right lateral ventricle that adjoins the amygdala could be recognized by routine
qualitative clinical assessment. Smaller right amygdalar volumes were correlated with the propensity to commit
uniform pedophilic sexual offenses exclusively (P=.006) but not with age (P=.89).

Ref - Brain Pathology in Pedophilic Offenders - ARCH GEN PSYCHIATRY/VOL 64, JUNE 2007

This paper references the above study as well as the author's own:

So far, three research groups have published structural MRI studies of pedophiles: my own group at CAMH in Canada (Cantor et al., 2008), and two other groups, both in Germany (Schiffer et al., 2007; Schiltz et al., 2007). The CAMH team compared large groups of pedophilic men with men who committed nonsexual offenses; we found that the pedophilic men had significantly less tissue in two wide-spread regions of the brain. These two regions (called the superior fronto-occipital fasciculus and the right arcuate fasciculus) are not at all what previous researchers had expected to find (including us). Instead of being in charge of any specific function of the brain (such as self-control or sexual response), these particular brain structures are made up of “cables” (or axons) that connect other brain regions. This suggests the possibility that sexual attraction to children versus adults is not caused by some difference in any one region of the brain, but in the way that multiple regions work together. Neuroscientists refer to this as a partial “disconnection syndrome.”

When comparing pedophilic and nonpedophilic men, one must remain careful not to confuse cause with effect. That is, one must consider carefully whether the brain differences we detected cause pedophilia or whether some aspect of being pedophilic caused the brain differences. Previous research findings suggests that it is more likely for the brain differences to be causing pedophilia than for the other way around...

Ref - MRI research on pedophilia: What ATSA members should know - ATSA Forum, Fall 2008

Sir82, stated "a child is, by law, incapable of giving consent. Sex with a child is always, 100% of the time, rape." That is a popular oversimplification of the law, at least so far as it applies in my country. As EndofMysteries pointed out, even the term child varies. In Canada, what I would commonly call a "child" can give consent. Consider the law in Canada:

Age of consent is 16 years for all sexual activity (raised from 14 in 2008) EXCEPT
Age of consent is 18 years when the activity exploits the young person (parent, coach, teacher, etc) EXCEPT
Age of consent is 14 years when the partner is less than 5 years older and the relationship is not exploitative (parent, coach, teacher, etc) EXCEPT
Age of consent is 14 when the partner is more than 5 years older AND they are legally married ("solemnization" of marriage requirements) EXCEPT
Age of consent is 12 years when the partners is less than 2 years older and not in a relationship of trust (babysitter, etc)

Under many systems of law the concern is less about "consent" at some magic number than about differences in power and authority. Children will, by and large, be sexual. Denying any ability to give consent criminalizes and victimizes all manner of sexual activity that is a frequent part of social development.

The law is a poor form of moral argument. Law should be informed by societal values, not the other way around. As a rather crude analogy - "The law states a youth is, by law, under 21. Therefore giving beer to someone under 21 is always irresponsible and negligent". Frankly, the rest of Earth (Muslim countries notwithstanding) will collectively roll their eyes.

I think discussions about consent and cause/effect are beside the point. Harmful activity should be proscribed. As a thought experiment, if it could be 100% proven that a 12 year old gave full consent in full understanding, would that make it right? I would say the answer is no.

As an aside, the concept of "consent" can be a mental tool used by non-violent offenders - they generally work away at getting enough "consent" to satisfy their conscience - to allow themselves to offend. The illustration I use is with the drug heroin. A damaged child may crave it, may ask for it, even beg for it. It is still morally outrageous, unacceptable, and illegal to give it. In my experience, pedophiles with a conscience (a concept that will be hard for some to grasp) generally agree that giving heroin to a child is wrong under any circumstance; they then make the logical connection that the "consent" they thought they had was beside the point entirely. Of course, most people know that a large part of being an adult is curbing the "consent" of youth.

To the original thread topic, sexual abuse is, almost certainly, now much lower than at any time in recorded history. Herotodus spoke of how the Persians had taken up the practice with gusto when they learned it from the Greeks. And Herotodus is, as they say, the Father of History.

LongHairGal

Snoozy:

I also feel like you do. It seems to me that it is "open season" on children. I am not so sure it just "seems" that way because of better reporting, etc.

Even though this problem of pedophilia has persisted throughout history, and we can have no way of knowing just how bad, I feel that the times we are living in are very un-righteous. I'll even go so far as to say that I feel that there is a tacit approval in some small cliques. Can I prove this? Of course not. It is just a gut instinct.

All I can say is: I feel sorry for any child growing up in this world. At least I had some semblance of a normal childhood and some measure of independence in that us grade-school children were able to walk to school ten blocks away. We could also go out and play and go wherever we wanted as long as we watched out for cars and came home for lunch and dinner.

How about now?? You can't send a small child anywhere alone!

RottenRiley

Can I ask for clarification, are you talking about a "Pedophile Epidemic" in the Congregation or Society as a whole?

I think it's been worse in the past because people got away with raping their little daughters or nieces and nephews, now with the Culture turning against the Falangs, things are getting better in the West because our World View say's Pedophiles are evil and need a bullet in the head!

The JW Congregations? There are many Pedophiles under the JW Version of "Witness Protection Facility" for the rich and famous Pedophile Elders, the Watchtower still protects these slime bags of human excrement because they are afraid the Pedophiles will sing like a bird and all the "Cover-Ups" will be exposed. What do you think?

Is there a pedophile epidemic ?

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