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News Article About Teenage Pediophiles Struggling Not To Offend

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I heard a story, on public radio, about this not so long ago and looked it up online. It's an interesting article. A bit hard to read, in places. It's definitely a perspective I'd never considered.

Life is so much simpler when you can sort it all out into "black and white, good and evil" etc! But reality is way more complicated than that.
 
Interesting article. I think it's a good thing this guy was interviewed. If we want child sexual abuse to stop, we have to give pedophiles who haven't acted upon their desires a chance to get good help. Prevention is definitely the best cure here.

I sort of agree with the guy in the article that there is a difference between pedophiles who fantasize about consensual sex with children (which of course isn't possible because children are far too young to be able to consent to such a thing) and those who actually commit the monstrous crime of abusing children. Anyone who actually does such a thing should be locked up for life, if you ask me. The fantasizing is still wrong, but on its own not directly harmful.

I hope he'll receive the right kind of help and that he'll stay on the right path. His mind is dangerous, but it's good to know that he does have a conscience.
 
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Interesting article, but I believe there's more research out there than the author says. (I don't have it handy so I'm not going to say much more than that w/o checking again.) Much of the research I've seen is about those that actually do commit the crimes, not those who fantasize and don't commit. That said, I don't recall anything about left handedness and the lower IQ thing is just one factor among many. Most of the actual abusers had a lot of tumult in their childhoods and lacked empathy. In other words, it was environmental, not biological.
 
I've struggled to understand pediophilia. I was sexually abused as a child, but I don't think my abusers were pedophiles. I think they were what the article calls situational abusers. They had bad boundaries. They lacked empathy, as @WillyKat says about abusers. All were alcoholics. They were getting off on what they were doing to me, but I think this had to do with what went on in their own minds and not with my child body specifically.
 
I kind of wonder if my abuser wasn't like the guys in the article. Except, of course, that he decided to follow through on his fantasies. I don't know. And I've often wondered how many victims he had. I hope only one, but that seems unlikely. When I first heard this story, it was kind of an eye opener. I had always categorized "these people" as purely evil and never given it another thought. I guess nothing is that simple, is it?
 
It does really raise a very interesting issue... being that those who recognise their urges and haven't offended, want help so they don't become an abuser themselves, yet that help doesn't really exist. Imagine walking into a therapists office and telling them you're a pedophile, non-offending, and want them to help you so that you don't act on your urges? I suspect most would take this quite unwell, and likely try and "refer" you onwards to someone with more experience.

Good on him for bringing this to the forefront for discussion. If you have a problem and don't want it to impact others, then help should be readily available to help you.
 
I agree in principal @anthony regarding some therapists wanting to "refer" you on. A good therapist (such as mine) would try to help, before the pedophile offended. Surely there are a lot of sensible, serious therapists who offer help with this disorder.

Coming from a family of abusers, my own brothers picked up this "trait" from their father in their teens. To them it was normal, so it became a generational problem.
 
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