The Hysteria Of Paedophilia

“I would kill very slowly someone who did this to any of my children. Why cant they pass the law that says you touch our children, you are put to death straight away. I can garantee that if you are sentenced on monday and killed on friday there would be a lot less scum in the world”
“People who go into junior/elementary school's and get children who are under age for sex and use them for child pornography should get a life sentence in prison straight away. I'm fed up of our government not being tough enough on the pedofile's these days. I'm only 14 and already I'm sick of the Government giving pedo's a petty sentence e.g. 3 years. It should be for life. And the prison's should not have things like TV's or PS2's in them. They should just have a bed and a toilet. That's it. Nothing else.”

“At last there is someone talkin sense, why is everyone tryin to justify abuse.i joined this site thinkin if enough people with the same views something mayb done, obviously noti had been saddend with the amount of peolpe talkin as if its normal, mayb for them but i no if someone went anywhere near my kids i would bloody have em, we need to protect r kids”

What is it, out of all the sick, depraved, horrific things that human beings have done to one another, thought up, fantasised about and acted out of the past 6000 years of civilisation that makes people in the 21st century absolutely lose their mind about paedophiles? What is it that has created this insane, barbaric mob mentality that causes seemingly rational people to talk about the trampling of civil liberties, murder and torture with such apparent glee?

Why do people get so crazy when it comes to paedophilia? And we’re going beyond just a bit crazy, we’re talking about a mindless mob, high on bloodlust going through the streets and vandalizing the home of a paediatrician because they obviously don’t know the difference.

But let us look at this rationally. What is it? What causes it? What effect does it have? Obviously the first thing that reaches anyone’s mind when it comes to paedophilia is children. What people instantly think of is little girls and boys who are sexually abused by evil twisted perverts. This, unfortunately, is usually the truth of it. It says something about the makeup of the human psyche that we would take ourselves that far into depravity, but it happens, and children suffer physically and psychologically for it. While I am against this constant overprotection and hysteria around child safety (which there is a direct correlation to the social awareness and coverage of paedophilia to), I agree that this is one thing that all children should be shielded from. They do not understand what is happening, and it goes on to cause great trauma in later life. That is the best case scenario, for many times there have been instances of kidnap, rape and murder. It is, without a doubt, a terrible crime.

There are some, on the other side of the fence though, that claim to believe that it is not a crime. They claim that, in fact, it is merely an expression of an adult’s love for a child. One of the most prominent advocates of this stance is an organisation called NAMBLA – The North America Man-Boy Love Association. They claim that if a child chooses to engage in such acts with an adult, then it is perfectly acceptable, for it is two consensual human beings expressing feelings for one another. Now, this argument is easily shot down with three points; 1) Since when does society think an eight year old is mature enough and careful enough to weigh up decisions about what is should eat every evening for dinner, let alone be so considerate as to understand what love is and how it wants to express it. 2) No child of such a young age chooses to express feelings in a sexual manner. At such a stage in their life they have very little – if any – sense of sexuality. That is why boys think girls are smelly and girls think boys are yucky. There is no attraction, and those boys and girls that might become friends have no feelings for one another beyond innocent friendship. Even games of ‘you show me your parts and I’ll show you mine’ are done in an innocent manner, totally devoid of any sexual subtext. No, it is the adult, that would choose to inject any kind of expression of sexual love into an equation. It is the adult, with his somewhat developed psychology and brain, who is able to manipulate, coerce and convince a child that such an act would be fun, or a great way to show that we’re friends. The child does not choose to express love this way (if it even understands what such a thing is), it is coerced into it by an altogether more manipulative outside force – the adult.

But NAMBLA’s existence, while deplorable, does occasionally highlight an important point about paedophiles, one that the hysteria mobs often overlook, and one that I feel is extremely important. What, exactly, is it that causes a man (or very occasionally a woman) to become a paedophile? No one chooses it, just like no one chooses their sexual orientation or list of turn ons. The people that suffer from such desires, are, in a sense, victims of fate and genetics, for they have something in their brain that is wired a little differently, and turns their eye towards young children instead of developed adults. Look at the notion of paedophilia this way, through the prism of objective reasoning and science, and you realise that this argument that ‘All paedophiles are evil’ is simple hysterical nonsense. Are some paedophiles evil? Yes of course. And they are the difference, they are the ones who have such feelings and choose to act on them. Whether it be by looking at child pornography or engaging in such acts themselves. They know what they are doing is morally reprehensible and illegal, but they throw caution to the wind in order to pleasure themselves. They choose to commit these acts. There are those that have such feelings however, that choose not to act on them. Just as there are those with a range of kinks and fetishes that they choose not to act on, from the mundane (spanking, S&M and whatnot) through to the depraved (scat or vomit play), the illegal (necrophilia or bestiality) or the bizarre (arousal through wearing diving suits or being treated like a 1940s Arian in Poland). Some choose to act on these urges – whatever they may be – some choose not to. As long as they break no laws, which means in most cases not indulging in the act with a person who does not consent to, they are perfectly entitled to indulge themselves. Paedophilia however, is one such perversion that falls into the territory of the illegal, because a child can never give seriously considered consensual approval. But again, look at the condition through that prism; that these are desires that no one would ever choose to have. And that is the individual that makes the choice whether to act on such urges, in full realisation that their acts are morally wrong and illegal. The idea of tarring all with the same brush – an idea that is so reprehensible when it comes to ideas of race, nationality or sexuality – which is so popular when it comes to dealing with paedophiles, disappears.

We have established though, firmly, that paedophilia is a crime, both a moral and physical one. It is a terrible, terrible thing to do, that scars and creates severe trauma for the individual later in life, but why is it that this particular crime is given such status? Why is it that so many people think that paedophilia is the most unpardonable act, one that deserves either life incarceration, mental and physical torture and the death penalty with question? Again, objectively, ask yourself, is it really a crime that is worse than rape? Is it really a crime that is worse than murder? Despite the terrible after effects of rape or sexual abuse, at least the victim is still alive afterward. Many people say ‘You wouldn’t understand unless you have children.’ To which one can simply reply, ‘If I tortured and then murdered your parents, brothers, sisters, friends and even your pets in front of you, that would be a worse crime than your child getting touched inappropriately and left alive?’ The point here is that the grading of any such crime is silly, but most people have some level of sense when it comes to the severity of a crime. That always seems to be tossed out of the window when it comes to dealing with paedophilia, where people are willing to accept rumour as fact and convict without due course, despite there being many more terrible people in the world who would have received a far more considered approach to their crimes.

Indeed, it seems as though when it comes to the notion of ‘Innocent until proven guilty’, that corner stone of any enlightened justice system, is thrown out of the window when it comes to the case of the paedophile. Onlookers and listeners are happy to convict on the basis of hearsay. Why? Why is there often so much pressure on the judge in a trial to convict and ruin the life of a potentially innocent man or woman? If you were accused by any child of inappropriate touching, and were taken to court over the allegation, how would you feel with an entire community and network of people baying for your blood, eager to see your life ruined, simply over the notion of what a child said? You might be completely innocent, but in their eyes, on accusal alone, you are guilty and a disgusting creature. This is an important thing to understand whenever one looks at someone accused of such an event, when a community or sometimes even a nation is turned against you because of little more (in some cases) than an accusation?

Often, the flames of such hatred are stoked, prodded and enlarged by an external force; the news media. I truly believe they should bear a large load of criticism when it comes to the way that society has been trained to react to paedophilia. Look no further than the shrewd and insightful satire of Chris Morris’ Brasseye special (entitled Paedogeddon), that lampooned tabloid rags like The News Of The World (with their disgusting, intrusive, morally bankrupt, sensationalist and illegal “Name and Shame” campaign (The Sun practiced a similar vile ethos throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s, outing closeted gay public figures for tabloid gain)), The sun and the Daily Mail for their hypocrisy and exploitative measures. Of course, a show so intelligent was roundly condemned by the tabloid press itself, who (incapable of ever taking criticism) attacked Morris and his show. The Daily Star printed an article decrying Morris and the show next to a piece about the then 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's breasts under the headline "She's a big girl now". The Daily Mail also featured pictures of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11 at the time respectively, in their bikinis next to a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick". MPs, ever eager to jump on a bandwagon, attacked the show in order to gain some exposure, with Beverley Hughes describing it as "unspeakably sick" (while admitting that she had not seen the programme) and David Blunkett (who also admitted that he had not seen the programme ‘due to being blind’) said he was "dismayed" by it. Although she did not criticise the show, Tessa Jowell was reported as asking the Independent Television Commission to revise its rules to allow such a controversial show to be prevented from broadcast even though she had not watched the actual episode of the show. Thankfully the ITC refrained from such delporable censorship, but it is the perfect example of how hypocritical, sensationlist and unscrupulous the media is on the issue, and how easily people will happily throw their morals, laws of the land and the rights of their fellow humans out of the window in order to attack the subject.

It was this temporary insanity which led to a mob in Newport to This included an incident in 2000, where a paediatrician had the word 'PAEDO' daubed in yellow paint on her home. What is it that causes this mob mentality? What is it that leads grown men and women, thoughtful, considerate people to say – with seriousness – that they will kill someone and enjoy it? How can they say that paedophiles should be castrated by wild dogs, or – as evidenced in the first quote of this article – be put to death within a week if even accused of such an offence. The calls of what they call ‘equal’ and ‘fair’ justice are not that at all, they are merely simple minded screams for vengeance. They are whipped into a frenzy against a commonly held evil and go rampaging through a town like in the days of old, when mobs would maraude through villages with flaming torches and weapons in an attempt to cast out witches, homosexuals, the disabled or black people. It reveals an ugly truth about human beings, that for all our thoughts of evolutionary superiority, left to the will of the people ‘justice’ would still revolve around an eye for an eye. They have no interest in understanding the problem or helping those that are afflicted by it and genuinely want help, that involves to much rational and careful thought around a sensitive issue, they are much happier to go with their emotions.

It is my opinion, that the people that so roundly dismiss all paedophiles as evil, sick monsters, that say they would throw away the civil liberties of the few in order to serve the raging, manipulated emotions of the many, are simple minded, and not very bright. Do not try to turn it on me by saying ‘How would you feel’ or ‘Well I’ve got a daughter/son and you don’t understand’ because if anyone ever laid a finger on my mother, father or sister I would be moved by such moments of mindless rage. I do not know if I could ever forgive a perpatrator, but I would never allow myself to sink to their level and CHOOSE to act on feelings that I know to be illegal. I would then be no better than the murderer, the rapist or the paedophile.

I may upset many people with this article, but my opinion remains the same, and if you have read through to this point, having been presented with a reasoned, intelligent point of view as to why the mob mentality is wrong, and why tarring everyone in a group is wrong, and yet still believe that ‘All paedophiles should be killed’ or that you would ‘Hunt down and torture to death anyone that touched my child’ then you know my opinion of you. A terrible crime should not be met with a terrible crime. It makes you no better than them. Just as they chose to break the law and harm someone, you chose to break it anfd harm them. I do not advocate paedophilia. Nor do I sympathise with any man or woman who chooses to commit such an act, but I do with those who feel such feelings, know they are wrong, have restrained themselves and seek help. I hope, that after reading this article, you might look at the situation with a bit more reason and composure, and at least try to understand the issue before so roundly condemning it. It was out of that media manipulated, mob mentality that the Holocaust, the Salem witch trials, the Inquisition or the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s were allowed to take place. Those deplorable moments were born out of that kind of fervour. It is a relic of our darker past, and that is where we should consign it forever.