The content of this article may be triggering to some individuals, as the information includes themes of child predation, sexual abuse, and struggles with mental health. If you are someone struggling with depression, trauma from violence or sexual abuse, or any other mental health problem as you come across this article, then it may not be for you.

Take care,

Justin Doucette

Abstract

The nuanced ideology that love is blind has opened numerous doors for many people to live and express themselves freely of guilt and shame. This modern philosophy, however, has somehow attracted a group of people who have an allure for young children and adolescents, encouraging them to lobby against the legal system’s restrictions on pedophilic actions and relationships.

There are various levels and ways in which pedophilia manifests itself, such as through mental illness, early child abuse, and regression induced by senility. That being said, it is important to note that, despite any “consent” that has been granted from the juvenile party, any relation between a child and adult has great potential to be extremely harmful.

Nonetheless, pedophilia is a confusing and concerning topic. Some pedophiles are distraught by their child-oriented sexual impulses, whereas others believe their ability to engage romantically and sexually with a child should not be illegal and is not harmful.

Other, more dangerous groups include sadistic sex offenders who are more prone to commit homicide.

Even so, the debate on what to do with pedophiles is often seething hot, as you cannot simply put someone behind bars for thinking of a child in a sexual light, nor can you just let all offenders roam the streets because “they deserve love, too.”

Looking Backward 

“They first rape the child’s mind in order to rape their body,” explained sexual abuse expert, Terri Miller of Stop Sexual Abuse Misconduct. 

In the same interview, a predator detailed the general understanding by pedophiles that attraction to children is inherently wrong. He outlined the premeditated actions used to groom his victim; predators strategically “isolate” their victims and “create opportunities to be alone with [them],” as well as gain the trust of the victim and welcome sexually-oriented, inappropriate questions. 

The grooming and sexualization of children being considered “wrong” is something relatively new in the context of world history and is still discarded in many places. One example is shown when looking to the Middle Eastern region, where cases of pedophilia are oftentimes overlooked as cultural normalcies in areas such as arranged marriages.

Arranged marriages are culturally encouraged all around the world, which may or may not be negative depending on the individual. However, there are various cases of children being married off to older, more established men to assist with family ties and financial standings. Although this form of marriage is protected as an important aspect of maintaining ancient traditions and cultures, having a child married off to someone with a significant age gap opens doors to various methods of abuse that, in most cases, cause long-term harm to the younger party. 

From a historical standpoint, children have almost always been subjected to the pedophilic tendencies of adults. In Ancient hierarchical Greece, for example, it was favorable for the education of young boys to engage in sexual acts with their elders. It was heavily through the works of Ovid (poet) and Plutarch (philosopher), who questioned the fulfillment of the older party due to the inferiority status of the boys, which made them unable to express lustrous desires, that sexual relations with young boys were exchanged for women in Greece.

The latter half of the nineteenth century saw an expansion of the middle class, caused by the progressive reforms of the Industrial revolution. These include increased wages and time off to foster family virtues, which subsequently allowed relations between children and adults to become less desirable. 

Although child-adult relationships became increasingly looked down upon during this period, one of the first true attempts to regulate pedophilic behavior was in the wake of the publication of a series of articles, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” by W.T. Stead, which dealt with topics such as child prostitution and led the public to protect the innocence of children. His works initiated international outrage, which specifically targeted Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, due to excessive imagery of child nudity, and other notable titles, which subsequently caused mass protests across numerous European countries.

With the help of Stead’s articles that brought about international cries for reform, the age of consent in various countries was raised from 10 or 12 to 16 or 18.

Despite the newfound determination to protect the innocence of adolescence, it took until the mid-twentieth century for pedophilia to be acknowledged as a mental illness, which was brought through the foundation of forensic sciences and focused studies of psychology. 

Although the fight to protect children in the twentieth century was more centralized and powerful than previously seen, the development of modern technology expanded the realms of Pedophiles toward child pornography and group chats with like-minded individuals, which is speculated to have influenced the spike in child murders across Europe and the United States.

(Child) Pornography

“Twenty-first-century technology and the proliferation of the internet and mobile devices have helped facilitate the crime of child sex trafficking and other forms of child exploitation. Consequently, the number of reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of online photos and videos of children being sexually abused is at record levels,” as put by the Executive Office of the President on February 5, 2020.

Before the rise of the internet and technology, sexual predators resorted to engaging in physical relations with minors. They would have found it more difficult to do so, as not every child on the street would willingly get in the back of the ice cream truck. 

However, it was much easier for pedophiles to interact with victims before the 2000s, as parents were more willing to allow their children to go out and about with their friends. The 1960s through the early 90s were known for prolific sexually motivated attacks and murders, much of the time, oriented toward children.

For example, the West Memphis Three in 1993, the Oakland County Child Killer of the late 70s and early 80s, and hundreds more. 

While sexual abuse and violence toward children seemed prolific during the era prior to the internet, with the pursuit of perversion often ending in homicide, the numbers and types of attacks as reported after the rise of the internet suggest an increase in violent attacks, as well as an increase in attacks across America and Europe as a whole. 

Pornography existed prior to the internet in magazines such as Play Boy and Glamour Girl. However, not every man or woman with access to adult magazines in the 80s committed murder based on the content being absorbed. Although, as serial killer Ted Bundy claimed, “I’ve met a lot of men [in prison] who were motivated to commit violence just like me and without exception, every one of them was … deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography.”

While there is no correlation between pornography, pedophilia, and violence to be displayed throughout the general population, evidence suggests that frequent viewers of violent or aggressive pornography are more likely to commit certain crimes. With the rise of the internet came along great methods of communicating at almost instantaneous rates, and the chat groups of the early 2000s, accompanied by the new, widespread availability of phones, were no exception. 

It was almost instantly that pedophiles created their own chat groups and infiltrated said groups with child pornography. The rapid spread of child pornography inhibited curious adults to explore their attraction to minors in a “non-harmful” way, which is most definitely not the case.

“Everything pornography says is a lie,” says Mary Anne Layden, director of the sexual trauma and psychopathology program in the Unversity of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychiatry.

The easy access to pornography across the internet normalizes aggression during intimacy and thus encourages the brain to equate lust with violence and aggression. This distorted version of sex is dangerous to the partners of those with pornographic addictions, as they can likely be subjected to an attempt to “recreate” what has been previously viewed. On top of that, aggressive adult film can cause uncontrollable, violent sexual impulses which oftentimes leads to abuse and rape.

Not only does it remove intimacy from the act of sex and replace it with unpleasurable violence, but it also acts as a “visual representation of sexuality which distorts an individual’s concept of the nature of conjugal relations. This, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior,” claims Patrick Fagan of the Catholic Education Resource Center. “It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children, and individual happiness.”

While adults have the ability to consent to sexual acts and thus engage in the production of adult entertainment, children who are involved in sexually explicit images and videos are oftentimes “obligated, mistreated, and sexually assaulted” on and behind the camera. In many cases, these children are kidnapped or sold by their families for income. 

Not surprisingly, the internet is also a major source that pedophiles flock to for sexual gratification. They search out minors and engage in conversations with them, showing them pictures depicting a child and adult engaging sexually as a method of normalizing the activity to the minor.

The abuser encourages children and younger teens to hold sexual conversations and engage in online sexual behavior, which typically includes the sending of explicit photos and videos, which are many times taken and sold elsewhere.

LGBT Integration?

Like homosexuality, pedophilia is caused by “atypical wiring in the brain.” However, a relationship between two consenting individuals, who are of age, is not inherently something to bring negative effects to either party.

As the acronym defining various genders and sexualities elongates, pedophiles have somehow found a way to creep into the LGBT community in search of justification and acceptance for their “sexuality.”

Many pedophiles have disguised themselves, whether knowingly or not, as (Non-Offending) Minor Attracted Persons, or (NO)MAPs, as a way to normalize their predation or attraction to minors and prepubescent individuals. 

While many (NO)MAPs spin tales of loneliness and sadness on the internet, their sympathy-stirring stories describing the societal pains of misunderstanding and marginalization are anything but worthy of empathy.

Some people are more than willing to accept MAPs into the LGBT community, whereas others are disgusted that grown adults, who are attracted to children, are attempting to associate themselves with a community usually heavily composed of minors. 

People such as former TikTok mini-star, Mama Stef, who, at 21, dated a fifteen-year-old transgender male and had him stay over at her house- alone. Not only do her actions make clear her “goals” for entering the LGBT community, but they also show how many MAPs, in joining the community, prey on marginalized people, who are more susceptible to being abused and groomed.

The author of Long Dark Shadow: Minor Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity believes that “MAPs are not beyond help,” and argues that “stigmatizing does not prevent crimes against children.”

While that may be correct, it is also correct that accepting those struggling with child-oriented impulses as “normal” does not prevent crimes either. If anything, it opens up children to various possibilities of being groomed or abused, given that their guard is down or they may “offend” the adult who is making sexual or romantic gestures toward them.

The Effects of pedophilia on the Pedophile and the Victim

Psychologists have deemed pedophilia a “psychosexual perversion,” oftentimes alongside senility, mental deficiencies, or early-onset psychological damage. Those are not the only causes, however, and it may not always be treatment resistant.

With medication or intensive therapy, the thoughts of perversions can be alleviated and, in some cases, entirely alienated. Disorders such as Pedophilic Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (pOCD), where the sufferer experiences compulsive, unwanted sexual perversions relating to children, many see a huge improvement in their cognitive function when provided with medical attention.

For many offenders, however, the drive to sexually engage with a minor is so strong and innate that it cannot be removed from one’s thought pattern. In such severe cases, hospitalization is recommended. However, such strong urges are often dismissed, leaving high-risk pedophiles in a position to offend or re-offend. 

Many sufferers of pOCD have suicidal thoughts and often attempt suicide, as they are turned away from receiving mental help for their unwanted desires. Either they are turned away, or the one experiencing pedophilic tendencies feels too ashamed to reach out for help in combating their desires.

While pOCD is more common than what one would expect, with an estimated 400,000 Americans suffering, that does not mean it is the driving force behind child-oriented sexual crimes. Many pedophiles are sexually sadistic, and enjoy torturing defenseless children, or are genuinely attracted to the prepubescence of young individuals. 

In most cases, almost immediately children experiencing sexual abuse act out in anger, which can turn to depression and aggression. Those feelings come along with helplessness, distrust, self-hatred, isolation, and terror, which alter the way one is able to live his or her life.

Oftentimes, victims of pedophilia turn to drugs and self-harm as a way to cope with the devastating effects of childhood pedophilia. 

A study conducted in Australia, which consisted of a group of people who were sexually abused as children and another group comprised of those who were not, proved that the suicide rate increased at a rate upwards of 13 times the national rate for people who were abused sexually as adolescents. Of the group being studied, thirty-two percent had attempted suicide, and forty-three percent had suicidal thoughts and ideation.

The late actor Corey Haim, who was “direct[ly] rape[d]” by producers and directors, reportedly “struggled with drugs” beginning in his early teens. Corey Feldman, lifelong friend and costar of Haim, claims his best friend’s addiction and subsequent death “was caused by sexual abuse at the hands of a Hollywood pedophile.”

Pedophilia in the Media

It is no secret that Hollywood is run by the senility of the world, which plays into question the innocence of certain scenes and themes behind the stories depicted in the performance media.

“There was a circle of older men that surrounded themselves around this group of kids,” stated Feldman when describing the power of pedophiles in the Hollywood elite. 

The statements provided by Feldman are supported by the arrests of and allegations against prominent Hollywood figures, such as Martin Weiss, Fernando Rivas, and Victor Salva.

Martin Weiss, a Hollywood manager who specialized in representing children, was charged with sexually abusing a former client who was under the age of 12. 

Fernando Rivas, known for his compositions on “Sesame Street,” was charged with “coercing a child to ‘engage in sexually explicit conduct” along with the “production and distribution of child pornography.”

“I was basically blackballed for telling the truth,” explained Nathan Forrest Winters, a former child actor who was molested by director Victor Salva for five years. “He’s been coddled completely, big names in Hollywood have been backing him throughout the entire process.”

Numerous other sources within the fashion industry push the normalization of child sexualization. Mike Jeffries, former CEO of Abercrombie, actively participated in grooming his underaged models and using his power unjustly to get them to take their clothes off and engage sexually with him. 

Around the same time, Abercrombie also offered lingerie for girls starting at the age of 8. 

It is not uncommon to see current musicians and actors speaking out against a senile hierarchy, as various artists utilize their platforms to speak out against the wrongs they have noticed within the entertainment industry. In “Put Me in a Movie,” an unreleased song by Lana Del Rey, she writes through the eyes of a young girl being selected by a director of some sort, saying various things such as, “if he likes me, takes me home,” and, “you know you like little girls.” 

The sexual abuses of directors and managers is a distorted image of love and lust, obtained through unequal power distribution, inflicts harm and suffering onto adolescents and children. In the eyes of any human being, these psycho-sexual perversions are dangerous to the foundations of society, which is why it is important for artists to use their creative visions to confront the problems of predation and abuse.

In the 1962 rendition of Lolita, a young girl and an older man are shown to be “falling in love.” While the author, Vladimir Nabokov, explicitly stated the narrator to be unreliable and mentally ill, the film is known to be a romanticization of child grooming for those unaware of racey stylistic choices, such as unreliable narrators, or who have issues separating fiction from reality in literature and film. 

“It is the textbook definition of an unreliable narrator: the man refers to her as a ‘nymphette,’” stated Dan Harriman, senior at Pentucket. While he acknowledged the sardonic nature of the novel, he also noted how the movie portrayal could be misleading to some, given that “they don’t understand what it is about.”

It is difficult, however, to shun such pieces of art so quickly, as the tellings of these stories are essential to building empathy and awareness in society. It is not the film so much as the audience that causes discrepancies among the author’s purpose; Catcher in the Rye inspired the murder of John Lennon, but J.D. Salinger did not set his purpose to cause violence within the streets- his intention was to reveal falsehoods within society and confront the difficulty of adulthood. 

Provoking pieces of literature and film are essential to human development, which is why Vladimir Nabokov set his purpose on exemplifying the unsound pedophilic mind within his novel. However, film and literature are not a method through which one can take advantage of young, innocent individuals. 

Is There A Solution?

Numerous solutions have been thrown around by lawmakers and psychologists concerning pedophilia, such as the castration of reproductive parts and deprivation of Androgen, both resulting in a cut or limiting of male sex hormones.

While these seem plausible to an extent, a good portion of the pedophile population diminishes the credibility of such solutions; since females also have the capability of expressing sadistic, sexual perversions, proposing the castration of sexual deviants would only cut half the problem… after the crime occurred. 

Perhaps the best-case scenario would be the availability of therapy, counseling, and inpatient treatment. Unfortunately, however, the responsiveness of the general public regarding those struggling with unwanted pedophilic impulses and thoughts is low with an overwhelming vocalization of disgust, as opposed to a receptiveness to aid in the recovery of a sufferer.

While it is difficult for many to not be disgusted at the mention of pedophilic thoughts, it is important to note that shame only deters sufferers from reaching out for help, which increases their likelihood of offending. 

Even when the sufferer does reach out for help, as previously mentioned, the healthcare system oftentimes ignores treatment requests. 

It is shown that American “sexual predator” legislation does little to provide mental health support for those convicted of sexual offenses, often focusing on “punishment rather than treatment.”  However, a majority of people within such programs often “do not have a treatable mental illness,” which is why most help is nonexistent. 

While it is not plausible to release convicted offenders from prison, it is important to note that the United States spends more time and money to punish pedophilic offenders than prevent the action from happening.

One would assume that it is more desirable to offer greater assistance for those struggling with pedophilic thoughts, as it would not only create a more safe environment for children but also reduce the number of children who are forced to grow up with trauma because mental help was unavailable, as well as decrease the likelihood of such events taking place.

However, just like any other mental health problem, there will always be pedophiles who do not reach out for help because they do not see a problem in their actions, and enjoy harming powerless children. In such cases, punishment is absolutely necessary.

Either way, it is important to account for those who do not want to sexually offend a minor, and look at other viable options to prevent the harming of a child, rather than rely on a cycle of abuse and trauma to catch predators. 

End Note

From Ancient Greece to the modern world, pedophilia has withstood the test of time, enforcing the idea that it is caused by abnormalities in the brain.

The immediate community within Massachusetts has seen various pedophiles busted, including, most notably, Father Shanley of the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Stoneham, and Kenneth Niven, who ran a clothing business, babysat young children, and worked as an “on-call” substitute for elementary education in Merrimac. 

Amidst a world of disgust, there is hope: a group of middle school boys in Rhode Island noticed one of their teachers, who had complaints placed against him for many years, was acting inappropriately toward the female students; calling them “sweetheart,” asking them to dance suggestively, and instructing them to “wear bikinis” to class. 

For months, the boys gathered evidence against their teacher on their “Pedo database,” which was turned in to the police when he was finally arrested for stalking a female student.

Disclaimer

This article is not intended to be bashful of any individual, nor be used to incite acts of prejudice or violence against anyone mentioned within the information above.

It is intended, however, to bring awareness to a growing problem around the world: that children are being harmed due to a lack of care and effort by adults and powerful figures. 

Beyond being bashful, the truth is that people are suffering; help is available, it is obtainable, and it is there. 

Whether you are the abuser or the abused, you have the power to stop the cycle.