in Crime & Punishment, Human Psychology, Virtuous Pedophiles, Voices of Reason 140 Words

An announcement and a revealing article in the Independent

So, yeah, I’ve been away for quite awhile. To be honest, I was seriously considering retirement from all forms of pedophile activism for awhile, but circumstances have revealed to me that I should go on, as I continue to be in the best position of everyone at VirPed to do it. Thus, I will try to get active again. I’m currently working on a new article for publication on the state of society with respect to non-offending pedophiles. If anyone has any suggestions as to where I might submit such a piece, I am all ears. 🙂

And speaking of articles about non-offending pedophiles, there’s an excellent one that came out in the UK’s  Independent a couple days ago, written by Ian Johnston: Brains of paedophiles who abuse children are different to those who do not, scientists discover. Check it out!

8 thoughts on “An announcement and a revealing article in the Independent”

  1. Great article! Almost all the research done so far has been on the brains of offending pedophiles, so it’s good to see some attention being given to the non-offenders. I’m glad you’ve decided to keep up with everything you’re doing. I can imagine it would get very discouraging at times, but I think it’s admirable, since the great majority of us are afraid to speak up. While I’m not familiar with many written publications, I remember that “Inside Amy Schumer” has segments in which she interviews people, often those who would typically be seen as controversial or societal outsiders. For example, a non-criminal sociopath (that’s the one I remember the most clearly, and the one I found most interesting.) So, that might be something to look into.

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    1. Ah, yes – antisocials (formerly called “psychopaths” or “sociopaths”) have no conscience, but they are rarely murderers. The hallmark – and really only required – diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder is lack of conscience. What’s interesting is that many of them simply learn to do the right thing because it makes life in a society easier. I’m fascinated by this – most of us have a conscience and it can be torture! Lying awake at night, anxiety over some mistake made. Antisocials sleep great. I could use some of that!

      Most crimes committed by people with antisocial personality disorder have nothing to do with violence against anyone – the most common crimes have to do with money. So that Hollywood figure – the “sociopathic killer” – is rare even among antisocials. It really IS a fascinating topic, bitterchangeling. I agree!

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  2. I love this kind of research! I’ve been fighting an uphill battle for years, trying to tell people that paedophilia is an orientation just like the others. Typically, I get rageful responses. Lovely. I try to educate – vilifying people for a FEELING doesn’t make children any safer. You cannot just line people up because they tell you they have a feeling or orientation and shoot them. You can’t lock people up because of a desire or feeling. Etc.

    I have absolutely NO ability to have a sexual feeling for a child. Never did. I can’t help it. I can’t choose to be attracted to children. I can’t watch child pornography and become a paedophile. I just am WIRED to be a heterosexual, attracted to men my own age. It’s just how I AM. I’m living in a human brain. Why would someone else’s brain be so different from mine? Well… it isn’t. Paedophilia is simply an orientation and I have great compassion for the people who are “wired” that way.

    I’m a psychologist and it has been a battle to get people to listen to this. How does driving people underground because of your hatred help anyone? How can we create a world that is SO unsafe for paedophiles and think that is helping anyone? Anyone at all??

    When they have problems, people are anxious to hear what I have to say… until we get to this topic. They don’t want to hear, “I can’t help your son ‘get over’ his sexual/romantic interest in little girls, but I can help him construct a life that is rewarding and in which he never harms a child.” Sometimes, they drag him off to some church that just does more harm.

    I can’t do magic. But I CAN continue to plea for compassion, logic, and LISTENING. Just listening. Very powerful thing, that.

    Thank you for the fantastic blog. You make the world a better place – simply by being you.

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  3. Glad to read that you are going to keep campaigning Todd, despite the fact that you probably consider me beyond the pale… 😉

    I may have missed it, but have you announced on this blog the release of the film by Barcroft TV – I’m watching it on youtube and I think that you and the producers have done a good job – it’s well-made, intelligent and hits the right level of sympathy.

    But I’d be interested to read what you think of it.

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  4. “If anyone has any suggestions as to where I might submit such a piece, I am all ears.”
    Not in a written form but TED talks could maybe be a possibility? https://speaker-nominations.ted.com/ Many talks there seem to be rather about convenitonal wisdoms, once again proven by a new scientific study but there’re really a lot of them worldwide https://www.ted.com/tedx/events and some are about more controversial issues, at least one even sympathetic towards MAPs (although just in the name of protecting others instead of being sincerely concerned about the well-being of MAPs themselves) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaanSlb08A

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