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Is Pedophilia Not A Crime

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Pedophilia, defined by the DSM, is the “recurrent, intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child.” Albeit children are the clear victims of these heinous cases of sexual abuse, are the pedophiles really at fault? In Margo Kaplan’s New York Times article, “Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime,” she discusses how the criminalization of pedophilia has facilitated incidences of sexual offense. Instead of doing research into the underlying causes of pedophilia, law-makers prefer to ignore these neurological defects in pedophiles, and only intervene when a crime has already been committed (para 3). Usually, once the offense has taken place, the pedophile is then charged with severe sentences. …show more content…
This erroneous view of pedophilia leads to the media’s misconception of pedophiles as creepy monsters who patrol school grounds in their white vans and lure in victims through the offering of candy. However, what society does not understand is the fact that most pedophiles did not choose to be attracted to young children. Kaplan states, “Recent research…suggests that the disorder may have neurological origins” (para 5). Born with neurological defects, pedophiles cannot help but be attracted to young children. They do not have a choice in their desires, just as the rest of us do not have a choice in who we are attracted to. It is therefore, unjust for the rest of us to decide that pedophiles are criminals due to their innate attraction to …show more content…
Knowing this, the sensible action to take is to help pedophiles control their yearnings, and as I previously stated, further research into the neurological causes of pedophilia is necessary. It does not make sense for us to sit around until a crime has been committed, and then take action, which is exactly the method society is employing at the moment. It is true that pedophiles feel reluctant to admit to their disorder, similar to other individuals with paraphilic disorders, but that is due to society’s stigma of the atypical (para 6). Society must grasp the idea that individuals with certain paraphilic disorders cannot control the desires since they are inborn. This notion is fairly evident seeing as most paraphilic disorders have ambiguous origins, or causes, and can never truly be treated. As the title of Kaplan’s article states, pedophilia is a disorder, with a neurological cause, and it is not merely the crime that is committed due to the sexual

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