At my risk I have to comment. It is a myth to say that pedophiles are themselves molested as children. Most of them were never molested.
I was abused as a 13 year old by a pedophile. Unless you have had this happen to you then it is hard to understand. It was not untill my 30s that I could look at this and research pedophiles extensivly. Pedophiles kidnap children but also become friends with young children and "groom" them for there pleasure later. They choose children to victimize that are easy pickings. Examples: broken homes, abusive parents, parents always working and never home. Almost all pedophiles are men and men pedophiles are different then women. Most men its about sex and the conquest. Women its for love. I feel that the pedophile that got me really did love me. Sounds odd doesnt it. But heres another odd thing I loved the pedophile. He screwed me up so bad that it took me years to get through it. They know what to say and what to do to get your trust and boy do they exploit it. My mother and father were seperated at the time this happened and I never told my mother untill I was 35. She was beside herself with grief. Blaming herself because she did nothing at the time. She thought this man was just being kind to me because my father wasnt around anymore. This was back in 1969 and children didnt talk about those things. Plus I was told by the pedophile he would kill my mother if I told her. I put up with his abuse for 8 months and then I stopped it. How? I threatened to go to the police.
My DH and I never had children, we couldnt. But I do the next best thing I work in a NICU and try to help save babies. I also am a huge, huge proponent of tough laws and stopping internet predators. You cant stop a pedophile they cant be reformed, they need to be put in prison for life. As to the pedophile that got me. He died in 1970 in a car wreck. I really really feel for those boys. Its hell. But they are survivors like me not victims. Sorry this was so long. I cant believe im posting this.
I am so sorry to hear of your abuse. There are no words that really convey the right feeling.
Now after having said that, I am going to disagree with you. I too have studied this subject very thoroughly.
Good, valid studies on the origins of pedophilia are few and far between. In fact they are actually non-existent.
The most valid studies say many pedophiles were victims of abuse themselves. No studies say that all pedophiles were victims.
The actual numbers seem to range between 1/3 and 2/3 of all known pedophiles admit to being sexually abused as children. Now if you factor in the valid fact that most people who were sexually abused as children do not admit to it, you see where the numbers grow. Also a pedophile is only caught in what is it 1/260 some children? Therefore for every child that admits that so and so sexually offended him, there are over 250 more victims of that one person, out there not talking!
They are some pedophiles out there that swear they were never molested as children. But when you look at their backgrounds, their childhoods are far from what anyone would perceive as normal. They almost all admit to extreme physical abuse by someone in the family during childhood. What that kind of abuse does to one's brain is a whole other area of development of personality. Those children frequently become adults with antisocial disorders and those kinds of problems include but extend beyond sexual deviancies.
I will agree that most pedophiles are men and that men offend for different reasons than women.
I also believe that pedophilia is not curable. I can not find any program that seems to work on the majority of offenders on a long term basis.
I think the laws in this country need to change if we are going to protect the next generation of children from this crime. We need to find a way to stop the pedophilia population from expanding at the present rate. One of the most effective ways to do this is to give a life long incarceration to an offender after his first offense against a child and not allow him the chance to continue with more victims.
I also know that we need to do something with juvenile offenders. I am not talking about two teenage kids who have intercourse. I am talking kids, normally males, who are age 16 or older, who offend children and babies under the age of 11. Right now most of these offenders receive "treatment" in a juvenile facility and are then released right back into the population with their identities protected because they were kids themselves. When they turn 21 their records are expunged and they are free to enter into society to offend again and again until they are caught in what the law considers their FIRST time! Something needs to be changed!
I know I have strong opinions on this but I have every reason to have these feelings. I am working hard at getting the laws changed!
I don't understand why they were in Atlanta with Larry King, I wouldn't leave my child's side for a long time after 4 years of loss.
