Pedophile Ethics
Jeremy Rodriguez
City College
Abstract
On September 29, 2019 the New York Times published an article called ‘Preying on Children: The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles’ by Benedict Carey. There are different ethical questions to be brought up about pedophiles. It could be advantageous for law enforcement to defer punishment on persons that have only been caught with child pornography in order to build better networks to catch those who assault children. The current focus on catching all people leads to further hiding making it more difficult to catch everyone involved. Learning about pedophiles who do have these urges and have yet to act on them could be informative in such investigations and how to begin to rehabilitate them in some way.
One of the most uncomfortable topics to read & think about is that of pedophilia, people having desires with children. On September 29, 2019 the New York Times published an article called ‘Preying on Children: The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles’ by Benedict Carey, which describes the perceptions and observations from many studies about pedophiles. Many pedophiles have not been molested, have been impaired with alcohol or drugs and are rooted in factors outside of their control. Many ethical concerns like, should some be sympathized with or further probing their mind to prevent more crimes. It could be advantageous to learn more about pedophilia in order to prevent the worst outcomes from occurring.
From what the research has shown, there is little choice in who people decide to be attracted to. “People don’t choose what arouses them — they discover it,” said Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic. “No one grows up wanting to be a pedophile.” This quote just points out that most pedophiles don’t choose to be that way even though they have these unsettling urges. Since there is no active choice in their perception of arousal should they feel guilty? Pedophiles do make an active choice to commit the crimes however the ones that have yet to do so could be seen as victims of their biology. Looking at the science it is clear, “The biological clues attached to pedophilia demonstrate that its roots are prenatal,” said James Cantor, director of the Toronto Sexuality Center. “These are not genetic; they can be traced to specific periods of development in the womb.” This is clear evidence that there is something biologically different that is not under their control.
If these individuals aren’t choosing to have such urges, where do they fit into society? Through one’s personal perceptions everyone has some temptations that need to be fought with, however the discomfort arises because this urge is about sexual assault. They have to fight a battle against themselves to actively avoid their biological predisposition for moral and ethical reasons. As mentioned in the article, “virtuous pedophiles” people that have the urges but have yet to act and seek help. In the article, Dr. Cantor stated, “That’s the kind of person we’d like our clients to become, a person who’s aware of the urges and learns to effectively manage them.” Potential lies here to uncover more about pedophilia but also to spread awareness for managing people’s own impulses. Even though they aren’t choosing how to feel and their urges, they are choosing to take actions that are prosecuted against like download illegal images and even commit the crime of sexual assault. This is not only just a failure in morality but it is a lack of inhibition of underlying urges. The attraction is clearly separate from the action, “I couldn’t help myself” does not suffice in a criminal defense where there is a victim of a crime, however, this issue does not begin at the crime.
Some ideas could allow more open conversations of psychologists by allowing the act of having child pornography to be deferred if no other physical assaults have occurred or conspiracy to do so. This could put a halt to, “an era of increasing alarm over the proliferation of online abuse…going only further underground”. From that law enforcement develop strategies to prevent far worse crimes, something that already occurs in the US in order to catch people that present greater risks to society.
In the interest of limiting the harm done to others could be in society’s best interest to actively listen to this group of people to prevent such actions. This preserves more innocent lives while allowing law enforcement to better prevent the worst from occurring. Maybe more minor crimes like look at photos can be minimized in order to catch people that commit the crime.
References
Carey, B. (2019, September 29). Preying on Children: The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/us/pedophiles-online-sex-abuse.html
