Discussion Paper:
Pedophilia or Statutory Rape
Discussion?
Around the world the age of consent is moving slowly upwards to sixteen, but not fast enough. For billions of people the age of consent is 13, 14 or lower.
This contributes to an enormous sex-slavery industry that seems immune to prosecution. A low or non-existent age of consent also creates a foggy area of opportunity for paedophiles and countless
numbers of men flock to Southeast Asia and India.
Global society needs to deal with pedophillia differently because the offenders are incurable and will re-offend whereas statutory sex crimes are most often not repeated
(a statutory sex offence is consenting sex with a fully-developed
person who is under the age of consent and is a crime in most countries).
Unfortunately the sensationalism around sex crime has led to light sentences and the mis-identification of people who are actually ill.
Paedophiles are incurably ill and should not be treated as statutory sex offenders and handed light sentences. They need to be treated for life.
There is a huge market in parts of the world for under age sex workers. Adopting a universal age of sixteem would provide global law enforcement the tools for busting up child sex slave trading enterpises.
Paedophiles are incurably ill and should not be treated as statutory sex offenders and handed light sentences.
For some reason, when a man is found to be having
consenting sex with a fully developed teenaged person in the United
States, police attempt to brand the accused person as a paedophile to get
themselves more attention and to further vilify the accused above and
beyond the truth of the case. When the allegations "go over the top",
the case becomes unwinnable.
The strange and dangerously inaccurate
fail is that
the crime is often described by police and
local media as pedophilia to get more national attention from the shock
and awe they have created, meanwhile the list of allegedly known
paedophiles is further diluted by another indiscriminate skirt chaser
with maybe with bad eyes or bad judgment or both. Because the hyperbolic
allegations are so extreme from the outset in the hope of getting a plea
bargain, any random public defender can bring the matter to trial and
win.
Too many of these cases are lost after dragging
witnesses and families through the sensational American media muck.
But in the event the prosecutor wins because of the public's well-placed abhorrence for paedophiles, a statutory rapist is imprisoned as a paedophile and any data collected in the treatment of pedophillia is worthless and in fact corrupts the entire
databank.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines pedophilia as:
The act or fantasy on the part of an adult of engaging in sexual
activity with a child or children. The children affected by pedophilia
are prepubescent boys and girls (13 years old or younger). When
post-pubescent teenagers are involved, the proper term is ephebophilia
which is not criminal under circumstances where the participants are of
the same age or where the persons have each reached the age of consent.
The term pedophilia is commonly, but incorrectly,
used in America to refer to any sexual interest in minors below the
legal age of consent, regardless of their level of physical, mental, or
psychological development
Acting upon ephebophilic preference is illegal when the adolescent is
below the legal age of consent (e.g. statutory rape) which corresponds
to the second part of this paper: Pedophilia or Statutory Rape.
Failing to make the
distinction, paedophiles are
not properly sentenced. In
the case of a genuine paedophile being sentenced the sentence must
protect the public because neither punishment nor rehabilitation are
guarantees against a paedophile re-offending. A paedophile once
convicted needs to be locked up for a prison term and then closely
supervised under parole if parole is to be granted for an indeterminate
period of time--basically a lifetime or until the person becomes asexual
or deemed safe by a good set of medical standards.
One of the problems we face in getting stiff sentences for
rapists is the
correct understanding of the nature of the offender. If the offender is
a paedophile , unidentified and untreated, they will re-offend. Typically
that is not the case in matters of statutory rape. The vast number of
statutory rapists do not re-offend whereas seriously disordered
individuals do re-offend.
It is better that the sentence include periodic reviews
and psychoanalysis within
the prison system instead of the current proclivity to hand out the same
light sentence to all offenders. Too many diseased offenders are
released from prison only to re-offend immediately.
Real Pedophiles are a SERIOUS RISK to the community. When
they are caught by the system they need to be identified for what they
are and brought into a programme of monitoring by the state even beyond
the term of their incarceration.
Sadly it is nearly impossible to identify which treatment
programmes work best for real pedophiles in
the U.S. because the USA is treating so many people who are NOT
pedophiles but instead are guilty of Statutory rape. An example of this
is the late Patrice O'Neal the comedian who made infamous rape jokes
about Secretary of State C. Rice and who was charged and convicted of
statutory rape: his wife whom he had sexual relatins with before her
16th birthday--hardly a pedophile.
Pedophilia is a very serious and dangerous disease and
we know nothing accurately about it in the United States because real
pedophiles are hidden among males who get their hormones over-pumped by
Hollywood's focus on youth, sex, bare midriffs and promiscuity.
Pedophilia is a disease wherein
the infected cannot be aroused by a fully developed post-pubescent
person. A real pedophile will be found having extremely inappropriate
and obsessive thoughts about and or contact with pre-pubescent children.
Pedophilia is a serious illness not to be confused with men who like
young women as sex partners but it's about men or women having sex with
children prior to puberty who are babies per se.
The error is a typical American problem and
it seriously skews statistics.
Older than 14-year-old post-pubescent fully-developed
females in many U.S. states may indeed have legal consenting sex if the
person they are with is the same age. In Europe, in many countries, a 14
year old may have sex with anyone. Age of consent around the world
ranges mostly from 13-16. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe)
The definition of pedophilia is
unequivocal and the danger from real pedophiles is so extreme because in
all their lives the will likely not have sex or be satisfied by sex with
a post-pubescent person. A pedophile will seek out little children who
are undeveloped, pre-pubescent. As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia (or paedophilia)
is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or
late adolescents (persons age 16 or older) typically characterized by a
primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children (generally
age 13 years or younger, though onset of puberty may vary).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophelia)
Pedophilia is a term that is misused in American States where
education standards concomitantly are also very bad. Whenever American
media describe a man charged with having sex with a young person and
call it pedophilia, we make clear in our coverage the age and
circumstance because the person deserves a fair trial and because The
United States is a very bullying nation state that jails more of its
people than any nation on earth and uses a bizarre set of
religion-driven common laws that deviate from international law in the
extreme and tend to deviate from the truth for the sake of rallying more
bullies and winning their case rather than finding the facts of the
matter.
Footnote: DSM IV vs Proposed DSM-5 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders Definition of Pedophilia
The understanding of pedophilia has evolved over time, so
each successive edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM) has defined this disorder in a slightly
different way. The current edition, DSM-IV, categorizes
pedophilia as a disorder only if the sexual fantasies or urges involve
prepubescent children (defined as 13 or younger), if they last at least
six months, if the individual has acted on them, or if they cause marked
distress (including legal problems). The DSM-IV also specifies
that a person be at least 16 years old and at least five years older
than the prepubescent child.
The draft version of DSM-5, now
undergoing review, and still delayed because there is a lack of
consensus, proposes several changes to the diagnosis of pedophilia. One
is to expand the definition of this disorder to include hebephilia, an
attraction to children who are going through puberty. The hybrid
category, pedohebephilia, would consist of the pedophilic type
(attracted to prepubescent children, generally younger than 11), the
hebephilic type (attracted to pubescent children, usually ages 11
through 14), and the pedohebephilic type (attracted to both). In another
significant change, the draft suggests that the use of pornography
depicting prepubescent or pubescent children for six months or longer
should be considered a symptom of pedohebephilia.
The proposed revisons for DSM-5 can be found here:
http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=186
FOOTNOTE - AGE OF CONSENT VARIATIONS AROUND THE GLOBE
Whereas what comprises sex between and with children and the
definition of a child itself varies around the world and while
one nation state may disagree with another, each nation state sets its
own laws based on culture, environment and presumably to some extent the
will of the people.
All sexual contact with children is rape as
children (persons below the age of consent in most jurisdictions) are
unable to consent by law and by their limited life experiences and
understanding of the responsibilities, health issues, dangers and all
other consequences. In some cases that age of consent would seem
too low. Different cultures have different characteristics and it is up to
each nation state to set their own laws accordingly. There
is however a strong campaign to raise the age to 16 or older,
universally, all around the world. That makes sense.
The age of consent varies to a large degree around the world. In
a large part of the world the age of consent is 13/14 years of age. In
some states it is younger. In some nations sex outside of marriage is a
serious crime.
The age of consent in China is 14. That's
1.4 billion population and a significant percentage of global pop. Add
Albania, Austria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia,
Germany, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia all of which have set an age
of consent at 14 and you can conclude that most of the world is
different from the UnitedKingdom and Canada where the age of consent is
16. (In the USA it varies from State to State ranging from 14 to 18)
In Spain the age of consent is 13, the
same is true of Argentina, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cypress, many
prefectures of Japan, Soth Korea, Syria and parts of India.
RINJ
RINJ dot Org
RINJ Foundation is an international organization
headquartered in Toronto and founded by persons in Canada, Britain and
Australia.
RINJ seeks removal of media content condoning sexual
assault and rape. Allowing this content on social networking sites and
in other media further normalises a rape culture and the high instance
of sexual violence in global society.
1)
RINJ reports all inappropriate content to the public, advertisers and
law enforcement where that seems appropriate.
2)
RINJ reports to advertisers any ads appearing on pro-rape,
pro-child-molestation media content, web pages and social network
groups.
3) RINJ promotes a global boycott of advertisers and
their products advertised on pro-rape content in any media.