“in many ancient cultures, such as Rome and India (much more recently) men in their 40’s married girls that sometimes were not even in their teens yet.”

By the way, I think considering one’s sexual orientation similar to having a favorite color is really, really off. I don’t think you’ll lead an unhappy life if you’d never be able to see your favorite color.

Pedophiles are more like alcoholics. Of course, no one chooses to be an alcoholic either, but both alcoholics and pedophiles suffer from chemical addiction. Procreation is chemically driven, and for some people, the drug “testosterone” is just as potent as heroin or cocaine and just as destructive.

While the age of consent is arbitrary and changes from one society to another, all societies ban sexual contact between an adult male and a young girl before she “turns” into a woman (usually around 12).

Pedophilia, on the other hand, is not constrained by culture, and has nothing to do with “selecting a potential mate”. Pedophilia is all about sexual gratification and power. Anyone who imagines that a pedophile sees a three-year-old child as a potential reproductive partner is delusional.

Like an alcoholic, a pedophile can resist his urges “one day at a time” – if he has enough willpower. Unfortunately, also like an alcoholic, curing a pedophile is impossible. A pedophile will always be under the “pressure” of his biological urges. While these “urges” can be controlled with medication, drug based control requires a lifelong commitment by the pedophile.

At the risk of being seen as a troll, involuntary castration is one solution that really should be considered. First it provides a strong deterrent for borderline pedophiles. Second, it removes the problem of “testosterone” and the need for lifelong medication. Third, it reduces imprisonment and the associated costs.

While this potential “cure” may not prove 100 percent effective. It could nevertheless provide better results than we are able to achieve with the current system. In fact, a few people (troubled by their own uncontrollable sexual urges), voluntarily choose castration as solution to their problem.

To many, castration appears inhumane and inhuman and brings to mind Hitler’s “final solution”. Objectively however, society must weigh the potential lifelong suffering and mental scars of the victims (our children), against the potential lifelong suffering and mental scars of a deviant sexual predator. When a sexual predator is caught, tried, convicted and subsequently released. Society clearly shares the blame if that “freed” predator ever harms another child.

These are complex issues and difficult to answer and is one the reasons I find it hard to agree with your conclusion.

Someone else on a different forum wrote: “Roman Polanski has asserted that everyone wants to fuck young girls. Using the artifacts of Western popular culture – network and cable television programming, movies, magazines, popular music and the products of the various fashion industries – attempt to disprove Polanski’s claim. Avoid the temptation to cherry pick anomalous examples and please, be thorough.”

Could you do it?

There is no need to keep these people in jail for years. A simple visit to a vet and the problem is solved. As a bonus you never have to worry about them returning to society or living in your neighborhood. Talk about a good deterrent..

I must point out the latest headline case for those of you who haven’t heard: Mark Hulett in Vermont sexually assaulted a girl for four years. Judge Edward Cashman sentenced him to 60 days after he pled guilty. He said that he no longer believes that punishment works. Apparently this judge has been off kilter for a while, several years ago he told a rape victim that she had just seen one of the harsh realities of life and should get over it.

This is what I’m talking about when I talk about people killing a baby to save a puppy. It’s a reversal of morality: The poor pedophile can’t do anything to help himself. He’s driven by obsessions that he can’t fulfill. He conflicts with himself until finally, driven by complete mental breakdown he becomes a molester. I’m trying to avoid harsh language here because I don’t want to upset people, but there aren’t enough bad words to describe someone who lets their problems become a child’s problems. I should qualify that statement; there is a difference between the normal mistakes adults make with kids, like not teaching them good coping skills, and straight out abusing them. I need to explain my earlier statement about the baby and the puppy: when you sympathize with the molester you can’t reconcile that with sympathizing for the child. You no longer want “justice” for the child, your thoughts start drifting along the lines of, “Well, I can’t change what’s already happened. The best thing to do is help this person not do this anymore.” Problem there is I’m pretty sure there is no way to treat a pedophile, save chemical castration. I’d appreciate a shrink’s perspective/knowledge on the issue here. So when you start trying to reconcile the two, the harsh fact is that the best way to deal with the issue is probably just to lock up the pedophile forever to protect further children. The prisoner sympathetic mentality doesn’t allow for that, hence the myth of a “cured” pedophile with the help of state mandated counseling and some jail time. Bullshit. If you wanted something better than prison, just put all pedophiles on an island somewhere or in a work camp. I know it sounds crazy but at least it allows them to live a semi-normal life. On the one hand it sucks that their brain is wired that way. On the other hand, you can’t let them hurt kids. What choice do you make? The mistake lots of people are making is to let pedophiles be in a position to hurt kids out of respect for the humanity of the pedophile. You can’t do that. On some level, you have to deny the humanity of the pedophile to save kids. But we don’t benefit from those kinds of choices. Our political leaders and judges, especially this one, are usually too weak to make those decisions.