B4U-ACT group wants pedophilia to be renamed "minor-attraction"

Via Herald Sun :

Mental health group B4U-Act looks to remove stigma from paedophilia

A GROUP of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals say it is time to change the way society views individuals who have physical attractions to children.

The organisation, which calls itself B4U-Act, is lobbying for changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, the guideline of standards on mental health that is put together by the American Psychiatric Association, FOXNews.com said.

The group says its mission is to help paedophiles before they create a crisis, and to do so by offering a less critical view of the disorder.

"Stigmatising and stereotyping minor-attracted people inflames the fears of minor-attracted people, mental health professionals and the public, without contributing to an understanding of minor-attracted people or the issue of child sexual abuse," reads the organisation's website.

B4U-Act said that 38 individuals attended a symposium in Baltimore last week, including researchers from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the universities of Illinois and Louisville. According to the group, which was said to not endorse every point of view expressed, the speakers in attendance concluded that "minor-attracted" individuals are largely misunderstood and should not be criminalised even as their actions should be discouraged.

Speakers also argued that people who are sexually attracted to children should have input into the decision about how paedophilia is defined in the DSM, which they said is supposed to be a guide to promote "mental health vs social control". (emphasis mine)

The American Psychiatric Association did not participate in the conference, and evidently does not condone the group's message. read here.

Let's be clear here: whatever the hell goes on in someone's mind, is one thing; ACTING on the impulse or "desire" to have a sexual relationship, or any type of overt or covert sexual contact with a minor is sexual exploitation and sexual abuse; it is wrong, period.  This group's attempt to "de-stigmatize" pedophilia is driven by the mistaken notion the stigmatization of pedophilia is unwarranted, and a source of discrimination.  It is not an issue of discrimination; it is an issue of aberrant sexual conditioning and impulses that if acted upon are  criminal acts.  To redefine this perversion as being, "minor-attracted" is an attempt to make something aberrant and truly harmful to victims, acceptable.  Pedophilia is stigmatized because it is not acceptable behavior. (regardless of the reasons or excuses used by the perpetrators to justify the pedophile behavior)  The fact that pedophilia is illegal is not in itself a deterrent.  The fact is, there is a stigma attached to pedophilia  because most people know it to be wrong and criminal---and I for one, do not believe psychiatry has done any of us any favors by classifying it as a "mental disease."  Undesirable behavior regardless of who exhibits it, is simply behavior; when the behavior is against the law, it is criminal behavior.  Period.


This is where the wisdom of Thomas Szasz is needed: 

via reason.com

Sins of the Fathers

Is child molestation a sickness or a crime?

a few excerpts:

"Crimes are acts we commit. Diseases are biological processes that happen to our bodies. Mixing these two concepts by defining behaviors we disapprove of as diseases is a bottomless source of confusion and corruption."


"Conversely, psychiatric diagnoses affect moral judgments. Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic and a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, declares: "Some research suggests that some genetic and hormonal abnormalities may play a role [in pedophilia]....We now recognize that it's not just a moral issue, and that nobody chooses to be sexually attracted to young people." Yet an action that affects other people is always, by definition, a moral issue, regardless of whether the actor chooses the proclivity to engage in it."


"Berlin misleadingly talks about the involuntariness of being "sexually attracted to young people." The issue is not sexual attraction; it is sexual action. A healthy 20-year-old male with heterosexual interests is likely to be powerfully attracted to every halfway pretty woman he sees. This does not mean that he has, or attempts to have, sexual congress with these women, especially against their will. The entire psychiatric literature on what used to be called "sexual perversions" is permeated by the unfounded idea -- always implied, sometimes asserted -- that "abnormal" sexual impulses are harder to resist than "normal" ones."

"The acceptance of this notion helps explain the widespread belief that sex offenders are more likely than other criminals to commit new crimes, an assumption that is not supported by the evidence. Tracking a sample of state prisoners who were released in 1983, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 52 percent of rapists and 48 percent of other sex offenders were arrested for a new crime within three years, compared to 60 percent of all violent offenders. The recidivism rates for nonviolent crimes were even higher: 70 percent for burglary and 78 percent for car theft, for example." read here.

After HHS says children are 'sexual beings', psychologists push to decriminalize pedophilia