This is probably (definitely) guaranteed to be an unpopular opinion, but I'm going to say it: Pedophiles are not monsters. They're not.
They do not deserve torture. They do not deserve death. We need to stop only caring when children are hurt. Many pedophiles were hurt as children, themselves. Who spoke up for them? I am not in any way condoning violent or harmful acts toward children. They're despicable and monstrous acts. Pedophilia, however, is marked only by the feelings, not acting on them.
I have heard countless times how people say pedophiles deserve to be tortured for life, raped and countless other gruesome acts. From a deep, moral point, I simply can't agree. I have trouble believing Jerry Sandusky woke up one morning after 70 years of life and was attracted to minors. People don't become serial child molesters in a matter of months or years. While we sling hate over our pitchforks and angry crowds, a 20-year-old is concealing his or her pedophilia. They will not seek help from a counselor, join a support group and certainly will not tell any close friends, let alone family. Then, 50 years later, they will finally break.
Only then, will we hear remorse. Only then, will people be angry. Nobody wonders why. Why did this happen? Why are people like this? Because nobody will talk about it. Many pedophiles who realize they have these attractions adamantly do not want to act upon them. Not every pedophile is a threat to society. They could be helped. Nobody wants to start a pedophilia support group. We'd all rather stay silent until something actually happens. Many people are messed up. A kid can have suicidal or even homicidal thoughts. That's fine, they can get help. But somehow a child who begins to realize they have pedophilic thoughts will be silenced or shamed, and no in between. Believe me, this is not a pedophile pity party. I know the real victims are children who have fallen to sexual abuse. I, in fact, put them at the utmost importance. But is it not possible that the best way to put an end to this abuse is to not shame these people, but try to help. Is it not possible that if someone had only been there for Jerry Sandusky to reach out to 25 years ago, he may not have done what he did? Is it not possible our hateful rhetoric only fueled the fire of sexual predator epidemics, rather than decreased them?
This is a very difficult and hard topic. What do you think? Is pedophilia a disease of sexuality? Should we research more? Should we provide pedophile counseling in jails? Should we provide separate jails for pedophiles to possibly recover due to the extremely life threatening situations for convicted pedophiles in jail? Or, are these people evil by nature?
