Paedophilia thesis comes under fire

[genieroze]

Paedophilia thesis comes under fire

Doctorate could justify child sex, say abuse experts

Matthew Taylor, education correspondent
Thursday December 2, 2004
The Guardian

An academic awarded a doctorate by Glasgow University for his thesis which described sex between adults and children as sometimes positive was criticised last night by child abuse experts.
Richard Yuill said his research, based on interviews with paedophiles and their victims, "challenged the assumption" that sexual relations between adults and under-16s were inherently abusive.

"The conclusions are that in such relationships I think you've got the good, the bad and the ugly, and that's where I stand on that," he said in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

But child abuse experts said his thesis would play into the hands of paedophiles who justified their actions by claiming their victims were willing participants.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1364313,00.html

[DrWeird]

1. Hmm.

Several years ago there was this study that showed that a good percentage of sexual abuse victims grew up to live happy, product lives. A large number of "experts" (actually conservatives, Family Research Council, etc.) were "outraged" because they said that this was a "liberal" "elitist" endorsement of pedophilia. When it wasn't anything of the sort. I wonder how much of that applies in this case.

[Mallifica]

12. I too wonder . .

how sound his methods were and what the actual findings were. In my opinion, science is science and should all be reported - the good, bad, ugly, and scary.

[The Doctor.]

2. Very interesting....

I have a friend, he's 45, gay, and very intelligent.

He says that his first encounter was with a 30 year old male when he was only 14, and that it was, "A wonderful experience."

But he was sexually developed and very intelligent.

I know that such relationships CAN exist, but I am quite certain they are rare.

I have a hard time imagining any pre-teen being capable of rationally engaging in such a mutual encounter.

Heck - most adults don't as it is...

[Taxloss]

7. The fear is that experiences like that

might be used to justify sex with children far younger than that.

The policy is "zero tolerance" and must remain so.

[The Doctor.]

17. Whether you get this or not....

If you re-read my post, you'll see that we agree.

[Festivito]

3. The article does not justify it.

The article says some indicated a positive experience but continues that talking to the abused was often like talking to the abuser and such could be a coping mechanism.

That leaves nothing conclusive.

[genieroze]

4. I thought it was unusual to write a thesis on the subjuct...eom

[DrWeird]

5. Well, by their very definition...

theses are supposed to cover original ground.

[Festivito]

11. and articles should not infer something that was not said.

This world, or maybe just America has become like a giant PR factory, where truth is completely irrelevant. All that matters is how things seem.

[da_chimperor]

6. When I was 14, I was totally hot for my French teacher

Mmmm . . . . she was so hot. I think nothing happening has actually done harm while something happening would have been absolutely glorious. :D

[Taxloss]

8. Further Maths.

Spanish. Astonishingly beautiful.

[pop goes the weasel]

9. big difference

between age 10 and age 15. And another big difference if the "adult" involved with the 15 year old is only 18 or 19. So it would be interesting to see the age breakdown at time of incident for the people he interviewed, and what the age of the adult was.

The other important thing to point out is that his study showed that the vast majority of females reported negative consequences, as did "many" males. So, really, this study doesn't controvert the overall effect of sex acts on children.

[Straight Shooter]

10. All my friends had a crush on our principal, and we were third-graders

To hear us talk about him, you would have thought we were women in our twenties.

Truth is, though, if anything untoward had happened, it would have scared the bejeebers out of any of us. It was all talk, the way kids will do.

Fantasy is fantasy, and that's where it belongs, safely in the mind. There are boundaries which must be respected. Children need to develop physically, emotionally and spiritually before being introduced to sexual intimacy.

[George_S]

14. She could scare me just fine:

Yeah, I might have been scared, but would have gotten over it when I was 14.

[George_S]

13. O'Reilly ranted and railed about ...

Harmful to Minors

The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex

Judith Levine

Foreword by Dr. Joycelyn M. Elders

http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/L/levine_harmful.html

[UpsideDownFlag]

15. man, when i was 12-16, i woulda paid BIG money to get a shot at an

'older' lady.

[bemildred]

16. Witch hunts always suck and are always wrong.

(Although I am, generally, against sex between minors and adults.)

[yardwork]

18. Too many people confuse being gay and pedophilia

It's hard to have a rational discussion about pedophilia because too many uninformed people (like O'Reilly and everybody else at Faux News, Clear Channel, and Sinclair Broadcasting, not to mention the WH) immediately begin equating pedophilia with being gay.

They are totally separate issues, of course. The vast majority of pedophiles are heterosexual. Some are not. In any case, pedophiles are sickos imo, while gays and lesbians are born interested in the same sex, which is perfectly natural.

[sangh0]

19. Even if it were true, and it's not, it totally misses the point

How is a 15 year old going to decide if they will or won't be harmed by the sexual relationship? The idea behind consensual sex is that BOTH (or all) participants are capable of giving informed consent, something a 15 year old is usually incapable of doing when it comes to the consequences of entering into an intimate and physical relationship.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. I'm quite willing to accept, let's say, 60% of victims DON'T get scarred

for life. Of course, the other 40% is more than enough to keep the practice illegal.

Just another instance of the Universe refusing to be black & white. It does that a lot.

[indigobusiness]

21. Another set of victims is (are) the adults that love children non-sexually

and are looked on with suspicion in parks and spontaneous encounters.

It is such a difficult issue to protect children without making monsters where none exist, and sacrificing part of the rich texture of life.

I've always had an extraordinary rapport with children, but no more casual encounters like the old days. It is a tragic thing.

[Blue_Tires]

22. did NAMBLA fund the study?? lol

[Nikia]

23. I've been thinking about this lately

In relation to a couple more friends, including a male "raped" by a babysitter at age 12, coming out of the sexual abuse closet.
Even if the victims aren't exactly scarred for life, I can confidently say that an adult having sex with a preteen or early teen is always wrong. I cannot think of a scenario where an adult didn't take advantage of the admiration that a child would have for an adult that was an authority figure in their life or that they simply liked. The adult is also taking advantage of the fact that children are taught to obey adults, especially those in positions of authority. The "relationship" is doomed to be unequal. The child who does not fight back or run away screaming may feel that they didn't really have a choice anyway. The child who initially had sex out of curiousity about sex and admiration for the adult may find it hard to break off the "relationship" as well. Unfortunately society contributes to feelings of guilt about sex, but it is something that many of these children suffer from years later while the adult often doesn't. I think most importantly that children, who had sex with an adult, have been denied the choice that their peers have, the right to have sex for the first time on one's own terms when one is ready, with the person of their choosing, who they choose to date.