WHERE DR. DEAN LEADS:

Vile, Vile Pedophile: Is child molesting a sickness or a crime? (Dahlia Lithwick, Jan. 7, 2004, Slate)

Michael Jackson: accused Again, and for all the wrong reasons, we can't take our eyes off Michael Jackson. Whether or not the allegations are substantiated, the question is in the air: Is pedophilia a disease to be treated, or a crime to be punished? Are people who seduce minors sick or evil? Our current legal and medical systems blur both views. We call for the most draconian punishments (life imprisonment, castration, permanent exile) precisely because we view these acts as morally heinous, yet also driven by uncontrollable biological urges.

If sex with children is truly the product of freely made moral choices, then we should deal with it through the criminal justice system. But if it is a genetically over-determined impulse, an uncontrollable urge nestled in our DNA, then punishing pedophiles must be morally wrong. As science—and culture—increasingly medicalizes bad behavior, finding a neurological component to everything from alcoholism to youth violence, we run the parallel risks of either absolving everyone for everything, or punishing "criminals" who are no guiltier than cancer patients.

When the Court misdecided Lawrence v. Kansas there were all kinds of solemn pronouncements about how we had no need to fear the slippery slope: "This far and no further!"

Uh-huh...

MORE:
Danish pedophiles in UK spotlight (Copenhagen Post, 16-10-2003)
 

A series of reports in Britain have highlighted the freedom of Danish pedophiles to promote their cause across Europe
 
The BBC's flagship radio news programme 'Today' has set sharp focus on what many claim to be a case of freedom of speech being taken too far.  Describing the Danish laws on freedom of expression as an 'international' problem, the programme highlighted the fact that Danish pedophiles are allowed to broadcast and espouse their lifestyle far beyond this nation's shores.

The series of reports, which were broadcast on consecutive days last week, come in the wake of a highly publicised case in which a British man was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for killing a Danish pedophile. London-born Stephen Hoath, who has lived in Denmark for the past 13 years, claims he and a friend shot the man because local police refused to take action when his nine-year-old daughter was molested. Hoath, 53, who has a terminal lung disease and faces spending the rest of his life behind bars, is appealing against the sentence. Britain's print media is also closely following the case.

The BBC report pulled no punches in describing how the legal Danish Pedophile Association (DPA) runs a website which promotes pro-pedophile views. [...]

The DPA is a legal organisation in Denmark, holding regular meetings, issuing press releases and lobbying politicians. Its website claims a difference exists between the sexual abuse of children and what it describes as 'paedophilia with erotic-sexual contact.' Amongst its claims, the society argues those who seek to prevent 'erotic' relationships between adults and children are, in fact causing more harm than good. According to one online article,  'sexual activities that children spontaneously engage in for the sake of pleasure and affection are not harmful & but a child can be 'harmed emotionally if a third party intervenes and becomes shocked by what has happened.'

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 8, 2004 08:20 PM