I am hesitant in posting this because it is a pandora's box of emotions for people. Its an argument that thousands, if not millions of people bash out over the internet and in real life every day. Its about what to do with creeps and pedophiles.
Let me say this first. This is not my fight, this is not my crusade. I am here to post an idea that I hope someone else can see and pick up because its a banner that I just can't and won't get involved in. I'm not enough of a psychologist to do what needs to be done; I like history, I like culture. I don't particularly enjoy seedy underbellies.
The issue that we're facing has been brought to a head by the whole creepshots drama on reddit that is spreading across other small media sites for a variety of reasons. On one side you have a good portion of the reddit population arguing about free speech and keeping it relatively consequence free. On the other side you have Gawker and SJW affiliates (and smaller media sites still looking for pageviews like so many flies to a corpse) saying that what happened was blatantly predatory and should be punished by society.
I've tried to have this conversation before with a friend and it quickly revolved in to her throwing a good bit of tired rhetoric my way. I expect much the same here, but will none the less try and clarify what I mean when I can.
The idea is to do away with shame as a tool of social control. Why? Because it does not solve the problem, especially in this case.
A few assumptions here:
1. Pedophilia is going to exist whether society likes it or not. 2. Pedophilia is a natural occurrence. Please note: Natural does not mean good. 3. Creepers and creepshots are going to exist whether society likes it or not. 4. Creepers and creepshots are more complicated than "men being privileged." 5. Pedophilia and creepshots are urges which are morally wrong if acted upon.
I will also note that I am not going to at all address rape, sexual assault or violence, or the inability or unwillingness of the legal system to effective prosecute rapists and sex offenders.
The idea is to create an organization which is dedicated to helping people with pedophilia and creepers to learn how to cope with their feelings in the same way AA helps alcoholics deal with their addiction. How the organization does this is something I cannot really speak on; I'm not at all qualified to set up this organization or else I would be making a post trying to garner support for it.
But the ultimate goal is to have a society in which a person can admit that they are having these urges regularly and can check themselves in to the organization so that they can leave it after some time and lead a healthy life. I firmly believe that this system is one that will prevent far more cases of child molestation and harm than shaming people in to hiding.
Shame compounds the problem; it did so with alcoholism, and it does so with drug addicts. When people are told that their actions are shameful, that their feelings make them bad people, the feelings do not just go away. Instead, the people withdraw; they are less likely to seek help and they are going to have trouble coping with the problem on their own. Shame is counterproductive in the long run, even if it manages to cover the problem in the short term.
In my discussion with my friend, she said that not trying to out people for pedophilia would lead to more child rape. Naturally she used Jerry Sandusky as an example. Logical issues aside (in order to join an organization dedicated to helping people learn to work against their pedophile urges, they would have to admit those urges exist in the first place), the situation with Sandusky is a good example of the problem how pedophilia is currently approached.
Think about how much better things would be if instead of having to haul an incredibly influential person from a major network of colleges off to prison, he comes out and openly admits to having said urges and checking himself in to the hypothetical organization long before he acts upon said urges. You have no victims, no millions of dollars that students now have to make up with increased tuition costs, no fallout for a football team, no money spent on the course case, nothing. Later he comes back and goes back to coaching; perhaps he steps down from training children and has regular check-ups. Perhaps a better system than that is devised.
Maybe its not even public. Maybe it is. We are dealing with a lot of maybes and hypotheticals, but I think that ultimately a system in which people are treated with compassion and in which the law and social customs urge preventative care is going to help a lot more people in the long run.
In the end, these people are always going to exist. So it is better to provide help so that they can function in a society which does not otherwise accept them, rather than telling them they are monsters for feelings they can't control.
Our society deals with drug and alcohol addiction in the worst possible way by referring so many cases to criminal courts. Its an outrage, and its barbaric. You may be right that there is an analog with pedophilia, but there are significant differences between drugs and kiddie rape. Firstly, a drug addict may only be hurting themselves in the best case scenario. Second, the vast majority of people have an instinct to protect kids, especially very young children, and I think many people would also agree that child rape is the worst crime against humanity. It is difficult to act rationally when thinking about how to deal with child molesters (or potential child molesters), especially with the jailbait crowd, given that many of the girls featured there are legal minors but post-pubescent. I think it would be difficult to find a lot of popular support for support groups for potential child molesters, because I would think that many people would not want to be labeled as an abettor of kiddie rape by even supporting such an idea. That said, I have no problems with online forums in which perverts can act perverted with other perverts. I think that a forum like creepshots crosses the line by surreptitiously photographing unsuspecting young people. But if the choice is between someone molesting a child, and fantasizing about molesting a child on an online forum, then by all means, fantasize away.
I think its very unfortunate that people wouldn't attempt to help via and organization like I am suggesting. Its more unfortunate that people view attempting to help people as enabling child rape, which it is not. Part of why I do not want to take up this as my fight is because I know that its just going to prove too much. I would be fighting for the rights of people who many consider the worst human scum on the entire planet because I honestly believe that they are not evil, but are victims of abuse in their past, or have a medical condition, just like people who are prone to alcoholism or drug addiction. Once you say that no, these are people who are making choices to commit a terrible crime and they cannot be reformed or they are not worth the effort then I think you have crossed a line that people should simply not touch. It opens up a whole dialogue that we as society should simply not have, the kind of dialogue that starts mass killings. I believe that human beings are inherently good; that people left to their own devices will try to do right but struggle with finding what right is, because in all honesty that question is hard. Its a controversial belief, yes, but I extend that to anyone, no matter what crimes they have committed, no matter how severe. Even if reform happens alongside imprisonment, which in cases such as rape or murder is a necessity, then that is a step forward to a society where emotions and urges that may be harmful to people can be dealt with. That's why I hate shame tactics, on anyone. Its ultimately harmful to everyone because all it does it put a bandage on the wound. It outs a few people and the rest simply become careful. It launches a crusade which leads to condemnation of sites which in all honesty have very little to do with a small number of people on them, and creates a general air of fear and paranoia that helps nobody. And I get slightly angry when I hear people say in the same breath "No slut shaming" and "shame the creepshotter!" Its function is to make another human being feel bad. I wish there were more studies done on the people who participated in creepshots. I would like to see the number of them which are on the autism spectrum. I know my younger brother, who is relatively high functioning, comes off as creepy to women because he simply doesn't know how to act appropriately. I think that those are the people who are going to be harmed by the outting campaign, people who have difficulty with social interaction and who aren't going to learn how to interact with people because they've been shunned like that.
I like the basic assumptions of your analysis and think this is basically a good idea. I'm an ever-celibate pedophile myself. But I think in this climate it's a big step to think potential sex offenders will both "out" themselves and turn themselves in to some coercive program. However, online anonymous support groups have potential (I'm cofounder of [Virtuous Pedophiles](virped.org), which has a peer support group for pedophiles where any talk of glorifying the attraction is prohibited). The German Dunkelfeld project tries to do what you suggest but is only possible because Germany values patient confidentiality above mandatory reporting duties in all but the most unavoidable cases. US mandated reporter laws sometimes serve a positive function, but their unintended downsides are perhaps worse: For instance, parents of a teen pedophile who abuses kids can't seek help for him without ruining his life.
There was an article posted here that addressed the same point here which I rather liked.