Free Republic

Pedophilia, in the sense of the persistent sexual attraction to children, is a disorder, not a crime, and deserves special protections in law. That’s the premise of a recent New York Times opinion piece by Rutgers law professor Margo Kaplan, who argues that “stigma” surrounding adults who are sexually attracted to children prevents them from seeking psychological help. As a result, Kaplan asserts, pedophiles should be protected by the same anti-discrimination laws that require society to accommodate other “disabilities.”“By some estimates, 1 percent of the male population continues, long after puberty, to find themselves attracted to prepubescent children. These people are...

MRIs link pedophilia to problems in brain development For Immediate Release – November 28, 2007 (TORONTO) – Pedophilia might be the result of faulty connections in the brain, according to new research released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The study used MRIs and a sophisticated computer analysis technique to compare a group of pedophiles with a group of non-sexual criminals. The pedophiles had significantly less of a substance called “white matter” which is responsible for wiring the different parts of the brain together. The study, published in the Journal of Psychiatry Research, challenges the commonly held...

MORE than half a century after the publication of his landmark study, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," Alfred C. Kinsey remains one of the most influential figures in American intellectual history. He's certainly the only entomologist ever to be immortalized in a Cole Porter song. Thanks to him, it's now common knowledge that almost all men masturbate, that women peak sexually in their mid-30's and that homosexuality is not some one-in-a-million anomaly. His studies helped bring sex - all kinds of sex, not just the stork-summoning kind - out of the closet and into the bright light of day....

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Having sex with corpses is now officially illegal in California after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill barring necrophilia, a spokeswoman said on Friday. The new legislation marks the culmination of a two-year drive to outlaw necrophilia in the state and will help prosecutors who have been stymied by the lack of an official ban on the practice, according to experts. "Nobody knows the full extent of the problem. ... But a handful of instances over the past decade is frequent enough to have a bill concerning it," said Tyler Ochoa, a professor at Santa Clara...

On May 19th, 2003 in San Francisco, at a symposium hosted by the American Psychiatric Association, several long-recognized categories of mental illnesses were discussed for possible removal from the upcoming edition of the psychiatric manual of mental disorders. Among the mental illnesses being debated in the symposium at the APA's annual convention were all the paraphilias--which include pedophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism, and sadomasochism. Also being debated was Gender-Identity Disorder, a condition in which a person feels persistent discomfort with his or her biological sex. Gay activists have long claimed that Gender-Identity Disorder should not be assumed to be abnormal...

WASHINGTON - It began as a penchant for pornography. Soon he was scouring the Internet for provocative photos of children. Then he asked his prepubescent stepdaughter for sexual favours, was diagnosed with pedophilia and convicted of child molestation. The night before his sentencing, a 40-year-old man turned up in an emergency room in Charlottesville, Va., with a headache, saying he feared he might rape his landlady and kill himself. Dr. Russell Swerdlow, a neurologist, quickly suspected the man's problems went well beyond pedophilia and the stress of his impending incarceration. An MRI revealed a tumour the size of a golf...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - There was something wrong with the schoolteacher with the headache — doctors could see that from the start. Though charming and intelligent, the 40-year-old man couldn't stop leering at female nurses. He had been in trouble with the law for sexual advances toward his stepdaughter, and now he was talking about raping his landlady. University of Virginia Medical Center neurologists Dr. Russell Swerdlow and Dr. Jeffrey Burns had never seen a case like this. The man had an egg-sized brain tumor pressing on the right frontal lobe. When surgeons removed it, the lewd behavior and pedophilia faded...

American Psychiatric Association 'Rethinking' Its Assessment of Pedophiles APA Isn't Thinking Clearly in Its Assessment of Pedophiles The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has a connotation of prestige, scholarly thought and authority. Just invoking the APA's ideas on a particular subject usually ends a dispute. That should be changing soon. Most everyone who can think clearly has dismissed the recent book written by Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex, even though the foreword of the book was written by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the Clinton administration's surgeon general. The book espouses the virtues of sexual relations...

<p>June 24, 2003 -- THE short man whose scraggly eyebrows frame a vacant expression rose to "explain" to a judge his fetishistic interest in watching baby rape.</p> <p>He never paid for it.</p> <p>This is an excuse?</p> <p>Until he was caught, Samuels' career as a New York Law School professor concealed his appetite for the sick and the cruel - images of tiny girls sexually tortured, crying in pain, stuff so upsetting and demented, I prayed it wasn't real.</p>

<p>The American Psychiatric Association (APA) wisely rejected the recommendation of some psychiatrists at an APA symposium held in San Francisco on May 19 that pedophilia be removed from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Several categories of mental illness were debated for possible removal from the upcoming annual edition of the manual. Among other illnesses suggested for removal were exhibitionism, transvestism and sadomasochism.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - In a step critics charge could result in decriminalizing sexual contact between adults and children, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently sponsored a symposium in which participants discussed the removal of pedophilia from an upcoming edition of the psychiatric manual of mental disorders. Psychiatrists attending an annual APA convention May 19 in San Francisco proposed removing several long-recognized categories of mental illness - including pedophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism and sadomasochism - from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Most of the mental illnesses being considered for removal are known as "paraphilias." Psychiatrist Charles Moser...