Pedophiles should not be stigmatized as they are today.

I accept the statistics and evidence provided and while I sympathize with anyone suffering from any mental health problem, depression or being outcast from society, there are certain aspects regarding pedophilia that set it apart from other disorders. Throughout western culture there exists numerous different ideologies, whether based around religious thought, political allegiance, sexuality, drug laws etc. One popular argument recently is based around Transgender people, which due to the media attention and increased education on the subject it has become less stigmatized overall. There are still plenty of people though that believe they 'should die' or that they are 'mentally ill' and need to be cured. There will likely be people who are driven to depression and suicidal thoughts due to the stigma surrounding it, even now due to the vastly differing views on the subject. There are plenty of other arguments regarding that issue, which could be a debate on its own. In South America recently there has been numerous killings targeting trans women, which I think is a horrible thing to see or happen to anyone no matter what you believe. Rapists or sex offenders are put on a register that makes them known to the public, these people also suffer in society due to their actions, whilst not to the same level which is understandable. The act of rape is even worse when committed with a child and the crime, in my view, should be seen worse. The stigma around pedophilia should definitely exist, when compared to the stigma experienced by someone who smokes cannabis though it is not comparable. Through the accounts and trauma experienced by children who have been studied and shown how bad the effect are on their mental health, leading them to have depression and suicidal thoughts and completely broken lives from before they had chance to think for themselves, we have learned that this is something that is inexcusable. Which is partly to do with my brief history lesson from the last round, which I will return to later. When these arguments are seen focused just on the attraction toward children and not the act, they can seem overly unfair, and while again I sympathize with wrongly accused people of any crime, the attraction toward children should be seen just as bad and with closer examination of the causes I hope to explain why. Admittedly, due to faults in our mental health services and culture, people who suffer from disorders are stigmatized by the public, even more so when something is not understood. Some people don't even believe mental health disorders exist for example. Then again, some people believe the Earth is flat, so there we go. This also shows the problems in the education system, which throws numerous questions up about the ethical implications of many things in our society. One of them, particularly relevant being pornography. Would the viewing of child pornography in the first place not be required for the attraction to develop? Now I am sure there are cases where this is not so, although if not from pornography then maybe from other media that included children? I highly doubt the attraction would come from seeing them in public, nor do I think an attraction to someones own children is in any way an acceptable argument. Furthermore, for child pornography to exist, there has to have been a crime committed on that child to begin with. To further the claim of child pornography having to influence it in the first place can be seen by studying other pornography. It is quite clear there are a vast number of 'fetishes' that have developed and have converted people into becoming involved in which wouldn't have happened if not for the existence of that pornography. I would stand by the claim sexual preferences can definitely be changed. Rape is actually known to be a fetish for some, is viewing rape as bad as committing the crime? Is that person now more likely to be inclined to rape someone? Again for the viewing to occur, a rape had to take place. Is a snuff movie okay to watch? Does watching it implicate the viewer in the act or increase their chances of murdering someone? Does it desensitize them towards killing? I would argue yes for the last question. Does viewing child pornography desensitize somebody towards the act of child molestation? Based on the same argument, again I would therefore have to say yes. I would have to say then, to prevent more people from being convicted of pedophilia and suffering the negative stigmatization they receive would require preventing and educating people on the act of viewing pornography, the trauma of the victims and the negative aspects of society that exist that allow children to be exploited in the first place. Current victims, while trying my best not to sound cold, need to accept they committed a crime and seek out help from the places that do exist for them to get help. Without better education and awareness the level of stigmatization people receive is unlikely to change, which as I said is unfortunately something many people have to experience for one reason or another due to our culture. I agree there is extreme hate given to some people unfairly, any minority group could probably find the same views directed at them from someone out there though. It is never fair to murder someone, as someone who is against the death penalty I can agree with you wishing death on anyone is not right and is just yet another example of an ignorant world view from some. The same people would likely say it of a follower of a different religion, or their own President, and is just one part of human nature that unfortunately just exists. I would advise people not to do it in the first place. As for the history paragraph, the reason was to show that as a society our education and views changed so did our practices, and while early marriages does not account for the molestation of boys which has been a recurring theme in relation to the church (resulting in another unfair stigmatization towards priests), it does show that as time progresses cultures do improve and people stop being unfairly treated. For that to happen though our knowledge needs to increase, it is of my opinion that due to mistakes made in pornography and in society in general in recent times it has allowed for these mistakes to occur. We are improving though and eradicating the problems at the source, which in time should lead to no more stigmatization of pedophilia as hopefully it will no longer exist.