Pedophilia should be illegal

== Framework == As the definition from Round 1 says, pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by certain thoughts [attraction towards prepubescent children]. If someone has pedophilia, that does not mean that the person *acts* on any of those thoughts. "Not all pedophiles molest children." [1] Criminalizing pedophilia is no different than criminalizing "schizophrenia" or "arachnophobia." Paedo" means "child" and "philia" means "an unnaturally strong attraction to." Similarly, "arachno" means "spider" and "phobia" refers to "an unnaturally strong dislike for." Pedophilia - like arachnophobia - involves only *thoughts,* not specific acts. By criminalizing pedophilia, the resolution criminalizes a mere state of mind. C1: We should not criminalize a mere "state of mind" American law comes from the ancient common law tradition, which began in England in the 12th century. Ever since the creation of the criminal law, the common law has required that a "crime" constitute both a "bad act" [the actus reus requirement] and a "guilty mind" [the mens rea requirement]. Most crimes require both a bad act and a guilty mind. For example, murder is defined as "the intentional killing of another human being." The bad act is "killing a human being." The guilty state of mind is "intentionally." Killing another person unintentionally is not a crime. For example, if someone jumped in front of your car while you were driving at 65 mph on the freeway and you could not avoid hitting the person, the killing would be "unintentional." Although the actus reus element of the crime has been met ["killing a human being"], the "guilty mind" requirement is not met, so the car accident is not considered a crime. There are also categories of crimes that require "less" of a guilty mind than the "intentionality" standard. For example, "manslaughter" involves doing something with "reckless disregard" for the lives of others. Doing something that is inherently dangerous - like driving drunk - meets the "guilty mind" requirement because the person has a state of mind that purposely ignores the extreme danger placed upon other people. There are a few crimes that relax the mens rea requirement. These crimes are called "strict liability" offenses. In many states, statutory rape is a strict liability offense. Someone who has sex with a minor (who is under 18) is guilty of a crime, regardless of whether the person knew the minor"s age at the time. In contrast, some states have a mens rea requirement for statutory rape that the offender needs to have acted in "reckless disregard" of the age of the minor. Many people criticize the fairness of strict liability offenses because when one acts without a "guilty mind," one does not intend to commit a crime. It seems harsh to some commentators that a person who is tricked by a minor into believing that the minor is 18 is still guilty of statutory rape. So eliminating the "guilty mind" requirement can often result in overly harsh outcomes. In contrast, no law has ever eliminated the actus reus [bad act] requirement because it is so fundamental to our concept of fairness. We do not believe that people should be locked up in jail for a mere "bad thought." The concept of free will requires us to lock up only those people who *choose* to act on their bad thoughts. Every person sometimes experiences bad thoughts [such as "oooh, I could just kill him!"]. However, we only punish the people who *act* on those bad thoughts. As the court noted in People v. Carlo, "[C]riminal liability requires at the very least a voluntary act." [2] In the present matter, the resolution criminalizes "pedophilia," which involves mere "bad thoughts." Pedophilia is characterized by having *thoughts* of attraction towards children. The "bad act" is molesting children, which is known as "child molestation" or "statutory rape." However, we are not debating the illegality of those *acts,* we are debating whether the thoughts themselves should be criminalized. Mere correlation is not sufficient to criminalize a mental illness. Although pedophiles are more likely than other people to molest children, they still have free will. Dr. Fred Berlin, a psychiatrist who heads the Johns Hopkins Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit, explains that pedophiles are often "good people" who are struggling with thoughts that they cannot help having. [1] Doctor Berlin explains that many pedophiles are "tortured souls" who are "fighting like heck" not to act on their urges. [1] For example, Paul Christiano is a pedophile who has been attracted to 7-to-11-year-olds ever since he hit puberty. [1] However, Christiano has never acted on these urges and has been undergoing counseling for 5 years to try to remove these urges. [1] However, the urges are somehow genetically ingrained. [1] Christiano says that he desperately wants to stop having these feelings, but he can"t. [1] He says these feelings are "as intrinsic as the next person's heterosexuality." [1] Pedophiles have no volitional control over the thoughts that enter their heads. Yet, punishment ought to require a volitional act. [2] Besides violating basic principles of fairness and self-determination, criminalizing a mental illness using correlation data is a serious slippery slope. For example, "those with schizophrenia are nearly 20 times as likely to kill another person as people unaffected by the disease." [3] However, it would be outrageous for the United States to lock up every single schizophrenic merely for having the disease in order to "prevent murder." C2: Cost of incarceration Surveys reveal that approximately 7 percent of Americans have - at some time or another - felt sexual urges towards a child. [4] To incapacitate all of these people in jail for the rest of their lives [to remove any risk that they act on their urges] would cost $26,880,000,000,000 [approximately $27 trillion]. [5] That amount of money is simply not worth the benefit because many of those people would never have offended against children. Because the Pro position is completely unfair and unnecessarily costly, I urge a Con vote. == Rebuttal == Intro Con tries to limit the debate to "exclusive" pedophiles. I reject this limitation because the definition I provided in Round 1 says that pedophilia includes both people with "exclusive" and "non-exclusive" sexual attraction to children. Pedophilia is a sexual orientation I agree with this 100%. In fact, it is central to my case. You can"t punish someone for an immutable characteristic (i.e. a characteristic they are born with and did not "choose" to have). Time bomb The majority of pedophiles don"t molest children. There are 8.6 child molestations per 10,000 population in the United States. [6] Half of child molestations are not attributable to pedophiles, but rather to sexual opportunism by family members of the victim. [1] Ergo, 4.3 child molestations per 10,000 population are attributable to pedophiles. Best estimates place the number of pedophiles in the United States at between 3 million and 16 million (1-5% of the US population). [1] Yet, there are only 136,000 molestations per year attributable to pedophiles, and many of these are due to repeat offenders. One can hardly argue it is "inevitable" that all pedophiles will molest children. Homosexuality is completely different because of the possibility of finding a willing partner. Most pedophiles understand - in spite of their natural attraction to children - that they must deny their urges because children cannot consent to a sexual relationship. Making it illegal accomplishes treatment First, my opponent misunderstands what "illegal" means. Illegal means "criminal" [i.e. accompanied by criminal punishments]. You can force someone to undergo treatment for a mental illness (if they are a danger to themselves or others) pursuant to a civil commitment proceeding. But civil proceedings are not the same as criminal trials. You simply can"t make it a crime to "have a mental illness." My opponent claims treatment works. My source says that it does not. [1] In addition, my opponent"s source #3 says that it does not: "Doctors do not attempt to permanently rid pedophiles of their fantasies, which are remarkably persistent. Instead, they use techniques to decrease the likelihood that the patient will act on his urges," including hormone suppression and "sometimes castration." Our Supreme Court has held that castration is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. It is one thing if a pedophile agrees to this treatment voluntarily, but entirely another to force it upon him or her. Adults having sex with children is wrong Agreed. [1] http://articles.latimes.com... [2] People v. Carlo, 361 N.Y.S.2d 168, 170 (1974) [3] http://healthland.time.com... [4] http://www.straightdope.com... [5] 250 million adult Americans; $28,000 average cost of incarceration per year (assuming 50 years imprisonment from time of arrest); $10,000 cost to arrest [http://tinyurl.com...]; $42,000 per hour court costs (assuming a short 3 hour trial) [http://tinyurl.com...] [6] http://www.nytimes.com...