Thread: Sex & Violence
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Old 10-01-2007, 06:06 AM   #106
shasarak
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Re: Sex & Violence

I'm not trying to claim anything of the sort.

Let's recap a little.

You originally said that having thoughts about sex with children was inherently wrong. I disagreed, on the grounds that the difference between having thoughts and acting on them is a vitally important one.

You then said that having sexual thoughts about children was wrong because such thoughts "escalate" into action. I suggested that, in the same way as nearly everyone has violent or even murderous thoughts sometimes but only a small percentage actually acts on them, it was likely that a similarly small percentage of the people who have sexual thoughts about children actually act on those thoughts. So, while it is true that there is an escalation in the case of abusers, it is very far from true that all instances of "bad thoughts" escalate.

You then argued that because the sexual abuse of children was so incredibly commonplace ("1 in 4 girls has been abused") this had to mean that virtually all of the people who had sexual thoughts about children do eventually act on those thoughts, otherwise there wouldn't be enough of them to do all the abusing.

I am therefore now pointing out that the sexual abuse of small children by adults is in fact far less common than your statistics would suggest, and that its true prevalence therefore does not, in fact, undermine my sugegstion that most people who are attracted to children do not act on the attraction.

I'm certainly not denying that the sexual abuse of children happens. What I'm doing is pointing out that your "1 in 4" number is not accurate, and that it doesn't say what you think it says about the actual incidence of predatory paedophiles. For example:Note that these last two points are not arguments that abuse isn't happening. They're simply pointing out why, when such abuse does happen, it doesn't necessarily tell you anything about adults having sexual thoughts about children: in one case it's adults having sexual thoughts about adults, and in the other case it's children having sexual thoughts about children.

Of course, adults having sexual thoughts about adults who are not attracted to them sometimes escalates to the point of an actual sexual assault; but that's not a good enough reason to ostracise or imprison anyone who has ever had a sexual fantasy about someone who is not attracted to them.

Last edited by shasarak : 10-01-2007 at 12:47 PM.
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