I’ve heard this is an assumption. I’ve never heard it backed by anything. The argument was made to me 25 years ago in reference to anime/drawings of CSAM, suggesting that paedophiles would “settle” for the fake and not harm children.
I assume — I have no proof either way — it would just normalise their behaviour and they would continue to offend. I feel like you could give them access to everything that’s already been made (even the real stuff, for the sake of the argument) and they would still want to harm actual children. I don’t think fuelling their fantasies is going to make them stop trying to fulfill them.
While one could make the argument that because pedophiles have different brain chemistry that they would not be as affected as the general population, there’s no actual evidence of this. Additionally is the curious fact that most child sex offenders are not pedophiles, so there would be a limited reduction in actual crimes against children while allowing obscene material that could harm the general public.
Following the effects of a new law in the Czech Republic that allowed pornography to a society previously having forbidden it allowed us to monitor the change in sex related crime that followed the change. As found in all other countries in which the phenomenon has been studied, rape and other sex crimes did not increase. Of particular note is that this country, like Denmark and Japan, had a prolonged interval during which possession of child pornography was not illegal and, like those other countries, showed a significant decrease in the incidence of child sex abuse.
To be clear - I’m not saying the science is in favour of ANY option, I’m saying that due to the stigma on this topic, we are severely lacking in hard data. All we have are hypotheses. It would be nice if people could stop sending death threats to researchers and social workers who try to bring up the well being of MAPs as a topic of discussion and research.
I’ve heard this is an assumption. I’ve never heard it backed by anything. The argument was made to me 25 years ago in reference to anime/drawings of CSAM, suggesting that paedophiles would “settle” for the fake and not harm children.
I assume — I have no proof either way — it would just normalise their behaviour and they would continue to offend. I feel like you could give them access to everything that’s already been made (even the real stuff, for the sake of the argument) and they would still want to harm actual children. I don’t think fuelling their fantasies is going to make them stop trying to fulfill them.
The argument is based on the relationship between legal porn and prevalence of sex crimes against adults; as pornography becomes easier to access, sex crimes go down.
Also supported by the negative correlation between violent video games and real world violence.
This is also supported by the negative correlation of violent media in general and violent crimes.
While one could make the argument that because pedophiles have different brain chemistry that they would not be as affected as the general population, there’s no actual evidence of this. Additionally is the curious fact that most child sex offenders are not pedophiles, so there would be a limited reduction in actual crimes against children while allowing obscene material that could harm the general public.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49644341_Pornography_and_Sex_Crimes_in_the_Czech_Republic
https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-csam-pedophilia/
https://virped.or/ g/vpp20240204/ (Feedback from actual MAPs)
To be clear - I’m not saying the science is in favour of ANY option, I’m saying that due to the stigma on this topic, we are severely lacking in hard data. All we have are hypotheses. It would be nice if people could stop sending death threats to researchers and social workers who try to bring up the well being of MAPs as a topic of discussion and research.
But then how will we know who to put in charge and listen to about Jesus?