I have been thinking a bit about this, and since we have some numerical data maybe we can put numbers in the issue of “pedophiles genocide”. Maybe seeing the numbers could help to have clearer visions of the implications of some people’s desires and intentions.
So, there are a large part of antis who think that all pedophiles, no matter what, should die. I want to believe that most of them don’t think that for real, that they talk without thinking first and that they aren’t actual genocidals waiting for a chance. But I would like to show the implications of following this sentiment.
The numbers:
The global population is around 7000,000,000. The number of pedophiles is estimated to be around a 5% (and maybe it could be bigger, since the female population hasn’t been deeply studied and we are talking only about pedophiles, not ALL MAPs. But well, we’ll go with that number. An estimation).
What does this mean? That around 350,000,000 people are pedophiles. 350 MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE PEDOPHILES.
Think slowly about it. USA population is 323 millions. The whole Europe population is 743 millions. Murdering all pedophiles would mean that you want to kill more than what the USA’s population is. Half of the european population. Can you see it now? Do you have the number and its implications in your head?
But well, we’ll keep going over this. I’m strongly against death penalty. I don’t think we have any right to decide who lives and who dies and I don’t believe in a punitive justice system. That is not justice, that is just revenge. I believe in rehabilitation and reinsertion when it is possible, in turning criminals in good, productive members of society and approach the penitenciary system not as a punishment but as therapeutic, educational system. But I’m going to let this for a moment. We are going to say that we accept death penalty for some criminals and that child abusers get that. By this genocide you aren’t just killing offenders, but millions of innocent people. Gonna imagine that a 25% of pedophiles are offenders in some way (and I’m being generous with the number. Too high). If that is true, you are still mudering 262,500,000 of innocent people. Even if half of the pedophiles where child abusers, that would be 175 millions of innocents murdered. The studies with higher numbers about the nazi holocaust talk about 15-20 millions of victims. When you say you want all pedophiles dead that means that you want a genocide 20 times worse than the nazi one. Even if you are full of hate and approve capital punishment, you should be able to see that the genocide of 350 millions of people, innocent or not, just for a specific and unchosen trait of them is too radical and useless. But I’ll go over this now.
“It is for a greater good”
Ok, just for a second, we are going to pretend that the murdering of innocent people (or just, murdering in general) is justificable in some way, we are going to imagine that there is such a thing as a greater good that is above the most basic human right of millions of people and that makes their murder ok. What would you achive with this? Well, acknowledging that only around 33% of CSA is commited by pedophiles that means that this genocide wouldn’t stop even half of the abuse children suffer. 66% of it would still happen. So we would have millions of innocents dead and children still being abused without no one taking serious actions to stop it, because they have focus all the effort in the murdering of pedophiles.
But that is not all. Pedophiles would keep borning, of course. Because pedophilia is not a choice, an ideology or something you can control. People would still born with this trait and would develop it, so you’d have to keep murdering a 5% of human population every generation. This would include a lot of CSA survivors, of course, that turn out to be pedophiles when they grow up. But since you are killing pedophiles CSA is impossible so there isn’t survivors, right? This approach will just lead to a total invisibilization of CSA, because to justify the genocidal attitude you need to support the idea that only pedophiles commit CSA, so the voices of most victims wouldn’t be hear.
And of course, if your intention is murdering pedophiles as a “prevention” strategy, it would be the best that you kill them as young as possible, before they can commit any offense. Since most people became aware of their attractions as teens, you would be killing mostly minors. Probably the millions you are killing are all under 16. But that is ok, because it is for a greater good— Or maybe not.
Because by killing all pedophiles you would still have most of CSA happening and you would have to keep an eternal genocide for the rest of the history without any perks coming from it. Because you would see friends, family, neighbours— dying constantly for a trait they didn’t choose and you would have to accept it because that is supposed to make some kind of good for society. This is not effective. This doesn’t save children. This is heinous. There are way better things we can do about this topic.
So, what can we do, then?
We, as a society, have a principal role here. We can prevent CSA before it happens and the way to achive this is not murdering, it’s not genocide, it’s not hate. It is knowledge and understanding. We need to be aware of the risk factors for CSA and treat them as soon as we notify someone has them. Treatment is not murdering, but therapy. And this is not a thing just for pedophiles. This is something for anyone with these risk factors (lack of empathy, self-control—). On the side of pedophiles, literature is clear about it: isolation only hurts and create risk factors. The way to prevent pedophiles from offending is offering them a supportative, open society. If instead of making them feeling like mosters doomed to abuse we teach young pedophiles that they are ok, that they are in control of their actions and that people are going to still love and care about them we are protecting these teens from developing the distortions that can lead to abuse. An open society would mean that pedophiles who need it could go to therapy without fear, learning to accept themselves, to empathize with children, fighting cognitive distortions and developing self-control skills that would prevent them from commiting any kind of offense. This therapy is the way to prevent CSA. And to provide it we need that society stops to hate and demonize pedophiles so they can take this step. But therapy alone is not enough. Human beings need acceptation, need people who show love for them, need to be part of a group and community. That is why you shouldn’t isolate pedophiles. Because it hurts their mental health, because maybe the only ones who show acceptation would be pro-contact communities, because maybe their loneliness pushes them to do something terrible that we all could have prevent if we had had enough understanding and vision for it.
Conclusion
When you say you want all pedophiles to die you mean that you want 350 millions of people dead. These aren’t light words. This is a terrible statement and maybe you should think about it carefully before support it. You should keep in mind that pedophiles are human beings, with family and friends, most of them innocent, and that all this death would bring a lot of pain to the world without actually helping anyone. The dead of pedophiles wouldn’t stop CSA. Most children would still be abused. The way to prevent this is a good konwledge of the causes and risk factors of CSA and early intervention on these. Genocide, demonization or isolation is not the right intervention, it is an useless preventive strategy with a lot of negative impact. If we want to actually help children we should start by understanding what pedophilia is, who are the pedophiles and heping them to remainn non-offending and anti-contact. We should all work together with MAPs, who can be actually the first step in CSA prevention and the ones turning pro-contacts and potential abusers in riskless people, so we can help children. We should guide ourselves by science, by research, by what we learn and not by what we feel or just blindly believe.
Some last reflections for antis
Please, next time you type something like “I hope all pedos die” “I wish you all were dead” “Please, die” “kill yourself” “best you can do is killing yourself” or any form of suicide baiting and death wishing try to think in the effect of your words. Try to think that in the other side of the screen there is a human being, a person with their life, their problems, their suffering. Someone who didn’t choose to be like that and who has to learn to live with a part of themselves that they probably hate way more than you do. The person you are talking to is not your abuser, is not any child abuser. It is another scared person who is seeking a bit of help and empathy from another human beings. It could be anyone. Your best friend, your nice classmate, your parent, your children. Anyone.
Because when you express this desire you are telling 350,000,000 of human beings that they would be better off dead. And these are strong words, directed towards people with a high suicide risk. With this, you aren’t protecting children, you are hurting them. With this, you are just spreading your rage to feel a bit better about yourself in the most twisted and egoistic way, but you cause harm. Even to yourself, no matter if you can’t see this now. Drowing in hate, rage and such a toxic ideology won’t bring you peace or happiness. You will only feel worse and worse, more full of wrath, until the day you can’t hold it anymore.
Try to be careful. Think in your words, in their true meaning, in society, in what we can do to make this world better. Stop for a moment, breath deeply, ignore the hate, the rage, your pain, and then try to open your eyes and start to learn. You don’t have to agree in everything. You dont’ have to be a MAP supporter. But just stopping to spread a message of hate and genocide and starting researches and discusssions would do a lot of good. For society, yes, but specially for yourself. Because you are the one who is getting more hurt with this. I hope you can think slowly and see this someday. And for that day I’m here. And for the day before too. I want to know you, I want to help you, I want to show you kindness and empathy. I know you are a good person, that you mean well and that someday you could see what was wrong in your actions. Until then, I’ll be here anyway. I’m open to talk, to discuss, to share my sources and research and to give you support when you need it. But please, stop to support genocide. Don’t let yourself to think that the murdering of 350,000,000 can be in any circunstances for a greater good. Never. Genocide is always wrong.
And if you are an anti who is against cross-tagging, against suicide baiting and death wishes and who believe in therapy even if you don’t like the MAP community, please, try to be vocal about this. Help to make your community less toxic and hateful, help another people to be less dogmatic and more open to talk and discuss in respectful ways, try to make them see why wishing people dead or telling them to commit suicide is wrong. You have a lot of power in your hands and you can stop a lot of harm just by making your community a bit more open, tolerant and safe, by making it less harmful for its members and less anti-science, anti-recovery and anti-therapy. If you believe that something is wrong don’t be afraid and speak up against it. I have talked with antis who only were antis and who wrote hateful stuff because they were scared to be called out and hated for not being like the other antis. That is not good. No one should feel forced to do something they don’t agree with and that makes them distressed just for the fear that their own community causes them. Be helpful, be there for the ones who show more humanity and empathy. Suport therapy and understanding, not genocide, rage and hate. Give everyone a hand.
So, summarizing, if you support the idea of wanting all pedophiles dead, try to think slowly, be aware of the implications, keep the numbers and facts in your mind. Genocide is not an option. If you want to fight monsters, try to don’t become yourself in one.