Richard Dawkins defends pedophilia?!?

[bnkywuv]

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNzRgNfjG2w

[FairBlueLove]

An intelligent person speaking up. Kudos to him.

Unfortunately this was 13 years ago...

[lonelyjoe]

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNzRgNfjG2w

I suppose it is worthwhile having the discussion that there simply must be “degrees of abuse.” With some more damaging than others, one could barely qualify it or categorize the types of abuse as it's all subjective experience. One person may react completely different to another. Dr. Dawkins refers to his own experience as a child being abused by a pedophile. If he wants to call it mild, then he can call it mild. He clarified the situation as embarrassing at the time, but it was not frightening or painful. However, it does raise the point that not every person who was abused developed lifelong crippling psychological problems. There are different degrees of damage, and we should recognize that.

Indeed, Dr. Dawkins is a scientist who follows the evidence, regardless of how it makes him feel emotionally. What has evidence found? For starters, there are numerous factors that indicate how likely and to what degree is someone going to be traumatized by molestation. The closer of a relative the molester is, the more trauma. The higher the position of power over the child, the more trauma. Statutory molestation is less traumatic and molestation. The lower the age difference, the less trauma. Also, what happens matters – think of 5 years of rape compared to a one-time event that didn't involve penetration. How parents and peers react when the abuse is revealed greatly influences the trauma – think of a mother who calls her daughter a slut for being molested, saying she must have tempted the molester and it is her fault compared to a mother who shows compassion, removes the child from the situation, and gets her therapy.

There is good reason to separate out these crimes, and in fact they often are already. In the US (and the UK), having consensual sex with a 16/17-year-old child is in some cases legal if not in a position of power. Statutory rape of a child 13 to 16 is punished as less of a crime than rape of an adult or child. And rape of a child less than 13 often equals life in prison. There are also close in age exceptions where we either reduce the sentence or consider it legal. Finally, there are sentencing guidelines to determine how bad of a sentence is given. For example, in some areas/states, statutory rape of a child 12-15 is punished by 0 to 10 years in prison for a firth time offense. That is a huge difference in potential punishments, and there are guidelines to follow that consider things like what type of coercion was used, relative age differences, and long-term outlook of the relationship.

We classify murder into a number of categories, some that get the death penalty, some that get you little time if any in prison. Why not do the same with other crimes?