This is a sensitive topic for me. I feel obligated to say I was abused as a child by a pedophile and have very strong opinions to add to this topic. I may delete this should it get downvoted, because I still feel guilty for all of it, for all the feelings I have on this topic. I blame him, my rapist, for the majority of my problems, sure. He caused a lot of mental distress, and made me question everything about me. It still affects me today, as an adult. I'm suicidal as all hell because of it. I lost my religion because of it. I lost my childhood, my innocence, because of it.
However, I don't get why people are saying to kill them. Idk if it's the psychologist in me, but pedos, murderers, terrorists, monsters, whatever, are still human, and treating them as such and trying to understand more than just the "what" and "why" behind a pedophile and their actions could help us prevent pedophiles from harming children.
By spotting patterns and behaviors that may be a red flag early in one's life, we could have some form of protocol that helps these people down a path that doesnt involve fiddling kids or a future as a registered sex offender, thus ruining their chances of succeeding as a valued, productive member of society. Instead, pedophiles in our system today are leeches on society. They often are unemployed, because who will hire a registered sex offender and, most likely, a convicted felon? This means they have to get funding from the government. Imagine if they had the opportunity to better themselves. I'm sure pedophiles had goals. Maybe they wanted to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a scientist. We don't know their whole life, or how they got to be pedophiles, or if there even is a "how". We just know they prey on children, and our focus needs to be on their saftey. When people start talking about such a taboo topic like raping kids, it helps them understand just how susceptible kids are to these people; especially with how ubiquitous social media is. That was how it happened with me. The explosion of the internet in my youth and my innocent and trusting nature just so happen to lead me to someone in my neighborhood who I thought was a kid my age. Kids don't know the dangers, so it's up to their parents to be vigilant with how their kids acess the internet and social media. With that being said, discussion opens up the potential to prevent any kids from being harmed in the future.
Why is it we resort to casting them out instead of getting them the help they need? If I were an old fart and found my grown child is a pedophile, I'd try to get then the help they need to be a healthy, normal citizen. It just sounds like the most logical thing to do. Because throwing them away in the trash helps no-one. Help them to help themselves while also learning behaviors and patterns that could potentially prevent other pedophiles from, yknow, pedophiling. When I saw my rapist in the street, I got chills. I got anxiety like I couldn't believe. I didn't want to just ask him "why" or anything. I just wanted to know more about him. Was he hurt? Was he himself raped? What were his goals and aspirations? Were his parents ever proud of him? Was he unsuccessful in his dating life? I just wanted to understand. I didn't wish violence on him. And it pisses me off that I'll never get that closure, and that the closure the justice system tells us that we want is in the form of his imprisonment or death.