Pedophilia and "Brain Disorders"

 CN: Child abuse, specifically sexual abuse.

This is your regularly-scheduled reminder that abuse (whether physical, emotional, or sexual) is always a choice and never a "disorder" or a consequence of something in "the brain."

There is no need to "study" what in "the brain" causes "pedophilia," because "the brain" does not cause child sexual abuse. People's choices do. Society's choices do. Even if some people were neurologically prone to sexual attraction towards children (debatable, but theoretically possible), this neurological condition would not cause people to abuse children, because acting on sexual attraction, abusively or otherwise, is always a choice.

Speculating on "pedophilia" as a neurological condition that could be "treatable" is, besides being grossly insulting in its implications about neurology and abuse, completely pointless. Brains do not cause child sexual abuse. People choose to sexually (and otherwise) abuse children for the same reasons people choose to sexually (and otherwise) abuse people of other marginalized groups, like disabled people and refugees -- because they can get away with it. Because society gives them privilege and power over these people. Because society does not see their victims as fully human.

Child sexual abuse can be prevented by empowering children and reducing the power adults have over children. Give children the freedom to control their own bodies, the freedom to say "no" to adults, the freedom to escape institutions and abusive families of origin, the freedom to be accepted as they are without being subjected to abusive behaviorism meant to change them. Believe children. Respect children. Encourage adults to believe and respect the children in their lives. Stop treating children as property, as burdens, as problems to be managed. This is how to prevent child abuse. Challenging a media culture that markets "young and hot" as the epitome of sexual attractiveness might help, too.

But just as people would rather blame mass violence on some sort of "brain defect" in the perpetrators rather than examining the bigotry, dehumanization, authoritarianism, and misogyny that actually drives mass violence, people would rather blame some nonexistent "brain defect" for child sexual abuse. It's always easier to blame neurodivergent people than neurotypical people's own choices and oppressive society.

ETA: Child sexual abuse and pedophiliac attraction should not be off-limits to academic study, and researchers who study these phenomena deserve to live in peace without harassment.

My point is to counter the narrative that the purpose of such research should be to "treat/cure" the "disorder" that "makes" people abuse children, which is not a thing.