Paedophiles Support Each Other Via Online Communities

Medical News Today, June 27, 2008

Paedophiles use online virtual communities to support each other,  justify their sexual behaviour and foster an "us and them" mentality. This is one of the findings of Ms Elaine O'Halloran from University  College Cork who presented her research on Wednesdsay 25 June 2008 at  the British Psychological Society's Division of Forensic Psychology's  Annual Conference held at the Edinburgh Conference Centre, Heriot-Watt  University.

The study aimed to analyse the types of justification used by  paedophiles to account for their deviance. Posts made to an online  support forum for "boy lovers" were examined over a one month period;  specifically posts from 23 self-identified paedophiles.

The strongest reason they claimed was 'Condemnations of Condemners'.  Paedophiles try to transfer blame to other groups such as law  enforcement, parents and educators and anti-paedophile website users by  claiming that these groups engage in behaviours that are more harmful or  dangerous than adult/child sex.

Other justifications included denial of harm, denial of victim (i.e. the  children wanted to be sexually involved with adults), the claim that sex  with adults is beneficial for children and the appeal to higher  loyalties (i.e. that the website users are campaigning for higher  principles like children's' right to freedom of sexual expression etc.).  All of these were used to minimise the stigma attached to paedophiles  from general society.

Ms O'Halloran commented "Paedophiles are typically a marginalised group;  however technological advances are helping online paedophile  communication. The same study was carried out in 1999* and since then  there has been a ten-fold increase in users of this website. Support  sites like this are obviously fulfilling some important functions for  paedophiles and there is evidence that they create a sense of community  for themselves by offering support & information to each other, and by  creating an 'us versus them' mentality towards the other anti-paedophile  users."