Perv: the sexual deviant in all of us - by Jesse Bering

Abruptly, he [Jesse Bering] becomes more serious during the last third of the book, which is about paedophilia. (Paedophilia is distinguished in science, as it rarely is in the media, from a primary sexual attraction to pubescents, which is called hebephilia, and from attraction to older adolescents: ephebophilia.) [...] The most demonised members of modern society, Bering says, did not choose their orientation either. "Telling a paedophile that he needs to be attracted to grown-ups, not kids, is like telling a lesbian that she just hasn't found the right guy." Bering displays an impressive sympathy for the cultural devil, imagining the sheer fear in which paedophiles must live. "These people aren't living their lives in the closet; they're eternally hunkered down in a panic room."

What some will find most controversial is Bering's argument about images involving children. The available research suggests, he writes, that possession of such material is not a predictor of future child abuse, but actually helps forestall it by providing a fantasy outlet. So if governments are really interested in preventing harm to children, he argues, they should provide existing material to paedophiles. Much better, of course, would be synthetic or digitally simulated imagery, the making of which involves no children at all, but Bering points out that this is already illegal almost everywhere - an example of the quixotic official attempt to regulate desire as thought crime.

source: Review 'Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us by Jesse Bering - We cannot choose who we are sexually attracted to - so stop judging' by Steven Poole; www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/12/perv-sexual-deviant-jesse-bering-review; The Guardian; 12 February 2014