Possible causes of the pedophile witch hunt

By: Marthijn Uittenbogaard

Introduction

You can ask yourself what people find so bad about sexual contacts between minors and adults. When, from scientific investigations, it would appear that there would always be very serious damage to the minors, it is understandable that people always want to oppose pedosexual contacts. However, investigations never showed that voluntary pedosexual contacts are harmful in themselves. Investigations into such contacts cannot even be done nowadays. Nobody, in whatever Western country, makes money available for this, whereas it concerns relatively cheap investigations.

People are afraid, because they know, from for instance Sandfort's and Bauserman and Co's studies, that they are mistaken. Society does not want to know the truth, while you always need the right data to be able to solve problems. Of course, one needs to have good arguments too to forbid something. Yet everything which does not fit in the picture of the being harmful for minors, is ignored. Probably, there is another reason behind the pedophile witch hunt. I think that the real reason is an addition sum of various factors. Here below, a lot of (primary and secondary) reasons, which, I presume, influence the present pedophile witch hunt, are enumerated at random.

1. Children threaten to get more and more rights.
We have landed at a point where people take children's wishes more and more into account. Not until some time ago, children just had to obey their parents and other grown-ups. Now they have more and more say in all kinds of matters, like for instance the choosing of a holiday destination. When they are allowed to decide on sexual contacts with others as well, parents will lose too much of their power and their supervision. They consider this scary (all kinds of things might go wrong) and unpleasant (they grow up too quickly). That's why the reaction to persons who want to give children more rights, is very fierce. Society is in a rearguard action.

2. People have no good arguments.
It is strange that rape and voluntary erotic and sexual contacts are lumped together, because they are totally different. However, people have no good arguments to not allow pedosexual contacts without force. By approaching things in a hysterical way, you do not need arguments anymore. Hardly anybody dares mention the subject on the basis of arguments.

3. On average, women are sexually more frustrated than men.
Feminism in itself is something to be applauded. Women also have more liberties now to make their own choices. However, until some time ago women were (sexually) oppressed. Then men were in control, also in the sexual area. In a situation like this it is so much harder to develop your own sexuality. Nowadays, women can choose a partner who they like themselves much more easily. They are becoming more and more uninhibited as it comes to sexual fantasies. However, the first big group of "free and easy" women was still too conservative, as a result of which feminism turned fiercely against sexual pleasure. Sex from love is okay, but sex for lust was often still too frightening. Think, for instance, also of adult pornography.

4. A very great number of men (and women) go for minors.
When you try to nuance the pedo hysteria somewhat, you are soon called a pedophile. A lot of people do not have a leg to stand on to contradict it fiercefully and convincingly, because they have feelings for minors. They choose then to be silent about this subject.

5. Many, many people have rape fantasies. A lot of people have rape fantasies (with themselves as the offenders or as the victims), while hardly anybody wants to admit this. Just like a lot of people consider it horny when they would have a harem. Sex slaves who are available to order and do whatever you want. However, fantasy and reality are totally different. But you need to admit this to yourself then, instead of suppressing it all and projecting your aggression onto other people.

6. Every revolution is followed by a counterreaction.
The Sexual Revolution at the end of the sixties/the beginning of the seventies was so radical that it was, almost naturally, followed by a counterreaction. People who were not able to handle well their homosexuality, erotic commercials, etc. organised themselves more and more, while the freedom fighters began to rest on their laurels or started enjoying what kind of things there were possible in the field of sexuality. The battle was won. A wave-like movement in society can be explained this way in a lot of fields.

7. Old men are ugly.
Almost everybody likes it when his or her child enters into a relationship with a nice, but also with a handsome person. As long as they can forbid a relationship of their child with an "ugly" old man or woman, most parents will not refrain from this. You often see this behaviour too in case of a relationship of the dear son or daughter with a peer, only they can do less then, because legally they can do lesser and lesser as the child becomes older. Yet many parents still forbid relationships. For instance, when a Christian girl gets involved with a punk.

8. Children are innocent and sexless.
These are two things in one. Sex is often something which is still reputed to be sinful, as a result of which you are guilty when you (already) do it. And they want to let children live in a paradise on earth as long as possible, which in itself is a good ambition. They prefer not to know that pre-schoolers and even toddlers are already able to have orgasms. All information which points to the sexuality of (young) children is kept silent or denied as much as possible.

9. People need a scapegoat.
The social coherence of society seems to diminish every day. A healthy community needs a certain amount of "social control". When nobody knows his or her own neighbours anymore, fears will grow into enormous proportions. Every person in your immediate surroundings might be a murderer or a rapist. It is reassuring when you know that a lot of people in your surroundings are walking around, keeping an eye on children who are playing outside, instead of having to distrust them. This fear aims at something. A scapegoat has been born (for the umpteenth time). The solidarity of the people also revives with a common enemy. The ever increasing soccer madness and the silent processions are indications as well that society craves cohesion and being together. For a great part, the solution for this is exactly to be found in the acceptance of pedophilia.

10. Sex can be very dangerous.
This cannot be denied. Apart from rapes and other forms of extorted sex, there are STD's, among which the dangerous HIV. Besides that, there are scary forms of sex, like sex with animals, pee sex, shit sex and sadomasochistic sex. However, this is quite negotiable. As it happens, you can only forbid dangerous and extorted sex. Extorted sex always remains punishable and dangerous sex is only allowed with adult persons who choose for it consciously.

11. Children are more and more their parents' possession.
In the early days people sometimes got more than ten children. By no means all of them reached the adult age. Today people often must manage with "only" one or two children. But people do want to see then that the child will amount to professor, pro soccer and the like. Too much pressure is coming down onto the child. In any case, sexuality and relations distract from a highly aimed goal. Despite the fact that children threaten to get more and more rights, they have their life more and more lived for one, as it happens from an increasingly younger age.

12. People (unconsciously) lap other people's misery up.
People need entertainment. This is often malicious pleasure. Following a war in Iraq from your easy chair is somewhat wry. It can be exciting, while you are also aware that it is very bad for the people involved. This goes too for rape cases. Think of programmes like 'Vermist' ('Missing') and 'Opsporing verzocht' ('Tracing requested'). Enjoying being horrified by a rape case with a remarkably young girl. Be sure to watch, because you yourself are okay then. The feelings of anger which are released, can always collectively be taken out on "the pedophile". As many people are, also sexually, excited by pedosexuality, this energy which is being released, is converted into anger, because they deceive themselves by this to do not have these feelings at all. Queer-bashers often were strongly gay themselves. Personally, I never can stand such programmes well. Therefore I never watch them, unless I happen to be with someone who has got it on. I have mixed feelings with this.

13. The media have become largely superficial.
You cannot go deeply into taboo subjects, because the commerce ratings and sales figures have become more and more important. Every attempt to discuss a different aspect of a taboo subject, costs cancellations and the like. In the early days a Catholic remained a subscriber to his Catholic newspaper. When someone got enraged at some article, this person wrote an angry letter. (If the worst comes to the worst, because people have become much bolder too; sometimes rightly, very often undeserved.) Today you can easily switch to another paper in this society without socio-political blocks. All newspapers, political parties and television channels become more and more the passers on of the generally representing prevailing opinion. People especially confirm prejudices. Social progression has become very difficult by this. An additional fact is that time costs money and in a society which becomes more and more capitalistic, journalists have lesser and lesser possibilities to go deeply into a topic. As it happens, the article needs to be finished quickly. Consumers of the magazines and tv programmes are often in a hurry in this life, as a result of which they have little time for whatever nuances.

14. Politics have become more superficial.
This is very closely connected to the former point. A politician with an opinion of his own becomes rare. They proclaim mainly what they want the people to think. An extremely dangerous situation, because common sense does not triumph this way and all what is left are weak politicians. They turn around according to what they think the people want. Fortunately, someone who keeps proclaiming his opinion against the wind, wins more respect again. We need to wait for the moment when such people will get through to politics again. In my opinion (the late Pim) Fortuyn was a forerunner in this respect.

15. Children are gagged.
When it comes to important decisions, people still do not give a rap about children's opinions. They do not have the right to vote and people try to keep them in ignorance as long as possible as it comes to certain topics. Grown-up people determine which information children may receive at which age. So, in this respect internet is very threatening. That's why the combination of children and internet is particularly labelled as dangerous. We arrange the information with filters (what can be watched and what not is determined by adults). Supposedly so to protect the little children's souls. When in 2002 the age limit for sexual contacts was raised from twelve to sixteen years, the wishes of the young people themselves were clearly not taken into account. They wanted to decide themselves if and with whom they entered into sexual contacts. However, the parents thought differently about this. As usual, they got their way. See for this the report by the Verwey-Jonker Instituut (a scientific research institute) from 1998. Then, in 'Jeugdjournaal' (children's news programme on Dutch tv) the children were told that now they were even better protected. A hundred years ago, we protected women this way. In practice it meant that men were able to keep on bossing around women.

16. Sex is still a taboo.
You can ask yourself why this is so, but it is difficult to deny that it is so. Personally, I think that the cause of the taboo is the being universal of sexuality and by this you can affect all people and therefore influence them too. The taboo also has its causes in matters like becoming pregnant. After the discovery of the pill, the Sexual Revolution could burst out. Many people (in my opinion) rightly see a coherence in this. When the sex taboo diminishes a lot, the topic child sexuality will be treated less constrainedly.

17. Churches and governments abuse fear to keep on bossing around the population.
A hard statement. I think that this is often the case anyway, consciously (and sometimes unconsciously too). Fearful people look for persons who try to have a solution going for one. Taking away fears by presenting a good solution, can eventually undermine a position of power. Then a clergyman or a politician cannot abuse his power anymore by favouring himself in whatever way at the cost of others (society). What do the conservative political parties CDA and VVD at the moment to solve problems? Punish more severely, so that people see who is the boss and therefore powerful. Cuts in preventing crime. For instance, they cut down on resettlement. Children need to be kept ignorant and they particularly may not learn to think independently. As grown-ups, they will be able to follow the rulers slavishly and will only serve the economics of the country, thinking that they are free, this being far from true.

18. Other problems can be disguised by this.
I shall give an example; by the way, it is not made up by me, which also applies to many of the other points mentioned above. Child prostitution is combated hard, at least with words (coverage's in the media). In practice, not very much is being done against it. You help people against exploitation by "saving" children from child prostitution. The actual problem is poverty, of course. This is the reason that young and old "choose" jobs which are often nasty or unsafe. People cannot solve the problem or they do not want to, they do not want to see it, that's why they just invent a battle against a consequence of this poverty while it yields nothing. Trying to fight child labour, of whatever sort, does not yield much. Children no longer earn anything, so there is less to eat. People often start to do other labour in secret. Far more unsafe labour, with often more exploitation. Schooling yields more. But you need money for that. Good education will prevent much (sexual) abuse in the long run. I myself am against thinking black and white too. Work can also be pleasant when children can choose for it themselves. This would only be possible in the somewhat richer countries, because the need to work is not so great there. In poor countries the chance of being exploited is huge. This goes for grown-up employees as well!

19. The romantic fairy tale of growing old together lives strongly among us.
There is always an age difference in a pedophile relationship. The bigger this difference is, the worse the relationship will be considered. As a matter of fact, you cannot turn hundred the both of you together this way. It is not so that a lot of hetero relationships and gay relationships stick it out for many years, but, all the same, people always think that this time it will be forever. Many people also think that sex always needs to be related to love. A pure sexual relationship (for instance for once) is not right. I think this only holds true when you fool the partner that there is more behind it than sex. The danger of losing someone as a friend exists just as well in non-sexual relations. Personally, I find it ideal when pedophiles keep on loving their minor little friends. After the sexual attraction has disappeared from at least one side, it would be nice when the youngster would always remain welcome to the older person for love, attention, support and more like hat. By the way, the sexual attraction will always be there a bit, in my opinion. It is not only based on appearances.

20. People see competitors in children.
When men (and in the long run women too) may enter into erotic relationships with children, a woman (or a man) will soon be too old altogether to be marketable.

21. On average, the foreigners who come to our country, are more conservative in sexual matters.
Some cultures are even more conservative in sexual matters than the Western culture and thus the persons coming to the Netherlands from these cultures, worsen the sexual climate in Western countries.

22. Being a victim is attractive.
Enjoying being pitiful; not, or anyway much less, needing to be responsible for your own misery and failing. You can put down your failures in love or in work to your being a victim and by that get support and attention.

23. Girls can get pregnant.
A pregnant girl cannot be taught properly anymore at school. As it happens, she needs to give birth to her child and take care of it. Today the capitalistic system means that you will have to go to school until you are in your twenties and after that you will have to work. Children are for later. Sex is still linked to becoming pregnant. Though this can be prevented, the feeling is still there. So child sex is taboo. For the same reason (becoming pregnant) sex with little boys is taboo. The unconscious reasoning goes like this: little girl can become pregnant, is wrong, because difficult in this society, so pedo sex is wrong, sex with boys is pedo sex too and therefore wrong too.

24. Sexual relations must be as equal as possible.
Feminism wanted equality of women and men. This is a wrong ambition. To strive for a society in which men and women can make the same choices is alright though. But maybe some women do not want to repair roofs. So you do not necessarily need to strive for equality everywhere. Pedosexual relationships are unequal and therefore wrong, is the reasoning now. This, while exactly pedosexual relations are more equal than the common young-old relations. The child HAS TO go to school, HAS TO know that the parents are the bosses, and so on, you name it. Pedos turn the (abuse of) power system upside down and that's why they are execrated.

25. Gays are afraid to end up in the black books again.
You can find in the recent past that the pedo and gay battles have always been closely related. Just look at all the gay magazines from the time before Dutroux. The puritans were not able anymore to attack the gays in society, since too big groups were supporting them, and as a result of this they changed their tactics. They attacked a small subgroup among themselves, namely the pedophiles. The gays had the choice now: keep on supporting the pedos and thus being attacked again themselves, or drop them like hot bricks. This last thing particularly happened. By conducting the witch hunt in such a fierce and absurd way, nobody dares now put up a fight anymore. The gay movement has been palmed off with, for instance, a gay marriage. Now that one group has been attacked and the gay movement has strongly weakened, the next one follows, the promiscuous gays, who do outdoor sex. Eventually, the bourgeois gays will positively be attacked too, unless the pedos are included again. It is a battle against sex which society is conducting. At least, all sex which does not fit in marital hetero morals is being attacked. The gay movement starts complaining more and more now that tolerance decreases. They have let it happen themselves and may be too weakened now to turn the tide.

26. Europe becomes one.
When the EU becomes more and more important, progressive countries will be defeated, because otherwise conservative countries do not want to join. The most progressive ideas will be shelved by this. Think of the legalising of pedo sex or the legalising of drugs. In the Netherlands, legalising pedo sex was a serious point of view of many politicians, in the seventies and the eighties. The distance of a big EU plays a role too. Personal matters evaporate into thin air. A lot of other mega states are often very non-free. Regional authorities may never become too small, because the human matter will be covered then. An angry farmer, for instance, can always recover losses from the local council. The government in The Hague is more difficult. Recovering losses from the EU is almost only possible by letter. And to whom do you address this letter?

27. The Netherlands is ageing.
When the construction of the population changes fast, there is a chance that in the case of ageing a stagnation will occur in relation to moral progress. Particularly the people who have the power in their hands also play important roles in this. As a matter of fact, these rulers influence everyone; the young and the old. The present rulers are the (In Holland so called) babyboomers. They never fought for something in their youth. People just walked along with the spirit of the times. Part of the then rulers (the journalists) thought that a lot needed to be changed in, a.o., sexual matters. Slowly, but surely, they obtained their positions of power. Then journalists let young people, who represented the points of view of the progressive rulers, appear more and more in the public debate. These young people themselves often turned out to be conservative; usually they are, for instance, not at all in favour of freedom of speech. They only let people speak who will confirm their prejudices. The rest is being ignored and execrated. Of course, this does not apply to everyone of the babyboom generation.

28. A pedosexual contact will often make a child itself pedosexual later.
It is something you often hear. It could be possible that persons who had positive experiences with it, will look sooner for such contacts. Another explanation can be, that arrested persons want to get some credit by expressing themselves as victims. So, the sexual contact a suspect comes up with, might as well be invented. Apart from this, you never read in a paper that some arrested man who had sex with a minor, never was "abused" himself in his youth, while, when this were to be the case, you do read this. That is how reality is misrepresented. Scientific research is something you can rely on. However, they do not know how many men had such contacts in their youth and therefore you cannot say anything about cause and effect among x per cent of the pedos who claim to have had such contacts! "Experts" really often proclaim or confirm this "fact" of cause and effect. An interviewer will never ask where the expert got his information from. I know the answer to this question; namely: dreamt up. Which is the case with almost everything that "experts" claim. There are real experts who base themselves on investigations, like for instance Sandfort, but they are never asked in front of a camera anymore. At the very most, things are written about them, - which are often wrong - without the opportunity for the person involved to defend himself.

Why was there a gay witch hunt in the early days?

Did people really consider it so bad that two men had sex with each other? Of course not, who cares? Yet people once reacted very hysterically to it (only some time ago, actually) and they still do in some countries. I think that the reason is as follows: men do not want to lose power over women. By permitting homosexuality, men might start to think: I am not going to marry a woman, but I will happily go live with a man. If a small percentage of the population chooses for this, there will be women who cannot find a man. When there is a small percentage of the women who prefer to live together with each other, the problem seems to be solved. However: where do these women get their money from? Exactly: they will have to work and thus they can determine themselves how to spend their money. When women are allowed to work, men are no longer able to boss them around. As it happens, they are able to live without them. Therefore, women rights and gay rights go hand in hand all over the world. Abuse f power by men in relation to women was the actual cause of the bred hysteria. Plus the fear of radical changes, also present among the oppressed women. So, it is easy to explain that most women took part in this. Most people are unable to see farther than the end of their noses. As a matter of fact, this is also the line of least resistance. It is my opinion that abuse of power is the reason again, but now for the pedo witch hunt. Now it is the children, over whom people want to maintain their power. Acceptance of pedophilia has far-reaching consequences. A twelve-year-old, for instance, can suddenly decide just like that to live with the neighbour across the street. In a lot of countries, where homosexuality is severely taboo, a blind eye is often turned to this. As long as you do not broadcast it and will marry decently. When homosexuality seemed to be accepted as a lifestyle in, a.o., The Netherlands (around 1860 - 1910), a hard counterreaction followed (1930 - 1950).

To conclude, I will mention some reasons why, in my opinion, pedophile (and pedosexual) relationships should be accepted.

1. Sex and corporeality are pleasant.
Most adults do not want to hurt children, frighten them, or anything of the kind. They want to see children happy. This goes too for by far the biggest part of the pedophiles. So, they will always have consideration with children. When children have more freedom, and sexuality can also be simply discussed, and an adult will not so soon take advantage of his or her position. A child always needs to have a good bond with several persons (like the parents), otherwise it can easily be abused (for years) all the same.

2. Teaching children not to mistrust all grown-ups.
Whoever wants to live in such a society? But it is the society we are all creating and already have created for a great part. Fear can be diminished for a great part in society.

3. Children can develop themselves in a pleasant way.
What is more lovely than children who are able to choose themselves whom they want to socialize with, feel pleasant with and by whom they want to be taught? The learning applies to the adult partner as well. You are never too old for that.

4. Loneliness and depressions among children are prevented.
After all, you can find support with others. Now you are delivered to your parents. As a matter of fact, not all parents are okay, even if they mean it well; in that case you might need other very personal friendships with grown-ups. When a child can be happy with another person, this may improve the bond with the parents. This is certainly not a fantasy fairy tale.

5. Children can learn early that their bodies can be pleasant.
A lot of children are insecure about their bodies. They suddenly need to learn sex too, while they had to unlearn and suppress it for years. Thus the natural sexuality will be lost. There is no need anymore of a search for a sexual identity (gay, hetero, bisexual, fetishist, transvestite, sadomasochist, voyeur). This goes much more gradually and more as a matter of course. Pigeon-hole thinking can also largely fade away. As a matter of fact, everybody is polymorphicly perverted, in my opinion. Except that people have stronger preferences for one thing. That's why I rather not talk about a sexual inclination (which is fixed), but about a sexual preference (which leaves room for other preferences).

6. Love and happiness are passed on.
It is a fact that a happy person who is feeling well, is a better educator than someone who is at the verge of dispair. A good, stable youth has much influence on the later happiness in life. Some children can benefit from being allowed to choose an adult friend themselves.

7. Jealousy can diminish.
As a result of the many bans and taboos, jealousy is being created. Jealousy, for instance, because of the fact that they want to start something with a young person too, or because they are frustrated (and therefore jealous as a result) about the always having to be faithful to their partner. By accepting pedophilia, parents need to be less jealous when other adults make their child happy. They can be happy to be allowed to raise their child and be proud when they see that their child itself is happy too.

8.We breed less dangerous people.
Children who consider extorted sex normal are difficult to adjust, when you never talk with them about this subject. Besides, people with sexual feelings for minors may start to think that they are malicious monsters with all its consequences. (As a matter of fact, good role models are lacking.) They may start to cut themselves off for rape misery which comes to them through the media, because they experience it as if they were responsible for it. In the long run, they may play a role which has been outlined by society. A society can actually create roles which are going to be filled in (unconsciously) by people. However, by far most pedophiles won't do this, but an individual can cause a lot of trouble.

Just think about it. Do we want a society in which we mistrust teachers? Do not dare let neighbours baby-sit? Do not dare let children play alone in the street and certainly not when it is getting dark outside? Need to become angry when someone is taking pictures of your child in swimming trunks or in a swimsuit? Or, when you put a class photo on the internet, need to be afraid that men are watching who may find children sexually exciting? (By the way, ever seen an advertising brochure or a Vogue Bambini; how do you mean hypocritical?) I choose for a pleasant society, I hope you do too.

source: Article 'Possible Causes of the Pedophile Witch Hunt' by Marthijn Uittenbogaard; Translated from Dutch; OK Magazine, no. 91; April 2005