This 19-Year-Old Pedophile Has Never Gone Near A Child. And He Needs You To Hear His Story.

This 19-Year-Old Pedophile Has Never Gone Near A Child. And He Needs You To Hear His Story.
Adam Mordecai Adam Mordecai
Upworthy

"This American Life" decided to take on a REALLY hard topic: pedophilia. As a parent of two young kids, just hearing the word triggers a rage in me that I didn't even know I had. This is a hard episode to listen to, but it's really important that you do. Listen to it at work when you are bored at lunch, in your car, wherever. Just please hit "Play."

The definition of pedophilia is "a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children, generally age 11 years or younger."

Note how I emphasized "attraction." To be a pedophile, you don't have to act on your urges. Just thinking them is enough. Which makes sense. The thing is, though, this attraction can start manifesting in kids as young as 12 or 13. And they have no way to talk about these urges or how to prevent them from taking control of their lives without being considered a threat. Talk to a shrink? You risk being reported to the authorities. The scientific community is so afraid of the stigma attached to even researching pedophilia that it's barely been studied it at all. Which seems like kind of a bad idea if we want to prevent the victimization of more young children.

So a 19-year-old kid, an admitted pedophile who has never acted on his impulses, started an online support group. His mom is helping him find solutions. He needs you to hear this, for the sake of your own kids.

"This American Life" was expecting lots of hate mail for this episode. So far, they've received none. It's a really good look at a really hard issue. So please listen.

"Also, directly from Ira, "Though there's nothing graphic in this story at all, victims of child sexual abuse should consider this a trigger warning."

[Link--CLICK HERE to listen] This American Life #522: Tarred And Feathered - Act Two - Help Wanted

"This American Life" is the best podcast on the Interwebs. If I were you, I'd Like them on Facebook.

Reporter Luke Malone spent a year and a half speaking and meeting with members of the support group. You can ask him any questions you might have via Twitter, @bylukemalone, and use hashtag #TarredTAL.

More importantly, if you could tweet and share this so we can prove that audio stories about important and complicated issues can reach a wide audience, I'd owe you one. It's a really painful issue, but it needs to be addressed.

Most importantly, if you have children, the reality is that not all pedophiles are like this guy. So here's a really good article about how to talk to them about it. [To see this article, CLCK HERE and scroll to bottom of page.]

I'm voting for Jerry Brown, but Douglas Hughes has one terrific idea

I think that a separate, flourishing community for pedophiles could attract people who have never committed a crime, but have come to realize that they are pedophiles. They might voluntarily enter the community to stop themselves from harming children. The only thing I disagree with is using Santa Rosa Island; I'm sure another location can be found.

Calif. Pol Touts 'Pedophile Island' for Sex Offenders
May 21, 2010
David Lohr Contributor
AOL News

California gubernatorial candidate Douglas Hughes has made quite a name for himself in recent weeks -- not so much by surging ahead in the polls, but rather by promising, if elected, to create a "Pedophile Island" for convicted sex offenders...

Hughes, a 73-year-old Republican and retired business owner, has been a resident of California since 1955. According to his political profile, he believes his biggest assets as a candidate are his relationship with God and his "practice of moral principles." His top priorities are children, jobs and border control.

If elected governor, Hughes says, he will give all convicted pedophiles a choice: remain in prison for life, leave California permanently or live on Pedophile Island -- a self-supporting, downright Utopian community he has envisioned.

California gubernatorial candidate Douglas Hughes believes Santa Rosa Island, in Channel Islands National Park off the coast of southern California, would be a good spot to maroon convicted sex offenders.

"On the island, they can live their life out there, farming and ranching," Hughes said. "They can be their own entity, and it won't cost the taxpayers a dime."...

Danielle Grijalva continues the difficult work of protecting foreign exchange students

Photo: Danielle Grijalva, CSFES Director
(See all Danielle Grijalva posts.)

Danielle Grijalva Post #1

When you're a young person in an unfamiliar country, you don't have the connections and protections you had at home. Apparently, pedophiles in the US have taken note of this fact.

West Virginia News
by Sam Webber & Jack Swint
February 9, 2009

...What started out as a story about one former high school principal's involvement in pedophile & rapist behavior, has now joined the ranks into a national scandal involving the exploitation, sexual assaults and gross misconduct inside the Foreign Exchange Student program.

In a multi million dollar industry that generates from $9,000 to $22,000 per student per year, some really bad people are intentionally destroying a really good program that was once held beyond reproach.

According to Danielle Grijalva, founder of the "Committee For Safety Of Foreign Exchange Students", there were approximately 180 foreign exchange students in WV in June of 2008. And, 6 of our children are abroad. These students are invited guests to this state.

Out of those, at least 3 were hosted by a WV native known to exploit teens... even his own younger brother.



UPDATE:
West Virginia News published a new story on this issue on Feb. 13, 2009: "...A National Pedophile Network Exploiting Foreign Exchange Students?? What the WV Board of Education and State Officials don't want you to know."





Advocates seek changes to industry to protect children from predators
By DENIS DEVINE - Staff Writer
April 25, 2005
North County Times

"When we looked at 7,000 applicants, we didn't think it would uncover 700 people that have criminal histories," said Jim Samuels, a senior official at the National Center. More than half of the criminal records they found--including sex crimes--had not shown up on Web-based searches, he said. Nine percent had records that indicated the applicants should not work with children...





You would think that Ms. Grijalva would get unqualified support from everyone, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, many organizations would rather hide problems than solve them. One such organization tried to silence Ms. Grijalva.