Um, paedophilia is not a disease (there is no infectious agent after all) but it can be 'treated'. There's a fair amount of evidence that some forms of behavioural therapy can aid people in controlling themselves and mean they end up as functioning (if never really welcome) members of society. Of course, it only applies to the ones who see what they are doing as wrong but for some reason can't inhibit themselves. If they just think what they are doing isn't wrong, they're pretty much untreatable.

Jon

Are these the same types of therapy that 'cure' homosexuality?
You are what you are, regardless of whether or not you act upon your impulses.

No, not in the slightest. This is recognised psychotherapy that has (some) evidence based validity. It's the same techniques that allow some people with schizophrenia to control their psychosis without the kind of drugs that would make you hair stand on end. And nobody is being 'cured' as such, the people treated still have their abnormal desires, they're just being taught ways to control them so they don't hurt anybody.

The whole 'curing homosexuality' thing is a total sham, and any degree of comparison between that and people attempting to doing actual good for society is, if I'm honest, pretty insulting. From what I've read about those things, they're much more akin to 'brain washing', which is a world away from what I'm talking about. They're also generally unsuccessful and have a massive rate of recidivism, if you can call it that.


Not entirely true. We all have thoughts which if we enacted them would be illegal. be it wanting to drive too fast, steal something or punch some idiot up the head. Normal people understand that these desires are counter-productive and morally unconscionable. So we repress them. The difference is some people have these issues with nastier things than most (child abuse, murder) and some of THEM don't have the natural inhibition mechanisms the rest of us do. You are what you do. That's the position of the law, at least. Some of those people can be shown/taught how to do what the rest of us do 'naturally', some can't.

My point was that if you're of a persuasion that finds men/women/children (delete as appropriate) sexually attractive, then the point is that it is a part of who you are, regardless of whether or not you seek fulfil that attraction. It'll inform the company you keep, the things you watch and the places you go.
A person is known through their actions, this is indeed true, but it's only part of the story.

I think that most of us might lapse if we think that we are safe, such as speeding on the motorway at night when there is almost no traffic. We make a decision of whether we are likely to get caught or whether the risks are worth it. There are things that we would not consider because of the moral fallout. Most of us would not kill anyone but if really pushed would some hit out? Sociopaths might do things that most of us would never even consider.