Child abusers are trying to escape the stigma

A euphemism too many:

Police Scotland has used the term “minor-attracted people” to describe paedophiles in a major report despite warnings it normalises child abuse.

It is a literal translation, but the overtones are very different, which is surely the point. Why would it be necessary or useful to come up with a less judgey label for sexual abuse of children? There’s no push to euphemise the words for other crimes is there? No calls to rename murder “premature involuntary termination”? Why euphemise sexual abuse of children?

The term MAP is contentious because child abusers are trying to escape the stigma attached to paedophilia and maintain they should be regarded as a niche group alongside the LGBT community.

The “LGBT community” has too many niche groups as it is, thanks very much. It has so many it’s no longer a “community” – the T and the LG are very prone to clash and argue and fight.

Kenny McAskill, Scotland’s former justice secretary, said using euphemisms for paedophiles simply “masks the reality and their danger”.

The argument is that attraction by itself isn’t abuse, but we all know from having been alive for more than five minutes that people’s ability to keep attraction separate from acting on the attraction is as feeble as dandelion fluff.

Maggie Mellon, an independent social work consultant, said the term MAP risked “the danger of normalising and therefore perhaps decriminalising a serious offence”.

She added: “There should be diagnostic and treatment options for those who present a risk to children but the police are not a therapeutic service – they should be devoting their resources to closing down porn sites that feature children and abuse of women and upping their detection and conviction rates for those promoting child abuse.”

Well put. Way too many institutions have decided they’re therapeutic services when that’s not their job at all. Some distinctions are necessary.

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