Yes this has long been my concern. Is pedophilia something that can be rehabilitated? Is it mental illness? A sexual orientation? By providing people with no choices are we creating underground networks? To me there are echoes of drug prohibition here. I go fucking crazy thinking about my kids getting taken. When I watched true detective i was seriously ready to throw up. Particularly chilling was the last line: "we'll never get them all". Since law enforcement can never possibly eradicate a problem, and since we provide no way for someone to get help without being incriminated, aren't we just leaving the opportunity wide open for this to fester under the surface?
BBC Panorama had an excellent episode exploring these very questions. At least I think it was Panorama. I tried searching for it but all I get are hits about Jimmy Savile.
They found a young man who selfidenties as a pedophile, who was actually willing to go on camera and talk about his desires and urges. It was quite fascinating, and I do see many parellels not just to the war on drugs but to homosexuality as well.
We aren't treating these people in a humane way, and IMO we are making the problem worse by perpetuating a Wich Hunt.
Is it this episode? [0]
[0] http://www.channel4.com/info/press/programme-information/the...
[1] Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO4yfvc9THs
Mia Freedman copped a bit of flack for saying somethingn similar: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/mia-freedma... and has published about this issue on her site http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/19-year-old-pedophile/
We don't have a war on pedophilia. We have a war on "child pornography". I put "child pornography" in scare quotes because it's abundantly clear that many of the laws that aim to target child pornography really only use it as a bogeyman to obscure some other agenda.
Also, as for "safer", whatever we're doing now is clearly putting children at risk. In many countries (including the US), pedophilia is exempt from typical confidentiality laws regarding mental illnesses[0]. This makes pedophiles less likely to seek professional help, and I can only imagine that this means that they are more likely to harm or abuse a child.
[0] https://medium.com/matter/youre-16-youre-a-pedophile-you-don...