I was in a conversation the other day with someone, and they were wondering why the Boy Scouts historically had so many pedophiles within its organizational structure. The conversation was in regards to the director of programming for the BSA that was nabbed from a German kiddy porn sting.
The answer is quite simple, actually. It has nothing to do with how good or bad the BSA is, it has nothing to do with homosexuality (as the BSA would like you to believe), but it has everything to do with the predator/prey relationship. If one is a predator, one tries to spend most of one's time near one's prey. For a pedophile, that proximity means being around kids. Pedophiles find positions that involve them being around kids, serial rapist tend to hover around college campuses, cheetahs stay near the impalas. A sandwich just isn't a sandwich without the tangy zip of Miracle Whip, much like a predator is just not a predator without prey.
Pedophiles seem to be draw to teaching jobs, Boy Scouts, day care workers, priests, etc... all positions where there is some power differential between predator and prey. The predator is in a position of authority and the prey is, well, his prey. Pedophilia is typically perpetrated by middle aged white men who identify themselves as heterosexual, and typically it is not about finding young boys and girls attractive, but about power and control through the subjugation of young boys and girls. This subjugation usually takes to for ot the most intimate of subjugations... sex or sexual acts. That is why the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church have consistently been in the news for pedophiles. Adults with positions of power and little supervision with kids. This, of course, is a complete over-simplification of the concept of sexual predation on minors, but as my own rule of thumb it works.
I am an Eagle Scout. I spent many years of my life going through the BSA's rigmarole, and I have my ideas about the adults in my troop alone, whom I think might have been not so good for the character for the Boy Scouts. At the time, I just thought that I didn't particularly like them as leaders in my troop, but looking back, I think that some of them might have had some "special" relationships with kids in the troop. That was just my troop. I would have testified in court about some of the adults in my district being predatory, but the suits haven't ever come up.... yet. Oddly enough though, the "rampant" pedophilia in Scouts is not why I no longer associate with that organization, but that is a topic for another time.
I am sure I will have something lighter to post about tomorrow; this has just been eating at me for some time now. Something to do with how funny looking penguins are. Something like that.
The answer is quite simple, actually. It has nothing to do with how good or bad the BSA is, it has nothing to do with homosexuality (as the BSA would like you to believe), but it has everything to do with the predator/prey relationship. If one is a predator, one tries to spend most of one's time near one's prey. For a pedophile, that proximity means being around kids. Pedophiles find positions that involve them being around kids, serial rapist tend to hover around college campuses, cheetahs stay near the impalas. A sandwich just isn't a sandwich without the tangy zip of Miracle Whip, much like a predator is just not a predator without prey.
Pedophiles seem to be draw to teaching jobs, Boy Scouts, day care workers, priests, etc... all positions where there is some power differential between predator and prey. The predator is in a position of authority and the prey is, well, his prey. Pedophilia is typically perpetrated by middle aged white men who identify themselves as heterosexual, and typically it is not about finding young boys and girls attractive, but about power and control through the subjugation of young boys and girls. This subjugation usually takes to for ot the most intimate of subjugations... sex or sexual acts. That is why the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church have consistently been in the news for pedophiles. Adults with positions of power and little supervision with kids. This, of course, is a complete over-simplification of the concept of sexual predation on minors, but as my own rule of thumb it works.
I am an Eagle Scout. I spent many years of my life going through the BSA's rigmarole, and I have my ideas about the adults in my troop alone, whom I think might have been not so good for the character for the Boy Scouts. At the time, I just thought that I didn't particularly like them as leaders in my troop, but looking back, I think that some of them might have had some "special" relationships with kids in the troop. That was just my troop. I would have testified in court about some of the adults in my district being predatory, but the suits haven't ever come up.... yet. Oddly enough though, the "rampant" pedophilia in Scouts is not why I no longer associate with that organization, but that is a topic for another time.
I am sure I will have something lighter to post about tomorrow; this has just been eating at me for some time now. Something to do with how funny looking penguins are. Something like that.