After watching “Inside Story – The Secret Life of a Pedophile”, I learned about a story regarding Peter Righton, an English teacher and a convicted child molester who took advantage of his students. He ironically was a childcare expert. What makes this specific story so extremely disappointing is that he was in a position of utmost authority over these boys. It’s similar to when a police officer sexually assaults somebody they pull over, they abuse their authority and they know better. These incidents are not only upsetting, but disappointing. The main feeling I experienced during this video was anger. Throughout the time of his crimes, so many people found out about what he had done, and had done nothing. When he was a teacher at an all-boys
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If anything, it just made me more frustrated with the whole concept. The part in the video where Righton admitted the wrongfulness of what he did to one of the boys named Mark and felt remorse about hurting him, but then he went on to abuse several more boys was really upsetting. He also disclosed his acts to one of his female friends, who also did nothing. His drawn out timeline of sexual abuse could have been immediately stopped if someone had spoken up. The people who knew about his actions and didn’t report it are almost just as guilty of the crimes. The whole concept of pedophilia is so bizarre to me. Some pedophiles feel remorse for what they have done, like Righton did at one point. It’s an odd problem with no real known solution. In my Abnormal Psychology class last year, we talked about theories regarding whether or not pedophilia can be cured or if pedophiles can “unlearn” being sexually attracted to children. It’s a dangerous attraction for somebody to have, and while some pedophiles recognize their thoughts are wrong and seek treatment, most of them spend their lives harming children over and over …show more content…
Males are expected to not ask for help and deal with things themselves. Asking for help is so often seen to be a sign of weakness. This philosophy is damaging because children go through and experience sexual abuse the same regardless of their gender, they all need the same amount of support.
I found on another reason in an article on Psychology Today that I hadn’t thought about previously. Sometimes during sexual abuse, the child may be visibly aroused, which creates a lot of confusion for them. They may think: “Why is my body reacting like this?” or “Does this mean I am enjoying this?” That might prevent them from reporting the abuse because they aren’t sure if it’s abuse or not, regardless of the fact that it’s still abuse and illegal whether or not the child consents.
The idea of fight, flight or flee has been discussed consistently in regards to sexual assault and other crimes. This idea means that you have no idea how you will react to becoming a victim of sexual assault. Some people freeze, some people fight back, and some people run away from the threat. There’s no way of knowing how you will react until it happens to you, and the reactions don’t distinguish between age or gender. Anyone can become a victim, and everybody will react
If anything, it just made me more frustrated with the whole concept. The part in the video where Righton admitted the wrongfulness of what he did to one of the boys named Mark and felt remorse about hurting him, but then he went on to abuse several more boys was really upsetting. He also disclosed his acts to one of his female friends, who also did nothing. His drawn out timeline of sexual abuse could have been immediately stopped if someone had spoken up. The people who knew about his actions and didn’t report it are almost just as guilty of the crimes. The whole concept of pedophilia is so bizarre to me. Some pedophiles feel remorse for what they have done, like Righton did at one point. It’s an odd problem with no real known solution. In my Abnormal Psychology class last year, we talked about theories regarding whether or not pedophilia can be cured or if pedophiles can “unlearn” being sexually attracted to children. It’s a dangerous attraction for somebody to have, and while some pedophiles recognize their thoughts are wrong and seek treatment, most of them spend their lives harming children over and over …show more content…
Males are expected to not ask for help and deal with things themselves. Asking for help is so often seen to be a sign of weakness. This philosophy is damaging because children go through and experience sexual abuse the same regardless of their gender, they all need the same amount of support.
I found on another reason in an article on Psychology Today that I hadn’t thought about previously. Sometimes during sexual abuse, the child may be visibly aroused, which creates a lot of confusion for them. They may think: “Why is my body reacting like this?” or “Does this mean I am enjoying this?” That might prevent them from reporting the abuse because they aren’t sure if it’s abuse or not, regardless of the fact that it’s still abuse and illegal whether or not the child consents.
The idea of fight, flight or flee has been discussed consistently in regards to sexual assault and other crimes. This idea means that you have no idea how you will react to becoming a victim of sexual assault. Some people freeze, some people fight back, and some people run away from the threat. There’s no way of knowing how you will react until it happens to you, and the reactions don’t distinguish between age or gender. Anyone can become a victim, and everybody will react