Trauma, Shame & the Power of Love by Christopher E. Polleski
Genre: Biographical
Read: 7th July 2016
★★★★★ 5 stars
There need to be more books like this for society to read and gain a better understanding into what child pornography really is. Yes, it is a crime. Yes, it is illegal. But as Dr Pelloski pointed out in his own research is that not all viewers of this media are paedophiles or child molestors, and most in fact are less likely to reoffend or will ever evolve into a "hands on" offender. But society does not understand this. Nor do they understand the differences between children and teenagers - to them they are all paedophiles. But that is not correct. There are three categories for child sex offenders....
1. Infantophiles - those attracted to babies to 3 year olds
2. Paedophiles - those attracted to children from 3 to 11 (pre pubescent)
3. Haebophiles - those who are attracted to adolescents to 16 (legal age of consent) and beyond....(probably the most common form of sex offender)
But society is not ready to hear it. A sex offender to them is a sex offender without any rights and not worth spitting on. To them they are all deviants. This is a sad perspective because, while I do not condone the viewing of child pornography and that in doing so perpetuates the rape and abuse of a child, I also know that these offenders are human too. They are people who made some bad choices. And as in Dr Pelloski's case, many had suffered some form of abuse in their childhood; most had an experience in their formative years of around 7 or 8 which affected their development - attachment or significant loss or trauma...or even something simple that the then child in them perceived in a way that halted something inside. There is so much more to this than society understands but don't want to know. Well done Dr Pelloski for standing up and taking responsibility...and for sharing your story.
