Is paedophillia a mental illness?

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If paedophilia is a mental illness - can it be justified imprisoning paedophiles? Or is rehabilitation a more appropriate course of action?

P.S - I put an extra 'l' in the title. This was a genuine accident.

That's for the psychiatric experts to decide.

Yes because these people are sick!

Child abusers are often people who were abused themselves as children. But not necessarily. So you have to consider the possibility that for some it's a sexual orientation, albeit a thoroughly unacceptable one in any civilised society.

Personally, I think the way society reacts to paedophiles by demonizing and persecuting them puts children at greater risk.

Who, if they were experiencing sexual urges towards children would ever tell anyone about it? It would be a massive risk - you're as likely to get ostracised or worse as to be offered any help to control it.

Othering people from society just gives them a justification for abuse. It gives them an outlaw mentality and sends them in search of others like them and that's where things get organised and really destructive.

Sexual desire is a very strong thing, and when it's denied its painful. Gay people have been through this, the attempts to 'correct' them. It doesn't work and it creates more abused people.

So I say we should be looking to accept paedophiles, give them support, a safe outlet for their sexual desires (animation, sex toys, writing) and help them to exist within society without calling them monsters. I think that's the best way to protect children. You have to make a safe space for them to come forward or they just stay hidden until it's too late.

Of course if they don't want help or they act on their desires then they must be removed from society for the protection of others. But the first step should be engagement.

I've taken a lot of flak for this position in the past and I'm certain many here will disagree with me.

Once you've caused severe damage to a child, it doesn't make any difference to me whether pedophilia is a mental illness or not. There is no path for redemption for them in my opinion. They should be locked away for life.

My cousin was raped by her dirtbag father at a very young age. (You don't even want to know how young!)

Yes , they are sexual predators, they are mentally warped. A lot of them are sociopaths, in that sense they are 'ill.'

So I've read... apparently, there are people who have sexual fantasies about children, but do not act on those urges. Those people are mentally ill and that's it, and they should be offered help for it if they wanted it. After all, having bad thoughts doesn't make one a criminal, doing bad things does. As for those who actually harm children sexually, I think a mental hospital that's also a jail (what's the English word?) would be the best place for them 'cause they could get help for their sick urges and they'd be kept away from any potential new victims. Naturally, once someone does sexually assault a child, they'd be forced to go there even if they didn't want to.

do you blame a car for it's faulty breaks? - no, it's a car, it's not a question of morality.

Do you let the car back on the road? - also no, that woyld be irresponsible.

what is and isn't an "illness" is historically contingent, and so is how to treat them, but brains that don't work in a socially acceptable way are like faulty breaks - it's not a moral question, but one of whether or not they are likely tp cause damage. And the damage on the victims of child abuse is very, very severe.
on the other hand: there's also absolutely no reason for a death penalty or solitary confinement or whatever tortorous methods are considered legal in your country. of

Paedophilia is illegal and also severely frowned upon where I come from.

It is best not to try to understand or tolerate paedophilia, otherwise it could become a legalized thing where it swings to the opposite extreme where people who frown upon it are called 'paedophobes' or something.

But at the same time I do think the UK is going overboard with treating every adult as a potential child molester or abuser. I know someone who works at a preschool, and if a child falls over and hurts themselves and is crying, the staff have to fill out a form before they can comfort the child, not to mention having to be already trained and criminal-checked too (can't think of the right word for that but hopefully you know what I mean). So the poor child has to stand there crying in pain while the staff member fills out a long form to confirm they're not some sort of child molester or something, which could be rather traumatizing for the child.

It is very rare for women to be paedophiles but I suppose just making men fill out these forms and not women is stereotyping and discrimination, which is why women have to do it as well.

Political correctness, I hate it.

Even if it was proven that pedophiles were born that way, I wouldn't give a s**t. If you act on it and harm a child, you should be thrown into cell to rot the rest of your life.