Should people be screened upon turning 18 for pedophilia?

Question

Should people, upon turning 18, be given a test that determines if they're a pedophile or not, and if they are, be arrested and put in prison for life?

Answer 1

There is no test that detects pedophilia per say. Also, the majority of child molestors aren't pedophiles. Moreover, pedophilia is not a crime, molesting or raping a child is a crime. Having pedophilia may make a person more likely to commit such a crime but does not guarantee that they in fact will.

Answer 2

I don't think that testing these disgusting people at the age of 18 will make a difference as there are a lot of them turned paedophile as youths, before the age of 18.
What I do think should be done is that when a paedophile is caught, his parents should be tested as they could very well be the ones who would know how the paedophile got that way in the first place.

Answer 3

1) How do you prove/determine that someone is a pedophile?

2) There is nothing wrong with being a pedophile. There IS something wrong with ACTING on that urge. Not ALL pedophiles abuse children and to start convicting people based on what they MIGHT do is called "thought police" and generally frowned on in civilized society.

Answer 4

Our current system of justice requires mens rea (guilty mind) along with the act itself in order to determine if a crime has been committed.

I'd have to agree more or less with what the previous poster said. If we could screen for every evil inclination any person might have, then we'd probably all be guilty of something and deserve to go to jail.

Not to mention that your suggestion would be a highly subjective test and prone to abuse.

So I would have to answer no to your question in support of our current justice system.

Answer 5

Yeah, we should bring back Hitler's ghost, have him round up every sort of mental and physical defective, and we'll gas them all.

You watch way too much crap like CSI--so I'll give you a lesson from an episode of SVU so you'll understand. After a case involving a serial killer who made the defense that he was geneticly and by rearing made violent, one of the officers felt she had the same defects the killer did, but that she had channeled and controled her problems so she could have a positive impact on society.

It's about the choices people make, not the problems they have picked up along the way.

Answer 6

Impossible to screen for this "condition".

There is no one formula that can judge if someone is a pedophile or not. Its not like Cancer or something that has symptoms.

And to even suggest such a thing would be like going back to the witch hunt days.

Answer 7

take no notice of the other answer there is something very wrong with even thinking about molesting children.the fact is these thoughts will eventually be acted upon.i hate these sickos i wish there was a way they could be tested though they shouldnt be put n prison they should just be killed.they will never change.they are very sick people and the fact is children must be protected from them.they are not though the paedophiles are the ones that are having their identites protected so they can dodge the system and carry out their sick fantasies.i would love to get my hands on a paedophile.i would torture them till they could take no more pain.they are sich and universally hated.children are innocent and anyone that could harm them should be killed, simple as.the sooner the government realises this the better.

Answer 8

tendencies of pedophilia don't always appear at the same time as adulthood, what would be the testing standard, or the cut off score, why not counseling instead of prison
in one of my Psych classes, we studied cases where pedophiles started their fascination/obsession as young as 11 and as old as 80
a standardized screening would be difficult to monitor, and who would monitor it, besides who hasn't lied on a personality assessment to make themselves seem more socially acceptable