deYoung, M 1989 'The World According to NAMBLA: Accounting For Deviance', Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, vol. 16, pp. 11-16.
deYoung analyzed the communications of paedophile activists groups such as NAMBLA and found that the justifications and rationalizations are highly predictable and can be generalized into the following categories:
Denial of Injury - The use of anecdotal accounts of children who appear to enjoy sex with adults to demonstrate the benefits and advantages of such relationships to children. Culpability for any harm that occurs to an abused child is displaced onto the reactions of others, such as the child's parents, and the criminal justice and mental health systems.
Condemnation of the condemners - Those who condemn sex between adults and child are portrayed as engaging in even more victimizing or exploitative acts then those for which pedophiles are accused.
Appeal to higher loyalties - The assertion that they serve the interests of a higher principle: the liberation of children from the repressive bonds of society. Also, the attempt to align with other, less stigmatized, organizations such as the woman's movement or the gay rights movement.
Denial of the victim - The conceptual transformation of children from victims of adult sexual behavior into willing partners.
Well, what do you know!? It's now 17 years on from the original study and they still haven't thought of anything new! I guess that would explain the fact that it was republished in
Weitzer, R (ed) 2003 Organized Resistance by Deviants, McGraw-Hill, NY.
and then again in
Hensley, C, Tewksbury, R & Smith, M (eds) 2003 Sexual Deviance: A Reader, Lynne Reinner Publications, CO.
Talk about a tired, ineffectual approach! I think that qualifies as downright pathetic
