@Kanaloa
By non-offending paedophiles I mean people who had come forward for medical/professional help as they had this sexual interest in children, and recognised it as a wrong and deviant behaviour. By coming forward some of them were able to get help and of course just the openness will help children - everyone knew this man was like this so I suppose were likely to be more vigilant.
There was a radio interview with a young man who was attracted to children. At first he looked at CSA images, then one day it clicked that there were actual children being abused to create the images. He went to a psychiatrist and after a few sessions, confessed he was there to get help as he didn't want to be that way. She persuaded him to tell his mum, but then dropped him as a client. No one else would take him on. He ended up forming an online support group for other people like him, but the group was really strict in that if anyone started even talking about CSA fantasies, they would be reported to the police and kicked out of the group. They did actually stick to this and made several police referrals.
It's difficult. Obviously anyone harming a child, looking at images etc is wrong and should be punished severely. I am not in any way defending them. However, if that is the way your brain is wired and it is your 'sexuality', then clearly you need some serious help. I put sexuality like that as I am not an expert in psychology and have no idea whether this can be described as a genuine sexuality or if it is caused by trauma or something else wrong in the brain.
After the radio interview bit of the article, a psychologist (psychiatrist? I always get confused) said that they believed that the way to help stop CSA was to study pederasts and paedophiles so more could be understood about it, which in turn would lead to knowing more about how to prevent it or treat it. No one would give her the funding though as, even though the research was not in any way defending CSA, no sponsors wanted to be part of anything remotely linked to paedophilia.
There's no easy answers, locking them up and throwing away the key doesn't work. There seem to be more and more paedophiles around with the availability of images due to the internet. There were scary stats on a police documentary about it, such a high proportion of mainly men had viewed images.
What this professor has said is very wrong from what I've read, but I haven't read his book or whatever so don't know if he was trying to make the same point as the psych that I read about, and doing it badly, or if he's just a fucked up idiot.
Apologies if I have upset or offended anyone. Please believe me that I do not and would not defend anyone who was hurting a child or looking at pictures. I just find the psychology of it to be... interesting probably isn't the right word.
For anyone who does comprehend my ramblings, there's a fictional book called Saving Noah, written by a child therapist I think. It goes into the idea of an "inactive" paedophile, for wont of a better phrase. I thought it was very thought provoking and harrowing.