FACSAFoundation.org Shattering The Silence Tour Documentary Project February 2015 Volume 3 | Page 31
isolation, secrecy, guilt and anguish of many paedophiles,” he wrote in
Perspectives on Paedophilia, “are not intrinsic to the phenomen[on] but are derived
from the extreme social repression placed on minorities …
“Paedophiles are told they are the seducers and rapists of children; they know their
experiences are often loving and tender ones. They are told that children are pure
and innocent, devoid of sexuality; they know both from their own experiences of
childhood and from the children they meet that this is not the case.”
As recently as 2012, Prof Plummer published on his personal blog a chapter he
wrote in another book, Male Intergenerational Intimacy, in 1991. “As
homosexuality has become slightly less open to sustained moral panic, the new
pariah of 'child molester’ has become the latest folk devil,” he wrote. “Many adult
paedophiles say that boys actively seek out sex partners … 'childhood’ itself is not
a biological given but an historically produced social object.”
Prof Plummer confirmed to The Sunday Telegraph that he had been a member of
PIE in order to “facilitate” his research. He said: “I would never want any of my
work to be used as a rationale for doing 'bad things’ – and I regard all coercive,
abusive, exploitative sexuality as a 'bad thing’. I am sorry if it has impacted anyone
negatively this way, or if it has encouraged this.” However, he did not answer
when asked if he still held the views he expressed in the Eighties and Nineties. A
spokesman for Essex University claimed Prof Plummer’s work “did not express
support for paedophilia” and cited the university’s charter which gave academic
staff “freedom within the law to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions
without placing themselves in jeopardy”.
Graham Powell is one of the country’s most distinguished psychologists, a past
president of the British Psychological Society and a current provider of psychology
support services to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the National Crime
Squad, the Metropolitan Police, Kent Police, Essex Police and the Internet Watch
Foundation.
In Perspectives on Paedophilia, however, he co-authored a chapter which stated:
“In the public mind, paedophile attention is generally assumed to be traumatic and
to have lasting and wholly deleterious consequences for the victim. The evidence
that we have considered here does not support this view … we need to ask not why
are the effects of paedophile action so large, but why so small.”
The chapter does admit that there were “methodological problems” with the studies
the authors relied on which “leave our conclusions somewhat muted”. Dr Powell