‘Here there be monsters’ - A comparative case study of the discrimination against people with pedophilia in the US, UK and Germany

• Main Author: Stegermaier, Jessica
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS) 2020
• Subjects: Pedophilia; child sexual abuse; discrimination; media; prevention; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21218

Pedophilia is one of the most misunderstood mental disorders in contemporary society. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the discriminatory behaviour against people with a pedophilic disorder by the public at large, the media and current legislations; in the case of the US, the UK and Germany. The political and legal theory of Giorgio Agamben, particularly the concept of homo sacer, will be applied to this thesis, because it can serve as a theoretical foundation for understanding different aspects of the control and treatment of pedophiles as a form of punishment and discrimination. The results of the thesis show that the public and the media tend to confuse the diagnostic term of pedophilia and the legal term of child molestation, falsely assuming that all pedophiles sexually abuse children. The implemented ’anti-pedophile’ laws, oftentimes promoted by the media, can be seen as disproportionate and unfounded, resulting in discriminatory behaviour against pedophiles and the violation of human rights.