The Oct. 28 appearance of a new e-book on Amazon.com brought on more than a few raised eyebrows this past week when threats of boycott and hundreds of angry comments forced the site to yank the book from its Kindle selections late Wednesday night.
Written and self-published by Phillip R. Greaves, “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lovers Code of Conduct” is a book written for the pedophile, by a pedophile.
As its title suggests, the book is a how-to guide of what Greaves considers the dos and don’ts of pedophilia. What you don’t get from the title, however, is that it also instructs pedophiles of what actions to take to ensure they don’t get caught, making this book every mother’s worst nightmare.
In defense of his work, Greaves said he doesn’t advocate anything illegal. As if to clear things up, he told CNN in a phone interview that “true pedophiles love children and would never hurt them.” But not everyone is buying this, and after last week, they won’t be buying his book on Amazon either.
In a statement to the BBC, the online retailer defended the book’s listing as the author’s right to free speech, saying that to pull the book simply because they deemed its message to be objectionable would be censorship. But they seem to have forgotten that there are some limits to free speech, a point Greaves has missed as well. Incitement to crime, for instance, is not protected under the First Amendment, but Greaves is not only telling pedophiles how to continue molesting children, but how to do it and get away with it. While he may not consider kissing and fondling “that big of problem,” as he told CNN, the federal and state governments do.
Admitting that he has not had sexual contact with children since he was a teen, the 47-year-old Greaves told CNN that an older female introduced him to oral sex at the age of 7. He added that the purpose of the book is to address the public’s unfair perception of pedophiles as they are often portrayed in the media.
“Every time you see them on the television, they’re either murderers, rapists or kidnappers … that’s just not an accurate presentation,” he told CNN.
Any sympathy for Greaves or his book’s message, if received at all, stops at his plea for a reevaluation of pedophilic perception.
In its product description on Amazon.com, Greaves describes the book as his “attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian [sic] rules for these adults to follow.”
But the reality is that kids don’t just become “involved” in pedophile situations, they are the victims of them. The obvious response to this statement then, is that if there weren’t books like this out, kids wouldn’t find themselves involved in these types of situations. However, the reality is that pedophilia is unlikely to stop any time soon.
According to Child Help, a nonprofit support group for abused children, 7.6 percent of annual child abuse cases are sexual.
Perhaps by setting guidelines for these individuals to follow, Greaves is taking a more realistic approach to lessening the severity of the sexually related offenses that do occur — Or not. While his earlier statement may paint Greaves as a conflicted man struggling to do the right thing, it’s hard to imagine that a man who tells pedophiles no condoms are necessary as long as they are disease-free really has the children’s best interest at heart.
In fact, it seems that the only interests at stake are those of Greaves’ fellow pedophiles. He writes that, in order to enforce his guidelines, he will appeal, “to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter [sic] sentences should they ever be caught.”
But while I understand and even sympathize with those who suffer from psychological disorders, I cannot accept their condition as an excuse for continuing to put the well-being of others in jeopardy.
If Greaves avoided to act upon his feelings toward children as he claims, then why not write a book that addresses dealing with one’s impulses rather than encourages them? He may disagree with “penetration” as he calls it, but by offering advice, even suggestions of how to carry out other inappropriate actions, Greaves completely ignores the importance of these individuals to seek help. Instead, he encourages these individuals, telling them it’s OK to break the law and take advantage of a child as long as he or she doesn’t get caught.
The only response Greaves has made to the public’s outrage toward his book is to say, “To a certain extent I wanted that kind of notoriety to affect the book. … I want it to affect sales.”
I hope it affects sales, too.
I hope that every mother of a young child and every law enforcement agent read this book and that it helps them protect children from sexual predators.
That includes you too, Chris Hansen.
Reach Jessica at jrstone3@asu.edu
