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	Drane: Scandal Tests Understanding of Pedophilia, Morals, the Law By James F. Drane The Goerie November 20, 2011 http://www.goerie.com/article/20111120/OPINION08/311209994/Drane%3AScandal-tests-understanding-of-pedophilia-morals-the-law It is hard to imagine any good that can come from the tragic events at Penn State. One possible benefit, however, might be an occasion to learn more about an increasingly pervasive psychiatric pathology called pedophilia. Although the incidents of pedophilia are increasing, not much advance has taken place within the medical world about either diagnosis, treatment, etiology or development of the disorder. Pedophilia is understood in psychiatry as sexual attraction to pre-pubescent or pre-puberty children. Some of the alleged sexual acts committed by retired assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky that were observed and reported to university officials do not qualify as pedophilia because the boy involved was already past puberty. As time goes by, many more incidences of child sexual abuse will likely be revealed, and some of the children will likely be pre-pubescents, showing no signs of sexual development. One thing we learn from the Penn State case is that people with this illness have a persistent sexual attraction to children. Their immoral and illegal and harmful behavior goes on and on, especially when they have contact with children. For Sandusky, his Second Mile project for disadvantaged children would have been a continuing occasion for sexual arousal and opportunity for harming children. He may be shown to be either heterosexual or homosexual as well as pedophilic. For most of the recent history of psychiatry, pedophilia was considered a paraphilia, an addiction to unusual sexual practices. Other paraphilias are exhibitionism and voyeurism. If Sandusky is diagnosed with pedophilia, he will likely have been involved with other paraphilias. Factors that influence the development of one pathology would probably have contributed to development of others. There is no reliable treatment for pedophilia, and so the best management comes from restriction of access to children. Many Catholic bishops did not know this and they reassigned sick priests back to schools and parishes. Sandusky appears to have avoided management of his illness by creating a program and camp for children. If this disorder is difficult to diagnose, and if disordered acts run a range from minor touches to damaging intercourse, blaming coaches and janitors and students and administrators who apparently saw or heard something is harsh. Identifying the harmful behavior and the degree of damage is not always easy, even for psychiatrists. Besides the difficulties in properly judging all behavior, there are also difficulties associated with institutions like Penn State University and the Catholic Church. Calling the outside police is not the first thing a university staff person or a Catholic bishop would think about doing. Both the church and the university are institutions with a long history and with their own in-place management devices for handling upsets. There are independent police departments within most major universities. In the Catholic Church, there is a 1,700-year-old respected and sophisticated legal system for handling church problems. There is also an International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrations. Law officers on campus are different from local law officers. Campus police are part of the university culture, and this culture tries to do all it can to keep any scandals from becoming public and hurting the university. Sexual misbehavior of athletes especially is kept secret if possible. Blaming all university staff persons for not calling outside police units reflects a lack of understanding of university structure and culture. Church secrecy is another story. Catholic Church law, called Canon law, goes back to the early third century; it has evolved over the centuries by borrowing from and interacting with many different cultures. This church law and church government is a legal monument. Jus ecclesiasticum covers all church communities and has for centuries been recognized over state laws. Roman law had a major influence on church law, but Canon law is recognized as an independent legal system. Priests who were accused of sexual misconduct with children were adjudicated in an ecclesiastical court system. Bishops like university administrators tried to keep everything secret and, like university administrators, they failed. Oddly enough, the two legal systems came together at Penn State, which is in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. The diocese lost a civil case and had to pay $3.7 million for priest sexual violations. One of the victims violated was an altar boy in Joe Paterno's parish. The sexual violation of children at Penn State has opened a window of opportunity to better understand the seriousness of a psychiatric illness called pedophilia. That same opportunity exists for a better understanding of the complexity of moral and legal judgments of this illness, the inadequacy of blame for all involved, the independent legal systems in institutions like the institutional church and university, and the need to do something to improve diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses in American culture. Oh, yes. Did I mention something about another institution, the police department? Police, too, often keep the moral and legal failures of policemen secret and handle them internally.
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