Are child abusers REALLY ‘minor attracted people’?
Police Scotland accused of using ‘soft language’ to describe paedophiles, so...
SCOTLAND’S most senior police officer has been criticised after his annual report referred to paedophiles as ‘minor-attracted people’.
Chief Constable Iain Livingstone’s annual Assessment of Policing Performance report included the controversial term, which many believe is an attempt to ‘soften’ the language about child abuse.
It comes amid wider concerns over what critics see as attempts to rebrand paedophilia as a harmless sexual preference.
Police Scotland said its use of the term ‘minor-attracted people’ (MAP) had to be understood in the context of the recently published report.
In the document, it states: ‘SCD (specialist crime division) Public Protection has engaged in the Horizon Europe project – prevention of child sexual exploitation.
‘The project’s main agenda is to develop understanding and approach to avoid the victimisation of children by engaging minorattracted people and providing them with the necessary support, treatment and guidance to help prevent criminal activities.’
A spokesman for the Scottish Tories said: ‘Most Scots will find any attempt to soften the language around paedophilia in official guidance to be deeply disturbing and wrong. Offences relating to paedophilia are among the most appalling and unforgivable crimes anyone can commit and it’s essential that Police Scotland guidance reflects this.’
Independent social work consultant Maggie Mellon said the term MAP risked ‘the danger of normalising and therefore perhaps decriminalising a serious offence’.
She added: ‘There should be diagnostic and treatment options for those who present a risk to children but the police are not a therapeutic service – they should be devoting their resources to closing down porn sites that feature children and abuse of women and upping detection and conviction rates for those promoting child abuse.’
The term MAP has previously been confined to fringe groups trying to escape the stigma of paedophilia by claiming they should be regarded as a niche group alongside the LGBT community.
This year, a trustee of the transgender charity Mermaids resigned after it emerged he had spoken at a conference hosted by an organisation that uses the term.
In 2011, Dr Jacob Breslow gave a presentation to B4U-ACT, which calls itself a ‘unique collaborative effort between minor-attracted people and mental health professionals to promote communication and understanding between the two groups’.
Alba MP Kenny MacAskill said: ‘Spouting these euphemisms simply masks the reality. The term, in whatever context, is baloney.’
A police spokesman said: ‘Police Scotland does not use the term minor-attracted person. The reference in the [report] was in the context of Police Scotland’s engagement with the Horizon project EU consortium to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.
‘The term was used in the commissioning documents for the consortium and is more commonly used on the continent.
‘In September, Police Scotland representatives successfully lobbied for the MAP term not to be used by the consortium.’
‘Disturbing and wrong’