Genetics are never an excuse for bad behavior. (I don't believe that being gay is bad) People who have urges to hurt children need to get psychological help and saying that it was done to me or that it runs in my family is not an excuse. BTW even though most abusers were abused themselves most people who have been abused don't abuse others. That's like saying even though most fruit grows on trees not everything that grows on a tree is fruit.

I think so. I don't believe pedophilia is a "free will" choice. There may be some people that want to be despised by everyone, and so act out in dispicable ways, but I think most pedophiles act on desire. I think it comes under the category of "fetish" -- different things turn different people on -- I can't really say what causes me to like what I like, but I know this... it's definitely not like a light switch that I can just turn off.

Peadophiles more often than not have a history of being abused and bullied by adults themselves- leading to a need to feel power over another being (children being easy prey) in order to feel sexually aroused. or having been raised in an unusual home environment: sometimes overly religious or protective, seeing adult sexuality as sinful, or conversly with sex and pornography on full show from an early age- leading to a difficulty in forming adult relationships. Whilst it is likely that genetics play a role in a person's susceptibilty to these kinds of experiences and the way they handle them, the overwhleming evidence that most peadophiles have unconventional histories (which is not the case with homosexuals) suggests that the trait is not in-born. As a by the by: whilst peadophilia is a despicable and horrific crime, and the perpetrators should certainly be removed from society and punished for their actions- to see it as either an active choice in the same way as someone might choose to rob a bank, or an in-born trait of a "monster" is a mistake, as it blocks us from trying to understand the causes of the behaviour, and from developing solutions that might help to prevent future cases.

I was born with a predisposition toward alcholism...However, I still am to one who makes that choice whether to drink or not...I choose not to drink...My sister chose to drink...She is recovering now though. She has made the choice to stop drinking.

Pedophilia seems to be linked to a misplaced expression of attraction to innocence related to an indivual's own loss of innocence. So while the offender may in fact have some bad wiring in their own head, it may not be as much of a free will choice but an end result to a chain of bad experiences in one's own life. That doesn't make it alright to hurt the children, but perhaps in understanding what makes them who they are they can better be prevented from becoming something so destructive in the lives of others.

Wherever your urges come from, the decision to act upon them is still a free will choice.