B4U-ACT

Last updated
B4U-ACT
Formation2003
FounderMichael Melsheimer, Russell Dick
Legal statusNonprofit organization
Headquarters Baltimore
Location
Expenses$7,000 (in 2008) [1]
Website https://www.b4uact.org/

B4U-ACT is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Baltimore [1] that works to prevent child sexual abuse by providing resources and treatment for potential sexual offenders. [2] [3]

Background

B4U-ACT was founded in 2003 by Russell Dick and Michael Melsheimer. [4] [5] Melsheimer was a former YMCA director that served four years in a federal prison for aggravated sexual assault involving children and Dick a former director of social work of the Springfield Hospital Center. [5]

The organization's activities have included connecting mental health professionals to people under the risk of committing sexual offenses, as well as providing mental health resources of their own to such people. [6] [2] [7] As of 2008, the organization had approximately 25 members. [1]

During the development of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), B4U-ACT criticized the proposal of the American Psychiatric Association's Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group regarding the inclusion of hebephilia as a subtype of pedophilia in the DSM-5. [1]

B4U-ACT has been criticized for its euphemistic language regarding pedophilia,using the term "MAPs" instead of pedophile. [8] [9] In October 2022, a member of transgender charity group Mermaids resigned from office after it was reported that he had spoken at a 2011 event organized by B4U-ACT. [4] [7]

Since January 2021 they publish the Peer-reviewed journal B4U-ACT Quarterly Review.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paraphilia</span> Atypical sexual attraction

A paraphilia is an experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, places, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human partner. Paraphilias are contrasted with normophilic ("normal") sexual interests, though the definition of what makes a sexual interest normal or atypical remains controversial.

Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender identity disorder (GID) in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.

Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development. It differs from pedophilia, and from ephebophilia. While individuals with a sexual preference for adults may have some sexual interest in pubescent-aged individuals, researchers and clinical diagnoses have proposed that hebephilia is characterized by a sexual preference for pubescent rather than adult partners.

The term chronophilia was used by psychologist John Money to describe varying forms of romantic preference and/or sexual fixation limited to individuals of particular age ranges. Some such fixations, specifically those towards prepubescents and those towards the elderly, constitute types of paraphilia. The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism". Importantly, chronophilia are technically not determined by age itself, but by human sexual maturity stages, such as body type, secondary sexual characteristics and other visible features, particularly as measured by the stages of the Tanner scale.

Sex assignment is the discernment of an infant's sex, usually at birth. Based on an inspection of the baby's external genitalia by a relative, midwife, nurse, or physician, sex is assigned without ambiguity in 99.95% of births. In the remaining cases, additional diagnostic steps are required and sex assignment is deferred. Sex also may be determined prior to birth through prenatal sex discernment.

Dysphoria is a profound state of unease or dissatisfaction. It is the semantic opposite of euphoria. In a psychiatric context, dysphoria may accompany depression, anxiety, or agitation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Green (sexologist)</span> American psychiatrist and sexologist (1936–2019)

Richard Green was an American-British sexologist, psychiatrist, lawyer, and author known for his research on homosexuality and transsexualism, specifically gender identity disorder in children. He is known for his behaviorism experiment in which he attempted to prevent male homosexuality and transsexuality by extinguishing feminine behavior in young boys. He later came to favor biological explanations for male homosexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Blanchard</span> American-Canadian sexologist

Ray Milton Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist who researches pedophilia, sexual orientation and gender identity. He has found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia. Blanchard also proposed a typology of transsexualism.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. People with the disorder are often referred to as pedophiles.

The Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders, published by the Chinese Society of Psychiatry (CSP), is a clinical guide used in China for the diagnosis of mental disorders. It is on its third version, the CCMD-3, written in Chinese and English.

Martin Paul Kafka is an American psychiatrist best known for his work on sex offenders, paraphilias and what he calls "paraphilia-related disorders" such as sex addiction and hypersexuality.

Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.

Primarily obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder, also known as purely obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder, is a lesser-known form or manifestation of OCD. It is not a diagnosis in the DSM-5. For people with primarily obsessional OCD, there are fewer observable compulsions, compared to those commonly seen with the typical form of OCD. While ritualizing and neutralizing behaviors do take place, they are mostly cognitive in nature, involving mental avoidance and excessive rumination. Primarily obsessional OCD takes the form of intrusive thoughts often of a distressing, sexual, or violent nature.

The debate on the causes of clerical child abuse is a major aspect of the academic literature surrounding Catholic sex abuse cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Cantor</span> American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist

James M. Cantor is an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist specializing in hypersexuality and paraphilias.

Frederick "Fred" Saul Berlin is an American psychiatrist and sexologist specializing in sex offenses.

Virtuous Pedophiles is an Internet-based mutual support and public awareness group for pedophiles who acknowledge having a sexual attraction to children but want to lead normal productive lives without abusing children. The two founders of the group, who operate under the pseudonyms Ethan Edwards and Nick Devin, have stated that the initial goal of the group was to improve the "public relations" of pedophiles "to help people see that we're not all molesters" and to help other pedophiles.

Homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) beginning with the first edition, published in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). This classification was challenged by gay rights activists during the gay liberation following the 1969 Stonewall riots, and in December 1973, the APA board of trustees voted to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 1974, the DSM was updated and homosexuality was replaced with a new diagnostic code for individuals distressed by their homosexuality, termed ego-dystonic sexual orientation. Distress over one's sexual orientation remained in the manual, under different names, until the DSM-5 in 2013.

J. Paul Fedoroff was a Canadian forensic psychiatrist, sexologist, and researcher who specialized in treating individuals with certain problematic paraphilias and/or individuals with developmental delay. He was the first director of the Sexual Behaviours Clinic (SBC) at the Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre located in Ottawa, Ontario. He was a full professor of forensic psychiatry, criminology, and law at the University of Ottawa.

Jacob Breslow is an American academic and independent scholar. He was Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality in the Department of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE) until he resigned in July 2023, claiming harassment that he claimed was "part of a broader movement against the field of gender studies, and against trans rights and dignity". In 2022, he resigned from the transgender charity Mermaids after it emerged that he had spoken at a conference B4U-ACT, an organization that provides support to paedophiles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, Rebecca A.; Barrett, Marna S.; Sisti, Dominic A. (2013). "The Ethical Boundaries of Patient and Advocate Influence on DSM-5". Harvard Review of Psychiatry. 21 (6): 334–344. doi:10.1097/HRP.0000000000000010. ISSN   1067-3229.
  2. 1 2 Christiansen, Candice; Martinez-Dettamanti, Meg (2018), Lievesley, Rebecca; Hocken, Kerensa; Elliott, Helen; Winder, Belinda (eds.), "Prevention in Action: Exploring Prevention Initiatives and Current Practices", Sexual Crime and Prevention, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 27–56, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-98243-4_2, ISBN   978-3-319-98242-7 , retrieved 2023-10-31
  3. Tereszcuk, Alexis (2023-05-11). "Fact Check: NO Evidence Pastel Rainbow 'MAP' Flag Signifies Normalizing Pedophilia". Lead Stories. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  4. 1 2 "Another shocking scandal at Mermaids". Spiked. 2023. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  5. 1 2 Bleyer, Jennifer (2012-09-24). "How Can We Stop Pedophiles?". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  6. Cohen, Lisa J.; Ndukwe, Nwayieze; Siegfried, Rachel; Kopeykina, Irina; Yaseen, Zimri S.; Galynker, Igor (2018). "Attraction Versus Action in Pedophilic Desire: The Role of Personality Traits and Childhood Experience". Journal of Psychiatric Practice. 24 (6): 374–387. doi:10.1097/PRA.0000000000000348. ISSN   1538-1145.
  7. 1 2 Bannerman, Lucy (2023-10-31). "Trustee of the transgender charity Mermaids quits after speech to paedophile aid group". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  8. Naude, Alaric (2021). "A Case Study via Sociolinguistic Analysis of Covert Pro-Paedophilia Organisation Registered as a Child Protection Charity and its links to Paedophilia Enablers in Academia and Academic Propaganda" (PDF). The Public Insight.
  9. "Professor's redefinition of pedophilia could help offenders demand rights". 2022-01-01. Retrieved 2024-02-18.