Post date: Sep 26, 2011 10:59:28 PM
In addition to "gratifying" pedophiles, the paper by Rind et al. has been used by convicted child molesters to argue that they didn't harm their victims. (For more information about the use of Rind et al. in legal cases, click here) . Rind et al.'s paper has also been used as evidence that the age of sexual consent should be lowered for boys. For example, Dr. Helmut Graupner (1999) , a lawyer and Vice President of the Austrian Society for Sex Research, used Rind et al.'s paper to support his argument that consensual sexual relations between men and boys aged 14 and older should be decriminalized, and that sex with younger children should not be prosecuted as long as the contact is proven to be "consensual and harmless."