Sexual Attraction To Children Isn't Immoral: VA College Professor

NORFOLK, VA — An assistant professor who teaches sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University is on administrative leave after saying it isn’t necessarily immoral for adults to be sexually attracted to children.

Allyn Walker said in a Nov. 8 interview with a child protection organization that “pedophile” is a stigmatizing term and “minor-attracted people” is a preferred term to describe adults who have a proclivity for sex with children.

“A lot of people when they hear the term ‘pedophile,’ they automatically assume that it means a sex offender, and that isn’t true,” Walker said during the 28-minute interview with San Francisco-based Prostasia Foundation.

“And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions towards minors.”

Walker said child sex abuse is “never, ever OK,” but being sexually attracted isn’t necessarily morally wrong “because no one can control who they’re attracted to at all.”

“In other words, it’s not who we are attracted to that’s either OK or not OK,” Walker said. “It’s our behaviors in responding to that attraction that are either OK or not OK.”

In a statement Tuesday announcing Walker had been placed on administrative leave, Old Dominion President Brian O. Hemphill said he wanted “to state in the strongest terms possible that child sexual abuse is morally wrong and has no place in our society.”

Walker, who uses the pronouns they/them, faced fierce blowback on Twitter for what some critics said was an attempt to “normalize” the sexual abuse of children by adults. Andre Lambakis, the leader of the Old Dominion University College Republicans, told news station WVEC he was “surprised and shocked” by Walker’s statements.

“I actually didn’t believe it until I saw it on Twitter,” Lambakis said. “I’m actually thinking about planning a peaceful protest against Allyn Walker.”

The university emphasized the Walker was placed on administrative leave for Walker's protection and the safety of students and staff, and because their continued presence on campus “disrupted” the learning environment — not because the research is controversial.

“An academic community plays a valuable role in the quest for knowledge,” the university said in a joint statement with Walker on Saturday as criticism mounted. “A vital part of this is being willing to consider scientific and other empirical data that may involve controversial issues and perspectives.”

Walker said in their part of the statement: “I want to be clear: child sexual abuse is morally wrong and inexcusable crime. As an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice, the goal of my research is to prevent crime.

"My work is informed by my past experience and advocacy as a social worker counseling victims. I embarked on this research in hopes of gaining understanding of a group that, previously, has not been studied in order to identify ways to protect children.”

Jeremy Malcolm, the lawyer, human rights activist and father of two who leads the Prostasia Foundation, told WVEC that child sexual abuse “isn’t actually a choice” and he understands the point Walker was making.

“People are just born with this condition, according to the science,” Malcolm said. “The problem that we’re faced with is, given some people are going to be born this way, how can we prevent those people from actually going on to abuse children? What experts like Dr. Walker are saying is that telling these people that they’re inherently bad and doomed to offend is counterproductive.”

Malcolm told the news station he also understands the backlash from the public but that he “feels bad” for Walker, who is “on the receiving end of most of the misunderstanding.”

He emphasized that neither the Prostasia Foundation nor Walker support pedophilia but are involved in a scientific inquiry to discover the best way to prevent child sexual abuse, which affects 1 in 5 girls and 1 and 20 boys, according to data from the Crimes Against Children Research Center.

Children are most vulnerable to sexual abuse between the ages of 7 and 13, according to the center’s data. Adolescents who report sexual abuse say that in 3 out of 4 times, the perpetrator was someone they knew, according to a National Institute of Justice report.

“You can get help and live with your condition without abusing a child,” Malcolm told WVEC.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center can provide information about reporting and coping with sexual abuse. Its website also features training materials and tips to prevent sexual abuse. The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network operates a 24/7 hotline for victims of sexual assault and abuse. The hotline can be reached at 800-656-4673.