Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle has agreed to plead guilty to charges including traveling to have sex with teenagers and distributing child pornography.
Fogle's attorney Jeremy Margolis says Fogle will do all that he can to make amends and seek treatment. But what kind of treatment is available? We sorted through some of these questions with Dr. Fred Berlin, Director of the Sexual Behaviors Consultation unit at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Berlin explains that some people are sexually attracted to children, although not by their own volition. "People discover the nature of their sexual desires. They don’t decide what it is they will be turned on or not be turned on by."
Referring to preliminary research that shows the impulse may be biological in nature, he points out that group therapy and sex-drive lowering medications can help curb desires.
He believes as a matter of public safety, society should stop demonizing paedophiles, because it can drive them underground. Instead we should make treatment widely available. "As a society we often don’t think they are deserving of treatment. But we forget how we looked at alcoholism before the Betty Ford Clinic opened."