Pervert Park

Sad stories to make an offender. Why would they pass that life onto another generation. I think it was open and honest. It was hard to watch at times. Their crimes are horrific. The crimes that normalised their behaviour are horrific. Their minds were altered at a time when their brains were learning how to cope with childhood issues. They were abused. I really find it hard to understand, Why carry on the abuse. Thinking about it though. Childhood memories make your world. I have two children and the thought of anyone sexually abusing them, makes me feel physically sick. I knowI could kill to protect them.

I don't want to rate this as a '1' for the entertainment factor because it is a very entertaining doc. However, it truly appalls me how someone can wrap their head around the things that these offenders have done, and then have the audacity to justify them. No spoiler--but the woman in the movie--making excuses for what she did by the explanation of the way she was raised....after the acts she committed....please just EXCUSE ME if I'm not intelligent or liberal enough to cry for her. "Grossed out" is a gross understatement.

A lot of this documentary focused on past abuse of the sex offenders, which is generally the case. But please don't expect the public to sympathize with this sort of thing. There are some sacred things left in the world, and there are some taboos to be upheld...thank God. Just ask yourself "your daughter?" "your son?". There is anger towards pedophiles for a reason...they are basically child murderers because that child's life is forever changed and their innocence is no longer intact. No, I do not care how much therapy the rapist has had-- please forgive me.

As well made as the film is, it has bad intentions. We are presented with paedophiles telling their own life stories. They dwell massively on their own misfortunes and when compelled to divulge their heinous crimes, portray them as the result of, in 5 individual cases, entrapment, Lolita-esque provocation, one's own incestuous abuse, the stresses of being secretly homosexual, and work stress in general.

It goes without saying that none of these are even slightly mitigating factors. Entrapment might be morally dubious, but when offered to have sex with a young girl by an anonymous chatroom member, a normal person refuses. A normal person would not respond to the perceived "provocation" of a young girl. Being a closeted homosexual does not win any "oppression points" that can be discounted against the rape of young boys. Must I continue?

The real point is that none of these people are shown to have faced their true culpability: they indulge in victimhood narratives, and the filmmakers indulge them too. They still identify with the demons inside them, rather than being willing to cast them out. They attempt to win sympathy and to glom onto a liberal narrative that protects the outcasts.

Those who judge this film "thought provoking" have to tell the rest of society just how much sympathy, built into them by this film, they can have left once the damage these people have done is plainly accounted for. Under the presumption that we should take a philosophical mode of thought on this issue, why don't we ask ourselves what magnitude of evil could then not be forgiven, so long as the perpetrator was sufficiently downtrodden himself?

This documentary will be difficult to stomach if you subscribe to the school of thought that views child molesters as disgusting, unable to be rehabilitated, and/or undeserving of sympathy. However, if you are willing to suspend your judgment for a mere hour, this film will surely have you second-guessing your stance by the end of it.

Pervert Park is a glimpse into the stories of several convicted child molesters who live together in a small trailer park. Both men and women inhabit this space, and their crimes vary in severity. When a violent child rapist is lumped together with someone who merely responded to the wrong Craigslist ad, it really makes you question why we vilify all sexual offenders as one and the same.

Their stories are brutally honest. The film tries to answer how these people became who they are, and where they plan to go from here. Rather than play into the creepiness factor, Pervert Park proves that many of these offenders are rational adults who clearly know right from wrong, but nonetheless found themselves in the position that they are in. The counseling sessions shown are extremely thought-provoking and may leave you questioning our typical "label and ostracize" response, especially when the line between being an actual predator and simply making a mistake is so blurry.

People nowadays can rationalize everything. From bizarre religious beliefs, weird sexual practices to outrageous political ideas...

Everything in relative and if one uses the right words and the correct approach everything becomes legit, OK, mainstream, acceptable.

Pervert Park is one more example of this abominable trend. The directors/producers cherry-picked a few sex offenders, transformed them in victims instead of perpetrators...showing that underneath the monster face there is a human being who needs an opportunity, a chance at redemption.

OK. I agree that a few, a small percentage of these guys can improve but what about the majority of them for whom there is no solution?

The only thing I ask myself is whether the directors and producers of this documentary would trust these guys to care for their 5-year daughters...