Scottish police forces have come under fire after going “woke” and rebranding pedophiles as “minor-attracted persons” in official documentation.
The term is often used by the “woke” Left to describe child sexual predators.
Police Scottland provoked a widespread backlash by using the term “minor-attracted persons” in a top-level report about pedophiles.
The move caused outrage over allegations that the force is using the “woke” term to normalize pedophilia and avoid offending pedophiles.
However, the controversial move has been defended by Police Scotland, with the force suggesting the European Union was to blame, according to the Scottish Daily Express.
Chief Constable Iain Livingstone’s annual year-end report refers to child abusers as “Minor-Attracted Persons” (MAPs).
The use of the radical language comes amid wider concerns by campaigners over what they see as attempts to rebrand pedophilia as a harmless sexual preference.
A spokesman for the force claimed that the reference to “MAPs” was in relation to the force’s engagement with the European Union’s Horizon Europe Project – Prevention of Child Sexual Exploitation.
The report states: “The project’s main agenda is to develop understanding and approach to avoid the victimization of children by engaging Minor-Attracted People (MAPs) and providing them with the necessary support, treatment, and guidance to help prevent criminal activities.”
Despite the use of the term in the high-level police report, the spokesman claims that the force “does not use the term Minor-Attracted Person.
“The reference in the Chief Constable’s Assessment of Policing Performance 2021/22 was in the context of Police Scotland’s engagement with the Horizon Project EU consortium to tackle Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.”
The term MAP is contentious because child abusers are trying to escape the stigma attached to pedophilia and maintain they should be regarded as a niche group alongside the LGBT community.
Kenny McAskill, the Alba Party MP for East Lothian and former SNP Justice Secretary, said any use of euphemisms in relation to child sex abusers was “baloney”.
“Spouting these euphemisms simply masks the reality and their danger,” McAskill said.
“I very much welcome the common sense approach from Police Scotland, though even in commissioning documents these euphemisms should be avoided as they mask the reality and hide the horror.
“The term in whatever context is baloney.”
Maggie Mellon, an independent social work consultant, warns that “woke” terms such as “MAP” risk “the danger of normalizing and therefore perhaps decriminalizing a serious offense”.
She added: “There should be diagnostic and treatment options for those who present a risk to children but the police are not a therapeutic service – they should be devoting their resources to closing down porn sites that feature children and abuse of women and upping their detection and conviction rates for those promoting child abuse.”
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “Most Scots will find any attempt to soften the language around pedophilia in official guidance to be deeply disturbing and wrong.
“Offences relating to pedophilia are among the most appalling and unforgivable crimes anyone can commit and it’s essential that Police Scotland guidance reflects this.”
The MAPs propaganda drive has been compared to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) campaign in the 1970s and 80s which piggy-backed on the gay liberation movement to push for pro-child abuse policies, such as lowering the age of consent to just four.
Police Scotland has already come under fire in the past year for saying they would record rapes by biological male offenders as being committed by a woman if the attacker “identifies as female”.
Campaigners said this would warp rape statistics and threaten women’s safety by understating the threat of male violence amid fears that the controversial Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill – which was passed two days before Christmas – would compromise the safety of women-only spaces such as changing rooms and bathrooms.
Author and campaigner JK Rowling was among those mocking the force for going “woke.”
Rowling argues that the move is “Orwellian” while tweeting her reference to George Orwell’s totalitarian novel “1984”: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.”
The force defended the policy claiming concerns were “hypothetical” because the circumstances had never arisen.
Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi said at the time: “The sex/ gender identification of individuals who come into contact with the police will be based on how they present or how they self-declare, which is consistent with the values of the organization.
“Police Scotland requires no evidence or certification as proof of biological sex or gender identity other than a person’s self-declaration unless it is pertinent to any investigation with which they are linked.”
