Study was undertaken by Durkin & Bryant British Psychological Society

The study aimed to analyse the types of justification used by 
paedophiles to account for their deviance. Posts made to an online 
support forum for "boy lovers" were examined over a one month period; 
specifically posts from 23 self-identified paedophiles.

The strongest reason they claimed was 'Condemnations of Condemners'. 
Paedophiles try to transfer blame to other groups such as law 
enforcement, parents and educators and anti-paedophile website users by 
claiming that these groups engage in behaviours that are more harmful or 
dangerous than adult/child sex.

Other justifications included denial of harm, denial of victim (i.e. the 
children wanted to be sexually involved with adults), the claim that sex 
with adults is beneficial for children and the appeal to higher 
loyalties (i.e. that the website users are campaigning for higher 
principles like children's' right to freedom of sexual expression etc.). 
All of these were used to minimise the stigma attached to paedophiles 
from general society.

Ms O'Halloran commented "Paedophiles are typically a marginalised group; 
however technological advances are helping online paedophile 
communication. The same study was carried out in 1999* and since then 
there has been a ten-fold increase in users of this website. Support 
sites like this are obviously fulfilling some important functions for 
paedophiles and there is evidence that they create a sense of community 
for themselves by offering support & information to each other, and by 
creating an 'us versus them' mentality towards the other anti-paedophile 
users."