Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.

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1. You’re 16. You’re a Pedophile. You Don’t Want to Hurt Anyone. What Do You Do Now?

Luke Malone | Medium | Aug. 11, 2014 | 331 minutes (7,911 words)

Reporter Luke Malone talks to a teenager who, after realizing he is a pedophile, seeks help and starts a support group for people like him. “I asked them if they knew anyone like that, and a few weeks later I received an email. ‘My name is Adam,’ it read. ‘I’m 18 and non-exclusively attracted to boys and girls of all ages (particularly very young ones). I am the leader of a support group for non-offending pedophiles around my age… I would be very happy to talk with you.’” Warning: This story includes graphic details of child abuse.

Additional reading: Malone explains how he reported this story.

2. Looking for Lilly

Kyle Swenson | New Times Broward | Aug. 12, 2014 | 21 minutes (5,320 words)

A complicated parental kidnapping cracks a window into the Sunshine State’s growing right-wing fringe, a bizarro world where Lincoln and Obama are a tag team bent on destroying America, the end times are ever nigh, and the Confederacy lives on.

3. How a Squad of Ex-Cops Fights Police Abuses

Jason Fagone | Mother Jones | Aug. 11, 2014 | 24 minutes (6,188 words)

In Broward County, Florida, a group of former police officers are using bold tactics to help public defenders.

4. On Being Stalked

Helen DeWitt | London Review of Books | Aug. 21, 2014 | 15 minutes (3,985 words)

Novelist Helen DeWitt on the harrowing experience of being stalked, and the ways in which the legal system failed her.

5. We Don’t Need No Education

Ben Hewitt | Outside | Aug. 12, 2014 | 17 minutes (4,458 words)

Ben Hewitt describes “unschooling” his children Fin and Rye, who do “self-directed, adult-facilitated life learning in the context of their own unique interests” rather than attend public schools or participate in the kind of homeschooling that mirrors a public education.

Illustration: Simon Prades for Matter