A long time ago but memories last:
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11444 ... sex_abuse/
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St Bart's paedophile ring jailed
Re: St Bart's paedophile ring jailed
This is about the most distasteful subject imaginable - and I guess one significant part of it is how unimaginable it is for most people. But when I read of such cases, and all the other, higher profile cases brought to light in recent years, just now in Rotherham, I wonder if it's something which has always gone on. To which, I sure, the answer is 'yes' - but to a greater or lesser extent?
The problem is the lack of data. To put this in perspective, data for murder is really good, since, when people end up dead, it is generally noticed, and in this country there has been a system of coroners' courts going back centuries. And it's using such data that Steve Pinker in "The Better Angels of our Nature" is able to argue that our chances of violent death have declined massively over the centuries. So I'd not be surprised - in the unlikely event of good enough data emerging - if it turned out that this sort of crime is also on a long term secular decline, and that these recent scandals are just a blip, and maybe just a consequence of greater awareness and reporting.
The relevant constants in human nature, I'd say, were that some proportion of us find sexual pleasure in this way, and - maybe more important - the pleasure many find in controlling and bullying others. But such practices - like murder - are influenced by
[youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4[/youtubes]
But there were also 19th century intellectuals, such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and Walter Pater, reading perhaps too deeply in Plato's Symposium who, I suspect, influenced generations of school teachers and priests. OTOH, I don't suppose either of these contributed to what happened in Rotherham, or "Pakistan's Hidden Shame" as recounted in this Channel 4 documentary. I suspect that's more a matter of something which has been tolerated for centuries, in the same way as a form of murder - dueling - was tolerated in Western Europe.
And just in case anyone is wondering, I'm no cultural relativist - unlike council officers and police in Rotherham, I suspect - so such attempts to understand do not amount to any kind of acceptance!
The problem is the lack of data. To put this in perspective, data for murder is really good, since, when people end up dead, it is generally noticed, and in this country there has been a system of coroners' courts going back centuries. And it's using such data that Steve Pinker in "The Better Angels of our Nature" is able to argue that our chances of violent death have declined massively over the centuries. So I'd not be surprised - in the unlikely event of good enough data emerging - if it turned out that this sort of crime is also on a long term secular decline, and that these recent scandals are just a blip, and maybe just a consequence of greater awareness and reporting.
The relevant constants in human nature, I'd say, were that some proportion of us find sexual pleasure in this way, and - maybe more important - the pleasure many find in controlling and bullying others. But such practices - like murder - are influenced by
- how socially acceptable they are - fashion and cultural factors
- the opportunites presented
- the likelihood of getting caught,
- the consequences thereof, and
- the availability of other forms of satisfaction for would be perpetrators
[youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4[/youtubes]
But there were also 19th century intellectuals, such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and Walter Pater, reading perhaps too deeply in Plato's Symposium who, I suspect, influenced generations of school teachers and priests. OTOH, I don't suppose either of these contributed to what happened in Rotherham, or "Pakistan's Hidden Shame" as recounted in this Channel 4 documentary. I suspect that's more a matter of something which has been tolerated for centuries, in the same way as a form of murder - dueling - was tolerated in Western Europe.
And just in case anyone is wondering, I'm no cultural relativist - unlike council officers and police in Rotherham, I suspect - so such attempts to understand do not amount to any kind of acceptance!