The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #86665 Message #1614079
Posted By: Peter K (Fionn)
26-Nov-05 - 08:38 AM
Thread Name: BS: Gary Glitter
Subject: RE: BS: Gary Glitter
First, two points for David Hannam.
1) How is your second post about DNA supposed to address my point that jurors will never know whether DNA has proved a case? They (judges too) must rely on expert witnesses to interpret the scinetific evidence. There have been cases in the UK of such witnesses lying on oath or making grossly misleading claims about the probabilities associated with DNA science. A whole series of convictions in the west Midlands were quashed when it emerged that a senior police officer had persistently lied about forensic evidence. If any of those who had been convicted had also been hanged, what redress then? (And what "recent polls" do you have in mind when you talk about the popular attitude to capital punishment?)
2) No need to get hysterical David. We are NOT living in an epidemic of paedophilia. Trends are hard to monitor because reporting levels were historically low. But if there has been any significant increase in individual cases coming to public notice (and I'm not sure that this is so) then it will largely be because paedophiles have been driven off some of their traditional hunting grounds - the churches, scouting and to some extent teaching, etc.
It seems extraordinary, given the mood nowadays, that in the 1970s paedophilia was, in some degree, recognised as a clinical condition like psychopathy, and serious work was directed towards seeing whether people could be "cured". In those days, paedophiles were sometimes quite open about their proclivities and even had their own association. In fact their press officer was a member of the NUJ who worked for the Open University in his day job.
Just to underscore Greg's point that attitudes change, it's worth noting that each of the 25 counts against Oscar Wilde stated that the alleged behaviour (always in private, and always between consenting adults) offended "against the peace of our said Lady the Queen, her Crown, and dignity." Incidentally, Dave's Wife may wish to note that "Bosie" (Alfred Lord Douglas) was never mentioned at all in the indictment. The individuals cited were prostitutes.
Like weelittledrummer I am sure that nobody who finds sexual gratification in a pre-adolescent child does so out of mere wilfulness, and that whatever makes them so disposed is something over which they have no control. Partly for that reason I find the lust for vengeance expressed by people like the Villan sickening and depressing. (And yes, I do have a daughter, Villan. So what? If she fell victim to a paedophile, that would be a tragedy for two families.)
The sociologist Stanley Cohen wrote: "Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media. Sometimes the panic passes over and is forgotten; at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce changes in legal and social policy or even in the way the society conceives itself."
That was in 1972 and all that's changed is that the media is even more reckless and irresponsible now than it was then.