Dirty old Men

[johntheplamf]

With Two kids of my own, I don't really like them to go too far when they're out playing. But I remember when I was a kid, Me and my pals would trek off for miles, all day, and no one seemed to bother.

Now the question is, Were there less of these dirty old men about in my day, or is there just more news coverage on the subject nowadays??

[KebabMeister]

I think everything is publicised more these days.  Plus that more people have their own transport so it is easier for someone to abduct someone today that it was many years ago (in my opinion of course!!)

[Hgrove]

I also rather suspect that it is just that these things receive more publicity now;  I had not thought about the point on own transport but it makes sense.

[silly moo]

I think just more publicity.
We are getting much less trusting but I don't think people are actually less trustworthy.

[luckyboy]

kebab is right...theres more media today, and so theres obviously more stories, but i think on average theres only been a slight increase on these type of assaults to what it was say 30 years ago...but the media feeds off endless doom and gloom stories, its their drug, so thats why you have the general perception that theres a paedo in every street something which is totally untrue, and the media know it.  

[El D]

try telling that to daily mail readers . . .

[Quizmonster]

The tabloids would have us believe that there is a murderous p�dophile on every street corner, but the fact is that there are still only a handful - almost literally - of children who are murdered by strangers each year. They're far more likely to be killed by someone known to them and in their own homes.

However, the mad furore created by the press has altered life completely. I myself, for example - having brought up six children - would probably walk on by if I saw a little girl all alone and crying at the edge of a pavement on a busy road. Why? Because, if I bent down to comfort her - her lunatic mother would probably appear and start beating me about the head with an Asda bag full of baked bean tins!

It's madness. The proportion of perverts in a population almost certainly alters little over time, so the current attitude is utter nonsense.

[Dom Tuk]

Is there not another point that with the spread of modern technology, communication and internet, the dissemination of child pornography and such material more men will be able to indulge their desires and bring them to the fore. Does this not then mean that they are more emboldened and likely to commit crimes whereas in earlier times without the above those desires would have been suppressed and hence not carried out. This probably accounts for the increased numbers of incidents and better press reporting is probably not the only cause. No QM i have no numbers to back this, its only a thought that crossed my mind.

[netibiza]

I am 60 and I remember my mother always telling me not to talk to strangers or to take sweets so I guess it did happen - with only a radio for entertainment I suppose we didn't hear of any incidents.  But I was always running away til I was about 5 and I was never molested - and the police always gave me an icecream as they recognised me and waited for my mother to collect me - this is probably why I kept running away!!!

[Hgrove]

I agree with QM, I would also be extremely cautious about stopping to help a lost child (even though I am female).  A few years ago a friend of mine (male) noticed a little boy, 2 or 3 yrs old, looking lost, and also in danger from passing cars so took him into his house and called the police.  The child was reunited with his mother (it traspired he had walked on his own from a leisure centre half a mile away) but a policeman told my friend "you do realise you could have got into trouble for taking this child into your house".  My friend said he would not do this again in future.

[Grunty]

I think Quizmonster is right, and that ASDA should introduce padded bags.

The media position is noticeable with many women (sorry girls) who pass a man in the street, and the look in their eyes says It's a man, what's it going to do to me?

[luckyboy]

The trouble is that some people cannot even shout at a kid these days without being accused of some form of child abuse, a neighbour of mine caught a 13 year old lad spraying some stuff on his car about 5 years ago, and thats all he did was grab hold of him by the arm and shouted at him, he never phoned the police, 2 hours later he got a visit from the police, the boys mother had accused him of abusing the boy, it never went to court and the charges later dropped because there were people who witnessed the scene, but it caused a stigma to his charactor that leaves him bitter to this day, think if there were no witnesses there he could easily have been convicted of child abuse, and the word paedophile attached to him for the rest of his life, and i bet theres plenty of people out there who are as innocent as my neighbour who were not as lucky as him.

[Oneeyedtic]

Heavens, Quizmonster, 6 children, eh !! And by now there will be grand's and greats !! If you have brought them all up to be fully paid up Rabid Republicans in the same mould as your goodself Camilla stands no chance of becoming Queen !!

[Quizmonster]

No 'greats' yet, Tic, but I trust the 'grands' are being appropriately reared!

[Oneeyedtic]

I trust so too, QM. Best wishes - you have spread a lot of enjoyment through AnswerBank over the years.

[Foxglove]

And in the 'old days', if something like this happened in your local village or town then some of the neighbourhood men would go and sort the person out!

[Philtaz]

IMHO it's a combination of many factors, many of which Dom Tuk alluded to.  Yes, the media also are guilty of over sensationalising every story, but there is also no smoke without fire in some cases.

Socially, Britain has changed.  When I was a child/youth, drugs were not prevalent.  Maybe there was one drug addict in the village at the very most. Now there is one on every street! Children  these days in some areas can buy their drugs on the playground.  How many of you carried a knife to school?  How many had parents who would assault a teacher for chastising their child?  My dad would have said I deserved it!. Can anyone remember incidents of gun crime within their locality 25 years ago?  I can't.

There certainly didn't appear to be 'half-way' houses for re-habilitating paedophiles yet cases where they have absconded from esatablishments situated near housing estates are all too frequently in the news.

Who dared to backchat a copper when they were a kid?  Todays youth openly taunt and confront the police and immediately know their rights the second they are spoken to!

'Dirty old men' in todays society are offered counselling and courses for their offences, which is probably why the thought of a 'sentence' doesn't really offer much in the way of a deterrent.

For many of the above reasons my eldest child(aged 9) does not leave the house to play with her friends unless she takes her walkie-talkie with her.