Hidden Vices - Paedophilia & Child Abuse

The Head teacher of the last school I was Head of has just been sentenced to prison for abusing girls in Primary school. I didn't know him. When I was a volunteer in Gloucester prison there were obviously men incarcerated for similar crimes. Years ago one of our close friends abused his daughter. I was brought up in an era when corporal punishment was routine. That is just one person's lifetime experience of child abuse.

My conclusion is that there might be clues, but these men are very clever and manipulative & you really can't tell. No one wants to believe that someone they know is capable of this abhorrent behaviour. If you are "normal" you simply cannot envisage what drives a man to think that this is in any way acceptable.

I have always wondered what the likely prevalence of this behaviour is & whether it is increasing, or whether girls are more prepared to come forward & there is more publicity. The following link came as a shock.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11690451/One-in-35-men-has-paedophile-tendencies-crime-agency-claims.html

If 1 in 35 men is a potential paedophile, even if two thirds of those attracted to children would never act on their urges directly, increasingly men are turning to the internet to seek out sick images of child abuse. The NSPCC recently warned that as many as one million children in the UK could have been the victim of an assault, but most crimes are never reported or investigated.

We call ourselves a civilised society. We supposedly love & protect our children. But this abuse is only the worst end of the spectrum. How many children are routinely physically or verbally abused? How many are hungry, cold, don't have a bed to sleep in? How many die because they don't get the medical treatment they need? How many are forced to work & have no childhood or proper education? How many are their parents carers? How many are over pressurised by aspirational parents?

Abuse comes in many forms. Children are the weakest members of society. Adults think they have a right to have children. What rights do the children have?