Men who abuse their positions of authority to abuse women and girls

[OlennasWimple]

Just recently...

A prison officer was sentenced to four year in jail for sexual relationships with and sexual abuse of female inmates

A police officer was jailed for 25 years for a string of offences, including grooming and raping a 13 year old girl that he met when he attended the house where she lived with her mother.

A police officer was jailed for 18 months after pursuing a sexual relationship with a vulnerable woman (and also harassing his ex)

A prison officer is in court facing allegations of sexual relationships with female inmates and sexual assault

But, proving that there's nothing new in the above case...

In October, a former police officer was sent to prison for four years, nine months for blackmailing a woman into having sex with him in order for her to escape paying a fine that she couldn't afford - this happened in 1978 and has been described as "Britain's oldest cold case"

These men are supposed to protect the most vulnerable in society, not prey on them

This happens too often to even have a website or blog about. Priests, teachers, managers, landlords, police officers, prison officers, immigration officials (remember the sex for visas scandal?) - I remember a story last year about housing officers in the US threatening to take Section 8 housing off vulnerable women unless they complied sexually - trailers in many cases.
Bullying and exploitation of the weaker by the more powerful is so common it's frightening, I often wonder if men are drawn to positions of authority for the wrong reasons or react once they realise their power (probably a mixture of both, I should imagine).
It's hard to screen for that kind of tendency in hiring and just emphasises the need for robust safeguarding controls that are difficult to circumvent.

Anna Salter is very clear about this; predatory men get into positions of power because it enables them to access victims.

Add to that list charity workers, both in the uk and overseas. Many charities ‘reviewing’ their safeguarding policies after finding male staff abusing their positions to abuse vulnerable women and girls. Often years after whistle blowers alerted senior staff.

I have long been of the opinion that male guards have no place in women's prisons.
Perhaps they can work there if chaperoned by a female guard. But they should never be alone with prisoners. The risk of them abusing their authority is just too high.

Same with policemen. They can interact with women in public, but as soon as there's any risk of power abuse, there needs to be a policewoman present.

Policemen should also screened for such tendencies, as them being alone with a woman could always still happen accidentally even with safety precautions, but I am not sure how one could do that, the rapist policemen seem to fly under the radar just fine, you aren't going to catch them with a multiple choice test.

I suspect a zero tolerance policy with regard to sexual harrassment in the workplace would already weed out the worst ones ... it shows just how much man dominate society that such behaviours are tolerated in policemen, people the general public is supposed to trust.

Wherever there’s vulnerable women there are predatory males - hence why men should never be allowed anywhere near them

Most people don’t even recognise there is a subhuman sect of predatory males - that’s the elephant in the room and the gap in education and research. The most dangerous ones are those who are in plain sight in politics, NFPs, the judiciary, medicine, and corporates etc

And yes we should screen for them but that would blow the cover of all those “model” men who like to remain covert - as all men who use violence of whatever kind to exploit and subjugate women.

If we saw them as dots on a map we would all be shocked at their prolific numbers.

Great post and topic Olenna

Hestia that is a really good idea and I agree police should be double crewed male/ female but there would need to be a huge increase in female officers. That is so unlikely because as employers police forces routinely discriminate against women.

Hestia
What about male primary teachers?
Should they be banned?

And doctors and nurses too

and social workers

Teaching does attract men who wish to exploit children.

And whilst I would like to see primary teaching include more males there has to be appropriate measures to keep children safe.

A man in a school isn’t automatically a predator but child safety comes first.

These men are supposed to protect the most vulnerable in society, not prey on them

It needs to be more widely accepted and recognised that there will always be a small but significant number who deliberately target occupations and opportunities to have access to children and vulnerable adults.

Lisa Muggeridge discusses:
'Social work training: Ever present risk of predatory behaviour'

This is why the current wide-ranging threats to, failings and failures of child protection and Safeguarding framework failures are so very serious:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/a3301266-Safeguarding-girls-and-protecting-women-post-Jimmy-Saville-metoo

Delirium
As a primary school teacher , I can assure your views are a danger to young girls.

But TeeJay, there have been numerous scandals and revelations about schools over the last 30 years where predatory men have abused their pupils. Admittedly, they are mostly boarding schools, and obviously it is a very small subset of male teachers. But Delirium's statements are factually correct.

That doesn't mean there should be no male primary teachers, of course, but safeguarding must be involved.

We can add sports coaches and doctors to the list.

I think/Hope that organisations are getting a lot more no-tolerance than even 10 years ago. I know the police definitely is.

Until men start to see this problem rather than defending the status quo we are a bit stuck though.

This is relevant. Love Hannah Gatsby.

www.theguardian.com/stage/video/2018/dec/07/hannah-gadsby-takes-aim-at-jimmys-who-monologue-about-misogny-video

I think the teaching point is harsh. There may be a few but your post suggests that it is a common reason for men to become teachers. Just as there are examples of male teachers taking advantage of pupils, there have also been a number of cases where female teachers have had inappropriate relationships with students. The vast vast majority of teachers have no desire whatsoever to exploit their pupils and to suggest that a male teacher should not be able to teach a class unsupervised is ludicrous.

Also, I know someone who had some child protection social work training, and the ignorance around personality disorders and their relationship to predation (at least officially) was frightening. Some of it was clearly deliberate on the academic side - it's still considered politically incorrect by many with influence in the field to accept the evidence that personality disorders even exist. The view is that anyone can be "worked with" to improve their behaviour.

Kes
Did you read Delirium's first post?

As a primary school teacher , I can assure your views are a danger to young girls.

No.
There will always be predatory behaviour.
Occupations which enable close contact with vulnerable adults and children will attract some, not many, but those determined will eg teaching, social care, scouting, religious organisations etc

Any professional who denies the possibility is failing to understand key principles of child protection. That they are aware of the reality & risks is an important part of the Safeguarding framework

TeeJay Delirium's first post is an example of a type of sentence called a "generic". These sentences are always problematic, because they can be interpreted in different ways.

She wrote: Teaching does attract men who wish to exploit children.

I read the sentence as "Teaching does attract some men who wish to exploit children."

You appear to have read it as ""Most men who are attracted to teaching with to exploit children.

Unfortunately for good communication, both readings are valid. This confusion over the meanings of "generic" sentences is one of the big sources of misunderstanding and conflict on the Internet.

Oops!
I misread Delirium's first post.
My mind put a not in there.
Apologies to all -especially Delirium.

TeeJay1970
Through my job I have worked with at least 10 schools with teachers / support staff who have groomed and sexually abused children - primary and secondary. All men (but important to recognise that women can and do abuse children). Other staff were generally horrified but in most cases there were staff who disbelieved the child and advocated for the member of staff - despite the evidence and subsequent court cases.

With safeguarding you have to be prepared to think the unthinkable. It's uncomfortable but in all the cases I was involved with, if staff had been more sceptical, aware of safeguarding and prioritised a child's safety rather than the adult's rights, then the abuse would have been identified earlier and stopped.

With safeguarding you have to be prepared to think the unthinkable. It's uncomfortable but in all the cases I was involved with, if staff had been more sceptical, aware of safeguarding and prioritised a child's safety rather than the adult's rights, then the abuse would have been identified earlier and stopped.
This ^^