One in ten men have carried out sex offences against children

[HelenFisksBrownSuit]

Have you seen this item?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/one-in-ten-men-have-carried-out-sex-offences-against-children-says-survey-fjhd59fhn

Is paedophilia really this common?
I once heard a man (a psychologist I think) say on Radio 4 that he thought most men look at very young teens or even children inappropriately. It's a very disturbing thought.

So, the report is impossible to find and only The Times is running this story. Childlight is taking part in a conference next week so my guess is the report has been provided to The Times as an exclusive, specifically selling them on the more salacious pieces of info to make it more "newsworthy" and will be published at this event next week.

I'm going to hold fire until I've seen the actual report.

This always makes me worry when my son goes off into a man's toilet on his own. At least in the women's, I could be there with him.

It doesn’t surprise me. I know several people sexually assaulted as children including myself. I’ve always thought it must be more common than people think. I‘m very wary of men especially around my daughter. Depresses me immensely

A lot of men are sexual opportunists and literally anyone would do. I also think that attraction to young teenagers is something to do with objectification and the idea that they are easy to control similar to the trope that older women are all desperate, hypersexual and grateful for any attention. I think porn also plays a part in pushing these tropes and encouraging fetishization of women at any age.

Its not all men but enough for it to be pervasive and hugely problematic.

TBH I think this should be discussed on the main boards as well as under Feminism.

It doesn't surprise me TBH. 1 in 5 children are sexually abused and mostly by someone they know well.

It stands to reason that it isn't a few individuals committing mass abuse.

If you ask adult survivors of child sex abuse they will usually tell you it was a family member who perhaps abused no-one else or one or two other children.

Also freely available online porn is awash with simulated incest and paedophilia it is obviously something there is considerable demand for.

When I was about 19 I was waiting at a bus stop on a quiet road leading out of my local village, and a car being driven by a man in his mid to late 30s went past me up and down a couple of times. He came past again, pulled up and asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said yes and he said something along the lines of, “oh that’s a shame..” He then asked me how old I was. I said I was 19, he looked shocked and replied, “really?! I thought you were about 14…” (I’m only 5’2 and have always been petite so appear younger.) He drove off after that, horrible to wonder what he was thinking!

I've worked in a voluntary capacity with sex offenders, I was abused as a child and worked at a rape crisis centre so I don't think I'm naive...

I genuinely don't believe this is true though.
It's something that person told themselves to justify their deviant behaviour.

Firstly, one man is no more likely to know 'what all men think' than you, I or anyone else on this thread. They're not telepathically connected!

Secondly, research undertaken previously has been in the ballpark of what this survey shows. So it's a horribly large percentage when you apply it to people you know...but still a minority of men.

I am really shocked by this. Absolutely horrific.

I should not be surprised though as so many men seem to think that teenage girls are fair game...

I'm not surprised. 1 in 3 men in the UK has a criminal conviction, there are clearly a lot of morally inept men out there. Disgusting either way.

The 1 in 10 is just about child sex offenders.

I'd expect it to be closer to 3 or 4 in 10 if we included sex offences against women and domestic violence. Definitely 4 in 10,
possibly even 50% if it included coercion and control.

This isn't based on research, just my own guesstimates based on the amount of offences and the men I've known.

I would not be surprised.

The 'lock them up and throw away the key' argument is often expressed on Mumsnet.

The central problem with this is that child sex abuse and rape are not rare. This is hard to acknowledge but true. Even the system we have now is completely overloaded.

How were the respondents selected for the survey? I find these statistics improbable. I can imagine that if there was any element of self-selection, at any point, it would bias pervier men who jump at any opportunity to think and talk about what gets them off.

For example, if at any point the survey said something like “we will be asking some questions of an intimate and sexual nature, do you agree to continue?” the less pervy men would bail at that point.

I am concerned that this is being used as leverage to get us to agree to outlawing private and encrypted communications and to allow the State to snoop on us - using child protection to scare us into relinquishing our rights to privacy.

"For example, if at any point the survey said something like “we will be asking some questions of an intimate and sexual nature, do you agree to continue?” the less pervy men would bail at that point."

@TeenEyeroll I really don't get your logic here at all if anything I think it is more likely that men who have done these things would either bail or lie.

The lack of context about this research is a huge issue with this article. It's basically meaningless without some info on the definitions used and questions asked.

Great click bait though.

I really don't get your logic here

The logic is that the majority of men would not want to engage in a survey asking them about private stuff. Of the minority of men who would be up for responding to such a survey, there will be a higher concentration of perverts than the general population.

The fact remains that not all men are attracted to young girls, for a start off some will be attracted to males, some are attracted to more mature women. I don't think Macron went off with his teacher because he thought she was grateful for any attention. As I discovered all too graphically when preparing court files some are attracted to animals. Some days I couldn't eat my lunch after what I'd been looking at.

Sweeping generalisations are very rarely true.

What? Sorry, I don't buy this for a second. Source please.

I thought the same as you and then I thought maybe not, maybe they do think it is normal so aren't ashamed or maybe some are and some aren't.

The other thing, is the definition of ‘child’ - if they are 18 and they got off with a 15 year old who was part of their friendship group does that count in the stats?

Agree - this all seems a bit vague, and I can't find the actual report.

I'd also say that, when you are set up and funded to find evidence of child sexual exploitation, as ChildLight (sponsoring organisation) is, you are unlikely to find low prevalence.

This is not to deny that paedophilia is a huge problem, but I think we should be wary of clickbait stats.

Might be true if we are including traffic offences but it's a bit of a reach to assume everyone who has ever committed an offence is morally inept. Are we including the Suffragettes and gay men pre-1967 in that?

I grew up in the vice area of my city, I used to get offered money by kerb crawlers at 8 am on my way to school in full school uniform. Shockingly one was the father of a classmate, he got a bloody shock when I made a point of walking out of school with her one day when he was picking her up.

Even more shocked when I was approached at 9 months pregnant. Apparently some men have a fetish for heavily pregnant women.

"There are over 11 million people in the UK with a criminal record.3 Research4 shows that 1 in 3 men have a criminal record. Of those men with a criminal record, just over half of these had been convicted on only one occasion, and 85% were convicted before they were 30 years old."

Source https://www.ucas.com/file/189506/download?token=NOONtzwa

"Data from the Ministry of Justice shows that 27% of working-age adults have a criminal conviction. This increases to 33% when just looking at men.:

Source https://www.personnelchecks.co.uk/latest-news/criminal-record-checks-increasing

Just a couple of examples. It's quite frightening to think about but not all convictions are violent of course.

I think the statistic I find most eye opening and tragic for all involved is that a third of all child sexual abuse is committed by other children. They are mostly mirroring something done to them by others. It's fucking heartbreaking.