>If there was a child molester in your neighborhood in the 1960s, there wouldn't be as soon as anyone found out (they likely would become deceased rapidly one way or another).
Actually, I suspect it's far more the opposite. We're much more sensitive to this stuff now than in the 60's or even the 80's.
I've given this example here before, but I'll repeat it. Last year, I watched the first season of HIll Street Blues, made in about 1981. One of the story arcs was about a city councilman found to be keeping a 15-year-old girl in an apartment. The story was about how awful it was he cheated on his wife, and so forth. Hardly a word about the fact that the girl was underage. No labelling the guy a sex offender, or putting him in jail for it. Now I understand this was fiction, but compare that to the way the same story would be told (and is told regularly on the cop shows) today.
I can't get at this whole book review, but the part excerpted here (
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2675635) seems to indicate that our attitude toward molestation has changed repeatedly in the last century.
Found the book itself (or parts of it, anyway):
http://books.google.com/books?id=g_wT9QQgu1IC&dq=child+molestation+1960's&pg=PP1&ots=IygbdmuZCd&source=citation&sig=hECK0mwRAOILM1T0KR4vk-NDmvw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=11&ct=result#PPP16,M1Again, reading a little indicates that the way we look at this today isn't the only way and may not be the right way.
Tamar
