I happened to come across the article by Krispin St Pierre on the above subject which attracts these days more and more sensational reporting. While I support action by the authorities to root out the genuine criminals targeting children, I would question the wisdom of offering the public the following extrapolation:

“Although all socio-economic groups contain paedophiles, as do all occupations, certain ones are favourites, such as school and foundation volunteers, teachers, clerics, policemen and missionaries, again another prime example being from Pattaya. These positions put them in the ideal situation because they firstly, gain the trust of their victims and secondly, rely on their personas as authority figures, making resistance difficult, particularly in societies where respect for authority is highly regarded.”

The word ‘paedophile’ is itself much-abused, since the original meaning does not necessarily imply sexual molestation but rather the capacity to love or engage with a child or young person. The professions referred to above depend for their effectiveness and good standards on attracting people with a genuine love for children and the desire to help them on many levels. Media exposure means that the occasional lapsed character hits the headlines, even to the extent that the reporting can give the impression of a prevalence of potential abusers among teachers, clerics etc. Today it seems the public are conditioned by the extent of news ‘paranoia’ to swallow even such a distorted version of adult-child relations of the kind that your reporter chooses not to acknowledge.

This is dangerous, not only for those falsely accused of improprieties, but for children who might otherwise learn much from those who care for them. I hope Mr Krispin S.P. will take account of this and endeavor to make clear distinctions in his arguments.

Yours sincerely

(This is a readers email sent to the PDN team)

Pedophile Rapists win big at the Supreme Court
By James R. Marsh on June 25, 2008 8:24 PM | 13 Comments |
Today the United States Supreme Court issued the long awaited decision in the Kennedy v. Louisiana death penalty case discussed earlier this year. The Court held that the Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death.

In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Kennedy, the Court found that there is a “national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape” and that “the small number of States that have enacted the death penalty for child rape is relevant to determining whether there is a consensus against capital punishment for the rape of a child.”

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Pattaya_News: [PDN] Thailand Child-Sex Ring Run By Monk Busted in Chiang Mai http://bit.ly/92OOKk...