Interview — Ryan Shields
Added 2024-09-10 02:23:48 +0000 UTCContent Warning - CSA
Ryan Shields is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at UMass Lowell, approaching criminal justice issues from a public health point of view.
I asked him to walk me through the research on child sex abuse and how to prevent it—as opposed to the concepts put forth in To Catch a Predator.
This was the second conversation we had (first was off the record), but you'll hear me reference it a few times. It's a fairly statistics and research based conversation, but be aware of the topic we're discussing before listening.
Comments
thank you for sharing
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2024-10-01 21:21:29 +0000 UTCI absolutely agree with you. giving children the tools to recognize abuse and gain agency in their own lives is something that also undermines the conservative authoritarian worldview (I don't just mean dictators when I say that, I mean any imposed hierarchy like the ones you laid out). However, I do think that most people are reachable on this idea of actually preventing abuse, because I think that human empathy towards children is just too hard-wired into us to ignore
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2024-10-01 21:20:36 +0000 UTCI think a large part of the reason that conservatives don't push prevention over punishment goes beyond the commonly brought up easy answers -- religious emphasis on punishment, emotional satisfaction of punishment, they don't really care about children, and such -- and goes into something more complex. Teaching children the sorts of things that would make them less vulnerable to sexual manipulation also makes them less vulnerable to the sorts of religious and social manipulation that are inherent to conservative culture. Rigid social hierarchies, unquestioning obedience, near-absolute respect for authority figures, children lacking individual agency, victim-blaming, childhood innocence (aka ignorance), and so on. The principles inherent to the conservative worldview also make children in particular vulnerable to manipulation, and less likely to inform adults if they are abused. Bodily autonomy, strong sense of self-worth, critical thinking, sexual education, general education... all these things that give children the ability to recognize when they're being abused, and more likely to report abuse, are at odds with the type of person that conservatives, and particularly conservative authorities, want children to be.
BatwingCandlewaxxe
2024-09-11 00:47:47 +0000 UTCEye opening. I don't think much about other minors contributing to sexual abuse even though I've known people who've experienced such things. Fortunately, I was never victimized as a minor, but I two adult men attempted to groom me, my piano teacher and my swim coach. I can't explain how I avoided abuse, maybe it was mere luck.
Jacob Palmer
2024-09-10 18:53:31 +0000 UTC
