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What are 'moral panics'?
This document will examine not only the essence and origin of the term 'moral panic' but the very important nature of the media's involvement in the whole process of creating a 'moral panic'.
"More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless, folk devils will be created. This is not because such developments have an inexorable inner logic, but because our society as present structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members ... and then condemn whatever solution these groups find."
This document will examine not only the essence and origin of the term 'moral panic' but the very important nature of the media's involvement in the whole process of creating a 'moral panic'.
"More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless, folk devils will be created. This is not because such developments have an inexorable inner logic, but because our society as present structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members ... and then condemn whatever solution these groups find."
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What is doxxing (with examples) and how do you avoid it,
Mar 05 2018
Doxxing (also written as “doxing”) is an online threat to your privacy. Although this fad has been around in the hacker community since the 1990s, it is now become a major threat to anyone who uses the internet.
Doxxing involves researching the details of people’s lives. The purpose of this practice is either to expose that person to legal prosecution, to embarrass the victim, to draw criticism towards that person, or to cause them physical harm.
People’s lives have been ruined by doxxing. Some doxxing attacks lead to a mass campaign of public shaming, the online equivalent of mobbing. The effects can cause people to lose their jobs, their families, and even their homes. Targets of major doxxing attacks have been forced into hiding and have had to delete all of their online accounts and change their identities.
So, let’s find out more about doxxing and how to avoid it.
Doxxing (also written as “doxing”) is an online threat to your privacy. Although this fad has been around in the hacker community since the 1990s, it is now become a major threat to anyone who uses the internet.
Doxxing involves researching the details of people’s lives. The purpose of this practice is either to expose that person to legal prosecution, to embarrass the victim, to draw criticism towards that person, or to cause them physical harm.
People’s lives have been ruined by doxxing. Some doxxing attacks lead to a mass campaign of public shaming, the online equivalent of mobbing. The effects can cause people to lose their jobs, their families, and even their homes. Targets of major doxxing attacks have been forced into hiding and have had to delete all of their online accounts and change their identities.
So, let’s find out more about doxxing and how to avoid it.
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Whatever happened to false memory syndrome?
False memory syndrome, where therapists encourage patients in the mistaken belief that they were abused as children, may have been exposed. But the dangerous assumptions behind the quest for repressed memories have yet to be challenged, says Jennie Bristow. [...]
Recovered memory therapy took off at a time when society was becoming increasingly concerned about the prevalence of child abuse, particularly within the family, and the lasting effect of such abuse on its victims. [...]
From the widely accepted notion that the childhood experience of abuse can explain your problems in later life, it was only a small jump to the recovery of false memories.
False memory syndrome, where therapists encourage patients in the mistaken belief that they were abused as children, may have been exposed. But the dangerous assumptions behind the quest for repressed memories have yet to be challenged, says Jennie Bristow. [...]
Recovered memory therapy took off at a time when society was becoming increasingly concerned about the prevalence of child abuse, particularly within the family, and the lasting effect of such abuse on its victims. [...]
From the widely accepted notion that the childhood experience of abuse can explain your problems in later life, it was only a small jump to the recovery of false memories.
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Who needs repression?;
The Science Review of Mental health Practice, Vol. 4, Number 2, Fall-winter 2005-2006, pp 66 - 73. ,
Dec 01 2005
Who needs repression? Normal memory processes can explain 'forgetting' of childhood sexual abuse
Conclusions in short:
(1) CSA is not necessarily traumatic at the time it occurs,
(2) CSA can be forgotten via normal forgetting mechanisms, and
(3) it may be the retrospective interpretation of the event, rather than the event itself, that mediates its subsequent impact.
This article is in Ipce's Library 3 (because of the dubble frame needed for text and references) - here is the abstract and a link to the article.
Who needs repression? Normal memory processes can explain 'forgetting' of childhood sexual abuse
Conclusions in short:
(1) CSA is not necessarily traumatic at the time it occurs,
(2) CSA can be forgotten via normal forgetting mechanisms, and
(3) it may be the retrospective interpretation of the event, rather than the event itself, that mediates its subsequent impact.
This article is in Ipce's Library 3 (because of the dubble frame needed for text and references) - here is the abstract and a link to the article.
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Will "revolutionary" Diana Screen End Pedophile Menace?
Anxious to mend its reputation and plug the money drain, the Vatican just announced a new fix: Candidates for the priesthood will undergo psychological screening to determine their suitability for the job. Painting a pseudo-scientific veneer on the campaign, the Vatican said "expert" psychologists will screen select candidates on a case-by-case basis.
Gene Abel is a psychiatrist who invented the controversial Abel Screen, which measures sexual proclivities based on how long men look at visual images of different types of models. Abel is promoting a new "pass/fail" test called the Diana Screen as a "breakthrough in technology" that can accurately identify men who have molested children.
In the blogosphere I bumped into a group of sex offenders discussing how easy it is to beat the test.
The author finds a false positive rate of at least 50 percent. Even if it is just a screening test, psychologists should be cautious in administering a test with such a high false-positive rate and no published, peer-reviewed data on its reliability or validity.
More fundamentally, this type of testing raises philosophical issues about how far society should go in the name of protecting children, especially when most victimization is done not by teachers or amusement park workers but by family members.
Anxious to mend its reputation and plug the money drain, the Vatican just announced a new fix: Candidates for the priesthood will undergo psychological screening to determine their suitability for the job. Painting a pseudo-scientific veneer on the campaign, the Vatican said "expert" psychologists will screen select candidates on a case-by-case basis.
Gene Abel is a psychiatrist who invented the controversial Abel Screen, which measures sexual proclivities based on how long men look at visual images of different types of models. Abel is promoting a new "pass/fail" test called the Diana Screen as a "breakthrough in technology" that can accurately identify men who have molested children.
In the blogosphere I bumped into a group of sex offenders discussing how easy it is to beat the test.
The author finds a false positive rate of at least 50 percent. Even if it is just a screening test, psychologists should be cautious in administering a test with such a high false-positive rate and no published, peer-reviewed data on its reliability or validity.
More fundamentally, this type of testing raises philosophical issues about how far society should go in the name of protecting children, especially when most victimization is done not by teachers or amusement park workers but by family members.
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The Witch-Burning of Abgail Simon
On Nov. 26, [2014 ?] in Grand Rapids, MI, Abigail (a former tutor at a Catholic high school) was convicted at trial of three counts of
- "first-degree criminal sexual conduct," a felony with a maximum sentence of 25-years to life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 8-25 years,
- for allegedly having sex with a student who she claimed was not only the aggressor in their sexual intrigue but also forced himself on her 3 times; and
- also the felony of "accosting a minor for immoral purposes" for exchanging hundreds of emails and text-messages with her "victim," a 6'3", 220 lb. biological man of 15 and football star who initially confessed to the authorities and also testified under oath at a pretrial hearing that Abigail's version of what occurred was true but later recanted and claimed not only that he didn't force himself on her but also that she was the initiator of their liaison and controlled the action and relationship. [...]
On Jan. 14, 2015, the judge was "merciful," imposing the mandatory-minimum sentence of "only" 8-25 years in prison. [...]
He didn't have the discretion to impose a sane and "just" and condign and rational sentence. [...]
Even if he had such discretion, however, he probably would have sentenced her to 4-6 years in prison if not longer rather than "only" 6-12 months in jail or 1-2 years in prison, knowing the hysteria and outrage such "leniency" would incite not only in Grand Rapids and Michigan but nationwide [...].
On Nov. 26, [2014 ?] in Grand Rapids, MI, Abigail (a former tutor at a Catholic high school) was convicted at trial of three counts of
- "first-degree criminal sexual conduct," a felony with a maximum sentence of 25-years to life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 8-25 years,
- for allegedly having sex with a student who she claimed was not only the aggressor in their sexual intrigue but also forced himself on her 3 times; and
- also the felony of "accosting a minor for immoral purposes" for exchanging hundreds of emails and text-messages with her "victim," a 6'3", 220 lb. biological man of 15 and football star who initially confessed to the authorities and also testified under oath at a pretrial hearing that Abigail's version of what occurred was true but later recanted and claimed not only that he didn't force himself on her but also that she was the initiator of their liaison and controlled the action and relationship. [...]
On Jan. 14, 2015, the judge was "merciful," imposing the mandatory-minimum sentence of "only" 8-25 years in prison. [...]
He didn't have the discretion to impose a sane and "just" and condign and rational sentence. [...]
Even if he had such discretion, however, he probably would have sentenced her to 4-6 years in prison if not longer rather than "only" 6-12 months in jail or 1-2 years in prison, knowing the hysteria and outrage such "leniency" would incite not only in Grand Rapids and Michigan but nationwide [...].
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Woman as 'Rapists'
"The male can rape the female, the female cannot rape the male," so wrote Diana Trilling long ago. Her point is that rape entails not only the use of violence/force or threats of same to compel the submission of a victim but also the penile violation/penetration of the victim by the assailant.
For obvious anatomical reasons, woman can't rape anyone, male or female, in the pure and literal sense of the word. But we now live in a society in which adult women are vilified as "rapists" for allowing biological men under age 18 to penetrate them in factually consensual relationships, a grotesque and ludicrous perversion of language used to distort and invert reality for ideological, political, economic, moral, and personal reasons.
"The male can rape the female, the female cannot rape the male," so wrote Diana Trilling long ago. Her point is that rape entails not only the use of violence/force or threats of same to compel the submission of a victim but also the penile violation/penetration of the victim by the assailant.
For obvious anatomical reasons, woman can't rape anyone, male or female, in the pure and literal sense of the word. But we now live in a society in which adult women are vilified as "rapists" for allowing biological men under age 18 to penetrate them in factually consensual relationships, a grotesque and ludicrous perversion of language used to distort and invert reality for ideological, political, economic, moral, and personal reasons.
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Zero Tolerance For Six Year Old Predators,
Apr 27 2008
Critic column about a news item that told that a six year young child is branded as a "sex offender".
Critic column about a news item that told that a six year young child is branded as a "sex offender".