Thursday, October 16, 2003 |
A little controversial today
Jumping on the sexual abuse bandwagon
Let me start this off by saying that any form of abuse, particularly sexual abuse is totally abhorrent. The perpetrators of these offences are not only committing a crime against an individual but at society in general.
There is however another particularly nasty aspect to sexual abuse. The fact that anyone accused of such a crime is presumed guilty until proven innocent.
This is further exacerbated by the nature of these crimes usually being committed in places far from public view and possible witnesses. Where as a rape case can sometimes be very easily proved with physical and DNA evidence, other forms of sexual abuse such as those accused of Australian Swimming Coach Greg Hodge, are very hard to prove or disprove as the case may be.
Another illustration of this can be seen in Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign to become Governor of California.
In this case the charges of sexual abuse levelled against him were used as a weapon. There is no other way to describe they way and the timing these in which these accusations were laid.
Arnold has been a very rich man for a long time but no one came forward with anything until he decided to run for office.
These claims obviously had two purposes. Firstly to hinder his chances in the election. Secondly fame and or personal gain by writing a book (or having it ghost written) about the "ordeal" and also selling the exclusive story to tabloids and their television counterparts, Current Affairs shows.
What is common to both Greg Hodge and Arnie's situation is that after seeing how much attention the first accuser achieved with a well timed "tell all story", other people start to jump on the band wagon suddenly recalling past instances of abuse that had laid dormant for lo these many years.
High profile people, Politicians, Entertainers and a number of professions like Teaching, Doctors and Child Care etc are particularly vulnerable to attacks such as these because the mud when thrown by a vindictive assailant sticks very easily. Especially when in the case of Greg Hodge, certain parts of the media are in there throwing handfuls of it as well.
Jumping on the sexual abuse bandwagon
Let me start this off by saying that any form of abuse, particularly sexual abuse is totally abhorrent. The perpetrators of these offences are not only committing a crime against an individual but at society in general.
There is however another particularly nasty aspect to sexual abuse. The fact that anyone accused of such a crime is presumed guilty until proven innocent.
This is further exacerbated by the nature of these crimes usually being committed in places far from public view and possible witnesses. Where as a rape case can sometimes be very easily proved with physical and DNA evidence, other forms of sexual abuse such as those accused of Australian Swimming Coach Greg Hodge, are very hard to prove or disprove as the case may be.
Another illustration of this can be seen in Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign to become Governor of California.
In this case the charges of sexual abuse levelled against him were used as a weapon. There is no other way to describe they way and the timing these in which these accusations were laid.
Arnold has been a very rich man for a long time but no one came forward with anything until he decided to run for office.
These claims obviously had two purposes. Firstly to hinder his chances in the election. Secondly fame and or personal gain by writing a book (or having it ghost written) about the "ordeal" and also selling the exclusive story to tabloids and their television counterparts, Current Affairs shows.
What is common to both Greg Hodge and Arnie's situation is that after seeing how much attention the first accuser achieved with a well timed "tell all story", other people start to jump on the band wagon suddenly recalling past instances of abuse that had laid dormant for lo these many years.
High profile people, Politicians, Entertainers and a number of professions like Teaching, Doctors and Child Care etc are particularly vulnerable to attacks such as these because the mud when thrown by a vindictive assailant sticks very easily. Especially when in the case of Greg Hodge, certain parts of the media are in there throwing handfuls of it as well.
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