Charity begins at Chillington Hall
Every once in a while you come across statistics which make you stop and think. I recently had the pleasure of attending a charity ball at Chillington Hall in Staffordshire in aid of the NSPCC. It was organised by my boss' wife Reena and it was at her behest, but certainly not unwillingly, that I attended. We wined, we dined, we danced and we spent ridiculous amounts of money in an auction and, in total, over £20,000 were raised. On the back of the programme were some interesting, if rather disheartening statistics:
That last one's the real kicker. 25% of all rapes. Children under 16. Maybe I should rephrase it for you:
It doesn't take a genius to work out that there's something very wrong with that. I find it almost impossible to comprehend. I'm no great fan of children, generally, but the thought of even hitting one, let alone anything worse, simply doesn't enter my head. I see a cute kid and I think 'cute kid', not 'mmmmm'. Because children are not, and should never be, sexual beings. We can try to blame 'hollywood' for dangling attractive youngsters in front of our eyes. We can try to blame Top Shop for selling 'slutty' clothing to young teenage girls. But really...we can only truly blame the people who, through whatever synaptic misfiring, can not keep themselves to themselves in a law abiding manner.
If this post has put a downer on your day then I make no apology. I know some people don't want to hear this and would prefer to shut it out and pretend it didn't exist. I also understand that there are many terrible wrongs committed on a minutely basis here and around the world. Just...you know...this seemed heavily towards the 'most wrong' section of my moral compass and I hope it does on yours. Thank you for reading.
[1] A quick check on crimestatistics.org.uk shows a total of 12,861 recorded crimes in the 'rape of a female' category between April 2004 and March 2005. 25% of that is 3215 which equates to almost nine per day. This is distinct from 'sexual assault on a female' and, I assume, rape against males comes under the 'other sexual offences' section.
- 1 child each week will be killed by their parent or carer
- 6% of children grow up feeling unloved because of emotional abuse
- 31% of children experience bullying during childhood
- 25% of all rapes recorded by the police are committed against children under 16 years of age
That last one's the real kicker. 25% of all rapes. Children under 16. Maybe I should rephrase it for you:
- Nine times per day someone in England and Wales decides it's a good idea to force a female child to have sexual intercourse.[1]
It doesn't take a genius to work out that there's something very wrong with that. I find it almost impossible to comprehend. I'm no great fan of children, generally, but the thought of even hitting one, let alone anything worse, simply doesn't enter my head. I see a cute kid and I think 'cute kid', not 'mmmmm'. Because children are not, and should never be, sexual beings. We can try to blame 'hollywood' for dangling attractive youngsters in front of our eyes. We can try to blame Top Shop for selling 'slutty' clothing to young teenage girls. But really...we can only truly blame the people who, through whatever synaptic misfiring, can not keep themselves to themselves in a law abiding manner.
If this post has put a downer on your day then I make no apology. I know some people don't want to hear this and would prefer to shut it out and pretend it didn't exist. I also understand that there are many terrible wrongs committed on a minutely basis here and around the world. Just...you know...this seemed heavily towards the 'most wrong' section of my moral compass and I hope it does on yours. Thank you for reading.
[1] A quick check on crimestatistics.org.uk shows a total of 12,861 recorded crimes in the 'rape of a female' category between April 2004 and March 2005. 25% of that is 3215 which equates to almost nine per day. This is distinct from 'sexual assault on a female' and, I assume, rape against males comes under the 'other sexual offences' section.