A few more observations on sex offenders, a topic that is very much in the public eye at the moment. Yesterday I watched #FourLives. Stephen Merchant was excellent as Port, a very limited and mediocre man, yet one who still ran rings around the ineptitude of the authorities.
Making society safer and preventing victims not only includes the need for resources, but also requires a comprehensive understanding of accurate offense patterns and risk. Who victims are, how offenders act. A great deal is now digital, or has links to.
Offenders will take steps to cover their tracks, they will not willingly face justice, they will lie, manipulate, mislead. What wasn't shown in #FourLives is Port used friends abroad of one victim to stay informed about how police were investigation was progressing.
Now Port was a fairly limited man, he did not have several degrees up to PhD. He is no Matthew Falder, whose PhD thsesis 'Seismic imaging of thermohlaine structure in the Atlantic Ocean' is in the repository of Cambridge University.
Or there is Ian Watkins, former singer of the Lost Prophets, who is still making significant royalties from music, and has already notched up a conviction for possession of a mobile phone in custody. I understand the authorities needed GCHQs help on his online passwords.
These men will be being locked up with those involved in other significant forms of violent and sexually violent criminality. Drug dealers and importers violent gang members rape and sexually assault people. What of the links between terrorists and DV and Sexual Violence too.
If you have seen Layer Cake, the armed robbers and the pot importers coming together. That is happening now with digital offenders, terrorists and sex offenders in #Prison and high security estate. Protection and VP status is not like it used to be. The world is changing quickly.
That is before we get near to elites like Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein and 'tThe other men' who have massive resources and protection. This also shows that sex offending has been globalised and crossing national borders for quite some time.
In Great Britain it's only in recent years that sexual crime has been positioned into the Serious Organised Crime threat. It still isn't widely recognised sexual crime is often organised crime, as academics tend to equate the crime part here, with a narrow financial motivation.
But what sex offenders have in common, so often is that they exploit vulnerability, any vulnerability. To them they see any weakness as opportunity. They see boundaries, rules and restrictions as a barrier, but merely there to be overcome.
The path to hell is paved with good intention; the naive and kindly are often easier to exploit. It's also easy when you convince people you are not a threat. it's stigma, a moral panic, a non existent threat, a predudice of others. That is grooming and conditioning right there.
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