[HPFGU-OTChatter] OT: Concert Etiquette

[Kathryn Cawte]

Laura
> Actually, what you've said is sort of an urban myth, much like the idea
> that men are *always* getting wrongly accused (and convicted) of rape
> by women who are just looking for revenge or attention or
> what-have-you.  I know several people who work in therapy and child
> services and they say it is almost *impossible* to convict an adult of
> child abuse.
>

K

Well I don't know what it's like in the States but in the UK it's not all
that difficult to have your kids taken away and fostered (or worse
adopted) - the standard of proof is much lower than in an actual criminal
case and if the court actually admits it's made a mistake? Well then of
course the children's welfare is paramount - which means that if they've
been living with a foster family for a long time or were very young when
they were taken away then you won't get them back - and if they've been
adopted then it's impossible to get them back, as myriad families are now
finding out in the UK. Any cases where controversial medical evidence is the
only evidence is now being reconsidered (except where the children have been
adopted) - in some cases the evidence went something like this 'we admit we
don't know how the child was harmed/died, therefore we're going to assume it
was child abuse unless someone can prover otherwise' .... I know that's
somewhat different from smacking a child but since the standard of proof is
the main problem it does illustrate the point quite well.

Fortunately smacking is legal in the UK so it's more difficult to lose the
children over reasonable chastisement

It is however *bloody* difficult to get anyone convicted of rape as a recent
set of figures giving the percentage of reported cases prosecuted (very low)
and the percentage of those leading to a conviction (also incredibly low)
showed.


Laura

> That said, in my experience, if Bumbledor had turned around and told
> the offending teens to watch their language (or even said something
> much stronger), NO ONE would have batted an eyelash.  No one.  Whether
> the teens would have listened to him/her would have depended on whether
> they were actually nice people (who were just conforming to the social
> norms in their highschool) or if they actually didn't care if they were
> bothering other people.
>

K

In mine he/she would have been verbally abused by the teens and possibly
their parents (assuming the parents were with them which is probably
unlikely)

K