Dumbledore's nonintervention at the Dursleys, was Re: Bad Writing? (was: JKR and the boys)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 163098


> Magpie:
. More than one book has featured scenes where the Dursleys 
> are intimidated into better behavior by the mere hint of Wizard 
> interference.

Pippin:
Counterbalanced by scenes in which the mere hint of
Wizard interference makes things even worse. If the MHOWI
gets Harry a decent bedroom, it also gets Harry locked into
said bedroom with bars on the windows and starvation rations.

There's something  imperialist about the hope that the great 
white wizard father will use his mighty powers to make those 
savage non-believers behave. One suspects such an intervention
would be no more successful that Hermione's attempts to 
liberate the House Elves.

 Nor does there seem to be a lot of evidence
from the real world that punitive measures against child
abusers work. I'm no expert, but it seems that some
studies show that families with unconfirmed incidents of
child abuse and families with confirmed incidents of child
abuse re-enter the system at about the same rate. In other
words, the imposition of  consequences hasn't been 
shown to reduce the number of repeated incidents.

What is thought to work is reducing the risk factors, and
it's hard to see how punishment could accomplish that
in the Dursleys' case. It  wouldn't increase their feeble
 parenting skills or force them to bond with Harry. 

A number of risk factors would be with Harry where ever
he went. He's an orphan, the victim of a violent crime, a
walking war zone, and his abilities are freakish even from
a wizard's point of view. Those things would put a 
strain on any family, and punishments wouldn't change them
either.


Pippin