[Huntress]

I hear you about the perverts. There were some when I was young, but nowhere to the degree there are now, and I think they locked them up or worse for a long time back then.

I wonder if there really is a higher proportion of perverts now than in the past. The perception is certainly there, but how much of it is because we constantly hear such stories in the media?

[ChildOfThe60s]

I wonder if there really is a higher proportion of perverts now than in the past. The perception is certainly there, but how much of it is because we constantly hear such stories in the media?

I have wondered that myself. Based on changes in information and communication technologies since I was a kid in late 50s, there probably was a lot more than we knew about. But I also think it is worse now.

[Grizzled Bear]

I wonder if there really is a higher proportion of perverts now than in the past.
___________________________________________________________

There were likely just as many people "inclined" to such behavior in the past. The difference is that there are more things to "feed" such inclinations today. In the past, few had access to the type of pornography available today. It was all but impossible to gain access anonymously. When you "feed" an inclination/obsession it grows.

Additionally; kids today are more likely to be unsupervised (single parent families, duel-income households, etc). Back in the day; children rarely went home to an empty house. The result is easier targets.

Things still happened back then. However, when a dirt bag was caught they rarely had an opportunity to transgress again.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I wonder if there really is a higher proportion of perverts now than in the past. The perception is certainly there, but how much of it is because we constantly hear such stories in the media?

Two things to help you sort through the past and present. There were once a lot of nuts locked up in Asylums. Then came psychopharmaceuticals and the movement to empty the Asylums (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) in the 1980's. The other change can be see in old photographs of main street photos. Before the 1960's, storefronts had no security grilles. After the 1960's most did. Liberalism created a revolving door where criminals had to build up lengthy records in order to get a room in prison.