[1] Introduction to the Study
         Table 1 - Pedophilia - Issues for Deviance Theorists
[2] Theoretical Background
         Table 2 - Labelling, Strain & Neo-Classical Perspectives
         Table 3 - Perspectives on Affluent Pedophilia
[3] Methodology
         Table 4 - Questions to be Resolved in this Case Study
         Table 5 - Preliminary Propositions - Strain, Stigma & Most Deviant Status
[4] Results by Putative Conditions of Strain-Stigma Model
         Table 6 - Research Conditions for Attribution of MDS to Affluent Pedophilia
     Condition 1 *Marginalisation
     Condition 2 *Increased Participation in Consumerist Ideology
     Condition 3 *Decreased Attachment to Conventional Norms
     Condition 4 *Erosion of Stoic Subculture & Values
     Condition 5 *Opportunistic Blocks to Socialised Sexuality
     Condition 6 *Stigmatisation & Deviant Social Identity
     Condition 7 *Increased Incidence & Reporting
     Condition 8 *Social Strain / Rapid Social Change
     Condition 9 *Ambivalent Perception of Affluence
[5] Conclusions
     Finding 1 - Non-rational conditions persuasive for initial orientation
     Finding 2 - Recidivism reflects social identity not susceptible to classical repression
     Finding 3 - Strain-stigma-pedophilia nexus highly plausible but inconclusive
     Finding 4 - Most Deviant Status of Affluent Pedophilia related to strain-stigma
Limitations & Directions for Future Research
Ramifications (1)
Appendices
        A   - SMH Headlines & Cited Articles: Examples & Typology of Stigma
        B   - Diagrammatic Overview >> Strain-Stigma & Marginalisation
        B2 - Dynamic Relations of Conditions (Detailed) >> Strain-Stigma Model
        C   - Normalisation versus Stigmatisation: Gadjusak Case, 1996 (UK)
References
Postscript & Dedication: Some Further Ramifications (2) & Re-assessments
Citation Note
 

Bibliographical Citation

NEWMAN, C.A.   (1999).  On affluent pedophilia and most deviant status: case of Philip Harold Bell [a comparison of the efficacy of strain and neo-classical models infused by aspects of labelling, existential and conflict-structural theories of crime].  University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W. [Dept. of Sociology, School of Social Science: SOCY-324-8].

Go to Campbell Newman (Other Published Works)...

INTRODUCTION

The most reported deviant act in the Sydney mass media over the years 1996 to early 1999 was the pedophilia of Philip Harold Bell, with over 149 articles refering stigmatically to the behaviour over this period in the Sydney Morning Herald alone, 138 of them prior to or during his trial on sexual abuse charges.  The stigmatic content and impact of these articles were 'extremely prejudicial' according to three Supreme Court judges (Spigelman, CJ, 1998: CCA 60582/98, NSWSC 570).  Despite this finding, no judicial action was taken against the papers for contempt of legal process, incidentally confirming judicial legislation that media reporting is incapable of being contemptuous if the trial judge merely alerts the jury to the risk of prejudice (ibid.).  The number, force and imperviousness to judicial correction of the stigmatising articles argue that sexual contact between an adult male and consenting adolescent males did confer during this period a 'most deviant status' to Bell's behaviour.  Relative absence of public outrage in response to a female teacher indicted of carnal relations with an adolescent boy in Perth (WASC, 1998), and similarly to many instances of pedophilia involving other socio-economic classes of various ages and ethnicities, argue that two salient features of the Bell case were his affluence and gender, after discounting notoriety since he did not otherwise have a high social profile.

This paper examines 'most deviant status' from the opposed perspectives of strain and neo-classical (or 'soft' rationalist) theories, infused by labelling, existential and conflict structural models as required.   Whilst a modified strain theory is well suited for extension to the phenomenon of affluent deviance, it is also apparent that the 'most deviant status' of affluent pedophilia calls for some complex modelling.  Conflict structural approaches are of special interest, since they predict marginalisation of remnant patrician classes and deviant behaviour as a result of goal contradiction.  However, conflict analysis is neither consistent nor does it offer a specific explication of affluent pedophilia.  On the contrary, for the Marxist theorist 'most deviant status' is predicted to be assigned rather on the basis of power to confer it along class lines, with affluence an unlikely deviance candidate (Chambliss, in Haralambos, 1980: 441).   Meanwhile the neo-classical model, arguably the most distinct from strain theory, is superficially even less satisfying in accounting for affluent pedophilia.  Here the status quo model of the courts and media continues to use a radically rationalist model of sexual abuse, informed in the absence of a coherent structural model in the public domain.  Hence neo-classical partisans may attribute 'most deviant status' to pedophilia, despite strong evidence suggesting that their own model would be more consistent to seek extreme rational intent in less structurally informed behaviours.   Below are summarised some emerging features of pedophilia in terms of dominant theoretical issues (Table 1).

________________________________________________________________

Table 1.   Pedophilia and problems for deviance perspectives.

   1) Pedophilia is notoriously difficult to change through retributive punishment and there is a high rate of recidivism, the implication being that it is mostly outside classical theory (James, 1997; Loane/SMH, 1996: 29; Nathanson, 1989: 388;  Radzinowicz, 1948: 162; Volk & Bernard, 1986: 358-63) ;
   2) Treatment regimes relying on positive factors such as psychological conditioning are problematic and beg the question of deep causation (*), however social learning theory remains relevant since differential association and past exposure as a 'victim' of pedophilia have both been shown to be predictive (Bandura, 1986, in Cloninger, 1993: 385ff.; Nathanson, 1989: 388; Van der Kolk, 1989: 389-412; Cloward, 1994 [1959] : 153) [*NB- successful psycho-biological treatments do not imply motivational alteration at a deeper or sociological level of causation]  ;
   3) Modernisation is not an obvious factor since pedophilia has been an aspect of many different cultures at many different times (Gregerson, 1984: 24, 31-2, 162, 256, 272-3) [however, profound economic shifts which may be characterised as 'modernisations' have characterised other epochs and localities] ;
   4) There is a prima facie case in the anecdotal evidence that class factors are involved relating pedophilia to deviation from the middle class (up or down), pedophiles being more likely to come from low or high socioeconomic backgrounds irrespective of culture (ibid.): this may suggest loosening of conventional bonds at the perimeters of social experience, evidence for control or, more saliently, for strain (Lampe & Byrne/SMH, 1996: 1, 7; Merton, 1994 [1967-8] : 114-148; Cloward, 1994 [1959]: 153; cf. Durkheim [1897] 1951: 254)
  [classic strain theory will, however, require modification to account for upper class pedophilia, a modification suggested later in this paper]  ;
   5) Pedophilia exists at a high level of social functioning as well as at low levels, in other words it does not discriminate between adult perpetrators on the basis of obvious general prospects or talent (James, 1997; Bearup & Brown/SMH, 1996: 19).
________________________________________________________________
 

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
________________________________________________________________

Table 2
Labelling, Strain & Neo-Classical perspectives on Deviance
 
 

Issue	Labelling	Strain	Neo-Classical
Deviance   e.g. Pedophilia .	[Secondary deviance] conferred by those who have power to label	Natural violation of consensus or social contract  .	Violation of norms, rights .  .
Cause	Stigmatisation & negative effects of labelling [Primary deviance is related to other causes]	Strain between social goals & legitimate opportunity structures; low level of social connections /conditioning	Rational choice [highly influenced by irrational decisions, mental & social constraints, stigma &c]  .
Character	Determined by labelling process; some voluntary input in interactive negotiation of label	Determined by social structure, locus in it, & marginalisation;  opportunistic, learned, unsocialised	Often voluntaristic, partly determined by circumstances [structural & environmental], individual differences
Response	Diversion from formal system; [normalisation]	Provide opportunity, alter circumstances to reduce strain;  resocialise deviant	Punishment- must be proportional, certain [i.e. fixed, determinate, limited] & prompt [+ some rehabilitation]
Prevention	Decriminalisation & radical non-intervention	Social policy, providing adequate opportunity, social reconditioning	Deterrence [& isolation] [+ rehabilitation, welfare & structural changes]
Justice	Tolerance, minimal intervention	Rehabilitation, education, reintegrative social programmes	Rule of law, legal-philosophical approach a priori principles

________________________________________________________________
(Sources: Cunneen & White, 1995: 45, 66; Vold & Bernard, 1987: 20-34)
 

 Back to top of Page...
 

Elevation of affluent pedophilia to 'most deviant status' can only be analysed by relating the phenomenon to its social perception.  This can be done either in a deterministic or a rationalistic way, and the best representatives of the two basic perspectives need to be compared.   Studies of extra-familial pedophilia have tended to focus on evidence for intentionality and responsibility over determinism, discounting context, whether interactive, structural or psycho-biological.  Less stridently, neo-classical and control theorists claim that reasons for adult-child sex are at least as important as the macro-structural landscape, whilst being constrained within it.  Why else does one individual in the same landscape, of the same social milieu, similar character and often similar history of past victimisation, deviate and another does not?  Structural studies are weak on these issues, whereas qualitative investigation is sensitive to variations in the meanings, beliefs and conscious focus underlying explicitly uttered reasons for behaviour.  The rational and neo-classical dimension of paraphilias cannot be overlooked, as it is presumably the focus of consciousness within a margin of freedom that finally explains why other family members subject to the same social environment and social history do not deviate.  Against this is the fact of recidivism in the face of classical retribution, suggesting higher positivistic content.

________________________________________________________________

Table 3
Labelling, Strain & Neo-Classical perspectives on Affluent Pedophilia
 
 

Issue	Labelling	Strain	Neo-Classical
Pedophilia	Interactively defined sexual preference; related to stigmatised sexual development  .	Structurally defined sexual priority, given blocked development of normal choices, dominant consumerist ideology	Rationally selected sexual perversion, with some deterministic & circumstantial context .
Affluent Pedophilia	Defined as normal behaviour in certain upper class deviant groups, e.g. schools .  .	Result of marginalisation, excessive consumerism; distance from restraining ideologies; conditioning in deviant subculture	Abhorrent voluntary behaviour, consciously chosen, with low level of positive causation .

________________________________________________________________

 Back to top of Page...

Deviant rationality is obviously highly circumscribed and limited, as even Braithwaite or Derrida, exponents of conservative and existential responsibility ethics respectively, have admitted.  For Braithwaite (1989) the structural variable is control, freedom being the subversive criminogenic property.  For Derrida (1982) conversely autonomy underlies authentic, non-needs based behaviour, whilst pathological behaviour is characterised as dependant on structure, in part due to false consciousness through the rationalisation of positive causes of one's behaviour (cf. also Matza [1964] in Braithwaite, 1989).  Both sides of rationalism would agree that rationality is restricted by stucturally determined psychosocial identity.  Pedophile recidivism argues strongly against purely rational accounts,  and for a mixed model where strain, (structural) control and stigma, rather than rational, malicious or negligent consciousness, are centre stage.

Affluent pedophiles may be talented individuals in their own sphere (e.g. Dunn an inventor, Bell an economist), contrary to some versions of strain theory.  However, there is a good case that their sexual behaviour deviates due to the character of their affluence in a particular kind of society.  Societies undergoing rapid change are characterised by strain, defined as the contradiction or lag between dynamic new individual goals, and traditional ethical ideology which provides the consensually sanctioned apparatus (the 'means') for achieving them (Cloward, 1994 [1959]: 149-51).   In the case of an ardently consumerist, capitalist society, in which materialism is coercive and persons are objectified, sex becomes a commodity goal instead of a natural aspect of life.  There is strain between traditional morality and sexual desire, inflamed by advertising and consumerist culture.   In reality there can rarely be satisfaction of these aspirations, merely an overwhelming social control by vastly increasing the puritan counterbalance of conventional morality.  However, this oppressive mechanism is limited in effectiveness to individuals well-socialised via membership of the conventional middle class.  At the outer extremes of poverty and affluence, conventional value socialisation is weak, due to separating economic and historical factors (Merton, [1968] 1994: 137; cf. Durkheim, [1897] 1951: 254).

The last quarter-century has been marked by global modernisation and acceleration of consumerism.   Cultural modernism, which implies a contractual and libertarian society, has been overtaken by post-modernism, refering to the dominance of mass culture over individual social identity, and the re-construction of a global culture from a collage of aspects evolved by mass media through the communication revolution.  The greatest strain in such a society is between 'consumerism' and weakened 'bourgeois humanism'.

Individuals located at the margins of society are furthest from the socialisation influences of the bourgeoisie.  Not only poverty, but extreme affluence locates individuals in strain, since affluence can no longer preserve its aristocratic or stoic value system in a bourgeois monoculture.   Strain predicts that the most deviant act will be that which is the most marginalised from bourgeois constraints whilst representing bourgeois aspirations in terms of consumerism.  Sexual exploitation represents the ultimate extension of an ideology of disposable and saleable commodities to persons.  As the affluent offender is more imbued with consumerism than the similarly marginalised from a background of poverty, affluent pedophilia is likely to be more deviant in terms of strain theory.

Conversely, whereas neo-classical theory is roughly equivalent to a 'common sense' position on sexual abuse, it is sophisticated enough to include contextual material drawn from other models including strain whilst offering a wider perspective.  It implies a psychophysical interaction between ultimately separable structural and rational worlds, that is, categorical freedom to invest energy or not in competing goals determined in the social world.  This implies [1] a 'searchlight theory of consciousness' (Popper & Eccles, 1983 [1977]: 471-478) at a mind-body interface;  and [2] a schedule of predatory and non-predatory goals which vie for attention.  On the other hand, conditioned cognitive learning according to stimulus-reflex criteria will determine the range of behavioural alternatives available for the rational actor to choose from.   Focus is constrained, for example by: (a) differential association,  (Sutherland, 1947, in Vold & Bernard, 1986: 210), such as upper class school subculture;  (b) strain (Merton, 1968), such as competing influences and marginalised opportunity for expression of conventional sexual identity;  (c) labelling (Lemert, 1972, in Haralambos, 1983: 432), such as negotiation of a pedophile identity through stigma;  or (d) structural conflict (Chambliss, 1975, in Rubington & Weinberg, 1995: 256-58), such as marginalised decadent pedophilic motivation through membership of a former, alienated ruling class, given contradictory goals of strong consumerism and weak bourgeois humanism in a period of rapid social change.

Whilst each of these features has empirical support, the neo-classical/common sense stance is that despite certain unreflective stimuli to deviance which may be explained by the social environment of the pedophile, a free, rational and moral choice to invest energy in one motive rather than another is nevertheless decisive (Popper & Eccles, 1983 [1977]: 471-8).  Moreover, in the case of the affluent deviant, no intellectual apparatus has evolved in the public domain to explain an interactive, welfare or political-economic deficit, and so by default a strongly rationalist model has been adopted.  This position comes under attack from both conflict and labelling perspectives, a radical responsibility model being cast as an example of the 'sociology  of knowledge', causally-enmeshed ideology dressed up as theory.

In media articles and court decisions, the absolute agency of the pedophile is assumed, and in respect of affluent deviance, a multiplier effect in the onlooker emerges when the two characteristics are crossed over.  This depositivising effect may derive from the overriding stigma of 'most deviant status'.  It does not augur well for changing structural conditions which might predispose the behaviour, and the rate of pedophile recidivism would seem to bear this out.  Labelling theory, best viewed as a partial theory of deviance (it does not offer an explanation of primary deviance), offers a powerful account of the negative operation of incarceration of deviants (Lemert, 1972).   Few would now argue that secondary deviance of pedophiles in response to the prison system is imaginary.  Strong stigma also implies that introjected deviant role assumption at a much earlier age is worthy of investigation as an intervening variable.

Another 'soft' rationalist model competing directly with strain theory is Braithwaite's version of control theory (1989) directly infused by aspects of strain whilst denying ultimate structural causation.  Unlike neo-classical theory, this model defines criminal deviance as a two-way interaction between blame-avoiding rationalisations for which the deviant is essentially responsible, and predominantly structural (control) features such as 'individualism' (egoism and anomie).

The criminal is seen as making choices - to commit crime, to join a

subculture, to adopt a deviant self-concept, to reintegrate herself, to respond to others' gestures of reintegration (1989:9) ,

 against a background of societal pressures mediated by shaming (ibid.).

 a network of attachments to conventional society (op.cit., 1989: 102).

If rational causes of pedophilia are only hypothetically free, since reasons result from ultimate psychophysical identity with structure, sexual abuse could finally be reduced to opportunity and individualism, a position close to strain theory, but with a more conservative political agenda, and ultimately non-rationalist.   Whereas the neo-classical model predicts the most deviant act to be one which exhibits the most malice or freedom whilst doing the most severe damage to the social consensus, control theory predicts it to be the most individualistic and innovative (in the structural-strain sense).  Affluent pedophilia prima facie demonstrates sexual narcissism and defects of socialisation that argue for control theory, but social enmeshment and often high levels of social functioning favour other models.  A network of attachments is often a striking feature, whilst relevant socialisation features may be linked to strain and stigma.
 

Back to top of Page...
 
 

METHODOLOGY

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the proposition that affluent pedophile offending was the most deviant behaviour in 1998.  Deviance will here be taken to signify

 those acts which do not follow the norms and expectations of a particular social group
 (Haralambos, 1983 [1980]: 406),

 not only deviate from society's norms and expectations but also from its values (ibid.).

________________________________________________________________

Table 4
The questions I will endeavour to answer are :

1___ In what way has affluent pedophilia, as illustrated in the case of Philip Harold Bell, achieved current 'most deviant status'  ?   What is the evidence for this status ?
2___ What theoretical understanding of deviant behaviour can best explain most deviant status attribution to affluent pedophilia ?  (Strain & secondary stigma as most pertinent, interacting conditions of both affluent pedophilia & attribution of 'most deviant status').
3___ What alternative dominant perspective competes with this understanding, and why is it less satisfying ?  (Neo-classical rationalist explanation of pedophilia; difficulty explaining unstable status).
4___ What is the relationship of incidence to status in respect of strain-stigma theory as contrasted with neo-classical theory ?
5___What are the relationships of affluence and pedophilia respectively to attribution of most deviant status ?
________________________________________________________________

Back to top of Page...
 

Based on data in 149 published articles in the Sydney Morning Herald (1996-1999), the study [1] postulates and tests the proposition that the Bell case achieved most deviant status during this period, and [2] seeks to refine a number of general principles or conditions for the attribution of most deviant status to 'affluent pedophilia'.   From the disparate theoretical elements a tentative operational model based on strain and stigma can be constructed, with intermediate variables of affluence, consumerism, structural control, subculture and societal reaction to explain both the phenomenon and its most deviant status.

These conditions can form the basis of a qualitative study based on a longitudinal analysis of newspaper articles and court reports.  They can then [3] offer a comparison with the orthodoxy that affluent pedophilia is ultimately and categorically rational and non-causal.  Additionally the study will:  [4] consider the relationship between incidence and status in terms of either perspective;  and, [5] evaluate the special significance of affluence and pedophilia to deviance attribution.  Some of the main theoretical propositions to be transformed into operational conditions are summarised below (Table 5; cf. also Appendix B).

________________________________________________________________

Table 5.  Preliminary propositions -

 Strain-Stigma Theory of Affluent Pedophilia.
1) PEDOPHILIA is a complex phenomenon relating (1) to structural conditions including strain, subculture and ecology; and (2) to a stigma which fixes and determines the behaviour and reactions to it, with feedback amplifying that behaviour ;
2) Some pedophilia may relate to strain theory in a hitherto unconsidered way, namely through AFFLUENCE, due to (i) increased participation in consumerist ideology, (ii) decreased attachment to 'middle class' value systems, and (iii) erosion of the moral sub-culture of affluence [between the wars, accelerating to virtual loss during the postwar period]  ;
3) POLARISATION.  Strain between goals and means has increased with (iv) the widening gap between affluent and poor in a consumerist society, increasing (v) social motivational imbalance at social margins and (vi) opportunistic blocks to socialised sexuality [direct causes of sexual abuse]  ;
4) Socio-economic changes have amplified social REACTION to  sexual abuse by affluent offenders who are perceived as more grossly deviant than other abusers due to (vii) increasingly ambivalent status of affluence, (viii) less forgiving label giving rise to a more fixed pattern of behaviour.

 Most Deviant Status.
5) Pedophilia by affluent offenders currently attaches a LABEL of 'most deviant behaviour', related to (ix) greater actual incidence (interrelated with:); [*viii] greater stigmatisation; and [*v] greater social strain [more pertinent than explanations in general conflict or control, and more plausible than that there is simply greater reporting]  ;
6) 'Most deviant status' also relates to [*vii]  a changed and ambivalent social PERCEPTION of affluence due to [*iv]  polarisation of wealth; [*viii] a protective reaction by society against perceived greater incidence of affluent deviance [greater strain between 'consumerised goals' and weakened norms of affluence provoking public apprehension] ; and [*iii] widespread perception of loss of older [stoic] moral subculture of affluence.
________________________________________________________________
(cf. Merton, 1968; Cloward, 1959; Lemert, 1972; Braithwaite, 1989).

    Back to top of Page...
 
 

The study initially considered seven apparent regularities in the articles as suggesting important conditions in deviance attribution, namely (i) strain, (ii) affluence, (iii) prior stigma, (iv) level of male pedophile activity, (v) gender, (vi) consumerism and (vii) puritanism.  Stigmatic judgments were harsher with increasing publicity or apparent incidence, male or affluent offenders, and depending on the general level of social prurience and corollary self-protective puritanism.   It was judged that the latter was itself a societal reaction related to consumerism and strain, so that these too could be implicated in deviance attribution.  The same complex was suggested as predisposing for pedophilia itself, which if supported would be evidence for a structurally infused labelling theory (label-deviance identity, post-strain), with strain the most salient architectural feature.   These conditions were later amended and augmented, with 'level of male pedophile activity' subsumed as a product variable; 'gender' related to 'opportunistic blocks to socialised sexuality'; and 'level of social puritanism' related to intervening 'societal reaction' and ultimately to the more pertinent condition 'rapid social change' (see Table 6;  also Appendix B).  Relevance of the conditions to deviance and pedophilia could then be assessed using the reports as both factual and attitudinal resources, with the aim of evaluating key aspects of the 'strain-affluence' model against the contrasting 'neo-classical model' (Table 3).

These studies can be justified in terms of [1] obtaining information about attribution models which can only be obtained from naturalistic research;  [2] elucidating social systems and normative processes that produce secondary deviance labels;  and [3] negative case analysis to refine theory.  In respect of the latter, a 'reintegrative' report in the presence of the relevant 'conditions' will be taken to be a negative instance.  Additionally, [4] media studies offer a unique form of research as fact-theory utterances readily obtained, as microcosms of public views filtered through the political medium of an editorial and proprietorial agenda, and as the basis of mass ideology in an age of mass communication.  The basic tenet of qualitative research is that people actively involved in negotiating social perceptions are a microcosm of the whole, illustrating the way behaviour, beliefs and attitudes interact to define social processes such as deviance.

 Back to top of Page...
 
 

RESULTS

[1].   It is doubtful whether media reporting is a reflection of a unified set of norms, however the number (N=149) and severity of articles stigmatising Bell demonstrate a consistent two-way negotiation of denunciatory value (negative value definition) between media and society.  Other media items of the period carrying comparative stigma were the Martin Bryant mass murder in Tasmania (excluded by jurisdiction), and the Robert 'Dolly' Dunn pedophilia case which did not attract the same notoriety despite younger victims and more predatory entrapment.  Dunn was not from such an affluent background as Bell.

[2]. It can be argued that the conditions for the behaviour and for its status are identical (e.g. Lemert, 1972).  However, even assuming universal rationalisation processes, this still leaves out social perceptual conditions which are addressed at items 7 to 9 (Table 6, below).

________________________________________________________________

Table 6.   Research Conditions (of Strain-Stigma) for Attribution of
 Most Deviant Status to Affluent Pedophilia

Condition 1 *Marginalisation of Affluence  2, (2, {7
Condition 2 *Increased Participation in Consumerist Ideology    +1, 4, {7
Condition 3 *Decreased Attachment to Conventional Norms -1, +1, 3
Condition 4 *Erosion of Stoic Subculture & Values  (1, +1
Condition 5 *Opportunistic Blocks to Socialised Sexuality  (+4, (1
Condition 6 *Stigmatisation & Deviant Social Identity  149
Condition 7 *Increased Incidence & Reporting  (-5, (22
Condition 8 *Increased Social Strain / Rapid Social Change +1
Condition 9 *Ambivalent Perception of Affluence  2, {9

SMH articles discussed demonstrating condition; (: indirect support; {: uncited;
    -article providing counter evidence/negative instance; (2) +external evidence.
________________________________________________________________

Condition 1 *Marginalisation of Affluence

An implied first condition of sexual deviance according to strain theory is social location.  Strain is not evenly distributed, but is greatest at social margins furthest from opportunities to satisfy both sets of bourgeois norms at once.  Classes outside the bourgeoisie are marginalised with respect to acquisition of the means of satisfying consumerist aspirations and humanist values simultaneously: there is a contradictoriness in their pursuit, relative to marginalisation.  Economic power which enhances consumption, increasing aspirations or needs, and reinforcing appropriation norms, including sexual predatoriness, also marginalises.  It reduces bourgeois social control and socialisation, in the context of already weakened affluent subcultural controls related to general societal strain (see Appendix B;  cf. C-4).

The differential participation of the affluent differs from that of the economically deprived.  The affluent participate relatively more in consumerism, with fewer social interactions relating to conventional value systems.  Reverse discrimination due to resentment at increasing inequality compounds the process, isolating and alienating the affluent as much as the separating agenda of consumption activities.  Other people react to wealth with feelings of mistrust, jealousy, sense of inadequacy, alienation - many journalists reacted this way to Bell's affluence (e.g. MH/SMH, 6.3.1996: 1, 6;  B-L/SMH, 28.3.1996: 1, 7).  This in turn alienates the wealthy, so that attachment to conventional values is loosened by societal reaction as much as by economic interests.  The greater the marginalisation, the less the commitment or socialisation towards conventional values, without loss of economic interdependence or conventional social functioning as some control theorists imply.

Affluent marginalisation can lead to greater strain between goals and values in three ways, [1] by further increasing aspirations; [2] by decreasing opportunities for goal attainment; and [3] by further reducing value commitment.  Specifically, it is predicted to:  [S-1] increase sexual appropriativeness; [S-2] decrease opportunity for normal sexual socialisation or gratification; and [S-3] reduce motivational investment in conventional sexual morality or taboos.  With regard to pedophilia, marginalisation can be modelled as an inverse feedback cycle, promoting and amplified by sexual deviance.  Affluent marginalisation is operationally instanced by:  private education; economically exclusive pursuits; seclusion, privacy or solitary activities; nomadism or travel; and various forms of escapism.

Bell attended Le Rosey in Switzerland 'one of Europe's most exclusive boarding schools'  (L-B/SMH, 28.3.1996: 7).  He 'graduated from the University of Sydney in 1952 with an economics degree'  and then 'set up one of the first superannuation consultancies when super was still largely the prerogative of the wealthy and highly paid'  (ibid.).  He subsequently became a director of Macquarie Counsellors' Master Superannuation Trusts, and of the family company LH Bell (Victoria) Limited (MH/SMH, 6.3.1996: 1, 6).  He drove an exclusive convertible, and owned a 'luxurious two-storey house overlooking Whale Beach'  (L-B/SMH, 28.3.1996: 7), where he would entertain boys who were to become his sexual partners, with similar residences at Tweed Heads and Valla Beach on the North Coast, apartments at Manly and Darling Point, and a lodge at Gstaad in Switzerland (ibid.). 'At the height of his business success in the late '70's, Philip Bell regularly threw lavish parties at another home, a double penthouse overlooking Elizabeth Bay'  (ibid).  An unnamed former business contact who attended several of the parties said: "They were really exotic affairs [where] the champagne and caviar flowed.  It was very glamorous, with lots of modern furniture… a huge central staircase with fabulous views across the harbour"  (ibid.).  These reports support the contention that Bell was marginalised by affluence, in that wealth permitted him to live a secluded, private and individualistic life, in relative needs-isolation from conventional values.
 
 

Condition 2 *Increased Participation in Consumerist Ideology

The previously cited reports offer direct evidence of greater than normal participation in a consumerist pattern of living.  A capitalist is faced with an infinite array of pleasures to appropriate, pleasures to which the ordinary person cannot aspire whose behaviour is less determined by a material surplus (Marx [1844] 1977: 77-8).  The affluent are tempted to become arch-consumers, to spend a life with play-objects, less and less with other conscious subjective selves, eventually to treat other people as objects to be appropriated, introjected, bartered and rejected when their 'use by date' has expired.  This was imputed of Bell in a number of articles (e.g. GB-MB/SMH, 6.4.1996: 19), although caution should be exercised in infering reasons for rejection from a former boy-lover given the likelihood of jealous rivalry (Brand, 1996; reprinted in Appendix C).  Immersion in a highly appropriative way of life can reasonably be expected to lead to ideological conditioning dictated by interests, routine, agenda and perspectives.  Attendance at a Swiss upper class school (L-B/SMH, 28.3.1996: 1) where the ethics of competitiveness, elitism and capitalism are still espoused (Institut Le Rosey, 1997) is also evidence of participation in consumerist ideology.  Clearly consumerism, taken to extreme, favours a predatory attitude towards persons, given weak links to restraining ideologies.

There is also evidence for consumerisation of sex ideology in society generally.  In the marginalised or weakened presence of traditional taboos favouring delayed gratification, a consumer attitude to sexuality is dominant.  In Knepfer's study, 'Richard', 14 years old, illustrated this attitude:  'I know they [masturbate] because I've seen the vaseline and the Penthouses in their rooms, same as I've got.  Sometimes we get porn movies and watch them on the video.  We rent the movies in our parents' names and sometimes someone's dad will have one, and we'll look at it when he's out'  (Knepfer, 1984: 5).  Post-modern commercialisation and consumerisation of sexuality, socialisation into that ideology, and (significantly) strain between appropriation and conventional norms, are now nearly universal.  For those like Bell whose social location is marginalised to treat bourgeois conventions lightly, a casual attitude to self-gratification and sexual appropriation can be expected.  It is a short distance, imaginatively, from purchasing material gratification to buying sexual favours or sexual exploitation.  The link is consumerism, the treatment of persons as objects to be bought and sold, an inherently exploitative sexuality.   Thus 'access to money, presents, holiday trips, alcohol, marijuana, sports equipment and video games, and activities like horse riding, surfing and boating attracted and kept boys under Bell's control until he tired of them'  (Mark Tedeschi, Crown Prosecutor, in JC/SMH, 14.10.98: 5).
 

Condition 3 *Decreased Attachment to Conventional Norms

Contrary to control theory, Bell could demonstrate a marked degree of conformity with conventional norms of behaviour.  He was ingratiating and knew how to behave socially in a manner that persuaded parents of his sense of responsibility and decency (SL/SMH, 30.3.1996: 34).  Whilst control theorists predict non-deviance from generalised conformism and a high level of interdependency (Braithwaite, 1989: 84-97), strain theory looks below the surface.  The attachment to conventional norms may be superficial and instrumental.

[Pedophiles] establish close relationships with families and target one or two children.  They wait for a situation when they will take advantage of the trust they've built up (Dr.Alex Blaszczynski, Dept.of   Psychiatry, Univ.of N.S.W., reported in Loane/SMH, op.cit.).

On other levels Bell was unattached to conventional norms.  His sexuality on several accounts could be manic, whilst his personality, though controlled, was distinctly two-sided: '[Sex is] an obsession... it's a chemical cut-in... where out goes Philip and in comes the genitalia.  A very rational, logical, organised, thorough, considerate person.  Almost so accommodating that it's obvious that there's something scary behind there'  (A2, ibid.: 29).  Researchers investigating dissociative personality states have given a sociological explanation in broad conformity with both A2's suspicions and strain theory's account of anomie:

multiple personality appear[s] essentially to represent the organism's effort to live at different times in terms of different systems of values   (Stern, 1989: 151).

imperfect coordination of… the goals-and-means phases of the social structure… leading to anomie (Merton, 1968, in Traub & Little, 1994: 138).

In private, Bell deviated manifestly from conventional norms.  These included growing age difference with prefered partners, sexual infatuation with immature males, and predatory narcissism.  Evidence for narcissism included incapacity to form long-lasting relationships with his sexual objects. 'Boys who maintained relationships with Bell reached, as one said, a 'used-boy-date', when they turned 16 or 17 and found themselves replaced by boys 13 or 14'  (GB-MB/SMH, 6.4.1996: 19).  A methodical predatory attitude, and sexual narcissism, have been suggested for repeated accounts of seduction: 'He would be apparently open with the parents.  He would offer the fun things to do.  He would pick his moment.  He would usually get a group of boys together, play pornographic movies on heterosexual themes, encourage the boys to masturbate.  Often he would wait for a particular target boy to go to sleep and then come in later at night to start performing oral sex on him'  (op.cit.).  With misplaced humour and vanity, Bell did not deny the more outrageous incidents, but deflected imputations of seduction and entrapment.  'To suggest a reference was written to ingratiate [my]self with [a] boy [i]s putting a lousy spin on a generous act'.  Asked to describe his first encounter with the second teenager he claims seduced him, Bell snapped at Mr.Tedeschi 'You're a detail queen.  I know your type.'  He described how the 16-year-old youth enticed him into sex 'by reclining provocatively on a waterbed while reading a Penthouse magazine.'   It was 'impossible to say' what age his alleged victims were when he became sexually attracted to them.  'I didn't have a barometer in my dick to tell me when I became sexually attracted to people at certain times'.  He had not watched his companions' sixteenth birthdays approach on the calendar 'with salivating lips'  (JC/SMH, 12.11.1998: 3).

Whilst narcissism can be equated with radical individualism (egoism) and amorality (anomie), reflecting low social commitment, it is plausible that Bell's protestations rather demonstrate a casual attitude towards man-boy sexuality than gross egoism.  The crux of this issue is Bell's beliefs and concerns about the welfare of immature companions.  His defence was that, 'regardless of a boy's age' he had 'never breacheda position of trust or authority' because if he had, 'I'd be the first person to present myself at the back of this court to a firing squad'.  Later, after describing his friendship and 'quasi-parental' teacher-pupil relationship with one youth, Bell claimed he had fulfilled his role with 'very great responsibility' which was 'not affected by sex because it was entirely consensual and not a big deal' .  However, the evidence clearly showed that Bell was well aware that sexuality was 'a big deal' both to most boys and to all the parents [but cf. Brand, 1996; Brisbane, 1996: both reprinted in Appendix C].

It is tempting to see him as either confused due to value oscillation (a strain model), or lying (a neo-classical model), or else possibly deluded by an overly subjective reality due to affluent isolation (egoism).  It is also important to entertain a fourth possibility, that the boys were of sufficient maturity and presence of mind to be capable of rational consent, refusal or initiation of sexual encounters with an adult (Baker, 1983: 109; Brand, 1996; Brisbane, 1996; Gregerson, 1984: 31-2, 272-3; Loane/SMH, 30.3.1996: 29b).  However, the heroin-related deaths of two of the boys, and testimony by others of years of post-traumatic stress disorder, might argue for incapacity by at least some (AP/SMH, 13.2.1999: 3).  It is difficult to see how Bell could not have been intelligently aware of this, unless he were projecting his own values, in either case arguing for an extreme anomic narcissism.   On the relative rationality or positivism of this detachment from social values depends the choice of neo-classical or strain models.

See, Conditions of Affluent Pedophilia in Strain-Stigma Model...
 
 

Condition 4 *Erosion of Stoic Subculture & Values

Stoicism is used here to denote patrician values of the affluent Anglo-Australian elite of 'old wealth'.  It refers to the ideology of a subculture of affluence, increasingly marginalised by the aggressively consumerist but normatively conventional middle-class.   Anomic tendencies were ameliorated in the imperialist colonial class of the 19th century, where a value system of its own derived from the classical stoicism of patrician Rome was gleaned from texts of Cicero and Virgil.  This code of virtue, though separatist and elitist, also extolled notions of propriety, virtuous conduct, 'noblesse oblige', heroic self-denial (delayed gratification) and marriage (Barker, 1959 [1906] : 498-9).  As a 'progressive school' Le Rosey dispensed with these stoic values at an early period, but retained specifically 'demanding' and repressive 'Anglo-Saxon' features (Institut Le Rosey, 1997).

Between World Wars, consumerism arguably infiltrated all institutions, and anulled stoicism as a viable class ideology.  The process had begun much earlier with the decline of 'vicarious stoicism' through classical studies in elitist schools.   Pederasty had already become their hallmark in England by the turn of the century (Lewis, 1977 [1955] : 73c).  Structural strain may have already become more pronounced than social control in elite schools due to the urgent need to educate the sons of the nouveau riche.  If indoctrination into competitive (predatory and consumerist) goals leads to treatment of persons as internalised objects (Kohn 1986: 139, 163), then once subcultural restraining values have been erased, affluence must have the same deviant effect as poverty in depriving affluent children of socialisation experiences.
 

Condition 5 *Opportunistic Blocks to Socialised Sexuality

Bell attended a single-sex school expressly based on the English elitist model.  Such schools are anecdotally associated with repression of normal psycho-sexual development; sadistic and masochistic practices; a subculture of sexual predation of younger boys by older boys; excessive competitiveness yielding bullying, neuroses and predatory social-attitude formation; and a lack of opportunity to develop normal, relaxed sexuality in an open and socially supportive environment (Lewis, 1977 [1955] : 27-28, 70-83).  Indirect evidence of some of these characteristics at Le Rosey has already been discussed.

There is also a degree of consensus on conditions of non-deviant sexual development.

The key issues around relationships, sexual or non-sexual, are self-esteem, non-exploitation, privacy and consideration (Wendy McCarthy, Aust. Federation of Family Planning Associations: Knepfer, 1984: 3).

taking away the idea that sex is forbidden fruit (ibid.).

won't have to look for the furtive relationship in the future.   The quality experience helps create [sexual] self-esteem rather than habitual denial, confusion and guilt (ibid.).

will be found in a situation in which there is equality, consent, care, love, commitment, respect and a good relationship (Renshaw, 1989: 276).

failure to desexualise affectionate family closeness [which] can be considered a sexual learning defect (ibid.).

Bloods, the adored athletes and prefects, were an embodiment of all worldly pomp, power and glory.  The whole school was a great temple for the worship of these mortal gods (Lewis, 1977 [1955] : 70c).

a Tart was a pretty and effeminate-looking small boy who acted as a catamite to one or more of his seniors, usually Bloods.  They did not impose chastity on the middle class boy.  Pederasty among the lower classes was [normal]  (ibid.).

According to Rosean tradition, there can be no harmony in mind and body without sports.  It is impossible to practice them intensively without competition.  Four times a week, students are required to participate in two hours of a sport of their choice.  All students are encouraged to participate in all inter-school competitions, and to become a member of a team (Le Rosey, 1997).

  Back to top of Page...
 
 

Condition 6 *Stigmatisation & Deviant Social Identity

138 headlines over the period under study carried a highly stigmatic message.  Ambivalently, Mr.Justice Spigelman agreed :

Unquestionably it is powerful material of a prejudicial character.  Nevertheless, because of the passage of time… which his Honour [Judge Davidson]  described, it is material which is unlikely to be remembered in its detail by potential jurors, notwithstanding the power of it in its original presentation, as shown to this Court in its repetition (Supreme Court of N.S.W., Ct. of Criminal Appeal, 8.10.1998: Judgement).

It indicates a considerable range of prejudicial (some extremely prejudicial) material over the period of time from 1993, much of which unquestionably pre-judges the guilt of the accused, which has yet to be determined.  This kind of publicity is unquestionably capable of having an impact on persons who constitute juries.  However, there are mechanisms by which such impact can be ameliorated (ibid.).

Stigmatic headlines also show the kind of general social opprobrium which it should be assumed is introjected and carried within the experience of a deviating member of the stigmatising society, a process of identity formation which is negotiated privately but from social introjects.  Sociologically-leaning psychiatrists dealing with dissociation after traumatic sexual value conflict, have predicted sexual deviance in dissociated states, including multiple personalities, initially negotiated socially in stigmatising interactions (Stern, 1989: 149-51).  Dissociation is postulated as a link between structural strain and pedophilia.  By failing to protect Bell from unnecessary and gratuitous stigmatisation, the Court of Criminal Appeal may have failed to protect the public from intensification of deviant identity.  Without denying primary deviance, a secondary 'master identity' is clearly powerfully motivational (Vold & Bernard, 1986: 249-68) conditioned by power relations between the parties to labelling interactions.

See, Relations of Conditions of Affluent Pedophilia in Strain-Stigma Model...
 

Condition 7 *Increased Incidence & Reporting

In the period from 1991 to 1996 there was a marked upsurge of media interest in and denunciation of pedophilia.  As reports of crime by victims and the media increased, there was increased political pressure on clear up rates and reporting.  This led to a search for pedophile activity, and less leniency.  Justice systems have profound feedback circuits (Walker, 1991: 95ff.).  Despite these, almost certainly there has been an underlying increase in pedophile activity, as evidenced in victimisation surveys and weighted crime statistics, an increase that is probably slight but significant (James, 1997).  It is likely that either or both of two mechanisms may be responsible for the rise, the effect of secondary deviance through social identity, and marginalisation of sexuality due to structural strain.  In general, short term rises should be the result of the former, with media coverage in particular an area of concern.  Longer term rises are probably due to strain and marginalisation (Vold & Bernard, 1986: 158-63).  Sheer opportunity to offend is almost certainly less now than it was ten years ago, given the high profile afforded the problem and public awareness of risk factors such as ingratiation, offender profiles and association.
 

Condition 8 *Increased Social Strain / Rapid Social Change

The last twenty-five years have been marked by contradictions: by the dominance of global culture, mass communications and consumerism over individualism and socially functional modernism:  post-modern 'mass' capitalism over modern 'liberal' socialism (!) .  Whilst the gap between affluent and poor has greatly expanded, cultural differences between them superficially have never been less.  The world's richest individuals eat hamburgers, wear loose trousers and listen to popular music.  The socialisation into mass culture and mass consumerism, including sexual consumerism, has risen at the expense of all competing ideologies.  There are still restraints, norms of tribal attachment and sexual taboos.  Marxism's prediction of the decline of aristocratic subculture with the final triumph of consumerism has come to fruition however.  The affluent are now truly marginal, having been catapulted to greater separation due to increasing wealth disparity.  The strain between new mass consumerism and tribal attachment to the petit bourgeoisie and its sexual taboos is considerable and stressful, but tenable in the middle class due to strong socialisation.  For those like Bell who by birth were never socialised into the latter because of out-class membership there can be no possibility of value commitment.  With whom could they interact to conjure up feelings of courtesy, chivalry, refinement, nobility, heroic imitation?   Whilst the more refined virtues are dead, the opportunity to interact with those who hold middle class values also diminishes in proportion to polarisation (cf. Appendix B).
 
 

Condition 9 *Ambivalent Perception of Affluence

There is a new ambivalence to affluence.  This is almost inexorable, as it is both the product of, and the new reason for, marginalisation of affluence.  Articles and headlines where affluence is treated as a fault or a matter for additional opprobrium are shown in Appendix A.
 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 
 
 

CONCLUSIONS

Some evidence has been presented for all of the conditions theorised to prefigure strain-stigma mediated affluent pedophilia, and its elevation to 'most deviant status'.   Non-rational conditions are most persuasive for the initial development of pedophile orientation, notably in structural strain, goals/means inadequacy depending on distance from mainstream socialisation experiences, and lifestyle innovation mediated through labelling and dissociative states.  An alternative theory, neo-classicism, has been examined and found to seek rational candidates for most deviant status.  Whilst pedophilia can be plausibly explained in neo-classical terms, with a degree of responsibility left to the rational actor, this is difficult to square up with persistent offending.

The existence of a body of persistent offenders… has long cast doubt on the effectiveness of repressive measures (Radzinowicz, 1948: 162-173).

Problems include the difficulty for research in the field to parsimoniously explain and link complexities using strategies that permit in principle falsification.  However, the weakest aspects of this study are methodological.  The claim that SS-conditions increase strain and stigma through a series of crossover effects cannot be tested without large-scale quantitative surveys and archival investigations.  Reports in the mass media are unreliable for factual content, as has been shown in relation to the 'pedophile brotherhood', and cannot be used at all in quantitative research.  Qualitatively, they are limited in application in that they are weighted by the occupational biases and proprietorial influences besetting journalists.  It is an error to seek elucidation of the way people respond to social perceptions by examining the product of the people who would seek to control them.  That is like going to the employees of an abattoir proprietor to ask how the sheep feel about their environment.

The study has offered an account of affluent pedophilia which is, though theoretically satisfying, politically unacceptable due to the anti-positivist mindset of the mass media and their proprietors who greatly influence public policy and the thought agenda of academics. It has tried to explain most deviant status of affluent pedophilia in terms of changing social norms and value shifts to a post-modern and possibly pre-revolutionary society characterised by mass cognition, consumerism, polarisation of wealth, increased strain, value definition by denunciation, marginalisation of affluence, and ambivalence towards affluence.   It has also tried to show a relationship between secondary labelling and social strain, and the interplay between these conditions in producing pedophilia and a further dissociative mechanism elicited by competing value systems (see Appendix B; cf.also Postscript ).
________________________________________________________________
 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 
 
 

APPENDIX A.

Sample of Cited Headlines and Articles -
Analysis of Type of Stigma

(1) SMH  14.May.1999 page 5...
 'WOOD SUSPECTED POLICE COVER-UP OF BELL'S SEX CRIMES' O, SA

(2) SMH  13.Feb.1999 page 3...
 'BELL GETS 10 YEARS FOR 13 YEARS OF SEX ABUSE' SA

(3) SMH 19.Nov.1998 page 5...
 'BELL COULD GO DOWN PLUG-HOLE MERELY ON ALLEGATIONS' +, O, S

(4) SMH 12.Nov.1998 page 3
 'SEDUCED BY BOYS: BELL TELLS OF ENCOUNTER' +, O, S

(5) SMH 11.Nov.1998 page 3...
 'BELL LOVED YOUTHS.  'BUT I'M NO PEDOPHILE'.' SA, S

(6) SMH  14.Oct.1998 page 5...
 'BELL ERECTED A PARADISE TO ENTICE YOUNG BOYS, JURY TOLD' SA, S

(7) SMH  19.Feb.1997 page 5...
 'BELL PLEADS WITH MANDELA TO CHANGE AGE OF CONSENT' SFP

(8) SMH  8.Feb.1997 page 1...
 'BELL ACCUSED OF ABUSING S-AFRICAN BOY, 13' SA, SFP

(9) SMH  15.Apr.1996 page 3...
 'BELL FLEES TO ITALY LEAVING 16-YEAR OLD BOY BEHIND' S(F?)P

(10) SMH  13.Apr.1996 pages 3, 31...
 'EXPOSED: BELL'S SECRET ALBANIAN HIDEAWAY /  SA, SP
 SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDREL' SA, SP

(11)  SMH  6.Apr.1996 pages 19, 1, 6...
 'THE BROTHERHOOD / HOW BELL RUINED YOUNG LIVES /  SFP
 A PEDOPHILE'S TWISTED TRAIL OF BUSINESS AND PLEASURE' SA, SP

(12) SMH  4.Apr.1996 pages 1, 6...
 'FREE TO SKI: NO MOVES TO EXTRADITE PHILLIP BELL' SA, SP

(13) SMH  3.Apr.1996 page 5...
 'WARRANT ISSUED FOR BELL'S ARREST / ABUSE VICTIM TELLS OF  O, SA, SP
 INTIMIDATION / THE POLICE ROYAL COMMISSION /   SP
 THE PEDOPHILE HEARINGS' O, SP

(14) SMH  31.Mar.1996
 'CHILD SEX SUMMIT' O, SP

(15) SMH  30.Mar.1996 pages 29, 34...
 'CHILD PREY / BOY SEX ISN'T WRONG, SAY SOME /  SP, O/+
 THE VIOLATORS OF INNOCENCE' SP

(16) SMH  29.Mar.1996 pages 1, 4, 5, 14...
 'VICTIMS JAM PEDOPHILE LINES' (S)

(17) SMH  28.Mar.1996 pages 1, 7...
 'PEDOPHILE WITH A LAVISH LIFESTYLE' SA

(18) SMH  27.Mar.1996 pages 1, 6...
 'PEDOPHILE JAIL WARNING / CHILD ABUSE EXPERT TELLS / OFFICERS,  S, O
 MEDIA SHOCKED / CHILD-SEX CLAIMS AGAINST DIPLOMAT /   S, F
 POLICE ROYAL COMMISSION - THE PEDOPHILE HEARINGS' S, O

SP= prejudicial/stigmatising; SFP= prejudicial/false; S= stigma against pedophilia (most deviant act); SA= stigmatising affluence; + = positive or reintegrative; O= neutral.
 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 
 
 

APPENDIX B.

Diagrammatic Illustration of
Strain-Stigma Hypothesis.

 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 

Flow Chart Showing Detailed Relations of Conditions in
Strain-Stigma (Dynamic) Model of Affluent Pedophilia
 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 

APPENDIX C

Normalisation versus Stigmatisation
Gadjusak Case, 1996

EXTRACT 1.

'FIRE BRAND!'

(socio-geneticist David Brand, in 'The Daily Record', Edinburgh: 16.9.1998) -

I offer the following reflections on whether DG should be prosecuted.
    1.It seems incredible that a court should be concerning itself with events of some twenty or thirty years ago that apparently yielded no complaint at the time.
    2.From cases of paedophilia I have known, I would incline to guess that the trial has come about primarily because of the jealousy of one of the young partners. What often happens is that the paedophile wants (among other things) to 'liberate' a partner after a few years so the youngster can go off and have girlfriends and develop normally; but then this rejected partner shops the paedophile when he takes up with a younger partner.
    3.Academic studies and my own experience suggest that non-violent paedophilia with a consenting partner over age 12 does no harm so long as the paedophiles and their partners are of above-average IQ and educational level. As lead choirboy (Decani) and soloist, I met lots of paedophiles who would press florins and half-crowns (now worth 4 pounds) into my horrid little palm at age 13. For better or worse, I never 'fancied' any of them nor did anything but allow a little fondling: on my part it was not a sexual experience. But I was never feminazistically inclined to condemn them: these men were well above average in intelligence, well educated (two were writers), amused me far more than the average geography teachers, gave me useful tips (where to find the G spot etc....) and never frightened me in the least. Indeed the only problem with them was that they they were so awfully old and sweaty and heavy-breathing and desperate-for-whatever-it-was-they-did [I tried not to look] that I much preferred their jokes to their visual aids.
    4.I find it totally disgraceful that a 73-year-old man of such distinction should be hounded by the courts and the press. I could certainly never do such work myself. (Though no special admirer of Britain's current Royals, I similarly deplored Princess Anne being arrested and summonsed for speeding in the 1970's.)

______________________
 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

APPENDIX C (ii)

Normalisation versus Stigmatisation
'Paedophilia in Context'
 

EXTRACT 2.
Letter in 'The Herald' (Glasgow), 12 xi 1996, p. 18.
 

The remarks of lecturer Chris Brand regarding paedophilia have again been taken out of context by the press for the sake of sensational, newspaper-selling copy. They were made in the context of a plea for mitigation for Nobel Prize-winner Dr Daniel Gajdusak who pleaded not guilty to a charge of molesting a 15-year-old boy in the 1970 s.

Mr Brand has specifically stated that he does not approve of or condone such behaviour, and he does not call for a change in the law on child sex.

He claims only that academic studies have shown that in certain specifically defined instances (non-violence, mutual consent, high IQ and educational level, boys over 12 years) it has been shown to do no harm.

The question an academic must ask himself in the light of such research is not, Will this information offend people if it is articulated? but Is it true? If it is true, it would not be the first time that modern research has coincided with the opinions of the ancient Greeks.

In Dr Gajdusak s case, the boys concerned came from Pacific islands where such activities are regarded as normal and healthy. The point Mr Brand is raising is that the degree of harm done to the victim in some instances is less than in others.

This consideration applies to many other aspects of the law e.g., a person accused of stealing will generally receive a lighter sentence than one who steals ,000; and the degree of injury inflicted is a relevant factor when considering punishment.

Mr Brand is saying that in the case of Dr Gajdusak, if he is proved guilty, such considerations of justice should also apply.

This is a far cry from the press claim that Chris Brand is a supporter of paedophilia. However, it shows considerable courage on his part to comment at all such a sensitive area of public opinion in the full knowledge that many will call for his dismissal.  In Mr Brand's mind, he is simply doing his academic duty.

Pat Brisbane
23, Royal Park Terrace
Edinburgh.

____________________________
 
 

 Back to top of Page...
 
 
 
 

REFERENCES

BAKER, C.   (1983).   The 'age of consent' controversy: age and gender as social practice. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Vol.19, No.1 [March] : 97 'work of the media in organising response and in constituting as a social issue'; 105: 'social constitution of the young'; 109 'sexuality made a protectorate complements young person made child'; 110 'privatised world of family [& denial of sexual activity] '.

BARKER, E.   (1959 [1906] ).   The political thought of Plato and Aristotle.   New York: Dover Publications, 120 'Spartan education'; 145 'Spartan attitude to women'; 270 'stoic view of society'; 426 'virtue the aim of education'; 473 'virtue as a mean'; 498-9 esp. 498a 'to live comfortably to nature… ruled by a spiritual law'; 498b 'noblesse oblige'; 499a 'to join in the social life of his city by marriage… to meet danger & death for its sake… to obey the natural law'.

BEARUP, G.   (1996).   Warrant issued for Bell's arrest.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 3rd April 1996: 29 'Bell offered to give evidence about a pedophile brotherhood & corrupt police if granted indemnity'.

BEARUP, G. &  BROWN, M.   (1996).   The brotherhood.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 6th April 1996: 19 'How Bell ruined young lives'.

BERGER, P.L. & LUCKMANN., T.   (1967).   The social construction of reality.  London: Allen Lane, pp. 77-80, 149 'society to be understood in terms of ongoing dialectical process between subjective and objective reality' [interactive dialectic].

BRAITHWAITE, J.   (1989). Crime, shame and reintegration.  Cambridge: University Press, pp. 9-12 'human agency'; 31-34 'opportunity theory [critique of~] '; 38-43 'on consensus'; 52 'RS is partly a learning theory of crime'; 76 'gossip: moral importance of ~; unifying character of ~'; 84-97 'interdependency'.

BRAND, D.   (1996).   Fire Brand!   The Daily Record, Edinburgh, 16th September: Letter to the Editor [reprinted in Appendix C (i), 'normalisation versus stigmatisation'] .

BRISBANE, P.   (1996).   Paedophilia in context.   The Herald [Glasgow] , 12th November: 18 [reprinted in Appendix C (ii)] .

BROWN, M.   (1996).   Abuse victim tells of intimidation.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 3rd April: 29 (a) 'massive pressure put on a key witness [A10] by Bell and by a solicitor engaged by the victim's father & brother'; (b) 'Bell had sexually abused [A10] for six years from the age of eleven'.

CHAMBLISS. W.J.   (1995 [1975]).   Toward a political economy of crime.   Rubington, E. &  Weinberg, M.S. (eds.), The study of social problems.  Oxford University Press: 256 'crime is a matter of who can pin the label on whom'; 257a 'acts which serve the interests of the ruling class will go unsanctioned'; 257b 'crime is a direct reflection of class position'; 258 'state an instrument of the ruling class'.

CLINARD, M.B.   (1995 [1964]).   Robert Merton: Anomie and social structure.   Rubington, E. &  Weinberg, M.S. (eds.), The study of social problems.  Oxford University Press: pp.135-142: 137 'relation of anomie to social structure'; 139 'adaptations: conformity, innovation [crime] , ritualism, retreatism, rebellion'.

CLONINGER, S.C.   (1993). Theories of personality: understanding persons.  Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 374 'cognitive social learning theory'; 375-385 'Walter Mischel: the trait controversy'; 382 'delay of gratification'; 385-402 'Albert Bandura: observational learning & modeling'; 393 'reciprocal determinism'.

CLOWARD, R.A..   (1994 [1959] ).   Illegitimate means, anomie, and deviant behavior.   Traub, S.H. &  Little, C.B. [eds.] , Theories of deviance, 4th edn., Itasca, Illinois: F.E.Peacock, pp.149-50 'I: unlimited aspirations & breakdown of regulatory norms'; 150-1 'II: disjunction between cultural goals & socially structured opportunity';  151-5 'III: illegitimate means'; 153c '[illegitimate opportunity is] differentially available depending on location of persons in social structure'.

COOKE, J.   (1998).   Bell created a paradise to entice young boys.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 14th October 1998: 5 'enticed them with gifts & money… before discarding them around sixteen when they began to mature'.

COOKE, J. &  GIBBS, S.   (1998).    Seduced by boys: Bell tells court of encounter. The Sydney Morning Herald, 12th November 1998: 3 'acts of oral sex when three of the boys were aged between 16 & 18 were illegal at the time, he agreed'.

COOKE, J.   (1998).   Bell could go down plug-hole merely on allegations.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 19th November 1998: 5 'boys lied about being sexually abused'; 'witnesses are four to five years out of [synchronisation] on the same event; it is pathetic evidence'.

CUNNEEN, C. &  WHITE, R.   (1995).   Juvenile justice: an australian perspective.  Melbourne: Oxford, pp. 33-36 'classical theory and the criminal act'; 57-62 'labelling theory'; 62-66 'republican [shaming reintegration] theory; 82 'new right criminology'.

DERRIDA, J.    (1982). Margins of Philosophy.   [Transl./annotated by Alan Bass].   Brighton, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press/Harvester Press.

DURKHEIM, E.   (1951 [1897] ).  Le suicide.   [Transl./George Simpson].   New York: Free Press: 254 'Wealth by the power it bestows deceives us into believing that we depend on ourselves only.  Reducing the resistance we encounter from objects, it suggests the possibility of unlimited success against them.  The less limited one feels, the more intolerable all limitation appears'.

GREGERSEN, E.   (1984 [1982] ).   Sexual practices: the story of human sexuality.  London: Mitchell Beazley, pp. 15ff. '[judaeo-christian] cultural background'; 24 'pederasty a frequent theme in ancient Greek art'; 31-2 'pederasty a  Greek institution'; 162 'pederastic prostitution'; 256c 'pederasty in Australia & Melanesia… often ritualised & institutionalised' [cf.Malinowski, Mead] ; 256f 'Melanesian & New Guinean pattern of pederasty'; 256g 'oral insemination by older men; boys between ages of 10 & mid-twenties continually inseminated'; 272e '[maternal stimulation of child genitals] amongst Hopi, Navaho, Sirionó, Kaingáng & Kubeo Indians'; 272f [pedophilia common among Sirionó] 'approach to adult-infant sexual relations exceedingly casual'; 273a 'Sirionó adult sexual adjustment'; 273b 'Trumai boys initiate sex play with men… seldom did men start it'.

GRIPPER, A.   (1996).   Stolen innocence.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 3rd April 1996: 11 (a) 'victims of abuse are forced to relive their horror'; (b) 'prevention... and suffering'.

HARALAMBOS, M. &  HEALD, R.   (1983 [1980] ).   Sociology: themes and perspectives.  Bungay, Suffolk, U.K.: Chaucer Press, pp. 406-452 'deviance'; 413-415 'Robert K. Merton: social structure & anomie'; 425-428 'what happens depends on who did it';  432 'Lemert: societal reaction: the cause of deviance'; 441-452 'deviance & power: a Marxist perspective'.

HOGARTH, M.   (1996).   A pedophile's twisted trail of business and pleasure.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 6th March 1996: 1, 6 'such was the status of the Bell family that when Philip departed as director of LH Bell (Victoria) Ltd., his place was taken by a high-profile master at an exclusive private boys' school'.

ILLAWARRA MERCURY.   (1999).   Pinball parlour boss in sex trial.  The Illawarra Mercury [Fairfax Publications] , 29th May 1999: 5 'Stringer, 58, will answer eight charges of indecently assaulting a male and four of buggery… committed on 15-year-old and 17-year-old boy prostitutes'.

INSTITUT LE ROSEY.   (1997). Institut Le Rosey.   Qualischools: Zurich/Delle [brochure] :  'Philosophy'; 'Discipline'; 'Arts & Sports'.

JAMES, M.   (1997).   Paedophilia: policy and prevention.   Research and Public Policy Series [Australian Institute of Criminology] , No.12, [synopsis] 'Symposium on paedophilia, 1997'.

KERNBERG, O.F.   (1989).   Narcissistic personality disorder.  Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol.12, No.3, pp.566-8 'antisocial narcissism'; 723 'object relations'.

KENNEDY, L.   (1999).   Wood suspected police cover-up of Bell's sex crimes.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 4th May 1999: 5 'Bell had convictions in England in 1959 and 1961 for indecently assaulting boys aged 14 years'; 'it is impossible to reach any firm conclusion as to whether Mr Bell was in receipt of police protection in return for corrupt payments: Wood (J)'.

KNEPFER, G.   (1984). Sex in Australia.   Milsons Point, N.S.W.: J&G Publishing [Globe] , pp.3 'sexual learning [& self-esteem] '; 5-6 'masturbation & Penthouse magazine'; 9-12 'sex is dirty'; 24 'when our daughter was just 14...'; 43 'gay awakening [at 11 years of age] '; 44-46 'sexual non-conformers [sex in a toilet between man & boy with mum waiting outside] '; 53 'sex through the beat [16 years & under] '.

KOHN, A.   (1986). No contest: the case against competition.   Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp.139c 'depriving adversaries of subjectivity [social mechanism of narcissism] ';  139d 'children rated as highly competitive had lower empathy scores'; 163a 'where winning is the orthodoxy deceit is justifiable'; 163e 'competition responsible for a lower moral standard… naturally lead[s] participants to try to win at any cost'.

LAMPE, A. &  BYRNE, A.   (1996).   Pedophile with a lavish lifestyle.  The Sydney Morning Herald, 28th March 1996: 1 'lavish parties… the champagne & caviar flowed'; 7 'suave & smiling'.

LASTER, K.   (1993).   Juvenile justice reform and the symbol of the child.   Gale, F., Naffine, N. &  Wunderlitz, J. (eds.), Juvenile justice: debating the issues.  St.Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, pp. 57-69, esp. 58 'attitudes to children'; 58e 'concept of childhood as separate entity [cf.Aries, P.] '; 59-60 'childsaving movement'; 60 'progressive degrees of freedom [cf.Locke] '; 61-63 'idealisation'.

LEVI-STRAUSS, C.   (1983). Le regard éloigné.   Paris: Librairie Plon, 55 'le sociobiologiste [dit que] les homosexuels, sans charges familiales propres, pourvaient d'autant mieux aider leurs proches parents à élever un plus grand nombre d'enfants'; 56 'avec ces hypothèses on peut expliquer il n'importe quoi'.

LEWIS, C.S.   (1977 [1955] ).   Surprised by joy: the shape of my early life.   Glasgow: Collins/Fount Paperbacks, pp.26-29 'concentration camp'; 70-83 'bloodery', esp.70b 'bloods, the adored athletes & prefects'; 73c 'a Tart is a pretty & effeminate-looking small boy who acts as a catamite to one or more of his seniors, usually Bloods… they did not impose chastity on the middle-class boy in addition to all his other disabilities.   Pederasty among the lower classes was not 'side' [i.e not taboo] '.

LOANE, S.   (1996).   Child prey.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 30th March 1996: 29 (a) 'some men hunt young boys for sex, they befriend them, they abuse them, and they get away with it'; (b) 'Boy sex isn't wrong, say some.'

McCLYMONT, K.   (1996).   Officers, media shocked by harrowing evidence.  The Sydney Morning Herald, 27th March 1996: 6.

MARX, K.   (1977 [1844] ).  Alienated labour.  McLellan, D. [ed.] , Karl Marx: selected writings, Oxford University Press: 77-8 'essential connection of private property, selfishness, the separation of labour, capital, and landed property, of exchange and competition, of the value and degradation of man, of monopoly and competition'.

MERTON, R.K.   (1957 [1949]). Social theory and social structure.  Glencoe: The Free Press, pp.131-60 'Social structure & anomie'; 161-94 'Continuities in the theory of social structure & anomie'.

MERTON, R.K.   (1994 [1967, 1968] ).   Social structure and anomie.   Traub, S.H. &  Little, C.B. [eds.] , Theories of deviance, 4th edn., Itasca, Illinois: F.E.Peacock, pp. 114-148, esp. 123-130 'innovation'; 137 'strain toward anomie does not operate evenly throughout the society; 138 'family [is] major transmission belt for diffusion of cultural standards'; 138b 'child detect[s] implicit paradigms for expression of plurality'; 138c '[also detects & acts upon] paradigms for formation of estimable goals'; 138d 'projection of parental ambitions'; 139 'imperfect coordination of [the goals-and-means phases of the social structure] leads to anomie'.

NATHANSON, D.   (1989).   Understanding what is hidden: shame in sexual abuse.   Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol.12, No.2, June 1989 'Treatment of victims of sexual abuse', pp.381-388, esp. 386 'child who has been drawn into sexual activity with an adult… often derives much pleasure from it'; 386b 'confusion about good & bad impulses'; 386c 'shame, guilt & disturbances in personality formation'; 388 'shame configures prominently in the genesis of such activity'.

PHELAN, A.   (1999).   Bell gets ten years for thirteen years of sex abuse.   The Sydney Morning Herald, 3rd February: 3 'used his charm & considerable wealth to lure vulnerable children aged from 12 to 15'; 'offences Bell inflicted without scruple or hesitation on 18 boys'; 'Bell befriended [Mahoney brothers] aged 9 and 12… by the ages of 18 and 21 both boys were dead from drug overdoses'.

POPPER, K.R. &  ECCLES, J.C.  (1983 [1977] ).   The self and its brain: an argument for interactionism.  London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 471-478 'active interaction: the searchlight theory of mind;  self-conscious mind'.

RENSHAW, D.C.   (1989).   Treatment of sexual exploitation.   Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol.12, No.2 'Treatment of victims of sexual abuse', pp.257-278, esp.268 'the pain… can be healed through perspective [insight] about the event; eradicating self-blame, forgiving the exploiter & nonprotective relative'; 277 'victims do not stand out… unless a sexual history elicits the past experience'.

ROSEY, Institut Le.   (1997). Institut Le Rosey.   Delle, Switzerland: Institut Le Rosey, Prospectus, esp. 'Philosophy'; 'Discipline'; 'Arts & Sport'.

RADZINOWICZ, L.   (1948).   Present trends of English criminal policy.  English Studies in Criminal Science, Vol.IV: 36-37 'features of liberal system in English criminal policy: procedure & rules of evidence'.

RADZINOWICZ, L.   (1948).   The persistent offender.  English Studies in Criminal Science, Vol.IV: 162-173 'existence of a body of persistent offenders… has long cast doubt on the effectiveness of ordinary repressive measures'.

SAUZIER, M.   (1989).   Disclosure of child sexual abuse: for better or for worse.  Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol.12, No.2, June 1989 'Treatment of victims of sexual abuse', pp.455-59, esp.468 'children who never told showed less distress'.

SLATER, P.   (1995 [1970, 1976]).   The pursuit of loneliness.   Rubington, E. &  Weinberg, M.S. (eds.), The study of social problems.  Oxford University Press: pp.39-45.

SPIGELMAN, J.  (CJ), ABADEE (J) & IRELAND (J).  (1998).  Regina v Bell.   Sydney: The Supreme Court of New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal, Matter No CCA 60582/98 [1998] NSWSC 570 [8 October 1998] .

STERN, C.R.   (1984).   The etiology of multiple personalities.   Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol.7, No.1, March 1984 'Multiple personality', pp.149ff., esp.151 'sociologic explanations… multiple personality appear[s] to represent organism's effort to live, at different times, in terms of different systems of values.'

TEDESCHI, M.  (Cr. Prosecutor).   (1998).   Address to the jury in Regina vs. Bell, 13.10.1998. Sydney Morning Herald, 14th October: p.5 [reported in: Cooke, J., article entitled 'Bell created a paradise to entice young boys'] .

TURK, A.T. &  GRIMES, R.M.   (1981).   Legal and social scientific views of law and deviance.   Ross, H.L. (ed.), Law and deviance, Beverly Hills: Sage, 251-272: 264-5 [Foucault: disciplinary society, 'carceral archipelago'; power produces reality; tactics of subjection] ; 266 'Unger concludes antiformalism of welfare state & priority of local over public interests in corporate society are causing disintegration of rule of law in post-liberal society'; 267a 'Machiavellian instrumentalism with structuralist elements opposed to functionalism in conception of law as power [cf.Turk, 1976] '; 267b 'integration of labelling & conflict perspectives [cf.Grimes & Turk, 1978] '.

VAN DER KOLK, B.A.   (1989).   Compulsion to repeat the trauma: re-enactment, revictimisation, and mascochism. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol.12, No.2, June 1989 'Treatment of victims of sexual abuse', pp.389-412.

VOLD, G.B. &  BERNARD, T.J.  (1986).   Theoretical criminology.  3rd edition.  Oxford: University Press, pp. 18-35 'classical criminology'; 185-203 'strain theories'; 232-248 'social control theories'; 249-268 'deviance & societal reaction'; 358-363 'assessing criminology theories'.

WALKER, J.    (1991).   Understanding crime trends in Australia.  Trends and Issues, 28 (January), Canberra: Institute of Criminology : 95ff.

WORTLEY, B.A.   (1948).   Objects of punishment.   English Studies in Criminal Science, Vol.IV [Dept. of Criminal Science, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge] : 57-64.
 

Back to top of Page...

Go to Campbell Newman (Other Published Works)...

DEDICATION   /  POSTSCRIPT

To My Most Patient Reader, as promised- <https://www.angelfire.com/mac/cambel/socy99_crim_pedoph.html>.

It is interesting that my view has changed slightly over the last 3 years.  I am now slightly more disposed towards incorporating some 'classical' or retributive aspects, however it is hard to find any evidence for them.  Many questions also remain unanswered.  Are there special categories of occupational setting or personality disorder which correlate, apart from the obvious opportunistic occupations or past victims with post-traumatic 'compulsion-to-repeat-the-trauma'?  What about for example persons from highly religious or authoritarian background?  How can strain be related to such persons who ostensibly live at the centre of socialised experience?

I suppose the answer may lie in the fact that such persons are repressed and feel strain more because the institutional means are vastly more onerous, leading to development of a 'double life' astride two sets of values.  But I know my existential and post-modern friends would say that strain-stigma or past victimisation are less parsimonious explanations than rational choice in the face of moral conviction that their actions are bent, or at least 'inauthentic', and highly damaging.  I would remind them that once a planetary sphere was a less parsimonious image than a flat earth, however perhaps I do need to incorporate some more of the elusive margin of freedom in my model to account for uneven offending within predictive categories.  Yet, let's not lose the plot.  Classical justice theory does not work in this area, and nothing has shaken my conviction that rapid social change, consumerism, strain and stigma are basic.  Human ecology suggests that the present hypocrisy underlying our liberal, contract society is unsustainable, and that a new, less marginalising world will result.  This can only be by a return to a mixed constitution in which status, democratic and civic co-operative elements are all acceptable and harnessed for the common good.  The fact is, pedophilia is directly related to the current phase of economic marginalisation, and though we may alter intervening variables to prevent child abuse, it is going to be an uphill battle without a 'political economy' in which the powerful and the powerless are brought back to the centre, no longer to live in normative 'innovation'.  Deconstructionist approaches are literally degenerate in my opinion.

If I can contribute to a greater understanding of the scourge of child abuse I will be pleased in the sense that knowledge gives the power to change and correct something that is so very wrong.  Like practical crisis work, the opportunity to closely examine humanity's plagues is a great privilege, since it simultaneously provides the pleasure of entering into the human condition at its most challenged, vulnerable and heroic, shedding light incidentally on health, goodness, strength and heroism itself, and to me giving hope of an infinitely better and more wonderful world.

By standing near something like death and challenging it, we know the value of life.  This is at the heart of any moral sociology - well, almost: I rather like the idea that people were 'meant' to be happy and courteous.

Campbell

25.3.2002

CITATION

Title:  Affluent pedophilia and most deviant status: case of Philip Harold Bell
Sub-title:  A comparison of strain and neo-classical models leading to development of a strain-stigma model infused by aspects of labelling, existential and conflict-structural theories of crime.
Author:   NEWMAN, Campbell Alexander
S/N: 8201391
Posting Date: 6 September 1999

The University of New England
School of Social Science /Criminology
Tutor:  JOBES, Patrick C.
Sociology 324:  Theories of Social Deviance

1. Criminology   2. Sociology  3. Pedophilia / Child Sexual Abuse

Return to top of Page...