4 ms·
So ~0.1% of towns, does that constitue 'widespread'?
by hhmc 5y ago
So ~0.1% of towns, does that constitue 'widespread'?
- car_analogy 5y agoThose are the ones with wikipedia articles about them that I found in ~5 minutes of searching. Many things can be greatly minimized if we pretend the only instances that exist are those so widely publicized to earn themselves a wikipedia article. Grooming ‘epidemic’ as almost 19,000 children identified as sexual exploitation victims in England [1] implies it is widespread, but it's not clear from the article how that number is split between grooming gangs and other perpetrators, so it remains a mere implication, not fact. [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grooming-child-sex-abuse-exploitation-rotherham-rochdale-police-a9215261.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grooming-chi...
- car_analogy 5y agoI assume the above comment was flagged for its flippant tone, but I'm vouching for it, because it raises a very valid complaint about anecdotal evidence. The UK is a large country, so even if some event is rare, it's easy to find 10-20 incidents, and claim it is widespread. And if it's emotionally charged, people are afraid to call out such misleading use of anecdote, because they'll be accused of downplaying or defending the events, despite having valid concerns. This gives whoever decides which anecdotes enter the public consciousness the power to pain any picture they like, no matter how divorced from reality. I'm sure you can think of a few such cases in the recent past.