At this point (at least in the U.S. and the U.K.), child molestation is one of the more horrific crimes. Has that been the case for more than a generation or two?
I’m thinking of The Score by Richard Stark and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In both books characters are mentioned as going after young girls – the protagonist in the latter – and they’re portrayed as criminals, but not monsters. In the Parker book it’s mentioned in passing, not dwelt on, and while McMurphy in Cuckoo’s Nest is no angel, it doesn’t seem to by something that puts him outside the pale of respectable society.
I would say that it has always been an extremely heinous crime. It’s just that in the past, say before the late 70s/early 80s it was so heinous as to simply be unmentionable anywhere in society except within the judicial system (police station, DA’s office, closed court etc.) And even there it could often get dismissed merely because of it’s unmentionable-ness. Hell, it probably usually got nipped in the bud right in the home for this reason.
This is true of crimes against children generally. In recent years the focus has shifted from random strangers (who are a tiny fraction of offenders) to people closer to home, particularly family friends and relatives.
Back in the old days (say, the 1950-70 era) if someone was discovered to be molesting a child (assuming the child could convince the parents it actually happened) the matter was usually handled extra-legally – which meant the father or older brother got a few of his friends together to visit the offender, beat the shit out of him and warn him that if he ever got near the kide again, they’d kill him.
I think attitudes have clearly changed. Look at the arrest of Roman Polanski, he felt comfortable enough writing about raping a 13 year old in his autobiography and his friend Gore Vidal called his victim a “little hooker.” Fun fact, Vidal is buried very close to my house and my dog has shit on his grave.
100+/- years ago, Albert Fish preyed primarily on Black children because he knew that would draw the least attention. That condition may have improved, somewhat.
Judging from the newspapers and TV shows of the time, it wasn’t like child molestation was ever considered acceptable, but it was something like bank robbery – if you were caught doing it you went to prison but it wasn’t considered a step apart from all other crimes. I think it was hard to separate the real and the social sexual crimes of the 1950s. Everything was a sexual taboo. You weren’t supposed to molest kids but you also weren’t supposed to have sex with an adult you weren’t married to, or be gay, or be a woman with a short haircut or pants on. As the sexual revolution happened and the sillier hangups fell off, it became more obvious that there really was something very damaging about all forms of rape, in tandem with the feminist movement bringing attention to the issue.
We had 4 child molesters on my block when I was a kid. To my knowledge the police were never called however parents on occassion would go over and punch one of thier lights out now and then. I was always puzzeld how they could get away with it. Certain kids were bribed to come over and visit with them and it seemed to go on for a long time. Parents minded their own business if it was not their kid or a very close friends kid.
I don’t know how Cuckoo’s Nest does as an example. McMurphy describes her as willing, and says that she appeared and claimed to be legal age. If he’s not lying about that, it doesn’t exactly make him a monster. I don’t remember if it was portrayed the same way in the book.
Not sure if its to the OP or not but its been a problem long enough, in some senses, as to have generated outrage as far back as the 30s. But back then the diddlers covered themselves by marrying their victim. There was a movie about it in 1938 and the wiki page for the movie has other links to various aspects of child marriage.