Dear All
Well it is a free country and Alan Truelove is entitled to believe in
what he wants, 'Santa Claus', 'Fairies' and 'Little Green Men' or even
that Elvis was the 'third man on the grassy knoll'! However it remains a
fact that Chris Brand (who was not a professor) was sacked for gross
misconduct by Edinburgh University because of his statements and actions
about paedophiles and NOT for his unpleasant xenophobic views on 'race',
IQ and immigration.
I note the web site Alan Truelove refers Radstats discussion list
members to is not Chris Brand's main site - which is entitled Chris
Brand - Psychorealist (http://www.crispian.demon.co.uk/) - and contains
pornographic pictures! it also seems to be largely written in green ink
- why do people who are as 'crazy as snakes' write in green ink? even on
web pages!
On a much more serious note estimating the extent (and risk) of child
sexual abuse is a very difficult statistical problem. The main studies
such as the NSPCC's 'Child Maltreatment in the United Kingdom: a study
of the prevalence of child abuse and neglect'
(http://secure-uk.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/b?cg=childmaltiuksum&ci=nspcc&tu=http://www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/Research/Summaries/ChildMaltreatmentInTheUKExecSummary.pdf)
are based on retrospective recall samples of 18-24 year olds. These
studies suffer from the usual difficulties of retrospective recall
studies as well as definitional differences amongst participants as to
what constituted abuse. It is difficult from such studies to get a
reliable estimate of the likely numbers of potential abusers. However,
recently some statistical data has become available as a by-product of
British Telecom beginning to block access to web sites that are 'illegal
to view' under the Child Protection Act (i.e. Child Porn web sites).
Between 21st June and 13th July 2004 (e.g. less than a month) BT had to
block 230,000 attempts to access these sites (BT has 2.8 million
internet customers) - a statistic I find truly horrifying.
Best wishes
Dave Gordon
Alan Truelove wrote:
>A brief reply re Prof Chris Brand, Edinburgh University --
>The book he wrote, which was the real cause of his dismissal, is available
>in toto at http://www.douance.org/qi/brandbook.htm
>
>His account is at http://www.cycad.com/cgi-bin/Brand/index.html
>I have read all the material (including summaries of the refereed papers
>for which - by just referring to them, & discussing their content, - he
>was nominally fired)
>
>It is quite clear that Brand, a recognized and distinguished international
>Psychologist, was fired from a British University,
>(a) nominally for engaging in normal and customary research activities
>(erm -- a one page email to a colleague) in an area in which he is
>unquestionably professionally competent, and which is associated with a
>substantial body of refereed published research. (We are talking about
>something different from IQ/g factor) -
>(b) but actually for the book (see above)
>
>The question of 'views' and 'ideas' of anyone therefore does not arise.
>You can draw your own conclusions re Edinburgh Univ., British academe, and
>so on. As to the statements of Brand's collegues - well they would,
>wouldn't they? One word: Paycheck.
>
>----
>Re the book: New Scientist [London] wrote in an editorial (May, 1996): "It
>is….a great pity that the book will not now be speedily published, for it
>is probably the best argued treatise from the general intelligence camp.
>For the many that will disagree violently with every step of its argument,
>this is the book to stimulate a true scientific debate."
>
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--
Dave Gordon
Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research
University of Bristol
8 Priory Road
Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: (44)-(117)-954 6761
Fax: (44)-(117)-954 6756
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