It’s not enough that vigilantes go after people required to register as sex offenders and their families, some are now going after the scholars who do research and write about the topics related to anything sexually taboo.
University of Texas professor Thomas K. Hubbard has become the target of protests and threats of violence because of his writings on age of consent and pedastry in certain cultures in the context of classic Greek literature and history. Dr. Hubbard, who is a Yale graduate and the 2017 recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, did not in any way promote sexual abuse. He merely wrote about homosexual adolescent/adult relationships in ancient Greek and Roman culture and how it’s perception has evolved in the context of modern child abuse conventions.
As he pointed out to the Dallas News, he is “not personally oriented to underage youth” and has not been found to have committed any crime or sexual harassment during his 40 years of teaching. “It is no more valid to conclude that scholars who work on sex offender policy and the relevance of cross-cultural evidence are themselves sex offenders than to think that advocates of drug decriminalization are themselves drug abusers or that advocates of criminal justice reform are criminals,”
Regardless, just for engaging in discourse on a controversial subject, he is threatened. A business near Hubbard’s home was vandalized this month with the words “Pedo Hubbard, watch your back.” painted on the side of the building and he has required police protection.
We hope his colleagues at the University of Texas can restore some common sense and reason in their student population. Part of the educational process is exposure to different perspectives and if that is not allowed, as Hubbard put it; “[s]uch simplistic thinking chills serious debate and research on vital public policy issues.”
If you write on, or study about the human sex drive, you are opening a can of worms for yourself. I was not as distinquished a researcher as Professor Hubbard, but I got caught up in a similar fashion with a charge myself and spent years in prison because of my own basal ignorance of judicial arcanities. It’s hard to believe that Congress would criminalize journalistic curiosity, but they HAVE. Curiosity is the lifeblood of the mind and should not be shackled.
Could you provide insight on what you studied/researched? If possible
He does not “study sex offender policy.” He studies ancient attitudes towards what we today would consider sexual abuse, then suggests that this be considered in contemporary sex offender policy (which he does not study).
Of course he should be protected from false accusations and threats. But the outrage directed towards him does not appear to result from his academic study.
There are plenty of able academics who are experts in sex offender policy. We know who they are. This professor is not one of them.
Instead of going after a collage professor how about going after the catholic priests that have done far worst damage to child. Everybody is this country thinks that ALL sex offenders are child molesters. Do the research and you’ll find find it’s not even close. Find out about the subject do some research instead of listening to someone on the local news or even from law enforcement the 2 magic words, sex offender, to get rates or show how much safer the public is from illegal sting operations that cost tax payers thousands of dollars.
Is it possible to vigilante a vigilante?
It is always hard for me to read something like this. The first thing that comes in my mind, is what do we do about it?
Being in the world of instant gratification, the answer would be no. It’s a it’s going to take years beyond years and the change the minds or outlook of the general population/community… I think everything starts in education. That’s why I try to tell my story to everyone. But it Hass to go so much deeper than one person in. It has to start in the schools. And with sex education. And maybe even the school teaching the parents With new and updated information.
But at this moment without money to put where my mouth is, and I feel hopeless and helpless to the cause.
The professor is wrong. So are his critics, including Fire the Abusers.
Ancient attitudes toward child sexual abuse are worthy of academic study. So is slavery. That does not mean that they are relevant to present-day discussions about sexual-abuse policy, as the professor maintains. On that point, I think we can agree that the professor is wrong, and he should expect to have to defend his positions. They are certainly not the positions of, say, FAC or NARSOL.
But he should not be publicly accused, in the absence of apparent victims and without evidence, of being an abuser himself. His home should not be trespassed. He should not be threatened. If Fire the Abusers cannot get these things under control, then they deserve whatever the law throws at them.
The only party that seems to be doing the right thing in all this? Law enforcement!
If there was no sex offense registry (as there wasn’t prior to 1995 or 96) this man could research and teach these FACTS about WORLD history.
We did fine without a registry before and we can do just fine without one again.
What were the recidivism rates BEFORE the residency restrictions vs what they are now? I’m sure nothing in that has changed. Basic laws regarding age of consent and actual molestation were the same.
We do not need a registry at all.
It hasn’t changed, according to emperical evidence. Sexual abuse rates, including all crime, was falling before the registries and kept falling at the same rate after they were established.