[Starless (Brian)]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

Well, I'll defend my comment. Bad parenting does tend to produce maladjusted children who in turn tend to produce maladjusted children. It's sad but true. Yes there are exceptions, some kids come good despite the odds being against them and some turn out bad even though they had a good upbringing, but if you don't thing bad parenting tends to produce bad children then you are saying that parents have no influence over their children.

I feel sorry for the kids, these two included. They clearly have issues that in this case have caused them grief and one fears for their future. Just yesterday I heard of a case where the defense barrister was pleading the case for a bloke found guilty of a violent crime (rape and/or murder). If the tendered facts are true he was routinely abused as a child, never shown any love, beaten up by his parents and raped by a neighbour. The term 'walking time bomb' was used and I can imagine it is pretty accurate. I don't have the figures at hand but I think we all know that many, probably most, perpetrators of child sexual abuse were themselves abused as children.

So, yes, I do think we have a problem with the production of a dysfunctional underclass, I think it is wrong, I think the kids are victims and I think it is a collective failure that this situation is allowed to perpetuate.

Sattler, Jones and Laws? Don't ever compare me to those scum again.

Here here!!