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Not sure why this is down voted. The last century has been painful for children as every venue of leadership has been used for abuse, the list is vastly longer than what you state. Understanding why abusers seek out these positions is not difficult. The solution is more transparency of interactions at every position.
> The last century has been painful for children as every venue of leadership has been used for abuse... I'm going to preface this with "I have no hard data to back this up", but I have a feeling that this isn't a matter of the last century as being more of a problem than previous ones. Rather, I think it's the globalization of communication that has brought it to light in that time. This sort of thing has probably b…
I think economics play a role as well. Specifically, when the economy increases rewards to education and higher-level thinking, the damage caused by child abuse becomes felt more broadly. It's always been horrible for the individual victims, but it's easier for society to turn a blind eye when it's an easily replaced unskilled child laborer than when it's a young student on a long road to a sophisticated trade.
I think you can see this dynamic in many places. For example, the birthrate goes down when wealth goes up. You invest more in fewer children. That investment includes caring more about ensuring they are treated humanely.
It's always been wrong, but now it's also expensive.