Quote:
Originally Posted by fotze
Wasn't Elvis blamed for the downfall of society in his day?
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This is a bit nerdy, I guess--but "juvenile delinquency" scares is a part of my dissertation research, so I can indeed confirm that Elvis was at the center of a firestorm over youth culture, and indeed that scares over the behaviour of youth are something that goes back at least as far as the 1940s, and is probably something that's been around since time immemorial. The truth is that the statistics don't back it up. Youths in 1900 weren't less violent than youths in 1954--and youths in 2007 aren't more violent than youths in 1976. I suppose it's in part a reaction to youth culture's generally greater comfort with the dialects of the lower class which make middle class parents feel unsettled--which is why, for instance, so many blame rap music for the behaviour of white suburban children today.
This is a sad and shocking story--but as Cow says, it reflects that some people just have something wrong with them, and do evil, awful things. But that's always been true.