ABSTRACT
The present chapter mainly reflects on the possible role played by cultural context in the crisis of sexual abuse of minors at two levels: first, as a form of complacency at the time when most abuses we now know of took place; and second, in moving consciences at a later time and favoring legal action against abusers and their apologists. It considers the hypothesis and provides various documentary and testimonial data to support that a more culturally relaxed atmosphere could have assisted in the big wave of sexual abuses during those decades (about 1960–1990) and that the climate changed radically from the mid-1980s on, leading to a deep cultural shift that awoke a much greater sensitivity toward children and young teens, bringing a greater legal pressure against perpetrators, especially among Catholic clergy. The following pages will try to provide documentation and to make the case for that double hypothesis, and only at the end can the reader decide to what extent the alleged proofs are convincing enough to accept the proposed argument.
