Psychologists have long noted that man is a gregarious animal whose need for approval and affection is as real and basic as his need for food and shelter. This social need is reflected many times over in our everyday lives. There is the teenaged boy who frequently smokes marijuana, though he dislikes it, because he […]

The onset of puberty inevitably brings with it the dawning awareness of sexuality, of a child’s inherent masculinity or femininity, and the struggle to put that sexuality into proper perspective with internalized standards and parentally prescribed teachings. For some, the transition occurs with relative ease. For others, the change is marked by tension and anxiety, […]

Although Americans appear to the rest of the world as frank and open people, the truth is often the opposite when relating on a personal basis. This is particularly true regarding sexual matters. The fact is, Americans are only now beginning to learn to discuss sex and sexuality with candor, and usually that is within […]

Normal. A frequently used word, yet a word whose exact meaning is as elusive as the term „perversion”. What those two words imply seems to vary from nation to nation, from community to community, from person to person. Among one African tribe it is considered obscene to expose one’s back to others. In many Eskimo […]

While the innocent are no strangers to violence, and never have been, the recent upsurge in criminal activity has taken a particularly grim toll of the unsuspecting bystander. And the reasons for their molestation’s have been more sinister. Today’s newspapers are filled with stories of oil company executives kidnapped for political purposes, of young heiresses […]

Immoral people capitalizing on the innocence of others to achieve their goals — a story as old as man. The Bible, history books, law books — all chronicle episodes where one individual has been manipulated for the sake of another. And when the victim is young and innocent, the story is so much the sadder… […]

From all outward appearances, suburbia maintains the strait-laced middle-class look that belies the social ferment behind closed doors. There is the secret use of drugs, fed by the marijuana syndrome. There is the river of alcohol flooding from door to door under the euphemism of social drinking. Then, of course, there is the advent of […]

Teenagers who leave home, for whatever reasons, often face problems and dangers their experience has not yet taught them to deal with. The dangers include drugs, crime and the threat of physical harm — a threat which is only too real for those young people who have been attacked and robbed by a particular breed […]

The subject of victim psychology has become an area of great interest in recent times, due mostly, perhaps, to the widely publicized conversion of Patricia Hearst to the radical SLA. Why a victim will turn and become a party to his or her own abduction is a question open to hot debate. Vivian Long is […]

The facade of respectability often crumbles to dust with remarkable swiftness once its protective armor has been pierced. The relatively minor investigation into the conduct of one police officer, for example, might well lead to the discovery of mass corruption within the force. A routine check into a corporation’s finances may turn up tax evasion, […]