Theory and tradition suggest that when individuals are raised in environments where kinship is emphasized, the likelihood of sexual relationships diminishes, thereby enhancing safety for children. Conversely, when children are cared for by strangers—where these protective relationship-mechanisms are absent—there may be increased vulnerability to sexual exploitation. Why aren't we talking about this in relation to Planning and Childcare in Melbourne?
Starting early this July, 2025, Melbourne has been shaken by a terrible crime involving the abuse of children in daycare nurseries by a male staff member. The abuse includes sexual misconduct and the contamination of children’s food with bodily fluids, leading to the testing of over a thousand children for sexually transmitted diseases. In response, some are calling for men to be banned from caring for young children, advocating for surveillance cameras in every room, stricter policies to ensure staff are never alone with a child, and increased maternity leave. Others highlight the inherent issues with privately run, profit-driven childcare, which may prioritize cost-cutting over adequate staffing.
Kinship and the Westermarck Effect
Not mentioned in these proposed ways of dealing with the problem is the possible protective factor of the Westermarck Effect, and its absence in professional child-care relationships with children. Although this factor, which operates identically to incest avoidance or incest 'prohibition,' and protects children, has been known of forever, and famously studied in Israeli Kibbutzim,[2] somehow it is entirely left out of Melbourne's and other discussions about this awful scourge that seems to be affecting more and more children. I would therefore like to draw the reader's attention to relevant theory by a local Melbourne researcher and writer in evolutionary sociology.
Sheila Newman, in her series, Demography, Territory and Law,[3] presents a compelling theory that intertwines human population dynamics with biological imperatives, notably the Westermarck Effect and incest avoidance.
Newman highlights the role of proximity to close relatives in suppressing sexual maturation and reproductive behaviors, effectively promoting incest avoidance. Also known as ‘reverse sexual imprinting,’ it means that individuals who grow up in close proximity during early childhood (typically before the age of six) tend to develop a diminished or absent sexual attraction to each other. This biological mechanism suggests that when individuals are raised in environments where kinship is emphasized, the likelihood of sexual relationships diminishes, thereby enhancing safety for children. Conversely, when children are cared for by strangers—where these protective relationship-mechanisms are absent—there may be increased vulnerability to sexual exploitation.
Her research indicates that the algorithms of population spacing and incest avoidance are biologically ingrained, functioning similarly across species. This innate response fosters a natural deterrent against inappropriate relationships, thereby safeguarding vulnerable individuals. As such, Newman's findings underscore the importance of kinship and proximity in child-rearing practices, suggesting that environments devoid of these elements—such as those involving professional caregivers —may inadvertently expose children to greater risks of molestation.
Modern Settler Societies like Australia may be more dangerous for children
According to Newman's theory, modern settler societies like Australia, Canada, and the United States - that is, societies built on waves of immigration - are particularly vulnerable. This is because they are in a constant state of population-movement in living and working conditions that are increasingly temporary. Infrastructure, subdivision, and densification to accomodate newcomers interrupts former family and neighbourhood networks and interdependencies. Ditto divorce, where former partners must seek alternative accommodation, and step-parents may come into the picture late in the child's life. (In fact, girls reach menarche earlier in the presence of step-fathers.[4]) In addition, commuting and transience are hallmarks of constantly expanding settlements. You may see many people you don't know and will not see again as you walk through a neighbourhood. And it is no longer the done thing to ask a passing stranger for their name and purpose. The modern convention is to accept the newcomer. Even if you are an employer and insist on a police check; that will only tell you if the person has a police record.
Contrast this with the stability of traditional societies, like many in Europe, where population-growth is much slower than in high-immigration societies. People tend to work near where they live and to live near where they were born. They therefore know many or all of the other long-term residents in their neighbourhood and town.
Baby boomers and other old relatives
It is the fashion in Australia to disparage 'baby-boomers' as useless creatures who should leave their homes to young couples, but grandparents are the traditional carers for small children, and so are aunts and uncles, in a small town. Who is more likely to know your child from infancy? Your parents or a professional carer from another suburb, state, country?
Are there any other factors that can erode the protective instincts of incest avoidance and the Westermarck Effect, in stable societies?
Newman suggests that war probably interrupts the Westermarck Effect, if men are away when their children grow up. "Maybe also the pattern in industrial society where fathers spend a lot of time at work and little time with the children. In upper-class 19th century society, like the one where Freud lived and theorised about child-sexuality, servants took care of the children most of the time, and fathers might rarely see them. Mental illness may sometimes alienate individuals from forming normal relationships, and they may lack barriers to seeking inappropriate connections. Also, it seems that a person who has suffered incest as a child might run a higher risk of normalising that in later life."
How could Australian social organisation be made safer?
Is there some way that modern Australian society, which is so demographically disturbed, might form more stable settlement structures?
"Yes," says Newman. "We really should start to prioritise population-stability over population-growth. Parents should have stable accommodation and a home to pass on to their children. We should expect to know our neighbours and our towns. And life should not be so tough that both parents have to work and old people have to be segregated away from the rest of the community. We need to be more human and less commodified."
Incest avoidance and the Westermarck Effect are the main subject of a short book by Newman, entitled, The Urge to Disperse. Although this subject continues in her other books, she develops her theory more complexly later. Note that Newman’s main thesis is to do with population numbers, organisation, environment and democracy, and she compares the political effects of land-tenure and inheritance systems in different countries. She argues that under normal circumstances, human populations, as those of other species, naturally adjust to their environments, maintaining balance within the carrying capacity. Central to her thesis is the notion that these adjustments are influenced by hormonal responses to environmental factors, which regulate fertility and social behaviors. She supplies evidence from many different studies.
NOTES
[1] For instance, Roxanne Fitzgerald, Matilda Marozzi, Mikaela Ortolan, "More than 100 parents consider suing childcare centres," ABC Australia News, 9 July 2025, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-09/families-consider-legal-action-childcare-centres-sexual-abuse/105510998; Benita Kolovos, "Concerns Melbourne childcare worker charged with sexual abuse offences had wider work history than initially disclosed," The Guardian, 3 July 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/03/concerns-melbourne-childcare-worker-charged-with-sexual-abuse-offences-had-wider-work-history-than-initially-disclosed-ntwnfb
[2] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/WestermarckEffect
[3] Sheila Newman, The Urge to Disperse, Candobetter Press, 2011 and Sheila Newman, Demography, Territory, Law: The Rules of Animal and Human Populations, Countershock Press, 2013; S.M. Newman, Demography, Territory, Law 2: Land-tenure and the Origins of Capitalism in Britain, Countershock Press, 2017; Land-tenure and the Revolution in Democracy and Birth Control in France: Demography, Territory, Law 3, Countershock Press, 2024. All these books are available on multiple platforms, notably amazon.com, but also, more cheaply, at Lulu.com, although the publisher is Countershock Press and the books have been professionally edited and reviewed.
[4] See, for instance, Karen Wu, "Stepfathers: A Mysterious Cause of Early Menarche," Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-modern-heart/202310/stepfathers-a-mysterious-cause-of-early-menarche
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