It's taboo

"Murder, even a double murder with a knife that left two people bleeding to death on the pavement, is somehow not so far out of the American mainstream," says Mr [Tim] Rutten [media critic for the Los Angeles Times]. "Look at the video games our kids play: we are inured to violence. Murder is easy to talk about, but this is different. Child molestation is distasteful. You can't have a loud conversation in a restaurant about what Michael Jackson is accused of doing to some little boy's penis. It's taboo."

source: Article 'Thriller? More like a lonely freak show' by Charles Laurence & Catherine Elsworth; www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1485063/Thriller-More-like-a-lonely-freak-show.html; Telegraph; 6 March 2005