Letter: Hysteria does not remove the need to prove guilt

I WAS sickened but not surprised by John Patten's views on good and bad children ('Evil: is it born or is it bred?', 21 February). He says: 'It is to me self-evident that we are born with a sense of good and evil.' Why do we put up with politicians who try to make narrow prejudice appear to be law of nature? He goes on: 'It is also self-evident that as we grow up each individual chooses whether to be good or bad.' This tells us nothing about the meaning of choice or the nature of freedom of choice for the individual in the context of the complex systems in which we live. We get the white, middle-class, male, Judeo-Christian view of the world as true reality, which shows no conception of the cultural complexity of ordinary people's lives.

Vivienne Seymour Clark

Totnes, Devon