They probably did watch the news, but it would be very different news on the state-run Jugoslavenska Radiotelevizija.

Probably not as different as one would hope compared to North American news of unjust harassment/abuse by police, religious/sport organization some 10-20+ years ago. I didn't see major Canadian news sources overflowing with content about abuse suffered in residential schools until fairly recent for example. That's not to paint any sort of a rosy Jugo picture, far from it.

I'm not sure what you're getting at. In ex-Yu, they'd go through criminal proceedings.

Would they survive to make it to the proceedings?

it's a sincere question, though I was more intending to find out the severity of the penalty then the legal procedures

> Serious question: what did the Eastern block used to do sex offenders?

Unless the EB was radically different from the rest of 1970s Earth, nothing.

In the US, pre-1980s kids knew not to take any kind of abuse to the police. At best they'd be gaslit or outed to their abuser (who was commonly family). For most of LEO history cops (who reflected society in general) were not there to protect kids. Perps certainly knew this.

Source: We kids talked to each other and figured out reality pretty fast.

Ah yes - familiar and agree with this as well. It does however depend significantly on whether the perp was known to you or not. You'd be far more likely to report a stranger abusing you randomly on the street than say your family member, teacher, coach, etc. (see Hockey Canada for a sad example of this continuing to date).