I originally thought the problem started in the 70s and early 80s as (among other things) a side-effect of the Org’s increased insularness after the 1975 embarrassment and apostate witch-hunts that followed…
…but…
…now I’m starting to wonder if the JWs weren’t a pedo playground right from the get-go, and the Org leadership deliberately dialed up the exclusivity and persecution rhetoric - and, by extension, the rank-and-file’s suspicion and mistrust of secular authority…
…specifically to hide it.