Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Radical Approaches to Prevention, Protection and Support

450 Pages·2016·4.7 MB·English

by  Sarah Nelson

“Sarah Nelson is one of our clearest thinkers about child sexual abuse T
– she brings scrupulous research, clear and committed politics, and a
wisdom accumulated over decades to one of the big issues of our time.”
c
Beatrix Campbell OBE
k
“For anyone interested in tackling sexual abuse, this book fills a void, is l
i
an essential read and offers new theories and radical solutions which will n
stimulate debate towards positive change.” g
Laurie Matthew, Manager and Founder of Eighteen And Under

c
“An exploration of the social, political and personal nature of sex crime h
that interrogates established practice and offers new ways forward.”
i
Malcolm Cowburn, Emeritus Professor of Applied Social Science, l
d
Sheffield Hallam University

s
In this outspoken and challenging book, Sarah Nelson argues that e
progress in addressing childhood sexual abuse has been in fearful or x
complacent retreat and that change is urgently needed in order to
u
prevent abuse occurring, and to better support survivors.
a
From this starting point, she puts forward radical suggestions for new l

models of practice. These are designed to provide perpetrator-focused a
child protection, to encourage community approaches to prevention, and b
to better support those who have survived abuse.
u
As revelations of widespread child abuse continue to emerge at an s
unprecedented rate, this book campaigns for change, offering policy e RADICAL APPROACHES
makers and practitioners solutions for new ways in tackling sexual abuse,
working alongside survivors to reduce its prevalence and impact.
TO PREVENTION,
S
a
Dr Sarah Nelson, University of Edinburgh, has written and presented widely
r PROTECTION AND SUPPORT
for decades on sexual abuse issues. She is the author of the influential and a
groundbreaking Incest: Fact and Myth (Stramullion Publishers Ltd, 1982 and 1987) h
Her research includes the voices of young survivors, critiques of current child
N
protection systems and community prevention, media representations of abuse
e
cases, and adult survivors’ experiences of mental health services. She is a former
l
Scottish Government and Scottish Parliamentary Adviser. s
o
n
SOCIAL WORK / SOCIAL STUDIES
ISBN 978-1-4473-1387-8
Sarah Nelson
www.policypress.co.uk
@policypress PolicyPress 9 781447 313878
Nelson pb artwork v3.indd 1 27/05/2016 14:27
TACKLING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Radical approaches to prevention,
protection and support
Sarah Nelson
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Policy Press North America office:
University of Bristol Policy Press
1-9 Old Park Hill c/o The University of Chicago Press
Bristol BS2 8BB 1427 East 60th Street
UK Chicago, IL 60637, USA
[phone] t: [phone]
[email protected] f: [phone]
www.policypress.co.uk [email protected]
www.press.uchicago.edu

© Policy Press 2016
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN 978 1 44731 387 8 paperback
ISBN 978 1 44731 386 1 hardback
ISBN 978 1 44731 389 2 ePub
ISBN 978 1 44731 390 8 Mobi
The right of Sarah Nelson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press.
The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the author
and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol and Policy Press
disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published
in this publication.
Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and
sexuality.
Cover design by Double Dagger
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners
Contents
Acknowledgements v
Introduction 1
Part I • Setting the scene: some barriers to progress 19
One From rediscovery to suppression? Challenges to 21
reducing CSA
Two Lies and deception in the backlash 59
Part II • Children and young people 101
Three Fact, myth and legacy in notorious child abuse cases: 103
Orkney in context
Four Stigmatised young people: key allies against abuse and 133
exploitation
Five Models for ethical, effective child protection 175
Sarah Nelson and Liz Davies
Six Community prevention of CSA: a model for practice 213
Sarah Nelson and Norma Baldwin
Part III • Working with adult survivors of sexual abuse 249
Seven Physical ill health: addressing the serious impacts 251
of sexual violence
Eight Producing radical change in mental health: implications 287
of the trauma paradigm
Nine Pathways into crime after sexual abuse: the voices of 319
male offenders
Ten Rethinking sex offender programmes for 349
survivor-perpetrators
Conclusion 373
References 387
Index 425
About the authors 441
iii

Acknowledgements
I could never list all the people who helped and enabled me to
write this book. My greatest debt is to all those sexual abuse
survivors who over many years – as participants in my research,
as colleagues or as friends – trusted me with their experiences
and committed their ideas on what must change. They may not
wish to be named but know who they are, and populate much
of this book.
Over the decades I have drawn particular courage and
inspiration from Norma Baldwin, Bea Campbell, Ross Cheit, Liz
Davies, Marilyn Van Derbur, Emily Driver, Eileen Fairweather,
Sandor Ferenczi, Lenny Harper, Judith Herman, Ann Jennings,
Kathy Kerr, Jeffrey Masson, Laurie Matthew, Marjorie Orr, John
Read, Florence Rush, Valerie Sinason, Rich Snowden, Roland
Summit, Sara Swann, Sam Warner and Leslie Young; from Noreen
Winchester and Audrey Middleton who launched this whole
journey in Belfast; and from every professional – paediatricians,
journalists, social workers, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists,
counsellors and others – who refused to keep quiet or abandon
their commitment, in the face of vilification and damage to
their own careers.
Lynn Jamieson – who has been a continuing support over many
years – other directors and all staff at Edinburgh University’s
Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR)
vitally supported and guided me through two research projects
and this book. Many other people contributed to the book,
through their discussions, their informed awareness, and generous
sharing of ideas and experience. Extra thanks to – among others
- Norma, Bea, Liz, Lynn, John and Laurie (again!),Sandra Buck,
Malcolm Cowburn, Harriet Dempster, Ilene Easton, Darrell
Fisher, Sandy Gulyurtlu, the late Janette de Haan, Sue Hampson,
Martin Henry, Anne Houston, Norma Howes, Gordon Jack,
v
Tackling child sexual abuse
Alexis Jay, Ruth Lewis, Jan Moran, Annie Macdonald, Kirsteen
Mackay, Jan Macleod, Carole Mallard, Joanna Moncrieff, Gill
Ottley, David Pilgrim, Ethel Quayle, Jean Rafferty, Janine Rennie,
Sara Rowbotham, Michael Salter, Julie Taylor, Alison Todd,
Amanda Williams; and to many organisations, especially KASP,
Open Secret, Say Women and the Women’s Support Project,
Glasgow. Any errors are mine!
I want to thank Isobel Bainton, Laura Greaves and all at
Policy Press, Bristol, very much indeed for their continuing
patience, wise words of advice and kindness over several years.
My Edinburgh University office colleagues Richard McAllister,
Stanley Raffel, Russell Keat and Roona Simpson sustained me
with their humour and our lunches – while my daughter Rowan
and all my personal friends put up with me far more, and for
much longer, than I deserved.
Funding
I was unsalaried throughout while writing this book. Without
the generosity of organisations and individuals in donating
funding, it would have been impossible to carry out three years
of work. Every donor trusted me to write whatever I wished.
Many, many thanks to Children 1st; Rachel Chapple and the
Real Stories Gallery Foundation, New York; 18 and Under;
Sandra Brown and the Moira Anderson Foundation; Margaret
Macintosh; NSPCC Scotland; Sue Robertson; Jan Souter;
Sara Trevelyan; and every single person and organisation who
contributed to my GoFundMe appeal in 2015 – an appeal
organised by Professor Liz Kelly and Laura McBeth.
vi
Introduction
It is more than 30 years since the first edition of my book,
Incest: Fact and Myth, was published (Nelson, 1982). Since
then vast numbers of books, academic research studies, media
documentaries, press articles and online materials have been
produced about child sexual abuse (CSA), and its effects
throughout life. What can be the justification for yet another
book?
First of all, the majority have been about intervention or
therapy after the event, or personal perspectives on the impact of
abuse, about overcoming it or failing to do so. Fewer concentrate
– as this book aims to do – on primary prevention, protection
and deterrence, or can visualise a society where CSA is drastically
reduced. Fewer concentrate – as this book aims to do – on
campaigning for change, and on proposing models for change.
Inevitable social problem or crime?
That is not to downplay the vital need for therapy and support
after child sexual abuse, which still remain far too scarce or too
expensive for most survivors, and indeed this book discusses
those issues at several points. But CSA is a serious crime: not
some unfortunate, ever-present disease from which we can only
help children and adults to recover. In other serious crimes,
greatest effort goes into convicting perpetrators and reducing
opportunities for further crime. We do not tackle street violence
by opening head injury clinics.
CSA is also a major public health issue, with serious
consequences for mental and physical health. Vital advances
in public health have come through prevention (such as the
provision of clean water) and through eradication of serious
diseases. We did not tackle diseases of poor sanitation by building
1
Tackling child sexual abuse
more fever hospitals. Placing the key emphasis on ‘healing’ can
also lead to a comforting complacency. If children and adults
can recover, perhaps CSA is not too serious? That reduces the
impetus and funding for prevention and deterrence. And it
clouds a harsh reality: that many courageous survivors of CSA
will only ever make a partial recovery.
Much of the literature is thus heavily oriented towards a
‘convalescence’ model. This seeks effective ways of treating,
counselling or healing child and adult survivors. The extent of
this emphasis has been criticised by writers like Betty McLellan
in her book Beyond Psych-Oppression (McLellan, 1995), and
more sweepingly by the radical feminist Louise Armstrong.
(Armstrong, 1990, 1994) She claimed women had been
‘therapised’ by a massive industry of individual healing, growth
and recovery, which neutralised anger and the thirst for justice:
In speaking out, we hoped to raise hell. Instead, we
have raised for the issue a certain normalcy. We hoped
to raise a passion for change. Instead, what we raised
was discourse, and a sizeable problem-management
industry. (Armstrong, 1990)
Retreat from progress
A key theme of this book is that we need an urgent wake-up
call, against the complacent notion that we have achieved, and
are achieving, continuing progress in protecting children and
young people against sexual abuse. I contend that, despite child
sexual abuse issues being so prominent in popular, professional
and media discourse – in light, especially, of recent scandals about
‘celebrity’ abusers, in-care abuse and child sexual exploitation –
in many ways progress in the UK has either been stationary or in
retreat. Renewed public, professional and media awareness and
concern about CSA is valuable and welcome. But we cannot
build on these without admitting current failures, and without
adopting and sustaining different ways of working in future.
Adult survivors still struggle to find trauma-aware services in
a mental health system which remains dominated by medical
models of mental illness; in a wider healthcare system which too
2
Introduction
often dismisses their chronic pain and disability as symptoms of
tiresome ‘heartsink patients’; and in a criminal justice system still
reluctant to consider the bitter pathways which lead many abused
young people into offending. While ever more sex offenders
against children are being identified, there remains more hope
than certainty that current sex offender programmes will prompt
them to stop abusing.
As for sexually abused children, I believe their situation has
barely improved in 25 years, in that most still remain undetected,
unacknowledged or disbelieved.In one vivid example it was
estimated in 2013 and 2014 that at least 1,400 vulnerable teenage
girls were repeatedly raped, brutalised and degraded by sexual
exploitation gangs in Rotherham. They had been treated by
many in the police, social services and others with contempt and
‘absolute disrespect’, seen as consenting to their own exploitation
(Williams, 2012a; Jay, 2014). Yet a full 15 years before, Sara
Swann, through Barnardo’s Streets and Lanes project in Bradford,
had described exactly this process of grooming and abuse against
very vulnerable young women. She had made absolutely clear
to agencies that the young people were victims and indeed that
there was no such thing as a child prostitute, only an abused
child (Swann, 2000). So too did subsequent British legislation
and guidance make these points clear. All were inexcusably
ignored. It is not enough to say how shocking this has been.
Supposedly caring professionals need to ask themselves at length
why they ignored the suffering in front of them, and how this
is going to change.
Indeed Professor Jay’s powerful and distressing Rotherham
Inquiry report brought to mind the remarks of the Report of
the National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of
Child Abuse back in 1997, that
Despite a series of wideranging, well-publicised and
expensive inquiries ... over the past 20 years, and
despite a flow of recommendations deriving from
these inquiries, the abuses that gave rise to those
reports persist, largely unaffected by such efforts as
have been made to prevent them. (Williams, 1997)
3