Recent events in Rotherham have uncovered more shocking realities about child sex abuse in the UK, yet victims are still left worse off in prosecution cases
What happened in Rotherham was terrible. It is still terrible, because it has not ceased. And each day new information emerges, suggesting that Rotherham might just be the tip of the iceberg. Child sex abuse has been going on for years with few willing to acknowledge its reality. I do not wish to go into detail regarding the sufferings endured by the girls in Professor Jay’s report. You have probably read more than you want to about it already.
But it is good if you have. The only thing worse than knowing that such terrible crimes have been committed, is that they be committed in secret; the silence in which such crimes thrive. They depend on the victims being too confused or cowed to tell anybody. They depend on the victims having their lives so ruined as a result of their abuse that nobody believes them when they do summon the courage to come forward.
Chaotic lifestyles, including mental illness, self-harm, petty crime, drug and alcohol misuse are common behavioural symptoms of victims of child sex abuse. They have also been treated by the authorities as an indication that a person makes an unreliable witness, and so causes them to decide that no prosecution would succeed based on the victim’s testimony.
So, precisely because of the consequences of the crime they are victims of (and generally speaking, the worse the abuse, the worse the symptoms), the most vulnerable and damaged people in our society have been unable to get their abusers prosecuted. This is a monstrous injustice. Thankfully, prosecutors are beginning to understand this and are attempting to explain to juries the effects of child sex abuse on the victims’ lives.
It is hard to know where the scandal of child sex abuse may go next. We have heard of abuse within the Catholic Church (and other churches), we have learned of the abuses committed by Jimmy Savile and other celebrities, we know of abuses carried out by teachers in some of Britain’s most prestigious private schools, by workers in children’s care homes, by prominent politicians, even by paediatric doctors in hospitals and now by grooming gangs in Rotherham and other cities. The rate at which new scandals are being uncovered reveals that we have not yet learned the full extent of this crime– there is more to come. And by the time it is all uncovered we will probably find that it is beyond our worst imaginings.
The details of the scandals differ, but there are some common points. The first is that the victims are themselves frequently unwilling to come forward. In the Rotherham case this is hardly surprising given the amount of violence that appears to have been involved. But it is common in other cases as well. Shame, a misplaced sense of loyalty, a belief that the victim herself has done something wrong and may be punished; these are all common ideas which are assiduously fostered by abusers to keep their victims silent. Different techniques are used in different situations, but they all have the same aim. Just by analysing the Twitter hashtag #WhyIStayed, we can see that it’s hard enough for adult victims of sexual abuse or domestic violence to come forward. It is even harder for a child.
The second common aspect is that in almost all cases, there were adults who knew but didn’t act. The interests of the abusing adult were put ahead of the welfare of the abused child. In many cases the child was not valued or not believed and so no action was taken. They are believed to be making “lifestyle choices“, as in the case of Samantha Morton, the film actor who was sexually abused in children’s homes in Nottingham. Morton’s complaint of serious sexual abuse was recorded as “frolicking”. This is not restricted to police and social services. Families can also exert pressure on children not to come forward lest the fact that they have been the victim of a crime brings shame on not only themselves but also on their whole family.
The third shameful aspect of child abuse, which has also manifested itself in Rotherham, is institutions putting their own reputation ahead of the welfare of those they are supposed to be caring for. While in Rotherham, it appears that the council itself has covered up cases of abuse, it is also extremely common for schools to be complicit in the concealing of abuse cases in order to save their reputations. The Times recently reported that 130 independent schools are subject to having civil action taken against them because of abuse by teachers. And it seems that some hospitals would rather cover up abuse than reveal the extent to which they had allowed celebrities such as Jimmy Savile to abuse vulnerable patients unhindered.
In subsequent articles I will address each of these aspects in more detail. Indeed, a single article can do little more than scratch the surface. But one thing that can— and must— be remembered is that we all have a part to play in protecting children. None of us have any duty to protect rapists from the justice they deserve.
This article is the first in a three-part series on child sex abuse.
Image from: http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9299072/the-rotherham-report-suggests-that-social-workers-are-as-often-harmful-as-helpful/