Other
Sexual Violence against Children in Britain since 1965: Trailing Abuse. By Nick Basannavar
Alice McKimm ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a historical book that examines discourses and representations of sexual violence against children in Britain from 1965 onwards, using archival analysis. It traces how knowledge of child sexual abuse has been represented, forgotten, and rediscovered over time. The work responds to findings from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which documented inadequate protections and a culture of silence surrounding abuse.
Key points
- The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (2022) found historically inadequate measures were in place to protect children from sexual abuse
- The Inquiry documented a 'culture of silence' when victims and survivors disclosed their experiences
- The book uses archival analysis to track representational traces of sexual violence against children
- The work challenges existing understandings of cycles of discovery and forgetting regarding child sexual abuse knowledge since the nineteenth century
Limitations
This is a historical and archival analysis rather than an evaluation of interventions or a study of child outcomes. It cannot tell us about the effectiveness of current child protection measures or the prevalence of abuse among children today.
Abstract
Nick Basannavar’s Sexual Violence Against Children in Britain Since 1965: Trailing Abuse is a very timely work. On 20 October 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published its nineteenth and final report. Based on the testimonies of some 7,300 victims and survivors, and covering abuse dating back to the 1930s, the Inquiry found that ‘historically, inadequate measures were in place to protect children from the risk of being sexually abused’ (p. 1) and that a ‘culture of silence’ met those who disclosed their experiences (p. 127). Through Basannavar’s work of ‘trailing abuse’—a term he uses to refer to both the representational traces that violence has left in the archives and the work of the historian in tracking them down—the author expertly digs into this apparent silence to investigate the nature, causes, and extent of change to discourses surrounding sexual violence against children since 1965. The result is a well-researched, sensitively written, and thought-provoking book, which complicates existing understandings of the cycles of discovery and forgetting that are widely believed to have characterized knowledge of child sexual abuse since the nineteenth century.