Historicizing 'historical child sexual abuse' cases: social, political and criminal justice contexts

历史上对儿童的性虐待已成为政治、社会和法律关注的中心焦点。2014年7月7日，内政大臣特蕾莎·梅宣布对过去40年来公共机构如何处理性虐待投诉进行公开调查；该调查将在2015年5月前发布一份中期报告，随后将发布一份完整报告。针对与白厅政客有关的指控，一项为期10周的调查也已启动。这些公告是在国民保健制度和卫生部调查与吉米·萨维尔有关的事项（2014年6月26日公布）之后发布的；第二份报告将于2015年发布。调查将听取证人提供的重要证据，并审查与被审查的尸体有关的档案。然而，到目前为止，我们对20世纪更广泛的性虐待历史的了解非常片面，有些事件被很好地记录下来，而另一些则被忽视了。我们迫切需要全面了解形成对儿童性虐待的社会、法律和政治反应（或缺乏这种反应）的更广泛的历史环境，以提供缺失的信息，以背景化和补充这些公共调查。这个研究项目将进行快速的基于甲板的研究，使用非常重要的在线资源集，这些资源已经以数字形式提供，但其研究儿童性虐待历史的潜力尚未实现。它将涵盖四个重要领域：1。我们将利用已出版的《英格兰和威尔士刑事司法统计》，构建1918年至1990年性犯罪报告和定罪程度的定量概况。我们将对1918-1990年期间国家和地方报纸在报道儿童性虐待案件以及在形成对年轻人和性行为的社会态度方面的作用进行定性纵向研究。在20世纪的大部分时间里，报纸媒体是塑造公众舆论和讨论和辩论道德变化的关键场所。虽然媒体不能被视为毫无问题的舆论晴雨表，但它为历史学家提供了一个重要的镜头，通过它可以了解一系列观点，并绘制出主要的比喻和叙述。对报纸新闻界的调查也使我们能够查阅法庭作出的决定的报道，从而进一步解释对刑事司法统计数据的分析所揭示的报道和定罪的趋势。我们将通过对与这些职业群体相关的出版物进行调查，来研究包括社会工作者和律师在内的关键专业群体的观点转变。4. 我们将开始绘制在1918年至1990年期间就儿童和性问题发表评论和开展活动的组织、机构和协会的地图。这一初步绘图将涉及对档案和手稿来源（包括国家档案馆和地方资料库中的）的可用性的研究，并将构成进一步资金申请的基础。我们的时间表是为了配合进行公众调查和编写有关国民保健制度和卫生调查部的进一步报告。我们会为参与这些调查的公务员、律师和其他专业人士举办研讨会/工作坊，并将我们的调查结果以简报的形式，在历史与政策网站上免费提供。因此，我们的项目将为形成讨论、辩论和最终的公共调查报告提供必要的知识。

The historical sexual abuse of children has become a central focal point of political, social and legal concern. On 7 July 2014 Home Secretary Theresa May announced a public inquiry into how complaints of sexual abuse have been dealt with by public bodies over the last 40 years; the inquiry will produce an interim report by May 2015, with a full report to follow at a later stage. A 10-week investigation has also been launched into allegations relating to Whitehall politicians. These announcements follow the NHS and Department of Health Investigations into Matters Relating to Jimmy Savile (published on 26 June 2014); a second report is due in 2015. The enquiries will hear important evidence from witnesses and examine files associated with the bodies under scrutiny. As yet, however, our knowledge of the broader history of sexual abuse in the twentieth century is extremely partial, with some incidents well charted and others ignored. A full understanding of the wider historical circumstances that have shaped social, legal and political responses to child sexual abuse (or their lack) is urgently needed to provide missing information to contextualise and complement these public inquiries.This research project will carry out rapid deck-based research, using very significant sets of online sources that are already available in digital form, but whose potential for research into the history of child sexual abuse has not been realised. It will cover four significant areas:1. We will construct quantitative profiles of the extent of the reporting and convictions of sexual offences from 1918 to 1990, making use of the published Criminal Justice Statistics for England and Wales.2. We will carry out a qualitative longitudinal study of the role of the national and local newspaper press in reporting cases of child sexual abuse, and in shaping social attitudes towards young people and sexuality in the period 1918-1990. The newspaper press was a crucial arena through which public opinion was shaped and shifting moralities were discussed and debated for much of the twentieth century. Whilst the press cannot be viewed as an unproblematic barometer of opinion, it provides historians with an important lens through which to access a range of viewpoints and to chart dominant tropes and narratives. A survey of the newspaper press also enables us to access reports of the decisions that were made in the court-room and thus to further explain the trends for reporting and conviction that analysis of the criminal justice statistics reveal.3. We will examine the shifting viewpoints of key professional groups, including social workers and lawyers, by undertaking a survey of publications associated with these occupational groups. 4. We will begin a mapping of organisations, bodies and associations who have commented on and campaigned around issues relating to children and sexuality across the broad period 1918-1990. This initial mapping will involve research into the availability of archival and manuscripts sources (including those held in the National Archives and local repositories) and will form the basis of a further funding application.Our time-table is designed to coincide with the undertaking of the public enquiries and the preparation of the further report relating to the NHS and Department of Health Investigations. We will run seminars/workshops for civil servants, lawyers and other professionals involved in these investigations, and make our findings available in a free and easily accessible format as briefings on the History & Policy website. Thus our project will provide essential knowledge to shape discussion, debate, and inform the final public inquiry reports.