Sexual Offences, Legal Responses and Public Perceptions: 1880s-1980s

在现任皇家委员会面前的性虐待证词暴露了历来对机构犯罪的忽视和掩盖。然而，要揭开性侵犯更深更广的层面，需要进行学术的历史分析。该项目旨在使用定性和定量分析来追踪从19世纪80年代到80年代某些形式的性行为如何以及为什么引起公众关注并引发法律反应和公众询问。通过档案和出版的文件对这些模式进行系统审查，意在检验社区和政治关切的转变与刑事审判的进行之间的关系。

Testimony of sexual abuse before the current Royal Commission has exposed the historic neglect and cover-up of institutional offences. Yet, to unearth the deeper and wider dimensions of sexual offending requires scholarly historical analysis. This project aims to use qualitative and quantitative analysis to track how and why certain forms of sexual behaviour sparked public concern and provoked legal responses and public inquiries from the 1880s to the 1980s. The systematic examination of these patterns through archival and published documents is intended to test the relation between shifting community and political concerns and the conduct of criminal trials.