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；调查将在2015年5月之前产生一份临时报告，随后将在稍后阶段发布完整报告。对与白厅政客有关的指控也展开了为期10周的调查。这些公告是在NHS和卫生部对与Jimmy Savile有关的事项进行调查(于2014年6月26日发布)之后发布的；第二份报告将于2015年发布。调查将听取证人的重要证据，并审查与接受审查的身体有关的文件。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是极其片面的，一些事件被很好地描绘出来，而另一些事件被忽视了。迫切需要充分了解影响对儿童性虐待的社会、法律和政治反应的更广泛的历史情况，以提供缺失的信息，以便将这些公共调查联系起来并加以补充。这项研究项目将利用已经以数字形式获得的非常重要的在线资源集进行快速的基于甲板的研究，但这些资源对儿童性虐待历史的研究潜力尚未实现。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数据，建立1918年至1990年期间性罪行举报和定罪程度的量化概况。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塑造社会对年轻人和性取向的态度方面所起的作用进行定性的纵向研究。在二十世纪的大部分时间里，报业是塑造公众舆论、讨论和辩论道德变迁的重要舞台。虽然媒体不能被视为无可置疑的意见晴雨表，但它为历史学家提供了一个重要的视角，通过这个视角可以访问一系列观点，并将占主导地位的比喻和叙事绘制成图表。对报刊的调查还使我们能够查阅关于法庭所作决定的报道，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。我们会透过调查与这些职业组别有关的刊物，研究主要专业组别，包括社会工作者和律师的观点转变。4.我们将开始绘制1918-1990年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。这一初步规划将涉及对档案和手稿来源(包括国家档案馆和地方储存库中的那些)的可用性进行研究，并将成为进一步资金申请的基础。我们的时间表旨在与进行公众查询和准备与NHS和卫生部调查有关的进一步报告相一致。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，并在历史与政策网站上以免费和方便查阅的形式提供调查结果。因此，我们的项目将提供必要的知识来形成讨论、辩论，并为最终的公共调查报告提供信息。

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.