Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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chapter
4
Sexual exploitation
as sexual abuse 7 of children
The 1980s witnessed a renewed awareness of the sexual abuse of children; it had
previously been a central focus of first wave feminism and child welfare organizations
in the late nineteenth century (Gordon, 1988; Jeffreys, 1984). Growing recognition of its
incidence and prevalence has occurred, although debates continue to explore the
definition of sexual abuse. One of the issues most frequently raised in research is
whether 'non-contact' forms (such as flashing, sexualised talk) should be included 8 .
Other unresolved issues are whether, when and what forms of intervention are
appropriate, and on what grounds particular cases or forms of abuse are deemed
'credible' and/or proven. Whilst social acceptance of the fact that sexual abuse is far
more common than previously envisaged is relatively widespread, adults as individuals and
as representatives of powerful institutions have not just retained, but reinforced
their power to decide in which contexts they will and will not believe, will and will not
act.
This new general awareness has been the outcome of three interlinked factors (see
Finkelhor, 1979 and Kelly, 1988 for more detailed discussions): two were present during
the previous period of public concern - a strong feminist movement, and child welfare
organisations; the third is a late twentieth century phenomenon - the increased amount
and availability of knowledge through research and media attention. The 'knowledge
explosion' we have witnessed over the last two decades reveals crucially important
insights (see, for example, Droisen and Driver, 1989; Finkelhor, 1979, 1986; Kelly 1988;
Liddle 1993):
�� that males are the vast majority of sexual abusers of children;
�� that children are most likely to be abused by a male that they know;
�� that abuse takes a range of forms, occurs in varying contexts, and within a
diversity of relationships;
�� that individuals and agencies have frequently failed to respond appropriately
to cases of sexual abuse, often blaming the victim and excusing the offender;
�� that these findings are echoed in the knowledge developed over the last 20
years about male abuse of adult women.
The many ways in which children are abused and exploited raise uncomfortable issues
about adult power and responsibility, the structure of the western nuclear family,
fatherhood, motherhood, masculinity and male sexuality. They, furthermore, challenge
the western fiction that childhood is "a time of play, an asexual and peaceful existence"
(Kitzinger 1988, p.78). The power of this ideology is evident in the repeated use of
emotive pictures of children by charities - western child protection agencies using
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7
Debate at the Brussels seminar included some discomfort with the term 'sexual abuse', since it implicitly suggests some form
of acceptable 'sexual use', The conceptual difficulty was not confined to English usage, although in some languages the terms
used did not carry similar implications, One suggestion was to use 'sexual violence against children' - a translation from
current French usage, Whilst we recognise the problems inherent in the term 'sexual abuse' we have made the pragmatic
decision to use it in this document, since it is currently the most widely used term,
8
This formed a major part of the media debate in June 1995 on findings from a survey commissioned by National Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Chiidren (NSPCC),