Dark Secrets of Childhood

Media Power, Child Abuse and Public Scandals

Powell, Fred, Scanlon, Margaret, Fred Powell, Margaret Scanlon

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781447317845
• eBook ISBN: 9781447317883
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Over the last few decades, public opinion has been traumatised by revelations of child abuse on a mass scale. It has become the major human rights story of the 21st century in Western society.

This ground-breaking book explores the relationship between the media, child abuse and shifting adult–child power relations which,

in Western countries, has spawned an ever-expanding range of laws, policies and procedures introduced to address the 'explosion'

of interest in the issue of child abuse.

Allegations of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland – and its 'cover-up' by Church authorities – have given rise

to one of the greatest institutional scandals of modern history. Through in-depth analysis of 20 years of media representation

of the issue, the book draws significant insights on the media's influence and its impact on civil society.

Highly topical and of interest and relevance to lecturers and researchers in the areas of childhood studies, sociology of

childhood, child protection and social work, social and public policy and human rights, as well as policymakers, this book provides an

important contribution to the international debate about child abuse as reflected to the public through the power of the media.

PART 1
The reports

ONE

The construction of child abuse as a social problem

To strike at the child is to attack the repository of social sentiment and the very embodiment of ‘goodness’. Indeed such an act epitomizes absolute evil. And yet child abuse is a constant feature of the historical process as well as being a preoccupation of the contemporary collective consciousness. (James et al, 1998: 152)

Over the last 50 years, there has been what is often described as an ‘explosion’ of interest in the issue of child abuse. In western countries an ever expanding range of laws, policies and procedures have been introduced to address this problem, while media coverage of child abuse scandals has at times reached saturation point. Revelations of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy – and its ‘cover-up’ by church authorities – have given rise to one of the greatest institutional scandals of modern history. Moreover, the paedophile has emerged as ‘the bogeyman of our age’ who inspires fear and public loathing, ‘often beyond all moderation’ (Silverman and Wilson, 2002: 1).

The current preoccupation with child abuse does not, of course, mean that this is a recent phenomenon, or even that it is on the increase (Lalor, 1998). Historians have found that the mistreatment of children (including infanticide, abandonment, severe physical punishment, child prostitution and harsh labour) has existed throughout history. According to deMause (1974: 1), ‘the further back in history one goes, the lower the level of child care, and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized, and sexually abused’. He views the history of childhood in evolutionary terms, as ‘a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken’. Other historians have taken a less censorious view of childhoods past, arguing that although living conditions and general standards of care for children were far lower than those of today, and although children often had to undertake hard labour, this was largely a consequence of harsh economic conditions (Corby et al, 2012: 19). Historians are also divided over societal attitudes to the mistreatment of children: while some have argued that there was widespread indifference to the mistreatment of children who were viewed as little more than possessions, others dispute the notion that it is only in recent times that societies have shown any concern about this problem (Pollock, 1983; Corby et al, 2012: 22-3).

What is beyond dispute, however, is that the issue of child abuse has over the last 50 years achieved a significance never seen before. The current level of state intervention in the life of the family, in particular, would have been unimaginable in previous generations, as would the ‘explicit frankness’ with which issues, such as sexual abuse, are now discussed (Coldrey, 1996: 371). Indeed, until recently child sexual abuse hardly existed as an academic or public policy issue in the West (Lalor, 1998: 49).

In this chapter we will map the emergence of child abuse as a major social issue in western countries, focusing in particular on developments in Britain, Ireland and the United States. We take as our starting point the late 19th/early 20th century, during which time the foundations of contemporary child protection and welfare systems were laid. The second period of major change runs from the 1960s to the current day, a period in which the main focus of anxiety commenced with physical abuse (the ‘battered child syndrome’) and finally focused on the sexual abuse of children as the ‘paramount evil’ to be confronted (Coldrey, 1996: 370). During this period we also see a shift in emphasis from intra- to extrafamilial abuse, particularly within institutional settings. These developments will be situated in the wider context of changing conceptions of childhood and the family, and in the emergence of the media as the ‘fourth estate’ that brought the issue of abuse to a mass audience and acted as a powerful catalyst for change.

‘Discovery’ of child abuse in the late 19th and early 20th century

The latter half of the 19th century saw a flurry of activity around the issue of child protection. The conception of the child that developed during this period, and which informed subsequent practice and policy, saw children either as vulnerable and in need of protection (the child as victim) or as impulsive, unsocialised and in need of guidance and control (the child as threat) (Foley et al, 2003: 106; Parton 2006: 10). Corby et al (2012) identify four categories of young people who were of particular concern to the state: children of the street (termed as vagabonds, beggars or street traders), young offenders, children at work and children looked after in Poor Law authority institutions. Unease about the welfare and control of young people took on an added significance as the population of England and Wales expanded rapidly in the course of the 19th century (from under 10 million in 1801 to 32 million in 1901) with those aged under 14 never falling below 30% and for much of the period the figure was nearer 40% (Parton, 2006: 11). The proportions living in urban areas similarly increased from just over half in 1851 to three-quarters by 1901. These demographic changes, brought about by the demands of rapid industrialisation, led to new problems and concerns about the upbringing of children and the emergence of new forms of state intervention. The main pattern of responses was for issues to be initially taken up by philanthropic societies of different religious persuasions acting as pressure groups, followed by government intervention and state legislation (Corby et al, 2012: 26).

By the end of the 19th century, a number of philanthropic organisations had been set up in Britain and Ireland to address the needs of poorer children, some of which exist to the current day (eg, Barnardo’s). The most influential of these organisations was undoubtedly the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). While today state agencies have the primary responsibility for the investigation and management of child abuse, in the years between the 1880s and the Second World War, the NSPCC was uniformly recognised as the primary organisation in the formulation of child protection policy and practice in both the UK and Ireland (Ferguson, 1993: 16). The first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) was founded by Elbridge Gerry and Henry Bergh in New York City in December 1874 (Myers, 2011). Their involvement in the rescue of an eight-year-old girl, Mary Ellen Wilson, from her abusive guardians had persuaded them of the need to organise a society to protect children. Others followed their example and by 1922 some 300 nongovernmental child protection societies were scattered across America. In 1881, Thomas Agnew, a banker from Liverpool, visited the New York SPCC and was so impressed by what he saw that, on his return to Britain, he set up the Liverpool SPCC. In 1884 the London SPCC was established and by 1889 it had opened 32 branches or aid committees across England, Wales and Scotland (Corby et al, 2012: 27). In the same year the name of the organisation was changed to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In Ireland, a Dublin branch was formed in 1889 and was soon followed by branches in Cork, Belfast and Waterford (Ferguson, 1993).1

One of the main concerns of the early NSPCC was that there were no statutory means of protecting children before cases of parental cruelty were tried and no means of ensuring continued protection once convicted parents were released (Corby et al, 2012: 27). NSPCC inspectors were appointed to seek out and report instances of abuse and neglect to the police, while shelters were established to provide places of safety for children pending prosecutions. Accounts of child mistreatment and fatalities were publicised in order to influence public opinion and generate resources (Ferguson, 1993). Moreover, relentless parliamentary lobbying led to the introduction of the first legislation specifically outlawing child cruelty and giving public agencies powers to protect children within their home – the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1889. Further Acts followed in 1894, 1904 and 1908, the effects of which were to consolidate and extend the original Act. Corby et al (2012) note that by 1908 the main components of child protection law that exist today were in place. The Children Act 1908 was aptly called ‘The Children’s Charter’.

Child sexual abuse within the family, previously ignored as a social problem, was also being addressed by the NSPCC, though it was not publicised in the same way as physical abuse and neglect cases. Corby et al (2012: 29) argue that this response ‘reflected the general attitude to the issue, which was akin to a conspiracy of silence’. Nonetheless, pressure from the NSPCC and the National Vigilance Association did help to pave the way for the introduction of the Punishment of Incest Act 1908. While the impact of this legislation may have been limited, incest was now officially recognised as a crime and this at least ‘created the potential for more effective intervention’ (Corby et al, 2012: 29). Concerns about the sexual exploitation of children outside the family were more publicly acknowledged and became the subject of public debate and controversy on a number of occasions. Early feminist and ‘social purity’ campaigners, for example, highlighted how working-class girls were trapped into prostitution (Kitzinger, 2004: 33). In 1885, public opinion was scandalised by the publication of a series of salacious articles in the Pall Mall Gazette, describing the sale of young girls for sexual services, under headings such as ‘Confessionals of a Brothel-Keeper’ (Kitzinger, 2004). The newspaper was subsequently banned by major newsagents and the government came under considerable pressure to raise the age of consent. Following a mass demonstration in Hyde Park in London, and amidst fears of national riots, the Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed, raising the age of consent to 16.

As can be seen, there were considerable shifts in thinking about state intervention into family life between 1870 and 1914, largely in response to growing concerns around the welfare of children. However, there was a definite shift in focus away from this issue between the two world wars (Coldrey, 1996; Parton, 2006). A number of possible reasons have been put forward for this, including the decline of the women’s movement following the granting of universal suffrage and changes to the NSPCC, ‘to whom the government was happy to leave the responsibility for child cruelty’, which became more bureaucratic and less campaigning (Parton, 2006: 16). Moreover, Ferguson (2011: 28) argues that the NSPCC stopped publicising information about child deaths in the manner that it had done in the pre-war period because the ‘disclosure of such failures to protect children threatened the authority, optimism and trustworthiness of the child protection system’. By the late 1930s, information about deaths in child protection cases ceased to be made public and had disappeared from view. While there was an upsurge in interest in the welfare of deprived children after the Second World War and a number of significant policy developments (Corby et al 2012: 30-4), it was not until the 1960s that the issue of child abuse again began to enter the public arena as a significant social problem.

The ‘rediscovery’ of child abuse

The ‘rediscovery’ of the problem we now call child abuse began in the USA during the 1960s and is particularly associated with the work of Dr Henry Kempe and his ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: The reports
• Part 2: The context
• References