A review of
Child Sexual Abuse in Victorian England
by Louise A. Jackson
On the cover, the book is described as "the first detailed investigation of the way that child abuse was discovered, debated, diagnosed and dealt with in the Victorian and Edwardian periods". It is surprising that no-one has looked at this subject before, but if the claim is true, the book fills a most important gap.
It is my experience that we often accept the situation which we find unthinkingly, without appreciating the efforts of our predecessors to establish the standards and services we inherit. What is more, in trying to improve and develop services, we criticise their work, assured that we know better, when those who follow us will undoubtedly be equally critical of what we achieve. To study the achievements of another era therefore helps to put our own work and ideas into a broader context and offers a sense of perspective.
This book offers such an opportunity. It takes us through developments in concepts and services, covering about a century. Although the title refers to Victorian England, developments are followed through where appropriate into the 1920s and 1930s, indicating the links with the patterns of service and the ideas underlying legislation which often still apply today.
The book is well researched, with plenty of detailed evidence and case histories to bring to life the experiences of those involved - children, families, police, judges and campaigners. At one and the same time, the author gives a sense of the changes in thinking about child abuse as they swept across society and of the roles played by individuals as they were caught up in the events.
For instance, the impact of the NSPCC in dealing with child sexual abuse is questioned by the author on the grounds that the Society was simply taking over cases for prosecution which the police would have undertaken previously, usually relying upon outraged neighbours who felt that informal measures in the community were insufficient to control the abuse.
Then there were the individuals who persevered in the attempt to protect children, through legislation, court action or the establishment of services. Such developments do not just happen, and then, as now, it was up to concerned individuals to take action.
Some of the conflicts in attitudes are still found today. The little children who were abused were seen as innocents and abusers risked harsh punishments. On the other hand, older children - especially if they could not demonstrate that they had attempted to resist - were often seen as seductive or mendacious, and the word of respectable people accused of abuse was often accepted, rather than the children's. Recent debates about the validity of children's evidence in abuse cases has trawled over very similar grounds. We still make it hard for a child to be heard fairly.
Louise Jackson also noted the way that abused children were seen as tainted, as if they carried some sort of moral virus which might infect others. This concept may not be current, but it is akin to the rejection of young people in care still widespread when they seek employment.
The book follows a logical order and reads easily. It is published as a contribution to a series on women's and gender history, justified presumably on the grounds that in Victorian times, as now, most child sexual abuse was perpetrated by men with girls as victims. There are references to abuse by women and to sexual abuse against boys, but the extent of such abuse in the nineteenth century may have been concealed as being unthinkable.
By contrast with our era when we are inundated by scandals, as described in the Waterhouse Report and other inquiries, there are few examples in the book of the abuse of children in residential or foster care, and some of those relate to physical ill-treatment rather than sexual abuse. This may be because the book was based on detailed research of court records in two areas. Certainly there were scandals then, as now, and the children then faced the same problem of getting themselves heard that was evident in North Wales.
All in all, it is a well-written and fascinating book, that not only describes the past but speaks to us today. I only wish I could read its sequel, evaluating the way that we deal with child abuse today, but we will have to wait till 2150 to be able to take the objective and measured backwards look of the type offered by the author.