Modern & Historical Research about Child Sexual Abuse

You know I often think about what is the key message from my research on adults recovering from childhood sexual abuse. In academia we are supposed to aim to change government policy so what change would I suggest? Well here’s the tricky thing. My key message is ‘be nice’ and you can’t legislate for that.

You wouldn’t think it actually needs saying. Surely professionals, family members, friends and acquaintances will be kind when people mention they were abused. Right? In fact it is rarer than you think.

So the struggle for me has been working out how to get that message over. Changing the law wouldn’t work. Writing academic articles saying ‘be nice’ (in academic language) wouldn’t be published. It’s too basic right? Too obvious. And yet…

So I’m trying a different approach. Creativity. Currently I’m writing books. In the last year I’ve written two:

1) A history book about a 19th century case of child sexual exploitation that involved MPs, dukes, princes and kings.

2) A fiction book based on the same case where one exploited girl gets justice in a most unusual way.

I’m finalising book 2 and I think both are powerful stories that (some) people would like to read. My concern is that no-one is listening.