challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
It is with a heavy heart that I read the recently published article The Rotherham inquiry- An alternative view Honestly, after seeing the responses the article received from readers on social media I was expecting it to be an unpleasant article, what I wasn’t expecting was it to read like an all out victim blaming […]
Following yet another report on child sexual exploitation, and another government missive on social work failings, it’s surely time to address the root of the problem. This is quite lengthy so apologies for that, but in order to do the subject justice we need to understand where the problems are. Let’s start with social work […]
I’m sure lots of you have heard about Ann Coffey MP report on the sexual explotation of girls and young women (Greater Manchester being highlighted as a region where it is now seen as ‘normal’). Having just listened to Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio 2, I am now in a state of fury and despair. […]
(Cross-posted with permission from Opinionated Planet) We wake up this morning to yet another headline about child sexual exploitation. I’m not actually sure how many more reports I can read without exploding. Let me say this loud and clear to all news agencies, academics, researchers, reporters, journalists, broadcasters and politicians; THIS IS NOT NEWS. The […]
This is a major headline today with a number of media outlets covering the story. We are not surprised to learn that an employee of the children’s charity Barnardos wrote a letter in 1993 to survivor of child sexual exploitation, abuse and rape hold them responsible for the abuse. Victim blaming culture is endemic – […]
Ritual abuse does exist and we are very pleased to see that the Metropolitan Police are taken the safety of children seriously. However, we are very concerned by the number of mentions on our twitter feed suggesting that this article in the BBC on the Met’s investigations were a joke or that it was an […]
A member of our team recently attended the Forced Marriage: The Bigger Picture hosted by Shakti Women’s Aid. The conference itself was excellent with discussions on the criminal and civil laws of forced marriage legislation in England, Wales and Scotland as well the legal position of forced marriage as understood by the Home Office and Foreign and […]
On Wednesday afternoon, when I got back from work I sat at my PC and watched the Alan Titchmarsh Show. I can’t say it’s something I’m proud of, but I was keen to see it as I knew Laura Bates of Everyday sexism was on the programme discussing whether or not sexism still exists. I […]
In The Times today a report by Andrew Norfolk and and Billy Kember states that Shaun Wright knew for years that local girls were being “groomed and ruthlessly abused by men” in Rotherham.The majority of the people who have looked at this case since the Alexis Jay report have shaken their heads sadly at the […]
We were extremely concerned when we read David Aaronovitch’s column “Let’s See Some Evidence. Then We Can Panic” published in the Times on July 10th. As a general rule of thumb, anyone who refers to public inquiries and investigative journalism into organised child sexual abuse rings as “paedogeddon” is already starting from a position of […]