Law's Treatment of Victims of Historical Child Sexual Abuse

What is it about?

This article explores how the Irish courts have received the stories of adults who report being sexually abused as children. I make two important findings. First, contrary to popular ideas about child sexual abuse being a hidden crime that Irish people did not know about until very recently, the evidence presented by victims and experts to the courts suggests a culture of indifference around sexual abuse in mid - to late 20th century Ireland. A significant minority of victims did in fact tell an adult at the time of the abuse, but their reports were not taken seriously. Parents, teachers, police and other members of society did not act to protect the child or to bring the alleged abuser to justice. The indifference shown by adults to those children who tried to report highlights the huge challenges faced by others who may have contemplated reporting. Importantly, this culture of indifference persisted for decades afterwards, so that even when the victims reached adulthood they still could not report the crimes they had suffered. Second, the article shows how the Irish courts' narrow interpretation of what it means to be a victim of historical abuse, has had a limiting and exclusionary effect and has meant that some victims have been left without recourse to the criminal law. Although this legal test of victimhood was replaced in 2006, the cases examined here are a powerful reminder of the law's potential to shape political discourse in relation to history and victimhood.

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Why is it important?

This article identifies clearly for the first time the culture of indifference that existed in Ireland in mid -late 20th century in relation to child sexual abuse. This culture of indifference is at odds with dominant narratives about Ireland having only 'discovered' the problem in the 1980s or 1990s, and narratives about responsibility for child sexual abuse lying exclusively with abusers or the Catholic hierarchy that facilitated some clerical abusers. While of course ultimate responsibility lies solely with individual abusers, as a society we need to acknowledge that this culture of indifference existed and that its effects extended beyond the Catholic hierarchy and the Department of Education into some police stations, sporting organisations and even into the homes of children. Therefore, the article demands that Irish society reckons with its own share of complicity in relation to the historical sexual abuse of children. In so doing, a more open society that can hear the voices of victims in the present may emerge.

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