Researching Institutional Child Sex Abuse Scandals

• In Event: Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Victimization in the Media

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the activation, amplification and impact of institutional child sex abuse (CSA) scandals in multi-media societies. The empirical focus is the ongoing multi-institutional scandal that followed the 2012 media exposure of British television icon Sir Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse of hundreds of children over several decades. First, we present a model for understanding how contemporary institutional CSA scandals unfold. Next we track the activation of the Sir Jimmy Savile Scandal, and map its rapid amplification beyond the transgressions of one prolific sexual predator to incriminate a range of public institutions for denial, complicity, cover-up and institutional failure. The Savile effect has also resulted in the high-profile criminal prosecution and 'trial by media' of a number of celebrities. Finally, we consider the potential short-, medium- and longer term consequences of institutional CSA scandals, such as the Savile scandal, in a post-trust society.

Authors

• Chris Greer, City University London

• Eugene McLaughlin, City University London